Help with horse dream

Wirenth

Like many others on this thread, I longed to have my own pony as a child. I'm 31 and have finally bought my own horse - and in hindsight he was worth the wait.

It is expensive, no two ways about it, if you are to look after him/her properly. There's boarding, feed, bedding, worming, shoeing, vet checks, insurance, vaccinations, dentist...tack!!! Do not buy some poor soul without adequate financial backup to support him if something goes wrong, because with horses, something always does. Instead, try loaning a horse for a couple of days a week from a riding school.

buddys_mum

Try fostering from a horse sanctuary.

SarahLou

I can fully appreciate how desperate you are for your own pony.... I was in your situation throughout the entirety of my childhood and teenager years. I longed to wake up on Christmas morning and find a pony in the back garden :rotfl: .... never did happen!

I adopted a horse from the RSPCA last summer for a very reasonable fee of £500 (he was a riding pony, had had basic schooling but needed bringing on). 14.1hh, piebald, lightweight cob. Perfect first pony.... (I'm very experienced but ultimately had never owned my own horse until then.... I was 25 at this point)

As it happens, it didn't work out (for a variety of reasons) but I would recommend it. You won't get a decent horse for a price like that pretty much anywhere else.

Soooo, a horse on a budget if you like. But, by the time I'd kitted him out with tack, accessories, etc, it had still cost me in the region of £1500. I found a cheap place to keep him - stable if I needed it but was only planning on keeping him in the field as he was used to living out. £10 a week. Bargain.

£20 every 6 weeks for the farrier to trim his hooves.
£25 a month for his insurance.

So all in all, I was thinking "excellent, a horse and tack for under £2000 and it should only cost me in the region of about £70 a month to keep him".

How wrong could I be?!

Sadly he came down with an ongoing problem with his shoulder/leg/knee. It would randomly swell up - sometimes not giving him any pain, other times it would cause him to become very lame.

I was thankful for having the insurance until I realised just how tricky it was to claim..... I had set my excess as low as I could get it (£125) but alas each time a vet came out it was coming in at just fractionally under or over the £125 mark. So it was pointless claiming when it was fractionally over as I knew my premiums would go up and they'd also make it exempt from that injury/problem in later years.

So every 2 weeks it started costing me around £120-£130 - so by the time I'd had him for 6 months (he had this problem for 3 months on the "trot" (no pun intended), it had cost me over £1000 just in the space of 3 months. £1000 that I couldn't claim on the insurance and I still didn't have a diagnosis by this point but he was unsuitable to ride.

How annoying.

In the end I had to part with him due to that and also my husband had to take a pay cut. So I was very sad to have to say goodbye. I must say that he now leads a life as companion only pony on a farm so he's happy as larry but they ended up doing alsorts of scans and ended up operating on it too (still no definite conclusion as to what caused it in the first place). And he's still never to be ridden again.

So with hindsight, all I'll say is make sure you arm yourself with LOTS of money.

Concentrate at school, get a good job and then you can truly enjoy being a horse owner in later years when you have money to spend on unexpected things like vets. Just to get a horse vet out cost me £100 (just for the call-out)!!

In the meantime, do something like I did - I put a sign in a local farm shop asking if anyone wanted any help with their horses. I got one lady who rang who used me big time and was very rude. I only went there twice. Hated it. I didn't give in though and tried another advert (worded slightly differently in the hope she'd not ring again!) and this time got a lovely lady ringing me. I did that when I was 11. I continued helping her out on her yard, at horse shows, etc (did everything with her) and only parted company with her when I was 21 and I moved to a different part of the country. Am still in touch with her now. I owe her practically all my horsey knowledge and experience.

Definitely would recommend doing something like that. You get free riding out of it too so bonus there!

bouncydog1

SaraLou - What a sad story but unfortunately not uncommon and something that inexperienced owners often do not think about, being overtaken by the excitement of planning for their first horse.

The old adage of it costing the same to keep an unsound animal as a sound one is so true. Luckily your story, albeit an expensive one for you, had a happy ending for the pony as you were able to rehome him as a companion. This option is not always available so I would fully endorse that anyone taking on a horse must be fully aware of the downside as well as the up. A horse that cannot be ridden still needs ongoing care for teeth, backs, feet, vaccinations, rugs, feeding, plus the costs of ongoing treatment which is not necessarily insurable. The costs do not stop!

Hope it works out for you in the future and you get to have another horse before too long.

SarahLou

Yup, completely agree there. I did contemplate keeping him as a companion only pony myself but deep down I knew it wasn't the right decision to make (plus also at the time there seemed to be no end to the vet bills as at the time he was still seeing a vet every week to two weeks, sometimes twice a week!) :eek:

So yes, unless you're VERY rich (lucky people!), a horse is always going to be a financial burden!

trudij

Thats really sad - but the good thing about adopting from a rescue is that they will have them back. Still not a nice situation for you to find yourself in though

Can I just say though - it sounds like you had rubbish advice about your insurance - all those visits for a lameness in a front leg would qualify as one problem until it was diagnosed, so would all have been covered as one, not lots of single things....

SarahLou

Would it?! I rang the insurance company up after the first vet visit asking them about it as I had a feeling right back then that it wouldn't clear up - especially as that particular vet was a bit naff. Daaaarn it! But yes, at least I know for next time!

trudij

Should do - you call the vet for a lameness, they say to rest (or whatever) and bring back to work gently - horse comes right till it starts working again, then goes lame again on the same leg - thats still connected to the original thing, and should be investigated as such - so all the invoices count towards a claim for the left fore lameness (or whichever leg it is!) one excess, and the rest of it should be covered by insurance.

very odd thing for the insurance company to tell you - though they are good at making things up as they go along - Ive had all manner of difficulties with mine lately, my horse has to go back to the surgery next week for another scope to check why shes still got nasal discharge, and im PRAYING its related to her sinusitis and tooth root infection from Easter, becuase Ive had such a bad time with a lameness issue I want to change, but if I have to start another claim cos its a new thing, then I cant go to another company !!

SarahLou

Hmmm yes, I wonder if they just made it up on the spot. How frustrating if that is the case.

Hope you have better luck and you get the diagnosis you're after!

heretolearn_2

Best to wait till you can afford it properly, along with all the unexpected expenses.

I'd love a horse, and my other half keeps offering to buy me one, and he can't understand why I keep saying no. But he can't grasp just how expensive they are to keep. I won't get one until I know I can cover everything fully so there's no risk of the horse suffering or my breaking my heart giving it up again.