For all those with horses at home...

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jokadoka

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...what do you do with your horses when you go away for a weekend/holiday?
Do you pay for someone to come and house sit or put your horses in livery or something different entirely?
Just being nosey and looking for ideas as mine are at home, but I live in France so things are a bit more complicated, not least because they do things TOTALLY different with their horses here.
 
My two live out which makes life easier, but I have a friend that I pay to look after them when I'm away. I also have another friend if I'm stuck, but it does make life trickier if you want to go away.
 
If we go on holiday, my pony that I compete goes on livery at my old yard and a friend rides him so he can be kept fit and our companion pony lives out in a field with a shelter and my uncle/grandma come at least once a day to give her hay/feed/water and check she's ok. This works very well when we're on holiday and we don't often go away for just weekends but if we did, I would probably ask a friend to come over and check the horses and feed them etc and possibly ride and we'd probably just let the horses stay out overnight. They're usually in at night but staying out once in a while doesn't hurt them and otherwise my non-horsey relatives wouldn't be able to do it and we wouldn't be able to go away.
 
I'm really lucky. My two friends keep their horses here too so we all look after each other's horses while we are on holiday. Before my friends arrived I had to pay somebody to look after my horses.
 
Simples, we don't go away! If we do, it's only ever for a couple of days a year so we pick a time when they're all out 24/7, a neighbour keeps a lookout, son counts they all have four legs in the morning and a vet friend is on hand if neighbour thinks there's a problem.
 
dont go away, but if i did would askk friend to check them, they walk through field to get to other horses and have odd bale staw for pets so one favour deserves another that is what our little village is about.
 
in summer if we go away for a weekend then we just leave them in the field with plenty of water, and ask a friend to look in on them to make sure they are ok.
if we go away for a proper holiday like a week or 2 then they go to our friends house and stay in their fields til we get back.

and in winter we always have to have one person left at home to look after them as there is too much to do to ask someone to do it!
 
We have someone that does the horses for us on Sundays, who does them if we're away.

I'll come and house sit for you if you're in a nice part of France!! I used to live in France.

Seriously though, do you know any horsey people locally who could let you know of someone?
 
My landlord paid someone to come twice a day and see to her elderly gelding, they went away fairly regularly so manage to find someone via a reccomendation who she could trust and same girl came every time. Sadly the gelding is no longer with us, he was 28 earlier last year :-(
 
I have three liveries so in theory they look after my horse when I'm away (which isn't often). But as we also have other animals, and the liveries work odd hours, I pay an old and trusted riding friend to come and live in. She looks after the dogs and cat and feeds all the horses so they have regular mealtimes and hay. The liveries look after the rest of the chores.
 
Horses and Holidays?????? You are joking??? We never get away (sighhhhh):(:(:(
I sometimes dream of a "real" holiday but the few times that I have been away for ONE day something has always happened. I often wander when my little monsters are charging round the field in the pouring rain as I try to catch them, "why did I buy not one but 7 horses instead of going to the Maldives or Bali"????
 
I have to pay someone to come and do our 3, she charges £15 a day, extra to ride. So holidays can be expensive, hence only once a year!
 
My step Mum comes and stays if we are away, and although she is not very horsey, she can cope with the ponies who are living out. But now my daughter has a new TB I will have to make other arrangements if we go away!
 
My sister usually moves into our house and looks after the horses, chickens and dogs if we can't take them on holiday with us. For family weddings away I have a non-horsey friend live in the house to do the chickens and pay a groom to come and do the horses. It's a bit of a pain trying to sort everything out, it's like a military operation making sure everyone knows what they are doing!
 
Sister and I share a small holding, so never go away at the same time as each other. We both have seperate times of a max of 4 days away each year (neither of us can cope with being away for any longer :eek: ) The horses are all shared so we have no problem with leaving the other one in charge, but we do ring at least once a day when we are away! We did consider trying to get to Olympia this year with a friend being paid to look after the horses, but with the sheep and an elderly dog we decided that it wasn't feasable this year. :(
 
IF I go away (not likely!!) I have two friends I call on!! No money is exchanged, just a favour. I would look after theirs for them and wouldn't expect paying. I would go away in summer so horse would be out any way. so just checking over in field.
 
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