The average price of a horse is about $3,000 but the cost of keeping a horse can easily reach $100,000. For prospective horse buyers, the question is not ‘Can I afford to buy him?’ but rather ‘Can I afford to keep him?’. The monthly, yearly and long-term costs are as follows. The costs given are typical costs; in some areas they will be higher and in some lower.

Professional stabling typically costs $200 to $600 per month. If you stable the horse and do all the required work (e.g. mucking out) yourself, it will still costs about $75/month for bedding, straw and other feed, salt, minerals and incidentals. In some areas costs could be much higher than this due to high prices for hay and feed.

Your horse will need to have his feet trimmed every 6-8 weeks, at a minimum cost of $30 per time. If he has shoes, the cost will be doubled.

Medical costs include annual inoculations ($120), annual dental checking and floating of teeth ($120), and worming ($60 per year). Horses can be injured or become ill, in which case there are veterinary costs. On should allow a minimum of $300/year for veterinary costs, although a bad case of colic can set one back $5000 to $10000. To avoid such large bills, horse insurance is worth considering but this costs about $40/month.

If you ride your horse, you will need saddle and tack. This wear out over time and need to be repaired or replaced, so one should allow an average of $20/month for this. Assorted costs (e.g. fly repellent) will average a minimum of $10 per month.

The above covers just the basic costs of having a horse. If you show or compete with the horse there are additional costs. Allow $0-$200/month for such costs, depending on what you do with your horse.

Add all of this up, and you get a total of $170/month to $935/month. This is a wide range, but in practice actual costs of a horse do vary widely, depending of factors such as whether you self-stable or use a professional stable. Multiply by 12 and you get annual costs of $2040 to $11220. Over 10 years this totals $20,400 to $112,220.

Based on an average horse cost of about $3000, these totals indicate that the cost of keeping a horse for 10 years is between 7 and 37 times the cost of buying it. If you keep a horse for its entire life, this could be 30 years, thereby tripling the figures above.

Of course, individual owners may find their costs higher or lower than these typical figures. For example, there are many horses being sold for less than $3000 and many horses being sold for much more, in some cases for millions of dollars. Likewise, some owners have very low costs for keeping their horses (e.g. if they are kept mainly on pasture, so no bedding or feed costs), while other owners will pay much more (e.g. if they do high-level competitions). Therefore one should note that the figures used in this artile are typical figures, which match the costs of the majority of horse owners. To understand and calculate what your costs would for your individual circumstances, one could use the online calculators at http://www.wowhorses.com/cost-of-a-horse.html.

In any case, the fundamental point remains the same: purchasing a horse is a large financial commitment, extending far beyond the purchase price to the much greater monthly and annual costs of keeping the horse. Prior to buying a horse, one should look carefully at how one will keep the horse and the associated expenses.

Dr. Doug Stewart breeds horses and manages professional stables. His experience is the basis of the website Horse Care and articles such as the above.

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