HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO OWN A HORSE? DETAILED COST GUIDE 💰

hey everyone so if you're planning to get a horse soon one of the most important things you need to know is the financial commitment that comes with owning a horse the last thing you want to do is buy a horse and be unprepared for the costs that come with it so in this video i'm just going to give you an overview of all the costs that come with owning a horse so when it comes to owning a horse your expenses don't stop after the initial purchase price but i thought i would start with the initial cost to actually getting a horse just because this can be another big factor and you know what i'm going to let tucker just sit here and graze because i'm sure he's going to get bored with this video finances you know no one wants to talk about it so anyway the initial cost of owning your horse what is the purchasing price so horses vary greatly when it comes to purchasing them you can buy a horse for a hundred dollars or you can buy a horse for thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars so there's a lot of wiggle room there when it comes to fitting in your budget there's basically three factors that will affect the price of your horse one factor is training so how much training your horse has one factor is registration so their pedigree and bloodline and the last factor is the breed so some breeds are going to be way more expensive than others the more training a horse has the more expensive they're going to be or the more specialized training they have the more expensive they're going to be buying a grand prix jumping horse is going to cost you a lot more compared to just buying a horse that you can ride around and have fun on so let's talk about registration if your horse is registered under their breed association that can affect the price it can make them be more expensive and this is just because they have a bloodline that is traced back and you can have a pedigree you can know what the horse is built for like are they built for barrel racing are they built for eventing show jumping stuff like that so if you're on a budget looking for a horse that isn't registered may be cheaper for you so tucker here isn't registered as a poa he's just considered a grade that's what you call them a great horse is unregistered horse so another thing that's going to affect the price of a horse is the breed so if you have a frisian or a warm blood or maybe a fjord pony those breeds are in high demand and they're also expensive just because they're a more rare breed and people like them and they want them so if you want one of those breeds you've got to be prepared to spend a little bit more money on the other hand common popular breeds like quarter horses appaloosas thoroughbreds those you can usually find reasonably priced just because there's a lot of them and they're pretty common and even though i love all these breeds they may not be like in demand as you know those rare specialized breeds if you're purchasing your first horse and not looking for anything in particular you can usually expect to find a good horse between fifteen hundred dollars and four thousand dollars so you can usually find a horse in this price range with decent amount of training like i said it's gonna vary so just make sure you're specific about what you want so my horses were actually all under two thousand dollars i got tucker and bella for around six hundred and fifty dollars they were pretty cheap but they were also unbroke so the reason for the cheapness pepper she had a little bit of training so she was right at fifteen hundred dollars and you know she had basic walk trot canners she could jump cross rails so that's just to show you guys how the price ranges differ another initial cost to consider when it comes to purchasing your horse is a vet check so this is where a vet will pre-check your horse before purchasing just to make sure that the horse is healthy and to make sure it's able to do what you want to do with it so in the united states a vet check is going to cost anywhere from two hundred dollars to five hundred dollars this really just depends where you are in the country just because living expenses and cost of living is so varied throughout america it also may vary depending on if you're getting very specialized specific testing on your horse that is not included in the original vet check so what a vet check usually includes is the vet will listen to the horse's vitals take a pulse listen to the lungs and the heart and all that good stuff they look at the horse's teeth to see if they're around the age that the seller is saying that the horse is they'll also do like a flexion test with your horse to see if there's any signs of arthritis or anything like that the vet will also have you lead the horse around so you can see if there's any sign of lameness or anything like that some specialized tests that you can do that aren't usually an original blood check is a blood test to see if there's any specific diseases the horse may have you can also do a test like a radiograph just to check the horse's bones and their joints and things like that they can also run a test on the horse's dna and genetics to see if they carry anything that could be passed on if you're planning to breed the horse so that's something to think about just depending on what you want to do with your horse another part of your initial cost of approaching a horse will be transporting the horse to where you're gonna keep it since i don't have my own truck and trailer i usually have a friend move my horses or maybe if i purchase a horse the seller agrees to bring the horse to my property or even i've paid transporters to move my horses so just depending on how long the journey is transporting can range from like a dollar per mile to even three dollars per mile so when i moved tucker across the country it was 1200 miles overall and it ended up costing me around hundred dollars other times i've moved a horse maybe an hour and i just talked to the seller beforehand and we agreed that i'd pay them fifty dollars to move the horse so just things like that where you may have to negotiate a little or just search around to see what your best options are now let's talk about what to feed your horse and how much that's going to cost so there are a few different things you can feed your horse but the first one i'm going to start off with is grain so grain can be used to supplement your horse's diet and also help them hold weight and get the proper nutrients and sugars they need a 50 pound bag of brain can range anywhere from 15 to 60 dollars usually the higher quality grain will be on the higher end of that spectrum so a 50 pound bag of grain may last you anywhere from two weeks to two months just depending on how much you're feeding daily before you purchase grain it's important to know what your horse needs specifically for them so all horses are different and they each have their own dietary needs if you have a horse that keeps their weight easily you don't need a grain that's going to be high in sugar so tucker is a very easy keeper so he keeps his weight very well so i don't feed him a high sugared grain but on the other hand if you do have a horse that's maybe a harder keeper and they get thin easily and maybe they need specific nutrients to help them just stay looking fresh those are other grains you can look at there's a bunch of different grains so the best thing to do is to talk to your vet to see what they think could benefit your horse the most so this is the grain i use for tucker it's called enrich plus and it's by purina this is a balancing grain so once again it's low in sugar and it's just in a pelleted form this says it's a 30-day supply so i feed a pound a day and it lasts me exactly 30 days so again it's really important to check with your vet to see what they think your horse needs it's not a good idea to just feed your horse random stuff another thing you may feed your horse is hay so hay can be very important to your horse's diet since it can be used to sustain your horse if there's not enough grass or forage in your horse's pasture you can also give your horse hay if they're in a stall for some of the time and this will just help them stay entertained and it's also going to help them eat continually as they should since they're horses the cost of hay can vary depending on the location you're in within the country the time of year you're purchasing and also the type of hay you're getting and the quality of the hay so these here are square bales and these can range anywhere from three dollars to twenty dollars wherein round bales can be anywhere from forty dollars to a hundred dollars so obviously the higher quality the hay is the more it's going to cost you so if you are purchasing hay on the cheaper side or any hay in general it's important to make sure that it is horse quality and not just livestock quality so cows and goats and animals like that they can eat things and digest things better than horses can so horses need a higher quality hay compared to those animals so you want to make sure there's no like thistles or fox tail in the horse's hay another thing to note is if you want to save money on hay it's best to purchase hay during the summer time right after the hay is cut most people wait till the fall or winter to purchase their hay and this is because this is when the grass starts to die and you need to start feeding the hay now but in actuality hay will often be more expensive during this time just because it's in low supply because everyone's buying it and it's in high demand so if you want to get good prices on hay i recommend you purchase in the summer before you even purchase your horse it's important to find a place to keep them if you can't keep your horse on your property you're going to have to keep them at a boarding stable which is where you can pay to keep your horse on property and use their facilities there are different types of board that will impact the cost to keep your horse there the first boarding option i want to talk to you guys about is called full care board so full care board on average in america ranges from 300 to 700 dollars and i think the sweet spot is probably right around 400 or 500 that's just what i gather from looking at places all across the country since i've lived in different places so full care board is the highest level of horse care you can pay for at a boarding stable it's basically guarantees your horse turnout stable and also that the staff at the barn will see to your horse's daily needs so the staff may do other things like put the horse's blanket on spray them with fly spray hold the horse for the fair hold the horse for the vat and just stuff like that so that's important to remember if you have limited time for yourself to go out and see your horse a full care option may be the best choice for you another boarding option is called pasture board and this is basically full care board but your horse is going to live out in a pasture 24 7 rather than being in a stall half the time so in america a pastor board usually ranges from 150 to around 400 with the sweet spot probably being 250 to 300 another option is called partial board and this is where you pay to use the land and the facilities but you may also be having to do some work yourself like feeding the horse or purchasing the grain and stuff like that so partial board usually ranges from about 150 to 300 and the sweet spot is probably that 250 to 300 mark again a very budget-friendly boarding option is self-care board so a self-care board your horse is on the land and you can use the facilities but you are responsible for all of your horse's care so that means if your horse needs to be fed twice a day you're coming out and feeding them you're putting out hay you're filling up water buckets and all that good stuff so self-care board usually ranges from 100 to maybe just over 200 dollars and the sweet spot is probably 150. i used the self-care boarding option when i was in school and my budget was tighter and i would just make sure that i had to go out and see tucker you know twice a day and i'd check and make sure all his needs are met and if maybe i had to go on vacation i would arrange with the other borders to watch him for me while i was gone now let's talk about equipment and how much it's gonna cost so here is a halter and a halter is gonna cost anywhere from 10 to 60 dollars if you plan on riding your horse you're going to need a saddle so saddles can cost anywhere from 150 to 3 000 and more name brand saddles are going to be more expensive so when it comes to english saddles you're probably going to pay more for like an m to loose brand or a steuben i get all my tack used so myself is actually 400 and it's still in pretty good shape and it's super comfortable the next piece of equipment is a saddle pad so this is a super plush style pad i have saddle pads range from 20 to 250 once again it's a name brand thing but also a quality thing as well like you're gonna spend more for a more quality saddle pad okay so now we have a girth and i'm holding it like this so y'all can't see how dirty it is so a girth is on average going to cost between 15 and 120 dollars i got this girth used so it was 15 you're also going to need a bridle for your horse and bridals can cost anywhere from twenty to four hundred dollars as you guys know i like to shop on the cheap end so this was forty dollars other things you're gonna need are brushes a brush set is usually gonna cost you anywhere from 10 to 75 you'll also want a feeding bucket so i have a feeding pan here and an actual bucket and these usually cost between five and ten dollars so the next costs i want to talk about are medical costs for your horse unfortunately as with anything accidents happen with horses sometimes so sometimes your medical costs may be more frequent than others usually if everything goes well throughout your year your horse should need two appointments with your vet usually one in the spring and one in the fall the first thing that's going to be included in your vet costs are the vet call so the vet call fee is basically the base rate for the vet to come out to your stable so this can differ depending how far away you live from the vet office and also what time of day you call so if a vet isn't a mobile vet and they have to travel to your stable the farther you are away the higher the vet call rate will be also the vet fee usually differs depending if you call during business hours or if you call after business hours so after business hours it's going to be a little bit more expensive so during business hours your vet call is usually going to be from 35 to 80 and after hours it's usually 50 to 150. so when your vet comes out twice a year they're usually going to give your horse a physical exam during this exam they're just going to look over your horse make sure they're healthy they're going to listen to their vitals maybe do a body count to determine where your horse is at and where they need to be so the body count usually ranges from one to nine one being that your horse is like malnourished and very sickly and thin nine being that your horse is obese so they'll number them on that scale they'll also probably look at their confirmation and look at their teeth and all that good stuff to make sure everything's good physical exams should be done at least once a year and it's usually going to cost you from 60 to 150 dollars another thing your vet may do at a vet visit is give the shots for the year horses usually need shots either annually or bi-annually so if you're in a certain area there may be other shots that are recommended to have like i know in our area it's recommended that you have the botulism shot but here are the common ones that everyone usually gets in america one is rabies we have the eastern encephalitis western encephalitis tetanus west nile and influenza but when it comes to those specific area shots you want to ask your vet and see what they recommend shots usually range from 20 to 60 and that's usually all of them um it shouldn't cost you that much more another thing your horse will need at least once a year is teeth floating so believe it or not but horses teeth continue to grow throughout their lifetime and as horses chew they develop sharp edges along the outside of their teeth which can stab them in the cheek and so their horses will need their teeth filed down it's pretty weird it's like how you file fingernails is how you file down a horse's teeth but the vet usually does the teeth floating and they usually require sedation so it is going to be a little bit more money so depending on how much sedation you need teeth floating usually ranges from 75 to 200 dollars so if your horse needs more of the sedation it's going to be on the higher end lastly you're going to need a coggins test a coggins test is a piece of paper that proves your horse doesn't have equine infectious anemia so this is an incurable disease that horses get and it's also super contagious so it's super important that you have paperwork wherever you take your horse that says that your horse tests negative for that infectious anemia so the cost for a coggins test usually ranges from twenty to sixty dollars the vet draws blood they take it back to the lab and then they'll usually mail you a copy of the negative coggins test so you can keep that so another aspect of horse care that's going to end up costing you some money is hoof care so you know how our fingernails are constantly growing while horses hooves are constantly growing so a farrier is basically someone who sees to your horse's hooves they're like the pedicurist on average horses need to see the farrier every four to eight weeks so there's a few aspects that are going to affect the cost when it comes to taking care of your horse's feet and this may be that your horse either needs their hooves trimmed or that they need shoes so if your horse is barefoot and they don't wear shoes all they're going to need is a simple trimming for their feet and the ferry will do this so a simple trim will cost anywhere from 30 to 50. putting shoes on your horse usually costs from 65 to 130 dollars so this is going to vary depending on how many shoes your horse is getting so sometimes horses only get shoes on their front feet other times they'll get it completely around when every hoof has a shoe it can cost as much as 200 so you may be wondering whether or not your horse needs shoes or not so tucker here doesn't wear shoes but i also don't ride him that much i ride him maybe twice a week i don't get to ride him as much as i want he also has very good feet his feet are really strong and hearty so if you have a horse that you ride pretty frequently and they also maybe have tender feet getting shoes on them is a good idea but the biggest thing i recommend is talking to your vet and seeing what they say if you like this video you're definitely going to enjoy our horse care 101 video i'll put the link in the description down below and i'll also link a few other articles that may be helpful to you as you start looking for your first horse thank you guys so much for watching and if you found this video helpful please be sure to leave us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel you

Channel: Equine Helper

Views: 34,849

Rating: 4.9760957 out of 5

Keywords: how much does it cost to own a horse, how much it costs to own a horse

Id: SwrI1XM6NWc

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021