Wait wait there is no way you were spending almost $20,000 a year on Smartpaks, right? $100 per month per horse for four horses is $4,800 per year total.
Ha! Good catch - not sure what happened to my calculator. That’s why I don’t do the math!
Yeah, I didn’t tally up extras like - I upgraded from a Nissan Juke to a Rogue so I would have more room to haul feed and horse crap around… I wouldn’t be maintaining a truck and trailer if not for the horses, even though the truck is handy for other uses. The expenses kind of bleed into everything.
When I’m on top of categorizing things in Mint, board, feed, supplements and vet go under “Pets” but lessons, show fees etc. go under “Sports” and tack goes under “Sports Equipment” because I see those as more discretionary spending the horses don’t require for their well-being.
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I didn’t either. I bought a truck and trailer, wouldn’t have those if I didn’t have horses. Heck, I bought a whole property for my horses. Wouldn’t have that either!
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Yes, stall board only includes alfalfa, and all other types of hay are extra.
we did also, but later found we owned the mineral rights so the horses actually kind of paid for themselves (that is what I keep telling myself) however like you our land is in the middle of a large city so “the horses’ land” is now valued by the square foot
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Wow, I didn’t think about the big purchases. I also didn’t add in the myriad costs that occur over the years like euthanasia and disposal, vet bills for injuries or illnesses, etc.
We bought a Highlander because the little convertible was just not good at hauling the occasional hay bales and keeping my rubbermaid tub of horse stuff handy. Also, I wanted a vehicle which could pull a European horse trailer and deal with dirty stuff.
We bought land to put the horses on, but boarding is so convenient we never moved them. Our horse property is there as a backup though, which is comforting, as so many boarding barns close up and sell out for new home development. The boarding barn is surrounded by multi-million dollar homes and it’s only a matter of time before it closes. In the meantime, my one remaining horse lives in a better neighborhood than we do while we pay taxes on a different property. The comforting thought is that like Clanter said, I think our horse property will be the only part of horse ownership that will eventually put us ahead, at least, “that is what I keep telling myself.”
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Too much, low 4 figures per month for a retired horse. I do love her and intend to give her the best last few years of life as I can, but it’s a lot of money anyway. I keep telling myself the board cost will be worth it compared to building a place for her at home, with all the usual complications, unless she lives another 8-10 years, which is very unlikely given how rapidly she is aging.
I’m feeling it all a little hard right now because the new vet’s office didn’t bother to contact me about my credit card not going through until last week, so all vet bills from July until now just landed on me. They are considerable (lowish 4 figures.) It’s a good practice but expensive.
And my payment on the CC I’m now using for vet bills didn’t get to the CC company last month, so all of a sudden I have the CC company breathing down my neck. I paid enough on the CC last night to make the CC company go away for a while.
(Please keep in mind that I live in an area where it is very expensive to keep horses.)
we are less than mile from a $2.5 billion dollar shopping complex, there are a few million people around us
We have adult volunteers who work for free just to come to be around the horses and to get outside. Our place is not large by any measure but we are in the middle of fourteen acres so it kind of like a park as the nearest neighbors are 200 feet away across the street while the rear neighbors are nearly a thousand feet back there. We are kind of accustom to having extras around from back when our kids had their friends here,
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also in southern middle TN 
howdy neighbor!
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Howdy 
Hope you made it thru the storms today (Wednesday afternoon & evening. We lost power around. 5:30 PM and still do t have it 3+ hours later. Nothing like watching the power company outage map for entertainment, lol
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6k a year for pasture board, basic farrier (barefoot) and basic vetting. I consider this the absolute floor one could get by with - a best case scenario.
Add in dental, chiro, massages and another $1,000/yr.
I’m sporadic about lessons, so roughly another $1k there.
I do about 4-6 local shows a year, and I don’t feel like I should have to count camping or fuel expense
for those cause those should fall in the “Recreation” bucket. 
Another $1k in entry fees, GMO, memberships, etc.
I feel like I’m doing pretty good at keeping it at below 10k!
But I didn’t count the new bespoke saddle, or amortize my horse trailer…those are capital expenses, right? Lol
And if I buy horse clothes, certainly I’ll wear those sun shirts and jackets for more than just riding?
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In Western NY and horses at home - 2 mine, 3 for a friend - she supplies her own grain
Hay ~$85-90/horse/month average (more in winter, much less in summer - I stock the barn for winter)
Grain ~$25/horse/month
Bedding ~$20/horse/month max (1 pickup load is $50 and lasts 2-5 weeks for 5 horses depending on the weather)
Farrier $30 (trim) - $105 (4 new shoes) every 5-6 weeks (TWH is barefoot, TB has shoes May - November)
Vet $200 - 400 a year depending on what’s needed
I am not including mortgage or utilities as I have to live somewhere and my overhead is actually cheap compared to most places.
We were luckily just south of the mess, so while we got a loud and windy storm, we missed the deep, dark, ominous cloud that hit a few miles north. Hope you got power back and are OK!
Triangle/central NC area.
Outdoor board in a private pasture with a shared run-in with automatic fans: $350 but I work with my great friends the owners, barn sit, drag arenas, etc. Dedicated stall in inclement weather. My horse, raised half-time in a stall, greatly prefers to be outside. Individual pastures are freakishly well managed as male owner is a professional geologist and is very into soil and grass.
Shoes all around every 5 weeks for $175. I sedate my horse so add the dormosedan cost on that. I’ve gotten it down to a third of a dose with good timing. Currently lessons/rides about once monthly for $65. Vet costs twice yearly (dental once yearly and I’m opting for prophylactic body work with fall shots just because his work has stepped up, my vet is certified in chiro and acupuncture).
Clinics are on top of this. I purchased a used Scheese saddle fit to him last year so we have yearly fittings and I purchased a new Solo bridle for him yesterday as my Kieffer bridle is old and is on every last hole except the noseband. Only a Clydesdale would fit this “horse sized bridle” now.
Montgomery County, Maryland (DC suburbs) - approximately $3,000/month for the basics for 2 horses - lovely field board, shoes, routine medical, 2 dressage lessons/week. My horses live a much nicer life than me!
Board plus hay top up plus sales tax = just over $900
Farrier= $225
SmartPak = $50
2 lessons with home trainer: $100
2 lessons w monthly clinician: $400
= $1675
In the winter, home trainer goes to Florida and no clinics are organized at home, so those expenses fall away.
In other news, the horse is lucky he’s cute and I need to go close some deals…
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Gainesville (North of Ocala) FL area
$600 full board
$233 avg monthly (every 6 weeks) for shoes
$150 chiro
$260 for 4 lessons per month
$75 avg for XC schooling fees
$400(?) Avg for shows - none in the summer, more the rest of the year, so maybe that’s average?
$25 for dentist (average)
$16 for vaccines and dewormer (average)
$1754 per month. Without truck and trailer and diesel and extra things like tack and riding clothes. Oof.
