Guilt - I'm not 'doing' in the morning

[santander123]

I've got a lot going on at the moment with work and homeschooling so I've enlisted the services of a lady at our yard to feed and hay my three horses.

She feeds at 7am, and I leave out ad lib hay for them. They're in - not allowed out because of trashed fieldss.

My question is this: How quickly would you rush down to the yard to 'do' them? As I sit here working from home (11.30am) I'm feeling an intense pull to go over there. They will get ridden or handwalked when 'school' finishes at about 3.

Is my guilt just due to the fact that I've not been up to do them myself? Is it ok to leave them until 3? Should I be up at 5 to do all jobs? Arghhhhh!!!!!!!!

Does any of this make sense?

 

[TotalMadgeness]

Perhaps installing a SIM Wifi camera so you can check on them remotely would help reduce your worry? I think seeing them 'physically' at 3 is fine.

 

[TwyfordM]

It’s just because you’ve not been up there yourself I think. I have to do the same when I’m working and get yard to hay/feed her in the morning. If she’s out and I’m really stuck I just check in that someone in the field has checked her during the day and that they still have hay/water/fenced etc

I know she’s fine, I trust the other field liveries and do the same for them when roles are reversed but because I haven’t physically seen/done it myself. It’s like that little check box in my brain hasn’t been ticked off by my own eyes even though I know it’s been done. Totally bizarre! But I get where you are coming from

 

[milliepops]

i understand the guilt, i had 18 months on an assisted DIY yard so i didn't do mornings and i felt really weird about it to start with. i think so long as the person doing mornings is trustworthy and would spot any problems then it's fine to go up in the afternoon.

 

[IrishMilo]

Does the lady give them a leg stretch in the morning, or do they only come out of their stables at 3? I used to have a similar situation - previous yard's turnout was dire - on those days when I couldn't get down until after work I'd pay for him to be put on the walker in the morning.

 

[Annagain]

We have a turnout rota with a group of friends and my sharer does Monday and Tuesday nights so I do the boys on Monday morning but then don't see them until Wednesday evening. When I was in the office I was really grateful for this as I could go shopping on the way home from work but now I'm working from home and I have a bit more time I miss them and feel guilty I'm not there and I'm asking someone else (who loves it and I knew gets a lot out of it) to be there. Even if we're actually busier, we're busier on our own so I think lockdown has given us more time to think about things.

 

[chaps89]

Does the lady give them a leg stretch in the morning, or do they only come out of their stables at 3? I used to have a similar situation - previous yard's turnout was dire - on those days when I couldn't get down until after work I'd pay for him to be put on the walker in the morning.

This is key for me.
If they're standing in, unless it's box rest I personally am not comfortable with that, I think they should be coming out of the box at least twice a day for a leg stretch/hand graze.
Is the lady topping waters up too or skipping out?
Personally I wouldn't be a fan of leaving a horse from say 5pm until 3pm the following day with just a quick check over the door and feed dropped in in the interim, unless it was an emergency.
If she's doing all the jobs then absolutely relax. I have a freelancer who does Saturday mornings, it's a bit weird and I feel bad when the weather's awful and I could be doing them myself, but it's nice to have a morning off once in a while!

 

[bouncing_ball]

For a horse stabled 24-7, I’d ideally want skipped out morning and night. And ideally unless working hard one end of the day, a leg stretch at both ends of the day.

I’d be really twitchy at leaving a horse standing in an unmucked out stable past mid morning!

 

[Pedantic]

I don't like mine in 24/7 if I can help it, but it's never an ideal world in the horsey game, particularly with the crazy weather we have now, at the last yard when the fields flooded, they shared a turnout area for 2 hours each on a rota, but he had a bigger stable then, decent sized stable to move around and they can see other horses nearby so not alone, skipped out twice a day and took out for a leg stretch is a good compromise I think .

 

[Lipglosspukka]

If I had to stable 24/7 then I would want them out to do some sort of exercise twice a day.

Providing the person doing them in the morning is providing some exercise, even just 15 minutes hand walking then I wouldn't stress about getting there later in the day.

 

[TheBigPony]

No I wouldn't leave them until 3pm. Who is giving them clean water, mucking them out and giving them a leg stretch?

 

[Shysmum]

It's a no from me, sorry.