Those with horses at home - what do you do for holiday cover?

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canteron

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This is the first year I haven't had a part time groom to help with the horses. There are people looking after the house and they will happily fill up water and throw hay over the fence and would probably spot if something went very lame BUT is that enough?

Are there people who would just come and look after the horses for a few days and how do you find them?

What do you do?
 
I don't know whether you can search for pet sitters. I don't know if they generally do horses but they come and do cats etc. Whenever you specify
 
I think that's fine to be honest - if the horses have food and water and the people you have in will be able to tell if one's sick or injured then what more do you need? A horse sitter isn't going to do an awful lot more.

We have quite a few people in our area who offer horse, dog, cat sitting services so I am sure there would be some people in your area who would offer the same service.
 
When we have had non horsey house sitters in the past we have a neighbour wander past occasionally to make sure they horses are OK, but the house sitter fills the water and throws hay in the field. An inexperienced house sitter will need someone to call/help out if they notice something wrong - I wouldn't let them, or expect them to handle any problem on their own.
 
I have my four horses at home and when I went on holiday last month, I found a groom advertising in the local tack store. I met her and chatted to her first to make sure I was happy with her and she did the horses for a weekend first too. My friend was house/dog/chicken sitting and is 'horsey' but she works full-time and isn't an 'expert' so I felt it was unfair on her -and the horses- to burden her with their welfare. The groom was excellent, she charged £200 to do 3 horses twice a day for 10 days, changing rugs if necessary, applying fly spray and fly fringes and checking the old girl for fly strike. My 4th horse is a laminitic so she went to another friend's house for the duration as I like her to be ridden most days and the friend really likes her. It all worked really well though was a bit complicated and I thought I wasnt going to get the laminitic back from my friend as she loved her too much. Also the laminitic has since made it clear that she MUCH prefers her holiday home, the ungrateful trollop!
 
when we had 2 ponies at home i paid for the parents of daughters instructor to come in poo pick skip out feed etc - loved the people and worth the money as i chilled out - now i have a stable fairy who looks after baby when away at weekends - yes she charges of course but worth every penny as carer loves an understands baby an baby loves her to :)
 
for people not aware there are companies who provide a service - theres a biggie - i have dabbled in past and last year set my own business up house/horse /pet sitting but back went and after 8 weeks on morphine high as kite it didnt happen - jee i had 3 customers lol - but there are good companies - so darnt mention biggie - but they are good :)
 
We have a couple of girls locally who work with horses who come and do them. Both of them have worked for us in the past, so we know and trust them.. Other people advertised locally as house/pet sitters.

We do have friends who have offered, but think its a bit much..
 
We provide holiday livery for people who want to be able to go away and not worry. That said, we're not very good at getting away ourselves. Notwithstanding we always make sure we've an excellent groom, we've only managed 3 days away together in 5 years! Oops.
 
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