If this thread has taught me anything, it’s that I could spend more on my hobby and not be the only crazy person!
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I spend 5% of my income on the horses. That doesn’t include “projects” at my farm like fencing, turnout shelters, etc. Since those are one-time expenses I categorize it separately.
Right now it’s only 3% of our gross income, but will be closer to 9% when/if we add a second horse who is actually in work. My current guy is on retirement board.
I would say I’m around 4% for my own gross income (excluding DH income), but that doesn’t include splurgy purchases (oh saddle pad obsessions) and showing (as I haven’t shown in 3 years).
High COL area, one in full training, one retired.
8-12% of our household gross income, depending on show expenses that year.
I’m in the realm of ~15% of my income or ~6% of household income. I live in HCOL area (particularly for horses) with a full-boarded horse and budget for 2-3 lessons a month and a few clinics / shows throughout the year.
Even though that’s a relatively low % for household income, we still feel stretched many months due to high childcare costs (which costs us more per child than what I spend on pony each month!!) and trying to catch up on retirement savings after nearly a decade of living abroad on salaries that left nothing at the end of each month for long-term savings.
When did life get so expensive? And can inflation please chill out??
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If my math is correct, half lease + weekly lessons comes out to be around 13% of my gross income. Combined with my partner’s income it’s about 7% of our gross household. I live in a big city area but it has a pretty average COL, nothing crazy. We don’t have kids or any other pets. Not including showing or anything either but hoping to get back into that in the new year 
Holy moly, even I never tried that. That would have killed the fun for sure!!
I’ve not added it up but at a rough guess maybe 5%? For two, relatively low maintenance horses. Of course…once we factor in the tow vehicle and trailer I’ve bought in the last 12 months…well let’s just say that cost literally 100x more than the second horse’s purchase price 
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I take lessons on a schoolhorse to the tune of approx $200-300/month. I used to part-board (3 days per week) for $300/month plus $30/lesson on my schoolie but I just wasn’t getting out for 3 days per week routinely.
I also have my own mare in training to the tune of $900/month (including board) at another barn which includes one lesson per week. I just signed up for a whole boatload of clinics throughout the summer with her so I will have a very expensive horsey year (compared to the last 3 years).
Add in vet/meds, farrier, body work, supplements… I pay approx $300/month.
So - before clinics, riding gear, blankets, (and gas for the 35 minute drive each way) etc I pay approx $1500/month. But I basically spend money on horses and vacations (once or twice a year) so I try not to worry too much. The cost/benefit makes sense for me personally (although I don’t LOVE adding up all the expenses each month! )
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Same!!! Your math is eerily accurate. But no, we won’t include the tow vehicle and trailer costs in our calculations 
I don’t know how I didn’t catch this originally! It’s nice to see our partners have common interests, though
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Horse was $700. Truck and trailer have come to pretty much 70k 
I did buy new (for various reasons), it just pains me that the horses have zero capability to appreciate me buying nice things, and I know the first thing one of them will do is poop in it 
Just updated my spreadsheets (my second favorite hobby, next to horses) and I thought I would bump this thread up with another “make you feel better about your expenses” entry. Of gross income, I spend 22% on my three horses who live at home (including truck/trailer maintenance). That’s just monthly expenses, not counting the substantial start-up costs to get the farm up and running. I don’t feel too guilty though because I don’t have kids and I’m still saving/investing more than 25% of gross income, most of it pre-tax. Hubby and I do his, hers, and ours finances so that’s all from the “hers” pot.
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Without showing, 35% of my gross income is budgeted for horses every paycheck. 4 horses that live at home. Add in showing (8-10 A shows per year) and it’s close to 50%. Which is terrifying when I add it up. Lol
But our farm is paid for and we have what seems to be plenty saved for retirement. My husband is already retired. But, I will definitely need to cut back on the showing (and not replace the 2 old horses when they pass on) once I retire.
I am trying to figure out how horses can be that big a part of gross income when you aren’t even talking about the tax bite that comes out of gross. Are those numbers real?
Mine are! Low living expenses and no kids are key. @inca says their farm is paid off and I’m guessing since they’re at retirement age any kids they have are fledged. Then food, car/truck stuff, utilities, taxes, insurance, and property maintenance are your big categories. Some of those might be lumped into horse expenses (I know my truck expenses are because I wouldn’t have it otherwise). And when you have a bunch of horses at home you tend to go on fewer vacations, so there’s some money that can go toward horses instead. 
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Are you asking how horses can possibly cost that much? Or how I can live if I spend that much of my income on horses?
To clarify, that is not household income. It’s my income only.
Being debt free helps a bunch! And yeah, we don’t spend money on exotic vacations, fancy clothes, expensive restaurants, etc.
I could retire easily if I didn’t have horses. Lol. But I keep working to save money for retirement (my company has a good profit sharing plan) and to pay for my horses.
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Ah!
Where I am, taxes (state and fed) are a big bite. So, yeah, I was trying to figure out those percentages when I was mentally adding a significant percentage for taxes as well.
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