Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Horses are expensive

I like to compare notes with other bloggers and so I've decided to post some expenses we've had this last, ummmm 4 months!? Yah, I've been working on this post for a while.


At first it was skewed because of the donkey's arrival. We had to buy new fencing materials and we built a wall to divide the shelter. I had to put up a third line of electric wire around our pasture.

Oh, you might notice that in Europe they use commas in prices where we put decimals, and vice versa. It took me a while to get this. Also the conversion rate is ~1E=1.31$



***
FEED


21 Feb - 40 kg Beet Pulp pellets - 13,70E

21 Feb - 25 kg Hoeveler Terabb-A pellets - 12,50E

9 Mar - 40 kg Beet Pulp pellets - 13,70E


9 Mar - 25 kg Hoeveler Reform-Mix (grain/pellet mix) - 12,99E

29 Mar - YeaSacc (Lebendhefe) 22,80E

30 Mar - Horse treats - 5,99E

30 Mar - Beet pulp 40 kg - 15,41E

5 Apr - Hoeveler Terabb-A pellets - 12,50E

30 Apr  - Beet pulp - 15,41E

(Total for Feed: 125E)
***
BEDDING


16 Feb - 1 bag Leinstroh (mini Straw bedding) - 9,99E

16 Feb - bag (52 liter) Biolan (Pellet bedding) - 10,29E


30 Mar - Biolan bedding pellets - 10,29E

30 Mar -  Leinstroh mini hay bedding - 9,99E

5 Apr - Biolan bedding pellets - 10,29E

30 Apr - Biolan bedding pellets, Leinstroh bedding 20,80E

(Total Bedding 72E)
***
VETERINARY care

16 Feb - Droncit 9% paste (Praziquantal wormer) - 17E

5 Apr Dentistry  - Bellis rasped, no sedation. Baasha sedated and incisors trimmed - 131,13E

5 Apr - Bellis Tetanus shot. - 20,00E

17 Apr - Flyspray - 24,95E

12 Jun - Flyspray - 26,95E

4 and 7 May - Eye Issues - Vet visits: staining the eye, medicating the eye, restaining on 2nd visit - 121,00E

(Total Vet - 341E)
***
HOOFCARE

22 May - Baasha trimmed - 53E

31 May - Bellis trimmed - 52E

(Total Hoofcare - 105E)
***
EXTRAS:

27 Mar - Flymask -  15,90E

27 Mar - Haynet - 11,90E

31 Mar - Leather halter for Bellis - 34.50E


27 Mar - German "Showsheen" product - 12,90E

27 Mar - Oster white horse shampoo - 10,90E

End of May - Riding lesson - 15E

(Total Extras - 101E)
***


BARN/FENCING SUPPLIES

9 Mar - Torgriff (Electric Fence gate handle) - 1,89E

14 Mar - 500 meter Electro-rope (fencing rope) - 92E

14 Mar - 5X25  Tpost ring insulators (what do you call them?) - 27,50E

14 Mar - 1 Fence gate insulator - ,97E

14 Mar - 10 Electro-rope-connectors - 7,98E

14 Mar - 2 Torgriffe (gate handles)  - 3,34E

14 Mar - 25 Wooden post ring insulators - 5E

14 Mar - Shipping - 7E

17 Mar - Moertelkuebel (big black plastic thing for mixing concrete that makes a good water trough) - 6,99E

17 Mar - 90 Screws (for our wall) - 12,79E

17 Mar - 1 drill bit adaptor for those fancy screws - 6,99E

27 Mar - Wall wood for stall (divider) - 166,00E

20 Apr - 20 Plastic posts for a 3rd grazing strip - 40,00E

20 Apr - 2  Torgriffe (gate handles) - 2,58E

(Total Fencing - 381E)
***

TOTAL: 1125,00E Feb -->May

But J says I need to include the price of the donkey, cuz she's a "for the horse" expense.

OK then!

Bellis - 800E.

1925,00E Feb-May 2012
divided by 4 months= 481E per month (and 281E per month without the price of Bellis)


My husband tracks all our expenses and says that on average, keeping Baasha costs us 250E per month. I think that's a lot considering we get hay for free. I see that we go through a lot of bedding and beet pulp in Winter and spend way too much on German fly spray!

We tried to compare the price of living with boarding 2 horses and not having such a long commute, living in town. OK then we'd be commuting to the horses, but not as far as currently. Board is about 300E per month per horse here in our region, and that doesn't include grain or stall cleaning. I don't really want to pursue that line of thinking because I rely on what one of my endurance mentors told me (CC), "Once you've got more than one equine, you'd better just buy your own place!" After driving an hour tonight to get home, it sure is worth it. I may not be doing what I love, sport-wise, but I sure am thankful for this. Now I'd better get out there before any braying for dinner ensues!

8 comments:

Bakersfield Dressage said...

I still think your costs are much lower than mine! Keeping your horses on your own property is MUCH cheaper. Your expenditures, including the purchase of Bellis and the added fencing, is what I spend in a single month. My costs include a trailer payment, weekly lessons, and showing which aren't part of your routine, but I still think you're getting a bargain.

I did find it interesting that fly spray was more than a tetanus shot. I just bought ANOTHER bottle of fly spray today. A bottle of Pyranha, my favorite, cost $14.69 (11.56€). That's half what you spent - ouch!

Now that your fencing is established, your bills for the next few months will go down considerably. Thanks for sharing!

lytha said...

Speedy, I was so hoping you'd see this post and you did immediately! I found it interesting that you noticed the fly spray was moe than the tetanus shot! I think prices should go down too, now, unless I buy another horse....

It was only 20 mins ago that I published it, and now I'm sitting here at my laptop with 4 large welts on my legs, burning in pain, from the single horsefly that attacked me tonight as I tried to clean up my paddock. I cannot even go back out there. He bit me right through my Carousel endurance spandex shorts (were once tights). Apparently Carousel material poses no challenge, they just bite moving things. I don't know, I'm from Seattle, where we don't have horseflies. I smeared German pain cream on them and wish I had a drugstore that was open past 6 pm so I could get large bandaids (anything medical is not available at grocery stores, and they closed at 8 pm anyway). I don't know how I'm gonna go to work tomorrow, or, more importantly, finish cleaning up my paddock and pasture. I will wait til almost dark.

Is today the Solstice? At 51 degrees latitude, we are streaming along with only 4 hours of darkness. Honestly. If I had a horse I could ride til 10:45 PM.

I

Hate

June in Germany

I mean

I

Hate

Horseflies

The Equestrian Vagabond said...

Funny - I visited them in Germany in 2007!
http://theequestrianvagabond.blogspot.com/2007/07/horse-of-different-color-akhal-teke-and.html
I've noticed all around the world, that people who have Akhal Tekes are OBSESSED with them. Not saying it's good or bad, I'm just sayin'.
- The Equestrian Vagabond

Dreaming said...

I can't believe how expensive fly spray is for you. It must be that your fly spray is more effective than what we get here - right?!! It seems no matter how much I spend, and no matter what their claims, the flies come back within short order.
There are pros and cons to having horses at home vs boarding them. I love having my horses in the back yard, but I don't like being tied to them and having to be here at certain hours to feed and care for them. I feel that I might actually ride more if they were boarded because once I was at the stable, the only thing in my focus would be my horse; not the dirty stall, nor the round pen that needs raking, nor the weeding....I always find things that need to be done - the work never ends!

Jason said...

That sounds about right to me. I've heard people say they can keep horses on a lot less than we do per month and ibalways wonder w hat expenses they are forgetting to count. Or maybe I just need to hire them! :)

Ruth said...

Having your own place and your own hay sure makes a difference. I do not track my expenses this closely. I should, but I am also terrified. I pay $320/mo for full board, which is sort of a misnomer since I buy all my own non-hay feed and supplements. There is also the cost of fuel (mercifully down this week), for a 30-mile round trip at least 3 times a week. And I suppose the truck payment counts too since I wouldn't have a truck if I didn't need to haul the horse. And then add everything I've used to treat scratches this past two weeks, and ride entries twice a month and the extra gas to get there and...

You know, nevermind. I really don't want to think about this.

Bakersfield Dressage said...

Lytha - I HATE biting bugs. We were at our cabin the other weekend and I came home with a ton of bites even though wore long sleeves and applied bug spray. I feel your pain!

Ruth - I decide to track EVERY SINGLE EXPENSE this year. It is absolutely horrifying. You can check out my expenditures here: http://www.bakersfielddressage.com/1/category/horses%20are%20expensive/1.html

Achieve1dream said...

I figured up the cost of feed, land lease and annual vet care once, but thankfully my brain has blocked it out and I can't remember what it was. I don't like to think about how much I'm spending LOL!!! It is a lot cheaper to keep them at home though. :D I wish we got free hay lol.

Hmm, horseflies never bite me . . . but everything else does (ticks, mosquitoes, chiggers, etc.)! Hope you feel better soon.

Four hours of dark???????? I need to live there!! How much daylight is there in winter though? That might change my mind lol. Never mind the thought of not having ibuprofen and bandaids is enough to convince me lol.