Owning a horse is a big financial commitment and spending will need to be carefully planned if you are to live your best possible life both at home and at the stables.
While others will enjoy nights out and nice dinners, horsey folk might need to tighten their purse strings and make some savings to enable their equestrian dreams to be lived out in full.
Here are five things horse owners will probably cut back on so their horse can have them instead…
1. Food
OK, so not all food. Riders need fuel to push them through long mornings at the yard followed by even longer days in the office. But you’re not likely to find them perusing the aisles of Marks & Spencer or Waitrose. It’s likely that your horsey friend will be a savvy food shopper, opting for budget shops and brands. They’re fans of long-life products as well as tinned cans and frozen options. While they certainly eat on a budget, their horse dines on a carefully selected diet, which has been personalised by an equine nutritionist to suit his work load and dietary requirements. His feeds contain only the highest quality blends and let’s not even start on the price of his haylage…
2. Beauty products
She can’t remember the last time she went out shopping for make-up, but only last week she picked up a shed load of coat shine and mane gloss for her beautiful steed. His daily grooming schedule and his pre-show prep routine require an entirely different selection of products to ensure that 10/10 show ring shine come competition day. While she can’t remember when she last had her hair cut, her horse has quarterly visits from the county’s most respected horse clipper who uses top of the range blades to ensure a smooth, streak-free clip. Most of her shoes are more holey than godly, while her horse has specially designed metal plates with stud holes every six weeks. You get the picture…
3. Home essentials
Top quality rubber matting, a pallet of dust-free shavings, an automatic water drinker and an abundance of matching haynets are absolute essentials for the horse’s stable. However, £20 for a duvet set from Ikea sounds like daylight robbery.
4. Holiday funds
We save up all year long to be able to afford to attend a championship show, so we can spend a week in a field somewhere with our nearest and dearest (the horse). But this means family holidays, romantic city breaks or trips away with friends are few and far between. Horsey nuts would much rather spend their annual leave and any disposable income on a temporary stable, a lorry pass and show entries, which are hopefully exchanged for a piece of ribbon, any day of the week.
5. Presents
What would I like for Christmas? A travel rug and matching bandages. How about the next birthday? A new jumping saddle. What about Valentine’s Day? Definitely a new browband for our competition bridle. Buy us anything from a tack shop and we will be content. Just give the jewellers a miss…
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