How much does it cost to feed ponys and horses?

Question

I live in Victoria near Pakenham. If I were to buy

1 pony, and 1 horse how much would it cost me to feed them and also other expenses for 1 year? Is keeping horses very expensive?

Answer 1

Horse ownership should not be undertaken lightly. Buying a horse can be expensive, but the horse's purchase price is not usually your biggest cost in owning a horse. Taking care of a horse, keeping a horse, feeding and providing for the horse's health, are all expensive.

Yearly cose approx $3,085

That doesn't take into account the vet visit when Duchess was sick with something flu-like ($150), or the bills from Katherine's abcess (ended up being about $150 with vet and farrier both working on it).

The spreadsheet also doesn't figure in the costs of supplies: saddle, bridle, saddle pads and girths, halters, lead ropes, buckets for feed and water, and so on. These are usually called "one-time costs," but if you use it up (particularly first aid supplies), or something breaks, wears out, or doesn't fit anymore, it must be replaced.

Emergency veterinary expenses can skyrocket. If you can afford major medical insurance for your horse, then when he gets sick you have something to fall back on. But if you don't have insurance, then an expensive vet call can cost as much as you spent on the horse originally. If your horse has to have colic surgery, it can run you $5,000 to $10,000. Some people put away money each month into an "emergency fund" to draw on if the horse has an emergency; some people just wing it and hope nothing bad happens. If your horse has a very expensive problem and you can't afford it, sometimes the only alternative is to put him down. Owning a horse should not be undertaken without full knowledge of the potential dangers

Stabling Fees:

$250.00 x 12 months = $3,000.00

Ouch, we're already up to $3,000.00 per year for stable fees and we haven't even looked at our other expenses

And remember that $250.00 is a very reasonable price, so depending on your location you may very well pay more than $6000.00 ($500.00 per month) on stabling fees.

Food Costs:

183 bales x $2.50 = $457.50

n addition most horses should receive some form of grain, so let's assume you provide your horse just 3 pounds of sweet feed daily. A 50-pound bag of Blue Seal Pacer usually costs between $7.50 to $8.00, so let's assume a low cost of $7.50. 3 pounds daily would be 1095 pounds each year, which equals about 22 bags of Pacer.

22 bags x $7.50 = 165.00

And keep in mind we purposely calculated a below average price and quantity of daily sweet feed intake. Most owners will pay slightly more for their grain and feed 4-5 pounds daily between breakfast and dinner.

So adding together the minimal hay and grain expenses above we have a total of $622.50 yearly for food, not including any food supplements you may wish to provide your horse.

Bedding / Shavings Expenses:

Unless you can make your own, you will pay $4.00 to $5.00 per bag for the bedding that will be placed within your horse's stall. The good news is if you clean the stall daily (preferably more than once) one bag can last a week before requiring a replacement.

So if we assume one bag per week at a cost of $4.50 then your approximate yearly bedding expense will be $234.00.

Veterinarian And Farrier Expenses

If your horse remains perfectly healthy then yearly vet expenses will generally run you around $300.00 for immunizations, the vet call fee, teeth floating, etc. That's not too bad all things considered, but if your horse colics or falls ill then you can quickly see medical fees in excess of $500.00 or $1,000.00 just for that one isolated incident.

Answer 2

No it's not that bad for 2 it will probaly run you about $$100-$150 a month.