Hunting is definitely less expensive than showing. Eventing has gotten to be about $200 per horse trial per horse. Weather permitting, I get out at least once per week. When I have figured out the cost per hunt is was something like $20 per hunt.
When you consider the other forms of entertainment:
Movies $12 per movie
Broadway Theater: $150 per ticket
Skiing: $100 per lift ticket in many areas
Golf $100+ per round
Hunting stacks up really well.
When speaking with friends new to hunting I’ve often explained it as being comparable to your gym/health club/golf club. You’re paying not just for the one day’s sport and activity, but for the hard work put in by management to secure the staff, hounds and lands necessary for the hunt to continue to be available to you in the future.
[QUOTE=gumtree;8444546]
OP, the Hounds are never referred to as “dogs”. Though I like to “rev” some hunt people up by saying “those are really nice dogs”.[/QUOTE]
At which point, if you were joshing ME, I would say, “There are some nice bitches, too!” :winkgrin:
[QUOTE=FitToBeTied;8448024]
Hunting is definitely less expensive than showing. Eventing has gotten to be about $200 per horse trial per horse. .[/QUOTE]
Really, you can add to that quite a bit. The average sanctioned (USEA) horse trial costs more than $200, plus close to $100 for stabling. Then factor in hotel, diesel, shavings, food, coaching, etc. you’re well on your way to $600-$700 for one event. And at that event, you’ll get about 12 minutes of time actually competing with only 5-6 minutes on XC.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed competing for years and still do occasionally. But annual membership with my hunt is $1750 which means hunting (galloping around for ~2 hours) 2-3 times/week from October-March. I get FAR more value from hunting than competing.
[QUOTE=keysfins;8444404]
Sounds similar to a golf club, with membership (tiered for individual, families, social, too) plus fees for each round.[/QUOTE]
Slightly, but not completely.
To the best of my knowledge (as a still newbie to hunting), once you have paid your yearly membership fee, that is your dues for the whole year.
Capping is like your golf round fees, but they apply to guests, not the members.
So for me, as only having been a social member the past several years, I am allowed X-number of caps per year. A social membership is normally the lowest cost…less then $100 in my case…with the cap varying in cost depending on if it is a weekday or weekend hunt.
**Someone correct me if I am wrong, please!!
I would say technically correct, but not necessarily the full picture.
A lot of people feel that, once they pay some kind of dues (social up to full subscriber), they have done their part and any other support is extra. That is true only of hunts where every cost and need is built into the annual fee for members. I suppose those hunts exist, but I personally don’t know of one.
The hunt I belong to, for example, tries to keep annual out-of-pocket costs as reasonable and approachable as possible. But that means a percentage of annual operating costs and the big, rare expenditures (such as a new kennel building because the old one is falling down) are covered by volunteer-run fundraisers and donations, and volunteer work and loaned equipment is used whenever possible (staff, maintaining the trails, jumps, kennels, and hunt-owned equipment, etc).
For us, the break-even point is probably at least paying the equivalent of a full, subscribing membership plus volunteering for a few events a year (or additional monetary support such as hiring someone else to clear trails in your stead a couple days each summer).
Many hunts also raise money by having advertising in their directory, on a website, and/or at a hunt ball or party. I know that I “advertise” every year even though I have never gotten a single new client from the advertising. I do it to help support our hunt. (it would be nice if hunt members that saw the ads did go to support the local businesses and thanked them for their support).
My hunt is an exception – we pay for a lease on government land. We have an exclusive lease on around 160 acres (where the kennels and staff horses reside) and a “use” lease on the remaining ~25,000 acres that we share with cattle, hobby model airplane enthusiasts, and more recently a whole lotta oil and gas folks. We do occasionally travel to other places, but our big landowners are few and far between.
I think our membership fees are pretty low (under $2k, even less for trainers and first year members), which is supported by tremendous fundraising efforts throughout the year. That gives us all a bit more flexibility and lets us pay what we can afford to pay. Junior members under 21 are practically free, which I think is brilliant, because of course that’s how they rope in the parents 
I think it’s a total steal compared to costs of showing around here, and WAAAAAAAY more fun!!
25000 acres!
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