Horse Keeping by the Numbers: Livery Options, Hay & Bedding per Season, Farrier & Care Calendars, Shared Horses, Transport and Cost per Ride

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Compare three fictional livery options on cash cost, on the value of your own time and on the full monthly cost, and you find the hour value at which DIY stops being the cheaper choice.
• Turn the daily amounts of a fictional care plan into hay kilos, whole bales and bedding bags per season, price each season and see what buying the year's hay in one go changes.
• Build a care calendar from intervals set by your farrier, vet and other professionals: next due dates in weeks or months, visits per year, the yearly cost and the days left until the next farrier visit.
• Spread the price of saddle, bridle, rugs and other kit over their fictional useful lives, work out the monthly amount to set aside and budget the replacements that fall due in a given year.
• Split a horse's fixed monthly costs between the owner and two sharers by riding days, add each rider's own extras and compare the result with a flat-fee agreement.
• Cost a fictional horse trailer per year and per outing, compare it with hiring for the same trips and work out how many outings a year make owning worthwhile.
• Add up the entry fees of a fictional show season, compare every category with its budget in dollars and per cent, total the season's variance and work out the actual cost per show.
• Bring all cost lines together into the owner's net cost per month and per year, the cost per ride, a reserve fund target and the months needed to save it, and you chart where the money goes.