Costs of Leasing a horse in South Florida

Costs of Ownership vs Leasing, again in our wonderful South Florida!

In my last blog I covered ownership and the number that I arrived was albeit very low at under $10,000 a year.  You got to watch your wallet get smaller and your Roth get a small hit. 

The example I will use is leasing at my barn and riding 4 times a week out of the barn.  Other examples will come in later installments.

If you do this and schedule your rides around the calendar of when the horse is working otherwise, this cost is $300 per month.

Base price of $300 per month times 12 months this is $3600 per year to ride in an arena and down local trails. 

If you add shows to this equation for hauling 10 months a year to the least expensive show locally this is $500 per year. 

Show fees are $25 per show and a $50 membership per year.  This calculates to $300 per year.

Add coaching at the show at $40 per show and this is $400 per year.

If you lesson you are probably improved enough now that you will want to take privates.  If you take one private lesson a month at $55 and practice your homework between that is $660.

You can still spend $500 per year on tack.

You can still own all your own tack at this price point and if you lease on an annual basis you are still spending $6000 per year. 

This is a savings of roughly $4000 over owning your own horse.  And this is an a la carte menu so you can pick and choose what you want to do.   This is for the average adult who wants to ride.  Junior riders are not often allowed at the barn without supervision as they are not always as far thinking as the adults.  I know they think they are.  So for that reason if you are leasing and your parent is not watching you (which is required at most barns if you are under 16),  you may then be required to do camps lessons, etc., so supervision is provided and safety is maintained as much as can be because they are still children with free will, working with horses with free will, and not always will that work in tandem!

Leasing a horse is a great plan for someone who can work this angle.  We are down the street from 400 acres of trails to ride on.   We have 2 riding arenas and a round pen to school if needed.   We have great instructors here. If your horse is injured for any reason we have other horses to pick from so you can still ride and not just be grounded.

No board, shavings, hay, grain, veterinary because you are "sharing" the cost of the horse and for many other reasons.  You can choose to not be at the barn or be at the barn.

When you own your own horse, unless you pay someone to be there when your horse is sick, you are the parent. That baby comes to you. Kinda like your preschooler when they are sick, they come home. And you don't want your sick 4-legged barn baby trying to be underfoot,  when you are in the house. And they are not usually sick at your convenience. It is usually at 8 pm when you are ready to sit down and relax for the evening. And can you bring them home?   Not usually.   Usually, you are at the barn at all hours sleeping on bales of hay, or waiting for the vet at 2 am, or walking your horse for hours on end, and praying for the latest colic to pass. Not ensconced in your warm bed.  You can choose to stay in bed at night. If you come to the barn to nurse the sick horse it is your choice as a person who leases a horse from a facility.

If you chose to pay a little extra for the occasional vet bill it is appreciated but you are not under the same obligation as ownership.  My dear friend just spent days and hours hosing her horses wound,  from getting kicked, that got infected.  There was a concern of the possibility of having the horse put down, or requiring surgery, on top of the hours and hours spent treating the horse and dealing with infection, pus and blood.  At this point the horse is not out of the woods but is substantially better.  2 years ago, I had a $1200 vet bill with a horse with a fungal eye infection that had to be treated with 4 different medications, 6 times a day, for 3 months!  Just like when you have a child, the responsibility does not end.

The example above is for a person who wants to trail ride, barrel race and maybe jump some but not at a show.  The costs go up from here.  My next installment will be the sample costs of having a horse at a at our barn and showing hunter/jumpers here,  as opposed to a couple of local show barns that specializes in local schooling shows right up to top end hunter/jumpers barns,  because we are in South Florida and that is what everyone thinks we do here!.