LOOK after the cents and the euros will take care of themselves, isn’t that the saying? As autumn breezes in, Horse Sense has scoured the yard to find some simple ideas to save you precious cash.

Weigh your forage for one week.

Not to reduce forage below appropriate levels, but to discover how much is actually being wasted. Compare what goes out with what is left trampled or soiled. A relatively small reduction in wastage multiplied across several horses and 365 days can become a substantial saving.

Calculate bedding by horse, not by stable.

Some horses are dramatically more expensive to bed than others. Trial different appropriate bedding systems and record how many bales each horse actually uses over a month. The cheapest bale isn’t necessarily the cheapest bed.

Buy the repair, not the replacement.

Set up a yard repair box for rug patches, buckles, clips, electric-fence components and tack repairs. A €10-€20 professional rug repair can postpone a €100+ replacement.

Create a yard buying club.

Combine orders with two or three neighbouring yards for forage, bedding, fencing and other consumables. Compare the delivered unit price though, rather than assuming bulk automatically means cheaper.

Audit electricity one appliance at a time.

Old floodlights, lights left on in empty barns, heated tack rooms and inefficient water heating can quietly add up. LEDs, timers and motion sensors can be more meaningful than obsessing over tiny savings elsewhere.

Share professional call-outs where appropriate.

Coordinate routine dentistry, vaccinations or other scheduled visits with neighbouring horses, where the professional allows call-out charges to be divided. Note: Don’t postpone necessary care simply to achieve this though.

Treat pasture as an asset.

Soil testing, appropriate fertilisation, rotational grazing, resting fields and avoiding poaching can be cheaper in the long term than trying to repair degraded pasture or compensate continually with bought-in forage. The key is spending money according to what the soil and sward actually need.

Ask: “Do I need to own it?”

Clippers, weigh tapes, certain maintenance equipment, arena graders and other infrequently used equipment may be candidates for sharing, borrowing or hiring rather than every owner buying their own.

Have a ‘nothing new for 30 days’ tack room challenge.

Use the lotions, potions, half-full tubs and perfectly serviceable equipment already on the yard before buying another version. Tack rooms can contain a surprising amount of money in duplicate products.