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

In summer I only see him once a day. I poo pick give him bute and check him over etc then job done. I drive past him sometimes but the neighbour with horses etc and house owner are around and would ring me ASAP if anything wrong etc, Even if no neighbour I would go once a day.

In Winter twice a day to give hay etc.

He is out 24/7 no barb wire etc so I am quite content. Been doing this for 11 years with no adverse effect!
 
I check once a day and not at the same time every day during the week when I am at work I check him at about 7pm and then at weekends I come at lunch time.

It is not practical for me to check him twice a day as the checking takes at least 45 minutes due to the field not being close to the yard and then I have a commute to work of 1 and 1/2 hours. I would love to check him in the mornings too but I have to work and earn enough to keep him.

None of the other liveries who share the field come down and check twice a day either probably for similar reasons. However I am the only person who comes in the evenings during the week the others all come in the morning and we all try and look out for each other horses, additionally we have a public footpath running through the field with lots of dog walkers and runners. YO also occassionally goes to check on everyone as well.

In the winter YO does the haying if needed and we pay her doing that.

It is not ideal and I do worry but I do my best.
 
I agree with this.....

monkeybum13 said:
I agree.
When some people 'check' on others peoples horses they just check to see they're stood up with 4 legs and a tail, how you're meant to know if they're lame, have a wound, infection or whatever without actually walking up to the horse and checking on them I have no idea...
Click to expand...

Mine are seen twice a day without fail wether they are living in or out.

For those who say they 'dont have time' utter rubbish - in that case you have to make time! Its easily done....I work very long shifts in a hospital (doing close to 80 hours this week) and was up at 5am this morning and onboard for a ride at 5.45 and then went on to do a 12 hour shift. Unless you can afford full livery then Im afraid you have to put the work in!
 
I personally check her twice a day and I know that she is properly checked at least another 2 times as she is out with the YM/YOs horses. However I still go and if I know I can't, I drop her a text to make sure she is properly looked at and not just a glance from a distance (although I'm sure she gets properly looked at as she's an in your face kind of horse!)

There are a lot of injuries a horse can get (puncture wound to a joint) for example that would only be obvious if you looked very close and if not treated within hours of injury will cause long term damage. I would never just allow my horse to be scanned from a distance.
 
Parker79 said:
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!
Click to expand...

i can see where your coming from hoever that particular owner obv dont give a **** bout that horse, i onlky check mine once a day in nice weather (summer only )unless really hot or rains etc, but i would never only check my horse once a day if it was suffereing from problems like this cob you know....neither would any other caring owner leave their horse to suffer atleast i hopoe not!!!....at the end of the day just because a horse is checked on once a day dont mean it isnt looked after (not having a go just my opinion :S) at the end of the day you could check on a horse a thousand times a day and it could still get the problems if you checked on it once a day, i know its not the same but look at wild ponies across the world.......however i do agree with speding a good few hours witht the horse and doing the jobs if only checked on once daily....aslong as the horse is happy healthy food available and more than they need water!!! i think once a day in the nice weather is fine.....when i only go down once a day i spend a good 3/4 hours with her
 
To me there is a big difference between the horses only being checked once a day, and you going once a day knowing other horsey people are around and likely to notice and act if there was a big problem. I also think those people who have experienced seriously injured horses in the field tend to be more careful about regular checks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top