The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Happy to be saddled with huge bills
Horses are more than good neighbours, they become good friends, as Ruth Bloomfield and others found out to their cost
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. She rises 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 says.
Owning a horse has become much more expensive. And faced with a choice between buying food for their family or for their steeds, many owners have had to consider getting rid of their horse. According to the National Equine Welfare Council one in five owners is considering drastic action.
It costs £5,800 to £14,820 a year to keep a horse on average, according to Protexin Equine Premium, which makes health supplements. This is coincidentally about 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 one will cost more than a tough native pony able happily to live outdoors year- round, subsisting on 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 Chesham, Buckinghamshire, and moved to a village near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.
Between them, Luna, 13, and Savi, 16, eat their way through about £60 of feed every month, more than £200 of forage and their bedding costs more than £100 a month. Shoeing costs for them come in at around £135 per month.
Dawson, a pharmaceutical company manager, puts aside £200 a month for veterinary bills, bringing her monthly spend to well over £1,000, not including occasional costs such as dentistry and physiotherapy, new equipment, travel and training. But with horses, you must expect the unexpected and 2023 was an annus horribilis for her.
Savi had only just recovered from surgery after colic ( cost: about £10,000) when she had a mishap in the field, kicking a fence and sustaining bone and ligament damage. In November Kate sent her to a specialist rehabilitation centre for the best possible care including water therapy.
Luna had a fall while jumping. She was lame and sore, but exhaustive tests failed to diagnose the problem with her hind legs. Dawson, at her wits’ end, decided she also needed rehab. The pair are now on the mend and due home in March. The bad news is that rehabilitation costs about £2,000 a month, leaving her with a bill of more than £ 8,000. It has meant plundering her savings, accepting help from her mother, and using her credit card, as well as halting all unnecessary spending on luxuries such as 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 says. “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 are a real problem. 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 estimates that between 2019 and today the price of a bale of hay has risen more than 55pc, to £7, a bag of feed that used to cost £5 to £6 now costs about £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.
She learned to ride as a child, gave up after an accident, but returned to it 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 as possible with her. “I would not have it any other way,” she says. “I went through a family trauma about five years ago, and when that happened I found utter peace at the stables.
“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 that they would jump through fire for you. I can’t think of anything as rewarding.”