Budget planning for your future horse: a guide for prospective first time horse owners
I’ve seen a lot of post about affording a horse so I decided to make this theoretical budget plan for first time horse owners.
Ok first off this is roughly based on my own experience with paying for horses, and your prices and my prices could be wildly different based on class, location, and personal situations. Let’s budget for this theoretical horse as if you’re not wealthy but not scraping by for money.
Board typically costs $150-$800 a month depending on the facility and care plan. Let’s say your board is $200 for just a stall and turn out.
An average horse will eat like 2 bales of hay a month. A bale of quality horse usually costs $10-$20, depending on what kind of hay you’re getting and where/who you buy it from. Let’s say you pay $15 a bale, that’s $30 a month.
You’ll probably have the farrier come out every 3-4 months depending on your horse. Farrier prices vary drastically but let’s say it’s $30 for a trim and $150 for a full set of shoes. Divide that by 4 and that’s $7.50 a month for a trim and $37.50 for full shoes.
Lessons are like $25 to a few hundred dollars a session depending on your level and who gives you the lessons. Let’s say you take lessons that are $60 a sesh. 4 lessons a month is $240.
Teeth floating is like $200 I think. You need that yearly so divide by 12 so we’re looking at $17 a month you gotta put away for that.
Vet costs are the wild card. But let’s say it’s $200 a month for at least insurance for vet care.
Now the random stuff you buy almost monthly; let’s just round and estimate. Supplements and grains - $50 a month. Salt lick - $2 a month. Shampoo, sprays, coat care - $10 a month. Hoof conditioner - $12 a month. Fly spray - $10 a month. Horse treats - $5 a month.
Not including the initial price if the horse, vet check, truck+trailer, tack, riding gear, show fees, and other expenses for various replacements and repairs, we are looking at about $814 a month to own a horse. Maybe round up to a thousand dollars a month for wiggle room or more expensive board.
This is the estimated cost for owning a horse month by month. If you have your own property, have a bare foot horse that doesn’t need much feed, and and just stick to the necessities you can bring that cost down to $455 a month and still have a happy, healthy horse. Mustangs are great horses for the low budget horse lover since most mustangs are great barefoot and can’t be feed high quality hay and grains anyways(makes them colic).
Anyways, I wish you guys well with you horse endeavors and I hoped this helped you with decision making and budget planning for your future horse! My next budgeting post will be all the initial expenses and necessities for those first time horse owners!
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