Horse maintenance is not cheap. To maintain good performance, it is necessary to provide her with proper nutrition and proper care. Before taking such an important step as buying a horse, you need to calculate how much the horse will cost per month.

Cost of feeding a horse per month

A well-chosen diet is the key to a horse's well-being. It is no less important in breeding production. Indeed, it is precisely the well-chosen nutrition, proper care and regular training that are one of the main conditions for breeding.

A properly selected diet is important for the horse. And although there are a large number of specialized feeds on the market today, many farmers prefer to use traditional feeds: oats, silage, hay and straw. On the market, you can buy special granules, compound feed and vitamin mixtures. Their cost is not cheap, so not every farmer includes them in their horse's food.

The cost of keeping is not cheap

Coarse hay is indispensable in the diet. How much hay does a horse need for the winter? Up to 10 kg of hay can be fed neat. In larger quantities, it should be cut and fed in a mixture with concentrated feed.

Most farmers make their own hay. To diversify the diet, hay is taken from fields with different herbal compositions.

You can use straw to replace hay. It is lower in nutritional value, but rich in fiber. It is also recommended to give corn and oat straw. They give it mixed with hay.

Straw

Oats are irreplaceable in nutrition. It is given in its pure form to healthy animals. Crushed for foals and horses with dental problems. Oats contain B vitamins, have a positive effect on digestion and are high in protein. You can also feed wheat and corn, rye and barley.

Succulent forages, which consist of high-quality potatoes, root crops, and silage, are indispensable in the diet. Haylage is introduced into food in winter and spring.

In summer, the horse herd is transferred to green forage. To avoid indigestion, they do it gradually. First, a small amount of fresh cut grass is introduced into the diet, gradually increasing the volume, only then transferred to the pasture. In this case, you can save about 800-1000 rubles on keeping a horse in the summer months.

Vitamin mixtures that can easily replace oilcake and sprats are also important in nutrition; they can be corn, soy, and flaxseed. Also, vitamins and trace elements are found in salt, yeast, fish oil and special premixes. All of these must be present in the horse's diet.

Within a month, to feed an adult horse, you will need in sum:

  1. Oats - 170 kg for 1190 rubles;
  2. Hay - 420 kg for 850 rubles;
  3. Bran - 42 kg for 300 rubles;
  4. Juicy feed - 85 kg for 510 rubles;
  5. Salt - 1 kg for 15 rubles.

The result is 2865 rubles for feed.

Stable maintenance

For raising a horse, it is no less important to organize a room in which a horse spends most of the day; you need to purchase inventory for the stables. Horses have a sensitive nervous system, so it is very important not only to feed them in a balanced way, but also to take good care of them and to organize comfortable living conditions.

Stable

How to determine the age of a horse

When equipping stables and costing horses, a number of parameters are distinguished that must be observed. The cost must be of sufficient size, well lit, ventilation is required in the stable.The temperature regime is maintained in the range from 15 to 18 degrees. Natural light plays an important role.

The stalls must be equipped with drinkers for horses and feeders, a manger for hay and a compartment for mineral feed. A solarium for horses is also needed. For ease of maintenance, you can purchase auto drinkers for horses.

In general, the maintenance of the stable consists in maintaining the temperature regime and lighting. Horses cannot tolerate high humidity, dirt and musty air. Cleaning is required daily. If you do not do this work yourself, you will have to hire a special person, his salary will be from 6,000 rubles a month.

Important! If you build a stable from scratch and choose the economy option for 2 heads, then the cost of construction and equipment will be from 400,000 to 500,000 rubles.

Horse maintenance

How long do horses live

The horse must not only be well fed, but also properly looked after. They are very fond of cleanliness, so they need daily washing with soap. The wool, and especially the mane, is combed out with specialized brushes and a scraper. After brushing and washing, the horse is wiped off. On a day, it will take up to 30 minutes to take care of the horse, at which time you can communicate with the horse, which is the responsibility of the groom, who feeds and water the horses.

The next mandatory procedure is hoof shoeing. For these jobs, a specialist is hired, who will have to pay, unlike other horse care jobs that you can do yourself. How much does a farrier cost? He takes for work from 2000 to 6000, the cost depends on the complexity of the procedure.

Ammunition

Ammunition

Caring for the horse's mane and tail

For a horse, you must purchase special equipment. These are blankets for different seasons, and saddlecloths, as well as many other little things. Bandages and boots are required for the legs. A must-have is a saddle, it is better to pay more right away and get a good saddle and bridle. These are not always monthly expenses, in this case, the cost of ammunition will take up to several thousand per year.

Veterinary services

Horse maintenance is impossible without veterinary services. Horses need a specialist examination, they need vaccinations, treatment against worms. It is also necessary to take tests during the year. This will have to spend a few thousand more a year.

Note! In the event that the horse gets sick, the cost of the veterinarian's services will increase significantly. She will need treatment, diagnostic equipment, and a specialist will have to be called at home.

Horse tracking systems

In addition to all of the above, the costs of purchasing special tracking equipment will be required if the cultural herd method of growing is used. Indeed, with this method, animals gain weight rather quickly and grow well, but at the same time they cannot be left unattended.

The electric shepherd for horses is becoming more and more popular. It is a low-current enclosure. When the horse comes into contact with the fence, he receives a shock of low frequency current, which does not cause him any damage, but causes unpleasant sensations. In the future, she has an instinct, and she will be inside the fence, not trying to leave its limits. The cost of an electric shepherd is in the region of 7000-10000, these are the cheapest options.

On a note. At the same time, it is taken into account that these costs are one-time, you will not have to hire personnel who would monitor the herd while walking, because his services are not cheap.

GPS trackers are no less popular - they are a kind of tracking system. To do this, a horse tracker dress up for several animals, a leader and those that animals willingly follow. They are invisible, but at the same time have a large charge; using satellite monitoring, you can always find out where the herd is. It is very convenient to set certain parameters of the area for walking, if the horses go beyond their limits, a warning signal will be received. The cheapest GPS trackers cost from 4500 rubles, while you should not forget about the costs of their installation.There are also more expensive options - up to 20,000 rubles.

Horse Chipping - Similar to the previous system, horse chips are implanted under the skin of the animal. This is a very convenient microchip that is inserted in accordance with the instructions. It is rather difficult to confuse anything, because in order to chip, it is enough just to do everything according to the rules. During installation, a characteristic click is heard, which signals that the process is completed. In the future, it will be very easy to track the location of the chipped horse herd.

As a result, if we talk about how much it costs to maintain a horse per month, then the amount is getting decent. Therefore, you need to decide for yourself why you need a horse, and whether the burden of financial responsibility will be small. Even if you try to save money, you will not be able to minimize costs below 20,000-25,000 rubles per month. So the question of buying a horse must be approached with all responsibility, because it is not for nothing that they say: “buying a horse is easy, selling it is difficult”.