do you check your horse twice a day

Moomin1 said:
And there lies the exact point! Without making a proper arrangement for someone to check thoroughly, you cannot guarantee that joe bloggs who has the horse two stables up is going to check your horse properly. They may be in a hurry one day, and purely rush to check their own without going around all the others which they haven't been asked to check anyway.
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Yes, I can see that after reading some of the replies on here. I'm quite shocked that some people have such a lack of mutual support. Horses being horses need as much monitoring as possible. You need to be confident that the yard has a system where staff and liveries don't just look out for their own.
How heart breaking it would be, if you diligently checked your horses 2 or 3 times a day and they had an accident after your visit, but no one bothered to check that EVERY horse was ok.

I suppose that's why this forum is so useful, learning about different experiences. I've never been on a yard where I wasn't happy to leave my horses between visits.
 
Moomin1 said:
And there lies the exact point! Without making a proper arrangement for someone to check thoroughly, you cannot guarantee that joe bloggs who has the horse two stables up is going to check your horse properly. They may be in a hurry one day, and purely rush to check their own without going around all the others which they haven't been asked to check anyway.
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This is exactly the point.
If the owner or someone whose roll it is to check the horse sees the horse twice daily it's a minimum backstop .
If a horse says starts with colic on a livery yard someone is likely to notice but if a horse has say a puncture wound in a joint twenty three hours later the horse is probably a goner in truth after 11 you would be in trouble .
People out and about on the yard might not notice something like that without being uncaring.
A horses turned out in a field rented by the owner where other people are not about could be dead of colic in 23 hours an unacceptable time to suffer in my book.
Twice a day hands over them rugs off is a minimum in my book but it does not need to be the owner .
 
flirtygerty said:
Get yourself a budgie, then you can just turn your head and check it, once a day for animals that love to hurt themselves is totally un acceptable
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Maybe your management is wrong if your horses love to hurt themselves :p
Mine don't ...and I've never had one that does.
 
Goldenstar said:
This is exactly the point.
If the owner or someone whose roll it is to check the horse sees the horse twice daily
it's a minimum backstop .
If a horse says starts with colic on a livery yard someone is likely to notice but if a horse has say a puncture wound in a joint twenty three hours later the horse is probably a goner in truth after 11 you would be in trouble .
People out and about on the yard might not notice something like that without being uncaring.
A horses turned out in a field rented by the owner where other people are not about could be dead of colic in 23 hours an unacceptable time to suffer in my book.
Twice a day hands over them rugs off is a minimum in my book but it does not need to be the owner .
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This is my point if the horse is showing obvious signs I would never leave it but if on a glance it looks fine and is the other side of the field I very rarely have time to go over and check. My horse is my responsibility not every person who can't be bothered to get out of bed (the case at my yard).
 
_HP_ said:
Maybe your management is wrong if your horses love to hurt themselves :p
Mine don't ...and I've never had one that does.
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Oh well you may aswell leave yours all week then. They clearly are completely exempt from EVER becoming ill or injured. Absolutely idiotic attitude to keeping horses.
 
flirtygerty said:
This thread is boiling my p, with the general it won't happen attitude, an accident in the field only needs to happen once, for it to be life changing, due to a field accident, I had a beloved horse die having his forehead scratched during a colic attack, I will never forget the desperation I felt watching this horse keep going down in his box, I even asked the vet, at what point will you worry, even the vet was pleading with the horse to stay down and rest, easing his injured leg from trying to rise, I worked 12hr shifts at the time and got up at 4 30am to check the horses before work my neighbor checked them through the day till I got home at 8pm
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No such attitude from me...

I too have sat with a pony while he died in my arms...I found him having a seizure in my paddock at home. It took him over half an hour to die his horrid death and it haunts me. Those ponies get seen multiple times a day but that was my first trip across the garden to see them. In the 10 yrs I've lived there, that was my first incident .

I know what can happen and I minimise the risk in the way mine are kept....
 
Moomin1 said:
Oh well you may aswell leave yours all week then. They clearly are completely exempt from EVER becoming ill or injured. Absolutely idiotic attitude to keeping horses.
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Don't be silly now...what an absolutely idiotic response :p
 
_HP_ said:
Maybe your management is wrong if your horses love to hurt themselves :p
Mine don't ...and I've never had one that does.
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Smugness is a very unattractive trait. I hope that you do not find out the hard way that horses can injure themselves, or get sick, despite meticulous care.

I have just seen your more recent and still smug post. Many of us take every precaution with feed, fencing, turnout companions etc yet **** still happens.

Mine are at home and out 24/7 with idyllic facilities. I can see two of them grazing now, without moving from my chair. Am I complacent that nothing untoward can happen to them? Not on your life!
 
Goldenstar said:
This is exactly the point.
If the owner or someone whose roll it is to check the horse sees the horse twice daily it's a minimum backstop .
If a horse says starts with colic on a livery yard someone is likely to notice but if a horse has say a puncture wound in a joint twenty three hours later the horse is probably a goner in truth after 11 you would be in trouble .
People out and about on the yard might not notice something like that without being uncaring.
A horses turned out in a field rented by the owner where other people are not about could be dead of colic in 23 hours an unacceptable time to suffer in my book.
Twice a day hands over them rugs off is a minimum in my book but it does not need to be the owner .
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That'll be why I pulled a someone's horse with a puncture wound out of the field, flushed it, called owner, who called the vet and horse was treated 45 minutes later.
Or why, another livery brought in a horse with a sliced fetlock and gave immediate first aid, called owner, called vet. Sorted.

My tip would be, always keep your horses in a well run place where responsible and experienced people are around.
 
Holidays_are_coming said:
This is my point if the horse is showing obvious signs I would never leave it but if on a glance it looks fine and is the other side of the field I very rarely have time to go over and check. My horse is my responsibility not every person who can't be bothered to get out of bed (the case at my yard).
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Not read all the replies but one evening my OH got mine all in (as per usual when I'm at work), I wanted to pop out for a bit of chill out time and he mentoned off the cuff that Dandy was being a bit odd, I went in and he was stood with his head in the corner looking grim, looked over him and had to use head torch to find tiny puncher wound on his hock - I went straight back to house and called the vet (only time I've done that in 7 years - I'm not one for paying vets fees)

4 hours later he'd been referred and taken to horspital for emergancy joint flush - it was touch and go but he made a full recovery due to quick response no infection got into the bone.

OH has reasonable basic horsey knowledge (easily as much as neighbor stable DIYer) and had caught and led the horse in - and still not spotted the seriousness of the situation.

I think long term owners who know their horses can quickly see how they are feeling but I wouldn't expect all the others on a yard to know how my horse usually looks or behaves.
 
I check mine twice a day, if I have a day off work I'm at the yard pretty much all day! The yard owner lives on site too - however one shift a week I don't finish work til 10pm and she doesn't want people on the yard that late at night so I can only sort them in the morning, which I feel really bad about every time!
 
She's on part livery so I only ever go up once. Yard owner is always out on the yard so if she injured herself the longest it would be before it was found would be about 30 mins

makes me feel so much safer !
 
dogatemysalad said:
That'll be why I pulled a someone's horse with a puncture wound out of the field, flushed it, called owner, who called the vet and horse was treated 45 minutes later.
Or why, another livery brought in a horse with a sliced fetlock and gave immediate first aid, called owner, called vet. Sorted.

My tip would be, always keep your horses in a well run place where responsible and experienced people are around.
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Unfortunately, it appears common sense is not so common anymore. Ours are at home but when I had one on livery at uni in a big, well run yard, there were a lot of liveries, and some of them were clueless. I shared a field with a genuine idiot, I spent a lot of my time treating her horse for mud graver, catching it and re rugging it because the straps hadn't been done up properly, untangling it from branches when she hadn't put fly masks on properly - the list goes on. Not only was I checking my own at least twice a day, but by the end of the term I felt like I was responsible for her horse, either because she couldn't be bothered to get out of bed or because she didn't realise that horses take up fractionally more time than a hamster.

The yard you are on sounds lovely DAMS, and between me and OHs mum we have a very similar system - but I do think it some cases it is a bit like a pixelated image - the more people you entrust the higher the risk, and I like to see my horses.
 
Always, often more. I drive past the entrance to my lane often so will often stick my head in and make sure they are all standing and ok. I once looked over the fence at my horse and couldnt really see him properly (years ago) but saw he was there and looked ok- came back later to find him still in the same spot with a fractured leg. Felt awful and now check properly.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Smugness is a very unattractive trait. I hope that you do not find out the hard way that horses can injure themselves, or get sick, despite meticulous care.

I have just seen your more recent and still smug post. Many of us take every precaution with feed, fencing, turnout companions etc yet **** still happens.

Mine are at home and out 24/7 with idyllic facilities. I can see two of them grazing now, without moving from my chair. Am I complacent that nothing untoward can happen to them? Not on your life!
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Smug?... Not at all..just replying with a similar tone hence 'sticking my tongue out 'smiley :p

My horse and pony share a 5 acre field with some sheep. They are safe, secure,healthy and relaxed. In the 15 yrs I've owned them (and others) I've not experienced any problems that would be affected by how often I go down . If I feel more checks are required I'll do them. I have helped and been up there for hours with other peoples horses for various reasons ie colic and am the first to help in a crisis and am well aware of what can happen. It's a risk every time we walk away and leave our animals...I minimised the risks as much as I can and sleep well:p
 
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I do mine at least twice a day, they live out during spring and summer but I am actually handling them both times. If I am not there I have friends at the yard who will do mine (I do theirs too)

I guess there are about 30 horses on the yard with about the same number of owners/sharers etc, most of the longer term residents are knowledgeable and vigilant and as we are all up at slightly different times we do "cast an eye" and will deal with anything amiss.

My boy had a field mate for a short time who was on loan to a really awful woman didn't even come up once a day. The horse did suffer for it until we cottoned on to the situation and plugged the gap, more for the sake of the horse than anything
 
Here's a thought for those that only check on their horses once a day and rely on the 'kindness' of other liveries to make sure they are OK the rest of the day - how many threads to we see where someone is despairing because another livery is taking advantage. Livery only bothers to roll up once a day and rlies on other liveries to put on rugs if it teems down, take rugs off if the horse is sweating. If someone only visits once a day in winter - does that mean they wear the same rug for 24 hours regardless of the weather conditions?

I would like to add I am not talking about the people where the YO checks or another livery checks on a like-for-like basis (ie you do mornings they do evenings etc) but those who genuinely think that it is acceptable for another livery to swap rugs if it is needed. When this happens every day (as it seems it does from some of the responses) these are the liveries who are seen as taking advantage of others' kindness. Why should someone else (who already has their own horse to do twice a day mind) have to do your horse every day just because you can't/won't. That is taking liberties in my mind...
 
RunToEarth said:
Unfortunately, it appears common sense is not so common anymore. Ours are at home but when I had one on livery at uni in a big, well run yard, there were a lot of liveries, and some of them were clueless. I shared a field with a genuine idiot, I spent a lot of my time treating her horse for mud graver, catching it and re rugging it because the straps hadn't been done up properly, untangling it from branches when she hadn't put fly masks on properly - the list goes on. Not only was I checking my own at least twice a day, but by the end of the term I felt like I was responsible for her horse, either because she couldn't be bothered to get out of bed or because she didn't realise that horses take up fractionally more time than a hamster.

The yard you are on sounds lovely DAMS, and between me and OHs mum we have a very similar system - but I do think it some cases it is a bit like a pixelated image - the more people you entrust the higher the risk, and I like to see my horses.
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Yes, idiots are a problem. :) When I moved house, I found what seemed like a great yard with a knowledgeable YO. Who was the worst owner who never checked the horse (DIY) from one week to the next ? A vet.

It was an indication of how lax the management was. I moved very quickly. I need to know that my horses are on a well run yard with a YO who will insist on high standards from everyone. I do actually go to the yard as often as needed. Mostly, it is twice, sometimes its 3 or 4 times but equally, if there is no pressing need, then, it's once because I know they are in an environment where liveries and staff know what they're doing.
My yard is fab and I'm so appreciative of my YO's dedication that I make sure they're never taken for granted.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Smugness is a very unattractive trait. I hope that you do not find out the hard way that horses can injure themselves, or get sick, despite meticulous care.

I have just seen your more recent and still smug post. Many of us take every precaution with feed, fencing, turnout companions etc yet **** still happens.

Mine are at home and out 24/7 with idyllic facilities. I can see two of them grazing now, without moving from my chair. Am I complacent that nothing untoward can happen to them? Not on your life!
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Smug people get desmugged at some point horses are good at that.
 
I know someone who checks her horses once a week. I dont think that is acceptable at all.

I really do not see the big issue with checking once a day - most people on my yard are only at the yard once a day - Im one of the few who does twice daily checking but I dont always drag them in and give them a once over - sometimes I just stand at the field gate and watch them play and eat and be horses.
 
Shutterbug said:
I really do not see the big issue with checking once a day - most people on my yard are only at the yard once a day - Im one of the few who does twice daily checking but ...
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Eight years ago, I went up to the yard one fine August morning to check my boys in their field. I was half an hour later than normal (due to it being Mr B's 50th) so I didn't get there until about 8. I'd seen him the evening before and he was fine and happy.

There in the gateway was my Mum's pony with fatal colic. He was 29 and had never had it all his life, but the vet thinks he'd had a growth on his intestine that had finally got top heavy and caused the gut to twist.

The wonderful, generous little guy was in agony and had been for a while. He had large (and I mean 6 inches across), raw bleeding patches on his neck, elbows and sides where he'd tried to relieve the pain by rolling and rubbing on the ground. He was exhausted, had green gunge coming from his nose, was coated in sweat and his heart and pulse so fast I thought he'd go at any moment.

He saw me and tried to call and stand, but couldn't. The vet came asap, gave him a massive pain killer so that his last few minutes might be a respite from the torment. He sat on his chest, then managed to rise and put his head against me. I stroked him, told him I loved him and he'd been the best pony in the world, then the vet sent him on his way.

I am forever sorry that I couldn't be there to save him from those awful last few hours and no, you can't be with them 24/7. But how much worse if he'd died with no-one there for him. If some other poor livery had found him. Or if no-one else had decided that a morning check on field-kept animals was needed and I'd got there that evening to find his body?

No thanks. That's why the least I do is check twice a day. And no, I don't have a groom. Just an alarm clock (even if it's set to 4am) and the willingness to give up the time it takes to try to be there if I'm needed.
 
I think it also does depend on what the field is like and the group are.

Colic is rare in field kept horses if they are managed properly, I know it could happen if they went into a new field full of grass and over ate but it tends not to happen so much perhaps because they are moving around more and trickle feeding in a more natural way.

With regard to serious leg injuries such as broken legs if horses are not competing for food, space or shelter or all hanging around by the gate wanting to come in, living in a mud pit etc then I would think they are less likely to kick each other. Also a lot of field kept horses do not seem to get so excited and gallop about so much as they are out all the time so don't get excited at turn out or catch in times. If you have a group with enough space, food, shelter who get on well then that does reduce the risks of fighting.

I think people know the risks they take and there are risks with both stabled and living out horses and we have to accept that not everyone can do everything perfectly in a perfect world all horses would be able to live out with access to shelter so they can chose when they want to be in and when they would prefer to be out, with like-minded companions and the correct diet.

There are horses that are stuck in stables 24/7 a day for the owners convenience or because the yard does not have winter turnout yes they are seen to twice a day that is still not ideal either.

A lot people who keep their horses on grass livery have community spirit and try and help each other out. However I have shared fields with people who only pop up two or three times a week because they know YO goes down once a day and so do I. I once found a note in my stable from one livery who was in the same field and that said they were going on holiday for two weeks and would I keep on eye on their 3 horses, which was fine but it would have been nice if they had asked me before they had gone away as what happened if I was going away or not available.
 
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Mrs B said:
I am forever sorry that I couldn't be there to save him from those awful last few hours and no, you can't be with them 24/7. But how much worse if he'd died with no-one there for him. If some other poor livery had found him. Or if no-one else had decided that a morning check on field-kept animals was needed and I'd got there that evening to find his body?

No thanks. That's why the least I do is check twice a day. And no, I don't have a groom. Just an alarm clock (even if it's set to 4am) and the willingness to give up the time it takes to try to be there if I'm needed.
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Thats so sad to hear - but the honest truth is that could have happened even with a twice or three times daily check - the colic could have struck immediately after checking and horse of an evening and horse could have suffered till morning. We can only do our best but for the best part, daily checks are fine and we really should not judge and lambast those who choose to check their horses once a day, who provide good care and love their animals just as much you or I love ours. The people we should be mad at are the people who throw their horses in a field and disappear for 2 weeks at the first sign of sunshine, or those who dont provide even the basic of care to their animals - there is much much worse that a horse owner can do or fail to do beyond checking on their animals just once a day and I do think a little perspective is needed. Which is why I mentioned the girl I know who only checkes her horses once a week all year round. Some of the posts on here would have onwers hung for failing to be at the yard every 5 mins to check their horses and I think that its incredibly unfair of people to bash others for only being able to get to the yard once a day - which in my experience is the norm for most owners.
 
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An interesting one, really. I would check mine 2-3 times a day but now I work 16-18 hours per day. So that entails leaving at 4am and getting home around midnight.

Now, would mine (who live in large, beautiful fields with fabulous facilities and lots of friends) be better off being moved to a livery yard? Or sold? Or would they be better off staying in their horsey paradise and being checked less?

Btw- It's an academic question; my nightmare job is 100's of miles away and I only get to check them twice a month- at the most. I employ a live-in ex-jockey, who rides, checks, cleans and absolutely adores them. But I am very lucky to be able to do so.
 
Shutterbug said:
but for the best part, daily checks are fine and we really should not judge and lambast those who choose to check their horses once a day.
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I'm afraid I can't agree. I don't believe daily checks are fine in the slightest, even if you take my case out of the equation. If once a day is all someone can manage/be arsed to do and there's no one else to do another proper check within 24 hours, then don't have them on diy. Or at all.
 
I have my boy on full livery so he gets checked for me. In fact one of the reasons I'm adamant about staying on full livery is that my lad has Wobblers and is getting on in age, so I like knowing that YO is constantly around keeping an eye out. If I did move back to DIY I'd certainly be up twice a day (or arrange for/with somebody else so he was checked twice a day) but I'd be paranoid about those hours in the middle!
 
Mrs B said:
I'm afraid I can't agree. I don't believe daily checks are fine in the slightest, even if you take my case out of the equation. If once a day is all someone can manage/be arsed to do and there's no one else to do another proper check within 24 hours, then don't have them on diy. Or at all.
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Thats your opinion and you are entitled to express it but I do think you are being incredibly unfair on other people by brandishing them unfit owners because they dont do as you do and suggesting they cant be arsed checking their horse more than once. I respectfully disagree with you, even though I choose to be at the yard twice a day myself. Most horse owners I know, who are for all intents and purposes good owners who care for their animals, and provide for them well, are only at the yard once a day. It is unfair to say someone should not own a horse because they dont fit your ideals of what horse ownership is about. Even with twice daily checks your horse is unsupervised for up to 12 hours at a time. In an ideal world we would all keep our horses at home and be seconds away from them in the event of something happening. Unfortunately, we cant all do that so we do our best.

We shall have to agree to disagree on this one I'm afraid :)
 
I have to say I agree with this except in situations where horses are kept in very remote areas and there is only person going to the field per day once a day. I am thinking from this thread that the people who only go once a day have horses on yards where there are lots of people around going back and forward from the field who would notice if something was seriously wrong rather than people who are more isolated renting a field in the middle of nowhere.

For example when we had the storms YO was able to go straight down in the morning to check if trees were down before any of the liveries had arrived. I was a bit worried about my own safety in the storms as we have to walk through a wooded area to get to the fields and it was so windy I thought I was at risk of being hit by falling trees and then no-one would find me until the next morning. Sometimes some of the other liveries worry about me going down to the fields in the dark in the winter in case I get injured and then would not get found till the next day. Once I went home and forgot to shut my stable door {pony lives out so did not matter} one of the other liveries noticed my stable door was open & it was late and she had not seem me, and thought I might have had an accident so got YO to call me to make sure I was ok, but then that is sort of yard I am on, we try and look out for each other.

Shutterbug said:
Thats your opinion and you are entitled to express it but I do think you are being incredibly unfair on other people by brandishing them unfit owners because they dont do as you do and suggesting they cant be arsed checking their horse more than once. I respectfully disagree with you, even though I choose to be at the yard twice a day myself. Most horse owners I know, who are for all intents and purposes good owners who care for their animals, and provide for them well, are only at the yard once a day. It is unfair to say someone should not own a horse because they dont fit your ideals of what horse ownership is about. Even with twice daily checks your horse is unsupervised for up to 12 hours at a time. In an ideal world we would all keep our horses at home and be seconds away from them in the event of something happening. Unfortunately, we cant all do that so we do our best.

We shall have to agree to disagree on this one I'm afraid :)
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