How important is routine to horses?

amymay said:
Because it annoys me that someone can have so little consideration for their horse to do that
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Really unfair :(:mad:

Maybe I'm taking your comments a bit personally but I really take offence at the above comment - have so little consideration, are you joking?!

Do you believe that because you are able to be at the yard earlier you love your horse or care for his well being more than I do mine?

Well, I can tell you, quite emphatically, that you don't.
 
I used to get a degree of bitchiness on a previous yard as I wouldn't turn up to bring my two out before 9 (weekdays / sometimes 10 on weekends) most of the time. They would be standing chilling out in their stables - often eating or just relaxing, not stressed about it. But since their horses were brought in before dark around 4pm and turned out at 8am, and mine came in about 11pm-midnight and went out at 9-10am I never felt too guilty ;)
 
Sarah1 said:
Really unfair :(:mad:

Maybe I'm taking your comments a bit personally but I really take offence at the above comment - have so little consideration, are you joking?!

Do you believe that because you are able to be at the yard earlier you love your horse or care for his well being more than I do mine?

Well, I can tell you, quite emphatically, that you don't.
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Please don't take them personally, because they are not aimed at you. But you surely can understand my point of view when, for no other reason than they don't want to get out of bed, people roll on to the yard at 10.00am in the morning to do their horse. (I'm not talking about people with young children and no one to help out).

And no, I absolutely do not think I love my horse or care for his well being any more than you.

I am espousing my point of view only - which I fully appreciate is not everyone else's or even neccesarily right.

And as far as your situation goes, I have the luxury of being beholden to no one, my time etc is my own - and for many, many years my life has been horses first - everything else second.

I'm sure if I had a young family then my views would be different - sometimes, even in AmyMay land there is some flexibility ;)
 
I figure that our horses have had the same 'routine' ;) for years and it hasn't killed them yet. All I can assume that as long as they are stuffing their faces somewhere, they really don't give a monkeys where I am :D
 
amymay said:
Please don't take them personally, because they are not aimed at you. But you surely can understand my point of view when, for no other reason than they don't want to get out of bed, people roll on to the yard at 10.00am in the morning to do their horse. (I'm not talking about people with young children and no one to help out).

And no, I absolutely do not think I love my horse or care for his well being any more than you.

I am espousing my point of view only - which I fully appreciate is not everyone else's or even neccesarily right.

And as far as your situation goes, I have the luxury of being beholden to no one, my time etc is my own - and for many, many years my life has been horses first - everything else second.

I'm sure if I had a young family then my views would be different - sometimes, even in AmyMay land there is some flexibility ;)
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I'm very touchy about it to be honest - because I was the same before my daughter came along - I had 2 babies, my dog & my horse! They were my world (along with hubby obviously! Keep forgetting about him!).

I do feel guilty that I don't spend the time with him that I used to but I feel more guilty about not seeing my daughter grow up.

Someone once told me that when you become a mother you always feel guilty for something and never has a truer word been spoken!!!!!!

I do have my hubby at home but, bless him, he's about as much use as a chocolate fire guard in a morning! I like to get my daughter fed & dressed before I leave her with her Daddy for the morning & sometimes they'll come to the yard with me too.

I'm hoping this winter will be a bit easier as last winter she was very tiny and I was feeding her myself so leaving the house before 8:30am was an impossibility! :rolleyes:
 
We have a routine for hard feed time/haylage, and we have a routine at night once they're actually in.

Between morning and bringing in though it can vary. Weather -if it's pouring down in the morning but the forecast says it's dry in the afternoon, clearly I'll wait until the afternoon to ride. When the farrier comes - they may have to stay in for the morning until he arrives, invariably late!! And when the weather is truly foul, they're yarded and so don't go out in the field at all. If I have to wait in all day for say the BT man, then of course they'll get ridden when he's been and gone - etc, etc.

On the whole I can't say that this presents me with much of a problem, if any. They're both quite cool customers these days (the one was a stress head when I got her), they're healthy and content.

Unless you keep your horses on a yard where someone else manages it, I think it's pretty impossible to be military like at home.
 
amymay said:
I do think that's completely different though. And for horses out 24/7 I would agree that routine is almost irrelevant.

For the stabled horse, though, I think it's terribly important. My biggest bugbear is those that can't drag their sorry backsides out of bed on a weekend, and expects their horse to wait for them patiently in their stable until the owner can be bothered to turn up. That, in my eyes, is really unacceptable.
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Again depends on the horse, if I wanted a lie in on a weekend when my TB was in, as long as she had been given her breakfast, hay net and fresh water she wouldn't be bothered - and I would make sure the yard had provided those things.
 
amymay said:
Good question. I guess you only have to look at big competition yards to know the answer to that one.

Things run like clockwork and to time, however, routine often goes out of the window when away competing, with the exception most often of morning stables.
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Big competition yards tend to have more than one groom - one who will be travelling to the show and therefore responsible for the competing horses and the other/s who will be responsible for the rest of the yard. That way the only thing that is out of routine is what time the yard gets their breakfast.
 
mcrobbiena said:
well if a horse is left from 5pm at night until 7am in the morning, he has been left 14 hours in a stable. If the owner were to get up at 9am it has been left 16 hours. This more inconsiderate than giving them hay and water at midnight and going out a 9, they are only left 9hours without hay or water or being checked. Basically, I don't think it matters how early you get up to do your horse. If you dont space the times out correctly its as bad as being down later and away later that being up early and away early? or am I being a bit mental?!:confused:

We have gone of the topic of routine but you get my drift...don't you?anyone?!
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Totally agree! I do mine as late as possible, and then as early as possible the next day.
 
My horse definitely likes routine. I only have to be 20 minutes "late" at weekends and she expresses her displeasure with me! So I never feed her later than half an hour beyond her weekday times at weekends (no lying in for me!). She gets extra fodder if I know I'm going to be a tad late the next day. If I turn up at other times of the day, she is clearly very perplexed to see me at that time. I don't see why people would think making a baby wait for a feed because it doesn't suit the mother is unacceptable and then expect an animal to do just that. In my experience animals often have incredible time perception. My cat is my furry alarm clock in the mornings and never lets me down! Interestingly, my horse had funny little routines of her own. She won't touch her haynet or chop bucket until she has eaten at least two thirds of her hard feed and then she rotates around them in a specific order until everything is gone. When I fetch her headcollar on she has to take the noseband in her mouth and nod it up and down 3 times before I put it on and when she is finishing her bucket feed, she takes hold of the rim and either mouthes on it or wags it up and down, again usually 3 times. I think she is a bit strange :)
 
broke_but_happy said:
Big competition yards tend to have more than one groom - one who will be travelling to the show and therefore responsible for the competing horses and the other/s who will be responsible for the rest of the yard. That way the only thing that is out of routine is what time the yard gets their breakfast.
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Ovviously:rolleyes:
 
fatpiggy said:
I only have to be 20 minutes "late" at weekends and she expresses her displeasure with me! So I never feed her later than half an hour beyond her weekday times at weekends (no lying in for me!).
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Personally, I don't have the time or inclination to allow an animal to determine my daily schedule!

fatpiggy said:
I don't see why people would think making a baby wait for a feed because it doesn't suit the mother is unacceptable and then expect an animal to do just that
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Because a horse is a horse and not a baby!
 
My horse likes routine :) especially when it's feed & turn out. If I turn up late to feed and turn him out he looks a bit grumpy! He is an ex-racer and has always been used to a routine. I like to turn him out (with his feed) as early as possible, I don't think it matters what time you do everything else (i.e ride/groom etc)

Every horse is different though.. There is a lady on my yard that wont feed her horse at the same time every day because he starts door-kicking if he doesn't get it on time.
 
fatpiggy said:
I don't see why people would think making a baby wait for a feed because it doesn't suit the mother is unacceptable and then expect an animal to do just that.
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Sometimes I wonder if the world has gone mad. Probably has something to do with the fact that most sane people wouldn't turn a baby out naked in a field of grass, fenced in with electric tape for the day... Or tuck a baby up in a straw filled stable with a bucket of water and a hay net for the night. Nor indeed, do most folk expect to saddle up their baby and take it for a ride :cool:

Need I state the obvious further? Horses are not children, and shouldn't be treated as such :eek:
 
Well if my horse is my baby, she's a gynaecological miracle. I NEVER said I treated her like one, merely compared what is apparently acceptable in animals to what is (I hope) unacceptable in humans. If you want to be selfish and lazy and leave your animal hanging around wondering what is going on, fair play, that is your conscience not mine. But my horse has never kicked the door down waiting for food, coliced with the stress of waiting or taken up vices such as cribbing. Plus I prefer to get up early at weekends, get my horse jobs done and have the rest of the day free to do all the other hobbies I have rather than lie in bed wasting the day. But of course, that was how I was brought up, including having respect for the needs of my pets.
 
fatpiggy said:
If you want to be selfish and lazy and leave your animal hanging around wondering what is going on, fair play, that is your conscience not mine. But my horse has never kicked the door down waiting for food, coliced with the stress of waiting or taken up vices such as cribbing. Plus I prefer to get up early at weekends, get my horse jobs done and have the rest of the day free to do all the other hobbies I have rather than lie in bed wasting the day. But of course, that was how I was brought up, including having respect for the needs of my pets.
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Well that's just rude :rolleyes: Although one doesn't care to tempt fate, my horses have never had colic, displayed signs of stress or developed stable vices either, thanks very much. I dispute the notion that horses are capable of "wondering what's going on" in the sense that you mean it, but I can guarentee you mine are less stressed than your horse, who by your own admission is upset when you are even slightly late.

It's obnoxious of you to suggest that those of us who sort our horses later on weekends are "lying in bed, wasting the day" as this is regularly not the case, e.g. Sarah1 goes up later as she has a small child, I tend to be walking the dog etc. I would also suggest that it is equally plausible to swap this thread round and ask how late you bother to check on your horse at night? Or are you too busy rushing off to bed / to the pub to care? Just because you choose to keep your horse as you do doesn't mean that the rest of us are compelled to abide by your priorities - you clearly value your routine and think it is first class. I personally value my horses' 24/7 turnout and would gladly sacrific a routine to be somewhere where I can be sure they get this. There's more than one way to skin a cat - or indeed to keep a horse happy.

Your analogy between children and horses is unfounded and flawed by nature. It is inevitable that some things which are acceptable for animals are not acceptable for humans - as my previous post illustrated. Perhaps that bypassed you? :D
 
I have a routine and I tend to stick to it. But, an hour or two either way they are used to.
I think if you do a very strict routine you are going to stress yourself, not yourself.
 
fburton said:
It is "traditional" to view routine as important, reflecting military roots. However, I think what stresses horses if it is missing is predictability. They don't like events that are unexpected.

In the context of a feeding routine, for example, they are happy when sounds of feed being prepared are followed shortly by the arrival of their feed. If they have learned to expect feeding at a certain time of day (typically signalled by other things happening), then they will naturally become upset if it's delayed beyond the usual time. In this case, having established a routine, it's important to stick to it for the wellbeing of the horse. On the other hand, if there is no routine in the first place, there isn't any expectations to be thwarted. So I think routine is fine if you are diligent in adhering to it, otherwise horses may be better off without it.
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I couldn't have put it better myself!

Our horses live at home and their routine is that they hear the sounds of us getting up etc and then go out, in winter. They hear us come home from work and then come in for their tea etc. It really doesn't matter what time any of these things happen, so long as they happen in the right order.

I really cannot abide the dogmatic way in which some people insist that their way is the only right way.
 
yeah I have to agree with jburton & pearlsasinger...

routines were created to make life simpler and more predictable. if you lead an unpredictable life then create routine for your horses at your peril!

but I don't think horses NEED routine. no-one NEEDS a routine... they just sort of happen and evolve all by themselves according to the order of life :).

If you WANT a routine to make life flow better then by all means thats what you must do and goodness knows, every so often, it damned useful!! :D
 
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JFTD said:
Well that's just rude :rolleyes: Although one doesn't care to tempt fate, my horses have never had colic, displayed signs of stress or developed stable vices either, thanks very much. I dispute the notion that horses are capable of "wondering what's going on" in the sense that you mean it, but I can guarentee you mine are less stressed than your horse, who by your own admission is upset when you are even slightly late.

It's obnoxious of you to suggest that those of us who sort our horses later on weekends are "lying in bed, wasting the day" as this is regularly not the case, e.g. Sarah1 goes up later as she has a small child, I tend to be walking the dog etc. I would also suggest that it is equally plausible to swap this thread round and ask how late you bother to check on your horse at night? Or are you too busy rushing off to bed / to the pub to care? Just because you choose to keep your horse as you do doesn't mean that the rest of us are compelled to abide by your priorities - you clearly value your routine and think it is first class. I personally value my horses' 24/7 turnout and would gladly sacrific a routine to be somewhere where I can be sure they get this. There's more than one way to skin a cat - or indeed to keep a horse happy.

Your analogy between children and horses is unfounded and flawed by nature. It is inevitable that some things which are acceptable for animals are not acceptable for humans - as my previous post illustrated. Perhaps that bypassed you? :D
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This ^^^^^^^

Couldn't have put it better myself! :);)
 
fatpiggy said:
Well if my horse is my baby, she's a gynaecological miracle. I NEVER said I treated her like one, merely compared what is apparently acceptable in animals to what is (I hope) unacceptable in humans. If you want to be selfish and lazy and leave your animal hanging around wondering what is going on, fair play, that is your conscience not mine. But my horse has never kicked the door down waiting for food, coliced with the stress of waiting or taken up vices such as cribbing. Plus I prefer to get up early at weekends, get my horse jobs done and have the rest of the day free to do all the other hobbies I have rather than lie in bed wasting the day. But of course, that was how I was brought up, including having respect for the needs of my pets.
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How dare you! :mad:

FYI my horse has never kicked a door in his life, nor has he had a stable vice and I will also say he's never had colic although I feel like that's a little like tempting fate so fingers crossed, touch wood & all that!

I have been accused of being many things but never selfish or lazy! I have a small daughter and am up very early - I dare say earlier than you most days, I do not waste a second of my day - I'm far too busy to be able to do that hence the reason why I do not allow an animal to rule my life.

Now don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less what you do with your horse, whether you're at the yard all day or what time you get there in a morning but please don't be so conceited to think your way is right and others are wrong - my horse won't bat an eyelid if I'm 2 hours 'late' let alone 20 minutes, as long as he has food & water & a bit of company he's a happy little bunny! By your own admission your horse 'shows its displeasure' if you are even 20 minutes late and I, like JFTD, will guarantee my horse is a less stressed animal than your horse so maybe your 'routine' isn't as flawless as you seem to think it is? :eek:
 
Actually, if you read my original post properly, I said that my horse likes routine, and if she that is what suites her, then so be it. It was ME that was then insulted by being told that because I put my horse's needs before my own, I am treating her like a baby. As it happens that is doubly insulting to me as I can't have children, not that that is anyone's business but mine. My horse is an animal and treated appropriately, but with care and consideration because she still has feelings, animal or otherwise. It isn't me that puts glittery hoof oil on an animal, it isn't me that dresses her entirely in pink like a Barbie doll, or a rug which makes them look like a giraffe,it isn't me that sticks tinsel up around the stable door at Christmas so that she can "enjoy" a fake human festival but it is my horse that is the ONLY one on the yard to be seen anyone at all twice a day and I think that is very sad. Sad for the animals who don't know whether they are coming or going, whether they will get a feed that day, whether they will get some fly protection etc etc, and sad for the morons who take on the huge responsibility of having an animal and then pick and choose which bit of that responsibility suits them and ignoring the rest. How many posts are there here every week about people not turning up at all to attend to their animals and another livery having to give them hay and water? What about all the complaining posts about lack of hoofcare of some horses that people have seen and who should they report it to? Its no different, just more or less of the same thing. If you want to turn up at midday at weekends to feed and turn your horse out, that's your choice, but I certainly wouldn't be asking you to care for my horse in my absence, that's for sure.
 
Oh, and the reason my horse "shows her displeasure" is because she is intelligent and bossy like many Welsh cobs. Like people, horses aren't all thick and easygoing.
 
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