First one up has to feed all the horses rule

I have never come across this before everybody feeds their own horses and we dont give other horses titbits or anything else. If you watch a horse as their owner arrives they know who they are and my horse generally ignores other owners! Besides, you can guarantee the same person would arrive on the yard every day which i think is a little unfair and you always get the people that roll over in bed knowing that such and such will feed their ned:cool:
 
We do this now and also have done at a couple of other yards. I am usually first up and actually feel a bit cheated if someone beats me to the feeding routine! We also had a rota for late night checks and extra hay thrown in as no YO on site at one yard. It all worked really well, but it wasn't a huge yard, only 12 or so.
 
We do this in the mornings in winter when horses are stabled. I don't mind it at all - we only have 12 stables and often 2 of those horses live out except in worst weather anyway, so it's only 10 feeds over doors - all leave feeds outside with covers on. Evenings people feed at any time so they are all used to either system.
 
We do this at our yard, everyone leaves feeds out and whoever is first, mainly me chucks the feeds in. I won't do anything other than put feeds in as I'm always in a rush and personally if I'm going to be late one morning I just put extra hay in night before and wouldn't expect someone else to have to do it. Problem is the people who come up early are the one's in a rush who have to get to work and the lady's what lunch are probably snoozing in their beds! Don't really mind but can be annoying if you're running late and assume someone will have beaten you to it but when you get there you're still first!
 
Each does their own on our yard. Life us easier for rveryone esp those who want to ride in the morning and wouldn't be able to if horse had been fed. Horses are used to it.
 
jesstickle said:
No. We all do our own and the horses are fine. They know which person belongs to them and who to expect food from. They all just ignore anyone else. On yards where this happens what do you do about horses that aren't fed?!
Click to expand...

This is the same at our Farm, no one minds they do not even look over the door when the others turn up, just wait for the car with their mum in and then the heads come over :)
 
Have been at 1 yard where this was a kind of rule, yo was always up at 7.30 and seeing a they were all her horses aprt from my 2 at the time and my friends 1 she used to feed them. Horses were very happy there
 
For years on yards I was the first one up during the week so had to get up an extra 10-30 mins earlier to allow for this (depending on how many horses on yard). I never minded on a smaller yard as 10min isn't much and if you know what you're doing it doesn't take long. When there were 40+ horses in several barns and it took 30mins I REALLY hated it. Plus at that yard there were loads where you actually had to go inside to hang a haynet/tip feed into manger, and I always worried someone else's horse would barge out past me or I'd not latch the door properly on the way out.
 
My horses live at home with me so I do all the feeding. I have about 50 horses and some of them are fed hard feed and some are not. Some of those who are fed are given feed morning and night and some are just mornings only. The horses who are not used to being fed at these times, or not at all in some horses cases, don't bat an eyelid when the others are fed because they are not used to being fed at those times. I am the feeder here so it's not a case of they know their human as I'm everyones human :)

If I ever had to put my horses on livery then I would not want to be on a yard where feed is left out for all those hours. Yuck! what about filthy flies and small creatures going into the buckets and urinating or pooing on them? No thanks, that type of management would not work for me at all.
 
It's not a yard rule as such, but we all do it. Whoever is up first in the morning puts feeds/nets in and the horses who don't get anything (not many I must admit) don't even bother coming to the door as they know they're not waiting to be fed.

We're also lucky enough to have morning turnout in winter included in the livery so in winter, those who don;t get fed get turned out as soon as feeds and nets are in for the others so they're not left waiting.

Always works fine for us (yard of 26 horses) and none of the horse's ever nag at or expect food from the people who are generally up first thing :-)
 
We feed our own - wouldn't expect anyone to feed mine for me.

The only way around it is to maybe have a roster. Either each person does the feeds for a week or each day, then there will never be anyone who feels put upon as they happen to arrive first most days.
 
Mahoganybay said:
The yard that i am has a system that i feel works well, all feeds & nets are left outside the stables and each Livery has a day that they do the morning feeds (works out at 1 day a week), the feeds have to be fed before 7.30am. This way every livery gets a turn and all the horses are fed at the same time therefore ensuring a good routine, so no kicking doors and no horses being left until 1pm for their feed & net (every yard has one, the teenager who does not turn up until 1pm ;-)

I generally whip round & drop their feeds in and then go back on myself and hang their nets, done in a jiffy and the other 6 days a week i can have a lie in if i want lol.
Click to expand...

That sounds a better system. We used to do that when we had liveries. I never made feeds up the night before though - I hate them standing there damped and going stale, with mice running over them possibly. Nets made up, fine, but I prefer the feed kept in an airtight bin, fresh, until its needed.
 
We don't have a rule but on days when I'm first there I do feed all the horses. Other people do the same for mine so it all balances out.
On my last yard we all fed our own and the horses would wait patiently for their owner to come and feed. However on my current yard the horses are all on part livery during the week and we do them ourselves at weekends so it seems a bit unfair that they get used to being fed at the same time on weekdays but not at the weekend.
 
Otherwise known as the feed fairy on our yard ! If you want a feed putting in you leave it's out side only takes a few mins !

on other yards I have been on this has also been the case , on the biggest you only hsd to.feed the block you were stabled in
 
I would HATE this rule. My horse believes that once she's had her breakfast it is immediately time to go out to the field and then boxwalks until this is done. So if someone was up even 10 minutes before me, I'd come up to find a completely trashed stable. No thanks! I'm generally up first during the week but I'm an hour later at weekends and she waits patiently at the door for me to arrive.
 
we had this rule at our yard during the winter when everyone was in but it was always me feeding as i liked to get up to mine early and some liveries would take advantage of this knowing i had fed. i had to be at the yard by 4.45 to do mine before work but when feeding it got to the point where i had to be there by 4.30 to give me more time, i had to be gone by 5.30 at the very latest. spoke to y/o tonight and have said im not feeding anymore, my horse and i are going solo, i will do mine and only mine and no one elses and they arnt to feed him either, i wouldnt mind if sometimes one of the other 5 people took their turn!
 
We do this rule on our yard, our yard is large, sort of 70 odd horses. It's DIY person up feeds our side DIY side and then ladies who run the yard feed full livery side.
 
Spring Feather said:
If I ever had to put my horses on livery then I would not want to be on a yard where feed is left out for all those hours. Yuck! what about filthy flies and small creatures going into the buckets and urinating or pooing on them? No thanks, that type of management would not work for me at all.
Click to expand...

Bucket covers :D :D
 
NO i wouldnt do it i have done at other yards but now i have my new horse i wont let anyone else feed her as she kicks the door but because i am the only one who feeds her she doesnt kick the door till i turn up and then only for a few seconds so if someone else was feeding her it would just encourage her to kick plus i really i dont have time
 
So glad I keep my horses privately. A horse I used to own was obsessed by food, he'd had a strange past I think as he didnt seem to know about herd hierarchy either! Mine all got fed at the same time since it was me doing it on my own yard, but god forbid he ended up on a livery yard where horses were fed at different times - he would have gone nuts. A couple of times I stabled him over at a show (luckily always with the top door having a full grill), if next doors horse was fed and he wasnt he'd had a huge hissy fit - rearing up, going ballistic. If he could have jumped over the door he would have done. He would even flip out in the trailer, one time I'd loaded him up at a show to go home - the field behinds horses were getting fed (rattling buckets etc.), he flipped out and jumped over the breast bar. This horses obsession was quite mental! I know there's not many horses that are this bad but a yard who fed their horses individually would definately not have worked for him!
 
we do this, as others, the feeds are left outside the stables with a feed bucket cover on. whip the cover off and chuck the feed in.
 
When I was on a smaller yard, 3/4horses. there were no rules but I would give hay to them all as they could get upset if not, but there was no rule. On the large yard I am (kind of) on that rule does not exist, there are around 30horses. Me and my mate just shared the two mares (hers and my late mare) between us during the week

ETS: I would not like to be in that situation where I had to feed all others
 
jesstickle said:
No. We all do our own and the horses are fine. They know which person belongs to them and who to expect food from. They all just ignore anyone else. On yards where this happens what do you do about horses that aren't fed?!
Click to expand...

Exactly how we do it on our yard. I don't think it's ever caused an issue. There are a couple of horses where if they were tied on the yard being tacked up or having the vet or something you wouldn't want to wind them up by taking your horse's dinner past them, or feeding your horse on the yard tied up next to them but on the whole everyone does their thing and it works
 
Not on our yard, as all up at different times. The horses all stick their heads out and have a look, but there is no fuss as they are all used to their respective routines, which are all quite different. I would add that we only have 9 liveries, plus whatever the YO has in.
 
At my yard we don't, but most of us are up early anyway with the exception of one who is on assisted. I have now said to her that as I have to walk past her two to get to mine, that if she leaves breakfasts out on the days that she is doing hers in the morning I will chuck them over the doors.
I don't mind taking a cover off a feed and throwing it over a door, it takes 10 seconds! However if I was on a yard with this rule, and I was generally the first up, then I would insist on feeds being left outside the stables with a cover on. I would not be happy about having to make feeds, or fetching feeds from the feed room (especially on a big yard which would require several trips).
 
I've been on yards like this.
One yard was only about 16 horses, but people made feeds and left them in their areas, it was annoying having to go round finding feeds, i wouldn't have minded so much if they were left outside the stables, i wouldn't do that again.

The yard i'm currently on its not a set rule, we have about 25 horses, if they have a breakfast it is made up ready outside each stable with a cover on. There are a handful of horses where their owners won't feed anyone elses horse and don't want you to feed theirs (about 2 or 3 liveries), fair enough. If horses don't get fed in the morning then they don't make a fuss as they know they are not getting a feed. I won't go adding extras and doing haynets etc i don't have the time. Not keen on chucking feeds over that are like soup as i don't have time to open each door and then you end up wearing it.
Also don't like it when people take you for granted that you will feed their horse everyday whilst they have a lie in!
 
On my old yard we used to have a weekend rota so we'd take it in turns to do the feeds, which was nice as it meant everyone got a lie in! The YO used to feed during the week, so everyone used to leave feed and haynet ready outside their stable. For some reason she stopped doing this so we just automatically changed to the first person up would put the feeds in. There were often a lot of us on the yard before work/ school but I was generally the first and really liked feeding all the horses. It was really simple as there were only 20 or so horses and everything was always ready for them outside the stable.

My current yard is different as there are only 5 livery horses but the YO has a lot of animals herself, including 12 donkeys, a group of ponies that live out and a few stabled horses. She does all the morning feeds 7 days a week so they are all used to being fed at the same time in the morning. When I was at college though I used to be on the yard before her as I needed to do my jobs before I caught the bus and I would only feed my horse and the neighbouring livery horse (they were in a block of two) because I never knew where any of the feeds/ haynets for my YO's animals were kept or what she did about feeding the donkeys (they share a barn rather than having separate stables). Now I'm generally only there before her if I've got up for an early ride, as otherwise I tend to get there about 9am and she'll have fed them all well before that. The problem is that because they're all used to being fed at the same time, they all start yelling as soon as I turn up on the yard and wake the YO up :o. I do sort of miss that nice feeling of having fed all the animals before starting my jobs.
 
Last edited:
Its a rule on our yard... But the ym feeds them all in our barn. Most arent made up so she has to make them up and then feed but i make mine up and leave it outside stable as not very fair on ym i dont think...
Horses that arent fed in the morning get some carrots/apples in a bowl so they have something
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top