Late Evening Checks

M

mickey

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 November 2005
Messages
5,169
Location
Kent
Visit site
Do you check your horse last thing? If so what do you look for? Do you adjust rugs, hay, water, skip out etc?
confused.gif

If it's not you doing it, does your yard?
confused.gif

IME many yards do not provide this check, even if they are full livery.
It could potentially be over 12 hrs though before a horse was next checked if it was fed dinner and not seen until the morning. Is this acceptable? What if a veterinary issue occurred?
 
I don't usually leave the yard (in winter when they are in at night) until about 9pm or 9.30pm and they are chucked out at 7am, no one really checks in between, sometimes B will go out before he goes to bed to see them though.
 
I very much doubt if anybody looks at mine after they have been fed, even though the YO lives on site - i could be wrong of course but she has never mentioned it. I should make it clear that i am DIY and of course have no arrangement with the YO to do anything

No point worrying about it though, and I can't always be there to check them myself. I say this from the position of having one die from colic overnight after he had been tucked up in his stable and appearing to be OK - you do what you can do, but there is no point beating yourself up about what you cannot do.
 
Our YO does a late check anytime between 8pm and middnight (depends if she's been out for the evening). They get water topped up, late hay and rugs changed if need be. I feel reassured that she offers this service and is very quick to notice if any of the horses are 'under the weather'. However, I do appreciate that anything can happen from when she goes to in to 6.30am, when they are fed, but you can't watch them 24/7!!
 
I try not to think about it. Mine are seen at 5pm when I finish evening stables and are not checked again until 7.15am unless there is a pre disposed reason. It is a worry but i agree with the_witch, you can only do what you can.
 
At my yard my YO lives on-site, and she can hear very well if anything gets cast/ colicky/ panicked (she has banned the overnight use of snak-a-balls as they were keeping her awake!). She also skips hers out at 11pm ish and as we're such a small yard she'd soon notice something gone wrong. My horse on the other hand is in a field in the middle of nowhere, and only gets checked once per day. They have trashed the fence once already (barbed wire, can't get land owner to remove it
frown.gif
) and *touch wood* they have only had minor scrapes. My horse either rolled under the barbed wire/ crawled under/ jumped over and broke the bottom strand of barbed wire another way the other night, I expected her to be covered in blood but she'd only lost a small patch of fur (no skin broken)!
I bet I'll get there in the morning, having said all that, and she'll only have three legs left!
 
My 4 are at home so I'm often about at all hours.

Before we got the farm and was renting a field and stables a couple of miles away I used to drive over and do a last check on them 9/10pm and couldn't settle if I hadn't been...but then I'm just a worrier!
 
No I feed my horse around 4-4.30pm, the staff are on the yard until 5.30 and some liveries are there until 8pm but would not necessarily check my horse unless he was really thrashing about. He is then fed at 7am the next morning.

I agree totally with the_witch on this one.
 
I do evening feeds at 7.30 pm at the latest and then go down at 10-10.30ish to do a final check and give Tills her bucket of chaff, whcih she has as a partial hay replacer. The other two just get a stroke and a carrot.
I'm too lazy to bother with skipping out, and will only adjust rugs if they've slipped.

I agree that over night is a long ol' time for something to go wrong, but at the same time I have to remember that my friend's horse died in her stable... was fine first thing, all the horses were fed, and an hour later she was dead, having not even finished her feed
frown.gif
 
When I had 3 at home I would always go at at around 9 to skip out, top up water, check hay and rugs etc.. Now I only have 1 and he's normally at livery - the YO has a wander round to check at 8 ish, but doesn't do anything unless anything is amiss. At the moment though he's home in the field on 2 months grass rest holiday, and I check him at 8am and again at 4pm because it's too dark afterwards. I suppose anything could happen to him overnight, and I wouldn't know until 8am, but then I think you'd make yourself a nervous wreck if you started to imagine everything that could go wrong.......
 
My friends full livery yard she alternates the late ight check with the groom...12 horses.

Late night check is at 9pm, it is a walk round, they top up any very low waters and hay, thats it.

No work, so to speak.

I check Bruce in the week when I get in from work, usually about 10.00 or later. Just go in and say hi, and look over the rest of the neds in the barn. Not rest of yard though!
 
My three horses are kept at home and I will go out at about 10.30pm to check them. I will quickly skip out my two *my parents horse has a large stable with an outdoor concrete block so I don't skip her out at night* and check my parent's horses water *my two have automatic waterers as did my parents till she took it off the wall with her bum!*
 
I go down to the yard at about 10.30/11 and give the night time hay and just a general checkover, check they have appropriate rugs, eaten their feed, water is ok etc. I usually do a quick skip out too, less mucking out in the morning!! I can hear the yard from my bedroom and sleep with my window open so I can hear if anythings amiss in the yard. I also have the CCTV camera still hooked up from when the mare was foaling and I've turned so it gives a view of the barn, and I with the sound turned up, I can hear everything in the yard!! Big brother is always watching!!!
grin.gif
Seriously though I have had to go down and check when I've heard a lot of banging around and it's turned out to be a horse cast. Luckily he rolled himself over but I was able to check him over and wouldn't have liked the thought of him stuck all night
frown.gif
.
 
I am so lucky I am at a private house / yard and its my horse and YO's 3 horses and theyre fed about 7pm and checked between 9 and 10pm when they get their last net! Last night there were lots of fireworks so the YO text me to tell me and we popped down there to play with them all and obviously have a good gas!
 
I keep mine at my parents' house where I live at the moment. I pop about just before I go to bed and check them, while the dog is doing her business. If there is any muck in the middle of the stable (where they will lie) I scoop it up. Otherwise I just check rugs, hay, water etc. I'm up at 6.30am and out riding well before 7am, so it isn't too long that they are left for. I do think about them sometimes when I'm tucked up in bed and wonder if they are ok, but I do my best and couldn't do any more.

In the future they will be kept at livery and it would worry me if they were not checked for a long time. Hopefully I will be able to find somewhere on DIY that allows you to visit late at night and early in the morning!
 
I shall do a 10pm night check, or later if I'm out that night. All the stables will have auto- drinkers and I'll be up at 5.30am
frown.gif
tongue.gif


Plus I live on site anyway right by the stables so I'll hear anything cast, etc.
 
I tend to leave the yard around half 8 after ensuring that he is skipped out, plenty of water and hay supply OK. The YO goes round and does a check at around 10pm which is great. Can't settle at night if I havent checked him
 
I check ours about midnight and hubby checks them about 5.30am when he's going to either fetch cows (if they're outside) or wake cows up (if they're indoors)

I do like to have mine checked on, but if I was YO I would hate someone to suggest I have to stay in all day to make sure the horses are checked by me every so many hours day/night. Horses can be unseen for quite some hours during the day at any yard when in the field.

YO's have lives too. However, late night checks when horses are stabled/in field are comforting. I always add more hay on mine and check how many poops are being done to see if things are working ok.
 
at my last yard the last check hay was done at 3.30pm, so if i'd done G in the am I had to rely on other liveries checking G for me. Now the YO checks them all between 9pm and midnight, she checks rugs, tops up hay, makes sure they're not too hot/cold and that they're ok - it's such a relief and I know I'm lucky, but you can only do what you can.
 
I'm very lucky in that yes my horse is looked at last thing. He is given hay if needed as well. I find it very reassuring. I do stable at a friends though, not a livery yard.
 
When he's in I don't leave the farm until about 9pm. I don't think anyone checks them after that, although the farmer might look in on them later on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top