Those of you who only see to your horse once a day...

I would be more than happy checking once a day at my yard because I know the yard owner does checks, but also that the other people at the yard all look out for each other as its a very quiet farm, and all the fields are immediately visible from the guys house as his house is on a hill looking down onto the fields.

If it were just a field and horses were on their on with no other people around then no I wouldn't be happy checking just once.

My job unfortunately doesn't allow me too go up twice a day every day, this is why I have had to get a part loaner in, to do the things I can't. :)
 
I check mine once a day,I'm on grass livery,but yo checks mine in the morning,I do afternoons also neighbour checks them everyday he poo picks for the yo, so he would ring if any problems,also local riding stables round the corner who have horses opposite us,would ring if any problems.
 
No-one until mid day. Even if you were on full livery, yard manager could go on lunch at the exact same moment as a horse breaks his leg in the field. Assuming no-one else is in the yard, and YM has an hour to eat, this horse would go undiscovered for an hour. This is a game of what if's and buts .....my arrangement works for me and I'm happy with it. I could check my horse at 9am, it could colic 1 minute after I left and go undiscovered until field sharer goes up at 1pm ....... To expect a horse to have a full rub down and work up twice a day is a bit excessive unless the horse is of great value and in heavy work :/ again your opinion obviously differs so I'm not going to be drawn into an arguement about this, you do you and I'll do me! :)

I do agree that twice a day visits are necessary in the winter, for either turnout purposes or haying twice a day and unfreezing waters etc etc! Our pipes freeze in the cold weather so I have to drag water containers up the lane on a sledge twice a day, damn no having a 4x4!!!! Lol :P
 
SpottedCat it was a livery yard, total DIY, yard owner not involved or interested and unfortunately wouldn't have helped.

I'd phoned YO on a separate occasion from the field to ask her to phone horses owner as a vet was needed as an emergency, when she eventually bothered to phone owner she said I think there may be something wrong with the horse, owner then drove to yard before calling vet. Horse suffered in agony unnecessarily for a few hours, with what turned out to be a ruptured bowel, before being PTS. This YO wasn't worth phoning about the blood.

I didn't have the phone number of any of the other liveries, rarely saw if spoke to them, but knew they'd all be there in a few hours. A horse nearly died (according to vet), because I made the wrong decision. But where do you draw the line of responsibility? I prioritised my job above someone else's horses welfare. Whether others think that's sensible or selfish is up to them. But I'd do the same again. I check my own horse once a day and hope he's fine the rest of the time. I realise he could hurt himself 5min after I leave, a once daily check is not ideal, but I do what is reasonable and practical for my own situation. As others do for theirs.
 
there's always someone to pour scorn on others methods, and whom does it better than everyone else :rolleyes:

Anyway, once a day in summer, twice in winter. Yard is shared and I'm up at lunchtime, someone else comes first thing, and someone else last thing.

Some days I don't go at all in summer, I send hubby up with a bucket of feed and he tips it over the gate, checks water and leaves.

Do you all trot your horses up twice a day when out 24/7 to check for lameness? If mine are at the gate they get fed there, so I probably wouldn't see of they were lame or not, unless they were absolutley hobbling lame.... they're not in daily work so might go 48 hours without me seeing them walk.

But then I'm a terrible owner :rolleyes:
 
I'm not calling anyone a terrible owner. But if a horse in my care ended up suffering for 24 hrs rather than 12 I would accuse myself of being one. I can think of plenty of cases where checking once a day would have resulted in a different outcome for the horse.
I certainly don't do a diy veterinary inspection twice a day & a lameness work up, but I think there is a happy medium between that & hoping a random person will spot anything wrong from a distance.
 
We have 24/7 secuirty wjere I currently keep mine plus a bridlepath thru middle but I'm a paranoid freak and have to go up see them move feel legs etc at least 3 times a day :l and obviously ridden ones get brought in and faffed with etc.
 
If my horses were kept in an isolated field with no-one else going up or around to keep an eye on them then I would check them twice a day. Luckily, most of us who have horses living out keep them on yards where there is either a YO on site or lots of people going up at different times. I'm lucky in that my horse is currently grazing in a field behind my house. We don't have our own land, but our YO rents the fields at the back of our house. So I have already seen my mare out if the window and she definitely has all four legs still on :D
 
No problems here with it. Only just down the road from us and on a public footpath and in sight of people who have our number should anything be wrong :)
 
littlelegs said:
I'm not calling anyone a terrible owner. But if a horse in my care ended up suffering for 24 hrs rather than 12 I would accuse myself of being one. I can think of plenty of cases where checking once a day would have resulted in a different outcome for the horse.
I certainly don't do a diy veterinary inspection twice a day & a lameness work up, but I think there is a happy medium between that & hoping a random person will spot anything wrong from a distance.
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Completely agree!

Its fine if owners only go up once a day themselves if they have the arrangement with a fellow livery or YO to check them when they cant IMO.
 
claribella said:
I only check mine once a day in the summer. She shares a field with another horse and there are horses in the field next to her on the yard so I know if something was wrong I would get a call. I am relaxed in that.
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I'm with claribella and go once a day when on 24/7 turnout. The yard is DIY, but with 50 horses and a keen YM I'd be sure to get a call if anything were amiss.
 
Summer:

Checked once a day by one of us (me/my family/close friend) - that's a head, legs, tail, breathing, no blood, rug where it should be, no nasty snot, eyes both open (unless ned asleep :cool:), legs checked, type of check. There are a number of owners. We all have each other's numbers. We will and have called when something doesn't look right. As most of the horses stay together, it's easy and natural to automatically run an eye over the other horses - I consider that to be vital as if there is something amiss with one of those, then there's a chance there'll be something amiss with one of mine.

Winter:

Checked twice a day (as above). No need to hay as are in huge fields with plenty of grass. They come in daily in the winter for a feed, and for haylage for the biggies. Rugs off and bodies checked over for any nasties.


Both:

Stabled part of the day when heat/flies/cold/rain dictates, so then they're checked by me/my family/friend twice a day.
 
I also wouldn't be happy if mine didn't have a proper hands on check at least once a day. I only go up once a day myself but mine is on a busy yard that offers livery services in winter the staff will be bringing in, turning out, changing rugs etc, often in summer this isn't needed but the staff know that if they think she needs anything they can either just do it and bill me or give me a call/text. They are up the fields bringing in and turning out other horses so if she injured herself or got caught they would notice.

When I go up I always at the very least feel her legs and check under her rug. Normally I will give her a full and thorough going over.

The availability of staff on site was important to my choice of yard, I would hate for my horse to get injured and no one notice for hours on end. Obviously they have to sleep, but it minimises the risks.
 
For me it has to be a twice a day "hands on" check. Our girl has just got some pus in the foot - fine at lunchtime when put out after exercise - lame by 4.30 that afternoon. Imagine if I'd left her until the following lunchtime. If she wasn't moving around much none of the other liveries would of noticed anything they woould of thought she was just dozing or grazing.
 
I check mine once a day through the week and twice on weekends, they are on a busy livery yard with a fair number of people coming and going, most of whom will notice of something has fallen off.

The YOs house overlooks the field too.
 
MrsMozart said:
There are a number of owners. We all have each other's numbers. We will and have called when something doesn't look right. As most of the horses stay together, it's easy and natural to automatically run an eye over the other horses - I consider that to be vital as if there is something amiss with one of those, then there's a chance there'll be something amiss with one of mine.
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This too, I have phoned other owners and the YO because I have spotted a problem. I would also right a slipped or unfastened rug as a matter of course. Most owners make sure that they have each others numbers. I think there are three on a yard of 20 odd horses I don't have a number for but then I would contact YO.
 
I check mine3 - 4 times a week and he is rarely ridden now too due to me moving 30 miles away. He is on a farm and farmer and daughter live on site so they can see them and would let me know if there was a problem.

He is a happy, healthy tb living out 24/7. Even goes in the parlour with the cows to be milked and eat the cake!!
 
I only go to mine once a day. We are on a small livery and other people will keep an eye out and have in the past rung and told me something was up. If I'm off work (like today) then I will sometimes spend the whole day up the yard so they will be being constantly checked. Our livery also backs onto the pub and is the drinking spot for mist of the huntsmen and hunt staff who are all based less than a mile away. YO also works in pub so if a problem were to occur it would be picked up pretty quickly.
When I set out to choose a livery yard I went for the yard that whilst I knew from the outset that I wouldn't get there twice a day it had the mist suitable set up for my horse. I would live to be able to check my horses 2+ times a day (particually now my mare is on meds 3 times a day) but for me that is not possible. Sometimes something has to give and for me at the moment I choose to go once at day. If that makes me irresponsible in some peoples eyes then do be it.
 
When I was on a livery yard I visited twice a day in the Winter and once a day in the Summer, but now I rent a field with a couple of other people I check twice a day.

We all tend to go up at different times and check each others horses, but they may not notice if he was lame if he was just standing there eating or something, which is why I like to go up twice.

Also, last year my old chap passed away suddenly in the field mid morning, I'm so glad I went up earlier that morning because I know for a fact that he was happy and healthy at 7am, so wasn't suffering/dead all night, as he was found at 11am. If I hadn't been up in the morning I think I would have found it a lot more difficult to deal with his death.
 
In the winter I'm there minimum twice a day, in the summer once a day for a good few hours but our I'm on a yard where our yard managerish lady checks them all at night, plus we all look out for each others horses so if anything was unusual we would contact each other straight away
 
I think it also depends hugely on peoples working situations, transport etc. I'm stupidly still learning to drive even tho I'm 22 so I still have to rely on my amazing taxi driver (mum) or do an at least 1 and 1/2hr walk not including hiking up the 2 seperate hills to the ponies. I dunno bout u guys but if I'm constantly late for work because I've had to walk up and its cause of the ponies I won't have and pennies in the bank to pay for the buggars ha ha!!
 
i always go twice a day in winter as they need feeding, but as it's dark early i'll often be done by 4 pm and not down there again until 8.30/9 the next morning so that's a 16 hour gap, some may think thats an unacceptable length of time to leave them but they've survived 5 years that way with no mishaps. in summer OH will usually be going down to collect tools from his lockup in the morning so checks they are all still standing and limbs intact, i go down in the afternoon or after i've picked kids up from school and we can either be half hour or 3 hours!
I have had a horse break it's leg in the field, it was devastating and i felt guilty for ages but eventually i realised that unless i go live in a caravan in their field i can not be there 24/7 or wrap them in cotton wool.
 
I don't think individual situations should form part of the decision for whether once or twice a day. Either you think it needs doing twice & your individual circumstances effect who checks them, whether yourself or someone else. Or you believe once is ample whatever your circumstances. Saying once a day because I am busy/at work/have kids etc is really acknowledging it should be done twice. (not a go at you sallyballybee at all as you've said your situation just effects who checks on them, rather than if they are)
 
i have a 6yo tb mare and in the nice weather i think once a day should suffice. aslong as they have grazing and MORE THAN THEY NEED water and some shelter in the really hot weather i only check on her once a day in the sunny weather unless it is extremely hot/ or unlkess i want to put a fly rug/mask on her. in the winter defo atleast twice a day! they need more care throughout winter and autumn months. mine is in a field by herself with other horses in fields right next to her and also there are houses right infront of my fields. so i am lucky. i have made friends with the people whose house is literally so close, they could make a gate into my field and use it as a back garden lol. they let me use there water as our little yards have no running water and they are always keeping an eye on her for me, (i dont ask) they onlky have to look out their kitchen window and they can see her. i know if anything was to go wrong or they were concerned for any reason, they would phone me. if you have housers close. it might be worth befriending them and they may just take a little time to check on them, they may like having to give them carrotts etc mine do lol.
 
twice a day minimum...as mine are due to be pretty secluded when I move then I will have a webcam too! (bit OTT some might say!)

I think 1 check is not enough...I agree that obvious things can be spotted by passers by...however...I have driven past a cob in a field for ages, saw him from a distance...standing, appeared to be eating ok and had water.

When he was rehomed and I saw him up close...his feet were so bad he couldn't walk properly and he had rainscald. I was mortified for him....I would have phoned WHW if I had known...I thought I was 'keeping an eye!' but you really cannot check them properly unless up close and seeing them moving and/or eating without a rug on!
 
Twice a day for me. Mine is living out with 3 other Horses. So 4 owners all together, they come at different times (from 6 AM- 10AM) so get checked 4 times. Then in the Afternoon/Evening, owners come up from 3PM-8PM. We all have eachothers numbers and can text or ring if we see a problem.

I have an arragement with one of the owners though, which will start from Monday. We will each do everyother morning on a weekday. Both Horses will be checked and their muzzles put on. It will save in petrol and means every other day I get a slight lay in :D
 
When I am away on holiday mine would possibly only be checked once a day but I have a lovely older neighbour who can see them from her house and has all contact numbers in case there is anything wrong, would this be possible for yours too so that you would know if there was a problem?
 
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