Whats the cost of keeping a pony?

[CHOCOLATEPEANUT]

My niece is horse mad and been loaning a pony for £25 a week and she helps with the mucking out and can ride when hes free which is not very often

My dad pays it and said hes thinking of buying her a pony for herself.We wondered what the costs would be? Anyone help as we have been quoted some different amounts

[CluckyKate]

Waaay more than £25 a week.....in fact quadruple it at least !!!!

Costs to think about are:
Stabling &/or grazing
Bedding
Feed
Hay
Insurance
Shoes
Vets fees - annual vaccinnations & teeth + any ad hoc injury & illness treatment (some of which will be covered if you insure)
Equipment - high initial outlay (grooming kit, rugs, haynets, tack etc.) but continuing costs when the pony trashes kit at any given opportunity
Rider kit
Riding lessons
Pony Club
Competition entry fees
Transport - lorry or trailer & 4x4...not essential but def a consideration

Blimey - no wonder I'm poor .

In total I probably spend about £400 a month (don't tell my husband though) - it really is a lifestyle choice but sooo much fun and, in my view, well worth it.

Hope that helps

[CHOCOLATEPEANUT]

thats what I though much much more

I will speak to dad and put him right

thanks!!

[CHOCOLATEPEANUT]

we live next door to two big stables and shes thinking of a shetland if that would change anything?

[MitchyInge]

Gosh, depends upon so many things: like whereabouts you live, keep at home or elsewhere, live in or out, DIY or part or full livery, lives on fresh air and pony nuts or needs a lot of hard feed, shod all round at depressingly frequent intervals or barefoot and rarely needs a trim etc etc

mine cost between £165 and £90 a week for two, depending on time of year, extra schooling

[MitchyInge]

That's just our livery, not including farrier, vet, worming, insurance, rug buying disorder, jabs, dentist, back person, shows/events, lessons, supplement buying disorder, tack repair/replacement - argh!

Worth EVERY £ though

[MitchyInge]

Yes forgot about jodhs/breeches, boots, chaps, hats, gloves, whips, body protectors - there is always something

[jurisfictionoperative]

Had this discussion with someone today, if you have some idea about horses in general you can keep the price down, otherwise the list above is pretty accurate. We started when I met a woman who has ponies on her own small tatty yard who loaned them out to beginners. She was a find in a million. I have had a lot to do with horses my entire life, but knew very little about keeping my own. She paired us up with a likely pony match, and proceeded to teach us everything she knows. Over the six years I have known her, I have learned how to trim feet, fit basic tack and rugs, field maintenance, basic first aid, anatomy and how to deal with minor lameness and illness to avoid calling the vet. And how Spot a fairly good pony through the dirt, dodgy soundness and bad schooling. As an ex instructor, she has taught dcs to ride for free. We have scoured eBay, auctions and sales for tack, equipment, repaired/ oiled/ adjusted it, and managed the full compliment of very good stuff for very little. I bougjt a dirt cheap trailer and we paid a friend to renovate it. Ds and I now have 3 small ponies on a farm nearby for £10 a week each, and apart from worming/dentist and public liability, they cost me little else. For the last six years, dd and I have done little else. Dp has learned to cook, tidy and amuse himself, and ds never stops moaning about ponies! I wouldn't change a thing. Unfortunately, friends like her a few and far between, she is a stroppy trout sometimes, and she has upset fallen out with more people than have hung about long enough to get their own ponies. Fortunately I think she is fab. It's been really hard work, but worth it. Stick with your share for a bit but keep your eyes out for something a little more available, or see if you can find someone who can help you look after your own.You can run ponies cheaper than above, cut out the stabling and the prices falls considerably, and equipment doesn't have to be new, keep the idea in mind, and see what develops. Do lots of networking at your riding school, shows etc you never know when something will come along.

[Alicetheinvisible]

Ours cost us about £500 a month for the 2, but £240 of that is just livery cost.

One horse has only front shoes on, the other has no shoes. My DH is a vet too which saves us a bit, although when people go on about horses and how much they cost their first thought is vets fees, but tbh, if you have a healthy horse, vets fees are a tiny amount. It is hay, bedding and livery which are the big costs, then farrier visits, and if a beginner then lessons are needed.

Even though she doesn't get much riding atm, she will be learning just from being around horses which is invaluable.

[MitchyInge]

That is good point about vet fees, last year only spent £45 (antibiotic jab) which is about a tenth of what dog plus three cats cost in jabs, frontline and program (flea injection/tablets) during the year!

If I was superhuman more organised I could save loads by going DIY somewhere, but am single parent and usually have to work very long days and have gone for months without a day off in recent past. Woe is me but I hope at some point to either move or get some land not far from home so don't have crippling livery fees every winter.

[Alicetheinvisible]

It is frustrating isn't it? Either you have to work long hours to keep the horses and then not spend any time with them, or you spend all your time with them but have no time for anything else and no money to do anything nice with them. I am still planning on winning the Euromillions then will have hundreds of acres of lovely parkland to ride through........

[MitchyInge]

Oh please please remember me when you do! I could live in a field shelter tucked away somewhere if you let me ride there every day!

[jurisfictionoperative]

Oh yes. I always do the euromilliona when it gets big. Am going to win 100 million, make share half, then buy the biggest stretch of land possible, and turn it into a riding park. No ball games, bikes, annoying walkers or loose barky dogs. Just riding everywhere. You are all invited to come stay, I'll have a 160 bed house so there will be room for eveyone.

[Alicetheinvisible]

Ok, it is a deal!

[jurisfictionoperative]

We all have to spit on our hands and shake!

[skihorse]

My livery is 200 a month incl. worming.

On top of that I'm paying to get her feet trimmed (she's barefoot) as I'm too pregnant to do them myself.

Sales sales sales for rugs. Also, don't buy tons of shite - simple as that. You don't actually need 15 saddle clothes.

You don't need a horsebox.

You don't need cowboy magic at 30 euros a pot when Decathlon do a detangler for 7 euros.

I very much agree with Alice though. Other than annual jags - my nag has cost 363 in vet's bills over the 5.5 years I've had her. That's been two call-outs for colic, one for antibiotics when she went through a barbed wire fence looking for boys. The rest was this month's bill for getting her artery severed.

[skihorse]

To echo what jurisfiction said earlier - you don't always need the vet. I think a lot of people panic because it's an animal and it can't talk so they call the vet. Many, many illnesses are simply a case of "hmmn, wait and see". I mean do you go to the doctor every time you've got a sniffle?

I'm very much 'wait-and-see' - as you can see, my vet's bills are low - colic and a severed artery are of course emergency things!

Get yourself a good first aid kit and you can save a ton. The vet wanted to sell me a load of crap last month e.g., bandages at 6 euros a pop - I bought a crate for a dollar each from ebay.com!

[Backinthebox]

I come from there 'there's 2 ways to keep a horse' school of thought. You can either pay lots of money, or work bloody hard. Both ways work well with a little pony. It needn't be too expensive, but your niece HAS to be aware that there is a daily commitment to provide for this pony's needs, come rain or shine.

Here's how much my Shitland has cost me over the last 12 months;
Hay - £200
Feed - £100
Bedding £40
Feet (no shoes, trimmed every 12 weeks) - £100
Insurance (BHS 3rd Party only) - £57, but that covers any horse I own/keep at home
Vet's fees, including vaccinations and teeth - £150
Worming - £45

I have bought her a new saddlecloth because I liked it (didn't need it!) for £5, and my daughter has had a new second hand outfit which cost £22 for boots, jods, shirt, tie and jacket. I keep her at home so don't have any livery bills, although the mortgage is bigger to cover the paddock. She needs restricted grazing to prevent laminitis, so has a tiny paddock which is shortly to receive an old shed converted to make a field shelter (Hello Clucky - I'll buy you a drink for the shed .)

So in total she cost me about £730 for the year. If I was paying for livery, around here it would be £100 per month, but my cousin up north rents a 5 acre field for the same price and keeps 3 ponies on it.

So that's ponies. (In my case, even the pony was free - gifted to me by a lady who lent her to me but sadly died.) Of course, other posters are right about lessons, entry fees etc, but that all happens regardless of whether you own the pony or 'rent' it. The difference there is that if you own the pony you will have much more access to it, and your niece will want to do more with it.

Horses, OTOH, cost muuuuch more! My big horse costs me about £300 a month, and that's without having to pay livery and not competing. I was paying more like £900 a month when he was on full livery and I was competing him regularly.

[CHOCOLATEPEANUT]

Thanks everyone thats so helpful x

[Owls]

It's scary isn't it when you start to note it all down. Best thing I've found is to close my eyes, put my fingers in my ears and hide the bank statements.

[Southwestwhippet]

Oh my, some good information above but you can keep the costs down WAAAAAY low if you have a shetland that lives out 24/7. IMO costs only really tend to rocket if a) you need to stable the horse/pony or b) you are on part/full livery.

Basically as a minimum you need

Insurance - varies but including vets fees is around £25 - £30 per month

Livery - varies massively. But aim for around £20 per week

Trim - you'd be mad to put shoes on a shetland - so around £15 every 8 weeks

You really shouldn't need to hard feed a shetland but you might want to give him a balancer. The one my pony has costs £24 per bag but a bag will last over 2 months.

Obviously you will need to worm four times a year and pay for an annual dental check and booster vacciantions. a dental check is around £65, booster vaccinations about £40 and worming works out at about £50 per year.

Basically livery is the stinger. If you can get cheap/free livery - i.e. a field somewhere then the costs are not too bad for owning a hardy little shetland. When my pony was living free in a field owned by a friend, I think he was costing me about £10 p/week to run (although he wasn't insured at that point as I wasn't riding due to pregnancy).

However, the other costs are what really add up, Pony Club, Transport here and there, lessons, competitions, competition clothing, new tack, rugs, clipping etc etc... but these you can at least try to negotiage with a small person!

[SpiderObsession]

Rolf at "Shitland" Backinthebox. Was that a typo or a Freudian slip? Either way can aptly describe the type of beast in question.

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

Here, here, don't diss the shetlands, you'd be a shit if all you ever had to play with was toddlers on lead reins! >

[SpiderObsession]

Down Bagpuss, I love shetlands. Just remember a couple of really grumpy ones who got fed up with being fussed by young kids and would flatten their ears and give a good quick nip when Daddy wasn't looking. Ouch!

[SpiderObsession]

The most grumpiest pony/horse I've come across was a falabella stallion. He looked so cute but was a right bad tempered sod. Although not surprising given his owner used to put pink bows in his mane...

One day a DH of a girl at the stable took his son over to see the Falabella (who did his cute look to reel them in). Once they got close enough the stallion lashed out and bit Daddy in the particulars and rendered him helpless for a good 10 mins!!!

[RacingSnake]

Wonder whether I could hijack this to ask a question.

A friend has a 3-yeat old dd like mine and two big horses and two shetland mares. She also has a younger dd who is starting to want to ride.

She is suggesting that she buys a Shetland stallion and I pay the 'maintenance costs' and he could in effect be my dd's pony so that all three girls can ride. She would also use him as a stud pony for her Shetlands. She thinks it would cost me about £375 a year.

What does anyone think of this arrangement?