do you check your horse twice a day

I just couldn't not check mine twice, if not more a day but then I run the yard so it's my job to. However it is the way we have been brought up as children. From a young age ponies were checked/done at least twice daily whatever the weather and regardless of what else we had on?

Maybe it is a generation thing? I may insult a few people here and for this i'm sorry but is it perhaps only old school horsemanship that seem to place such emphasis upon the care of their animals. Don't get me wrong, as a leisure rider my horses would 'fit' around my own routine to a certain degree but would still be checked a minimum of twice daily, as a professional it is my job now to do so but you wouldn't shut a dog in a garden for 24hours without not checking or in fact a child for an hour! Why should horses be the same?

I have a few clients who pay us to do morning feeds/rugs/turnout etc because for whatever reason be it work or children can't get up to do their horse. It costs them a small amount but for their peace of mind it is well worth it.
 
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The wife said:
Maybe it is a generation thing? I may insult a few people here and for this i'm sorry but is it perhaps only old school horsemanship that seem to place such emphasis upon the care of their animals.
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i'm not sure, I know some old school hunting yards going for generations round here in ireland here are happy to give them summer off and do daily checks. I do the once a day check as the horses are in a ginormous natural field with natural water supplies. If it was on a livery yard with a smaller turnout area i'd check more often as i feel horses do get into more trouble in smaller, less natural, varied spaces and larger herds.

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julie111 said:
^^^^agree^^^^, water 24 hrs, forge 24 hrs and the freedom to move around and be a horse :)
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That's how mine are kept too, with purpose built shelters and also stabling available as a back up. I still would check them properly twice a day as a minimum, meaning go in close and hands on, not gaze from my kitchen and reckon 'they're ok'.

I have previously been on diy livery. I am one of the clued up and responsible owners who some posters are certain would pick up something wrong with their horse. However, although I would notice something that was obviously amiss, I would not do a circuit of the field and check every other horse in minute detail. For sure, I would cast my eye over them all but only en route to getting my own in. Unless an owner had specifically asked me to check their horse for them, in which case it would get a 'proper' check, not a glancing one.
 
Tiddlypom said:
That's how mine are kept too, with purpose built shelters and also stabling available as a back up. I still would check them properly twice a day as a minimum, meaning go in close and hands on, not gaze from my kitchen and reckon 'they're ok' .
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This comment from me was in reply to Fides who was on her 4th check of the day and who had found her horse had virtually finished his hay and had knocked his water over btw....;)

Mine all get a full check once a day...ears to tail to hooves . My field is also checked and poo picked where necessary and extra trough filled so I am confident that any risk of them being on their own until I next go down is minimal ...
I don't know what sort of horses some of you have but I don't consider mine as accidents waiting to happen...
 
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_HP_ said:
That's the beauty of self filling water troughs and 24/7/365 grazing....no running out of either��
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julie111 said:
^^^^agree^^^^, water 24 hrs, forge 24 hrs and the freedom to move around and be a horse :)
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Mine are normally out 24/7 but he trashed the fencing hence them being in...

As a fat pig he would eat a massive net too quickly, even doh me netted, so he gets 4 large ones.
 
Spring Feather said:
I just wouldn't put my horses in a position where they weren't being checked numerous times every single day I'm afraid. If I did not have horses at home then I would keep them at a livery yard WITH an onsite 24/7 experienced yard owner. However, even then, if I only had to drive 15 minutes from my home to see my horses then yes of course I would see them a minimum of twice a day, fully supervised yard or not.
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Completely agree.
 
_HP_ said:
This comment from me was in reply to Fides who was on her 4th check of the day and who had found her horse had virtually finished his hay and had knocked his water over btw....;)

Mine all get a full check once a day...ears to tail to hooves . My field is also checked and poo picked where necessary and extra trough filled so I am confident that any risk of them being on their own until I next go down is minimal ...
I don't know what sort of horses some of you have but I don't consider mine as accidents waiting to happen...
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I have native ponies mostly- susceptible to grass sickness etc just like any other breed-all unshod, all in a stable herd of geldings, on hill pasture with lofts of natural shelter and a burn. Still there am, pm after work to do stuff with them and last thing at night. When they are at home it's the same deal. :p
 
The wife said:
I just couldn't not check mine twice, if not more a day but then I run the yard so it's my job to. However it is the way we have been brought up as children. From a young age ponies were checked/done at least twice daily whatever the weather and regardless of what else we had on?

Maybe it is a generation thing? I may insult a few people here and for this i'm sorry but is it perhaps only old school horsemanship that seem to place such emphasis upon the care of their animals.
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You say that, but of all the yards I've worked on, it was the ones run by old school horsemen where the young stock/summering hunters/wintering eventers just got a daily check!
 
MotherOfChickens said:
I have native ponies mostly- susceptible to grass sickness etc just like any other breed-all unshod, all in a stable herd of geldings, on hill pasture with lofts of natural shelter and a burn. Still there am, pm after work to do stuff with them and last thing at night. When they are at home it's the same deal. :p
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Good for you ....you are clearly a much better person than me :)
 
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Wow, what a thread.

When I kept our lads on a livery yard we were allowed 24/7 turnout from 1st May to 30th September. There was one girl who put her mare out on the 1st May and literally did not re-appear until the end of September. She made no formal arrangements for anyone to go and check the horse. However, the mare benefited from multiple 'checks' every single day simply because lots of other people were venturing out into the fields to check their own horses and would not turn a blind eye to a potential problem involving other horses.

So the irony of this situation is that this totally irresponsible horse owner would probably be regarded as more virtuous - because her mare was constantly being checked - than the person busting a gut, trying to juggle work, family, illness etc to go up and see their horse once or twice a day.

I can see this thing from a number of different perspectives. Is the person who checks their horse three times a day, but uses a very badly fitting saddle that has caused serious back problems for the horse, more 'responsible' than someone who checks their horse thoroughly once a day but makes sure that everything else is as perfect as they can humanly get it? Is the person who checks their horse six times a day but doesn't check the field for ragwort a better owner than the person who spends 3 hours a day with their horse in the field and makes sure that the fields are weed-free and totally secure?

Unfortunately, horse ownership has many, many aspects and we can get into all sorts of problems when we see things in isolation.
 
Nancykitt said:
Wow, what a thread.

When I kept our lads on a livery yard we were allowed 24/7 turnout from 1st May to 30th September. There was one girl who put her mare out on the 1st May and literally did not re-appear until the end of September. She made no formal arrangements for anyone to go and check the horse. However, the mare benefited from multiple 'checks' every single day simply because lots of other people were venturing out into the fields to check their own horses and would not turn a blind eye to a potential problem involving other horses.

So the irony of this situation is that this totally irresponsible horse owner would probably be regarded as more virtuous - because her mare was constantly being checked - than the person busting a gut, trying to juggle work, family, illness etc to go up and see their horse once or twice a day.

I can see this thing from a number of different perspectives. Is the person who checks their horse three times a day, but uses a very badly fitting saddle that has caused serious back problems for the horse, more 'responsible' than someone who checks their horse thoroughly once a day but makes sure that everything else is as perfect as they can humanly get it? Is the person who checks their horse six times a day but doesn't check the field for ragwort a better owner than the person who spends 3 hours a day with their horse in the field and makes sure that the fields are weed-free and totally secure?

Unfortunately, horse ownership has many, many aspects and we can get into all sorts of problems when we see things in isolation.
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No we don't .
No one here in the twice a day camp would consider that girl a responsible owner .
Checking is catching ,doing feet , checking legs watching them move .
OP asked how often do you check your horse , a check is not seeing the horse is there and moving .
It quite possible to be a good owner and never see the horse ( although I never quite see the point of this. ) if you are paying good trustworthy people to do the work .
It's just plain silly to drag saddle fitting and pasture management into start threads on that if you like, the thread is about checking and three hours in the field leaves twenty one for things to go wrong and in my book that's just too long .
I would never ever allow a horse in my care to be checked once daily never ever full stop no exceptions .
 
I have always been first up at the yard each morning & am usually last up. I always look over the other horses to check they don't have any legs hanging off etc & apart from a short period last year I have known that during the day other liveries would be doing the same for mine. BUT without a proper going up to the horse & interacting with it I doubt anybody would have spotted that Jason wasn't right last week - they would have seen a horse standing in a field shelter away from the flies. And yesterday they would have seen HP dozing in the corner of his field nearest the other horse on the yard, same as he has done every day this week. Going over to him I knew that Jason was "not himself", 9 hours later he was dead despite calling the vet straight away. HP was even less "not himself" he is currently in intensive care because someone who knew him well knew he "wasn't right". Another couple of hours & he probably wouldn't be here at all. If it had been the other horse & I had just glanced over I wouldn't have noticed a thing wrong.
I have never have & never will rely on my horses being just looked at & not properly checked twice a day. I'm grateful that I have generally liveried with people who know what to look out for but sometimes you just won't know unless you interact with a horse that there is something wrong & my horse is not their responsibility. It doesn't have to be the me but it does need to be someone who knows what they are doing & they do need to interact with the horse.
 
Goldenstar said:
It's just plain silly to drag saddle fitting and pasture management into start threads on that if you like, the thread is about checking and three hours in the field leaves twenty one for things to go wrong and in my book that's just too long .
I would never ever allow a horse in my care to be checked once daily never ever full stop no exceptions .
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Disagree totally, the way I see this thread quite a few people have been made to feel irresponsible.

In my book, that's taking it out of context.

You may think it's 'just plain silly', but comparing horse ownership to dog ownership - as has been done - is at least as 'silly', and this has been pointed out.
 
Nancykitt said:
Disagree totally, the way I see this thread quite a few people have been made to feel irresponsible.

In my book, that's taking it out of context.

You may think it's 'just plain silly', but comparing horse ownership to dog ownership - as has been done - is at least as 'silly', and this has been pointed out.
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I think that people who horses are checked once daily ( and it need not be by them ) are irresponsible once a day in not good enough in my book .
Now if that's makes you think for some bizarre reason because of that I don't check my paddocks ( I have very smart paddocks btw I put a lot of effort into them ) or don't check my saddles ( I am incredibly fussy about saddles ) so be it .
HC's sad situation illustrates perfectly why the twice daily check has to a proper up to the horse thing not oh there's X's horse standing having a rest .
A check really is best done by someone who knows the horse and know the horses normal attitude .
 
I only check my horse once a day when he's turned out 24/7 - he's in a field with about 20 other geldings, the owners of which are in and out of the field from 5am until long after it gets dark. The chances of him being seriously injured without anyone noticing are minimal, and I'll deal with cuts/scrapes and minor lamenesses once a day because its not going to kill him! Don't think that makes me a terrible owner...
 
Nancykitt said:
Disagree totally, the way I see this thread quite a few people have been made to feel irresponsible.
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Have they? Not from what I've read. Everyone seems perfectly happy with the amount of checking they do for their horses, including the once a day people, so I'm not sure how you can speak for them by saying they feel whatever you think they feel :confused3:
 
Spring Feather said:
Have they? Not from what I've read. Everyone seems perfectly happy with the amount of checking they do for their horses, including the once a day people, so I'm not sure how you can speak for them by saying they feel whatever you think they feel :confused3:
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The posters that have said they do once a day checks have been accused of neglect and told that they shouldn't own a horse. They are ridiculous comments to make. Some may consider once a day is enough, some may want to spend more time with their horses but can't for many reasons. I have said my ponies are checked once a day i am there for at least 3 hrs, I consider myself very responsible and my ponies are well cared for. I have a family and one of my daughters is disabled so I prioritise my time. If you some of you think I shouldn't own a horse then so be it. Just think a bit before you type, people on these forums often say things they wouldn't say face to face to someone.
 
I would say exactly the same face to face as on here, and have done. Owning a horse is not a right, if it's welfare is compromised by other lifestyle factors, it isn't the horses fault.
 
julie111 said:
The posters that have said they do once a day checks have been accused of neglect and told that they shouldn't own a horse. They are ridiculous comments to make. Some may consider once a day is enough, some may want to spend more time with their horses but can't for many reasons. I have said my ponies are checked once a day i am there for at least 3 hrs, I consider myself very responsible and my ponies are well cared for. I have a family and one of my daughters is disabled so I prioritise my time.
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Thank you so much for proving my point exactly! :smile3:
If you some of you think I shouldn't own a horse then so be it. Just think a bit before you type, people on these forums often say things they wouldn't say face to face to someone.
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I did think before I typed; clearly not all do :wink3: I couldn't care less what other people do with their horses; none of my business but I certainly wouldn't have horses if I wasn't able to devote the time I feel is necessary for their care.
 
Can I just also point out that the suggestion that owners who check twice or more each day are likely to neglect other aspects of their care, is as ridiculous as the assertion the all lighter riders put more pressure on their horses backs, another assertion we see on here regularly!
 
julie111 said:
The posters that have said they do once a day checks have been accused of neglect and told that they shouldn't own a horse. They are ridiculous comments to make.
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I actually think it is a perfectly reasonable comment to make. I didn't own horses until I knew I could give them the appropriate level of care. If someone can only visit once a day then I don't think owning a horse fits into their lives. If I could no longer do multiple checks a day I would put my horse on part livery so someone else could. I certainly wouldn't be relying on the kindness of others who do fit two trips a day into their lives - that IMO is taking advantage (and there are lots of exasperated threads about that...). My horses, my responsibility.

I am still finding it difficult to understand why anyone would think one check a day would be acceptable :(
 
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