Crunching the budget numbers

“Competition has stopped, but the equestrian world hasn’t”

SARAH SKILLIN, SELF-EMPLOYED

MY costs have gone down because all of my horses – two of my own and four liveries – are now out all the time. That would happen normally anyway, but we have turned them out three and a half weeks earlier than usual. However, that’s not down to the pandemic, that’s down to the weather. My winter fields went from being sodden to concrete in 24 hours. It got cheaper because I’m not feeding multiple bales of hay a day and the hard feed is reduced.

Pandemic-related cost reductions include things such as my chiropractor and the physio, who does the horses and I, plus the horses haven’t had their six-monthly vaccinations. I have not renewed my British Dressage membership and I’m not paying to compete. I’m not putting the fuel in the quad bike to level the arena as often.

I’ve also taken