‘My horse costs me £10,000 a year but I could never sell her’

Owners are having to jump over major financial hurdles to keep their pet as costs soar

Horses have much in common with Class A drugs. They are expensive, dangerous and very, very addictive.
Over the past four years Kate Dawson has moved house so that her two showjumpers can live at home with her, risen daily at dawn to care for them, and is currently teetering on the edge of financial meltdown because of the cost of veterinary treatment. But she does not begrudge them a single penny. “They are like family,” she said.
Just like everything else in life, owning a horse – never a budget choice – has become much more expensive over the past few years. 
And faced with a choice between buying food for their family or for their equine, many owners have had to consider getting rid of their horse. According to The National Equine Welfare Council, one in five owners are considering drastic action.
It costs between £5,800 and £14,820 per year to keep a horse on average, according to Protexin Equine Premium, which makes health supplements. This is coincidentally around the same as average private school fees, according to the Independent Schools Council.
Costs vary by location, circumstances and how hardy your horse is. A delicate competition horse will generally cost more to run than a tough native pony that will happily live outdoors year-round subsisting on a diet of grass and hay.
Dawson has arranged her life around her horses, Luna and Savi. Four years ago she and her two teenage daughters sold their house in the centre of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, and moved to a village near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. 
Between them, Luna, 13, and Savi, 16, eat their way through around £60 worth of feed every month, more than £200 worth of forage, and their bedding costs more than £100 per month. Shoeing costs for the pair of them come in at around £135 per month.
In addition, Dawson, a manager at a pharmaceutical company, puts aside £200 a month to go towards veterinary bills, bringing her monthly spend to well over £1,000, not including more occasional costs like dentistry and physiotherapy, new equipment, travel and training.
But when it comes to horses, you have to expect the unexpected, and 2023 was a real annus horribilis for Dawson.
Savi had only just recovered from surgery after contracting colic (cost: around £10,000) when she had a mishap in the field, kicking a fence and sustaining bone and ligament damage. In November Kate decided to send her to a specialist rehabilitation centre for the best possible care including water therapy.
Meanwhile, Luna had a fall while jumping. She was lame and sore, but lengthy and exhaustive tests failed to diagnose the problem with her hind legs. Dawson, at her wits’ end, decided that she also needed rehab.
The pair are now on the mend and due home in March. The bad news is that the rehabilitation costs around £2,000 per month, leaving her with a bill of more than £8,000.
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Covering the cost has meant plundering her savings, accepting help from her mother, and using her credit card, as well as halting all unnecessary spending on luxuries like clothes and holidays. But for Dawson the alternative is unthinkable.
“These horses have given me a lot of pleasure, and done a lot for me and my daughter,” she said. “They owe us nothing and we owe them everything.”
Other owners have simply not been able to make ends meet and have had to give away their horses. Young, healthy animals can be sold but older or injured animals can be a problem to rehome. 
Bransby Horses, an equine welfare charity in Lincoln, received 162 requests from owners looking for somewhere to rehome their horses in 2023, almost 80pc more than in 2020. 
Bransby estimated that between 2019 and today the price of a bale of hay has risen more than 55pc, to £7, a bag of feed which used to cost £5 to £6 now costs around £10, and a set of shoes has gone up from around £70 to £100.
Steph Bell, from Totteridge, north London, lavishes around a quarter of her take home pay on her horse, Summer. 
Costs include around £300 per month for stabling and livery fees at a farm near Elstree, Hertfordshire, £220 per month on feed, hay, and bedding, and £82 on insurance.
A relative newcomer to the joys of horses, she learned to ride as a child, gave up after an accident, but returned to the sport when she turned 30. Last July she bought Summer; now the 13-year-old is at the centre of Bell’s life.
Bell, a PA, gets up early to muck out Summer’s stable before work, and spends as much of her free time as she can with her. 
“I would not have it any other way,” she said. “I went through a family trauma about five years ago and when that happened I found utter peace at the stables. It was my happy place.
“Having a horse is not just having a pet. It is a complete lifestyle, and you have such a bond with this big, strong animal that you feel they would jump through fire for you. I can’t think of anything as rewarding as having this interaction with a horse.”
Denise Neuberger was another pony-mad child but as an adult she focused on other things. She trained as a primary school teacher, got married and had a family. 
But her love of horses never left her. In 2021, reeling from the death of her mother, Neuberger decided she was finally going to realise a dream. “Life is very, very short, and the one thing I had always wanted was to own a horse,” she said.
Later that year she bought eight-year-old Roo, a 13.2 hands high cob – an equine larger than a pony, but smaller than a standard size horse.
Roo was initially housed at a livery stable about three miles from Neuberger’s home in Hendon, north London. Her keep cost £350 per month in summer, including stabling and grazing, bedding, feed and help with her care. 
In winter, when there is more work to do and horses require more food, costs jumped to £550 per month, bringing her basic annual costs in at around £5,400. Shoes added around £75 every six weeks, and insurance was £550 per year.
“It was just really, really expensive and I realised that I was going to have to rethink if I was going to be able to keep her,” said Neuberger. 
The solution has been to move Roo to a new home in Enfield. This has cut her costs – but increased her drive to see her to around 30 miles. 
Now she spends around £6,000 per year on Roo, and says that her non-horsey family are not hugely impressed by how much mum’s hobby costs.
Since buying Roo, Neuberger rarely buys clothes or shoes, and her social life has shrunk. 
“It is difficult because household costs are going up, and my kids eat like gannets,” she said. “But Roo is my space and my peace, and fundamental to my mental health. I am determined to keep her.
Fleur, half a ton of opinionated, ill-mannered, but endearing horsepower, came into my life 21 years ago. Like many horse people I have existed in a state of total denial about how much she actually costs to keep.
Just her basics gobble up well over £8,000 per year. Stabling and livery fees for her lovely home on a farm in Hertfordshire come in at around £100 per week. Basic hay, bedding and feed add another £50, and she requires new shoes (£95 for a set) every five or six weeks.
Insurance is a tricky topic for horse owners. The cost of health insurance varies, depending largely on the value and age of the horse, but averages around £1,000 per year. 
But equine health insurance comes with strings attached. Most insurers impose sneaky exclusion clauses – if your horse cuts its leg and requires stitches, say, that leg is then excluded from all future claims even if totally unrelated. 
In Fleur’s case all four legs have been excluded, making insuring her a pointless exercise, and veterinary costs are not only unpredictable, but steep.
Calling a vet out to examine your horse will cost around £70, plus the cost of any treatment or medication. Ordering an x-ray will set you back close to £200.
If matters are serious, hospital treatment may be needed, and the costs ramp up. An MRI is around £1,500, and if a horse needs abdominal surgery the starting price will be £6,000. And the daily livery fee, chargeable while a horse is in residence, will be £55.
Horses also require endless extras, from fly spray (around £15 for 70ml) and face masks to protect her in summer (around £15; if one lasts a month without being shredded or lost we are doing well). 
For winter Fleur possesses a complete wardrobe of rugs to keep her warm and dry (£50 to £100 to buy, £10 each for professionally cleaning after she’s rolled around in the mud). 
Fleur’s mane and tail are regularly trimmed and washed using special whitening shampoo (around £12 a bottle; needless to say more than I spend on myself), and conditioned with organic coconut oil (around £5 for a tub).
Fleur also receives regular visits from the dentist, saddler, and physiotherapist (£50 to £100 each, plus extra if any action is required), and daily medication for Cushing’s, a hormonal condition common in more mature horses, costs around £350 per year.
In total I suspect that the annual cost of keeping Fleur in the manner to which she is accustomed is at least £10,000 – excluding the medical crises which seem to crop up every few years (surgery to fix her hock, the main joint on a horse’s back leg, a few years back cost in excess of £15,000).
I spend zero on training (I am past hope) or competing, and almost nothing on my own attire. Since I could literally be dragged through a hedge backwards at any moment, designer riding kit seems pointless.  
In the interests of full disclosure I must explain that I am not made of money. I started out as Fleur’s sharer, paying a set fee for the pleasure of her company a couple of days a week. 
Her devoted owner died shortly before the pandemic, but her widower continues to pay more than his fair share of the costs on the basis that Fleur is a part of his family.
And what does Fleur offer in return? Horse riding is a good workout and offers a unique sense of freedom and speed. Coupled with plenty of hauling of hay bales and pushing of wheelbarrows Fleur keeps me fit without the need for gym membership. 
I spend plenty of time outdoors whatever the weather, grim at this time of year but apparently beneficial to my health. And I have found a wonderful farm family of friends.
Fleur herself is fantastically good company. She listens to me, has a great sense of humour, gives good hugs, and is full of confidence and fun when we bound out for a hack. She loves being pampered, and my supersized My Little Pony will rest her giant head on my shoulder in appreciation.
She also has a special talent for absorbing stress. Not for nothing are horses used in many therapeutic settings. During the pandemic being able to escape to the (socially distanced) farm was an absolute godsend.
It is also hard to put a price on how it feels to arrive at the stables to a chorus of joyful whinnies from Fleur and her beautiful friends – even if what they really want are the apple-flavored horse treats (£3.99 for a 1kg bag) I am known to distribute liberally.
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