Summer
Horse care while on holiday: sitter instructions
If you are away for two weeks, someone else looks after your horse. That goes best when that person has everything you know on paper.
Who can do it
The yard owner, if you are on a livery yard and it is offered: often the simplest choice, for a fee. A livery or barn mate who already knows your horse, in exchange for the same during her holiday. Your sharer, who does half of it already. A paid horse sitter or a sitting service, for those who keep horses at home. Or family, provided someone can show them the ropes daily at the start.
Whatever you choose: one person is responsible, and that person has a second one to fall back on. Two people who will “both pop in” both don’t.
What to write down
On paper, by the feed bin and in the tack room, dated. This is what goes in the instructions for your horse sitter:
- Feed per meal: what, how much as you measure it, how to prepare it; hay and water; what he must not have. The feed chart that hangs at the yard, possibly with feeds measured out and labelled in advance.
- Medication and supplements: what, when, until when, and where it is. A course as a tick-list.
- Rugs and weather: which rug in which weather, and whether he is in or out at night. In doubt: no rug is usually better than one too warm.
- What is normal for this horse: how he eats, how often he passes droppings, how he stands when you arrive, his resting temperature. And what is not normal: the things you want them to call about.
- Who to call: you (and how, if you are abroad), a second contact, the vet, the farrier, the insurer with policy number. And where the passport is.
- Who decides: if you can’t be reached, the sitter may call the vet out. Up to what amount, and who decides on anything bigger? Write it down; it stops someone waiting for fear of the bill.
- The daily routine: times, turnout in and out, grooming, exercise: what may and what must happen.
The week before
Do a round together
The sitter does one morning or evening with you there. That shows what he didn’t know to ask.
Stock
Enough feed, hay, bedding and medication for the whole period plus a few days, set out together and labelled.
Nothing new
No new feed, no new field, no farrier or vet appointment during the holiday unless it has to be.
The paper
Print the instructions and the feed chart, hang them up and send the sitter a photo of them. Date on it.
One agreement about contact
One message a day with a photo is just right for most owners: enough to stay calm, not so much that it burdens the sitter.
Frequently asked
How long can a horse manage without me?
As long as someone else does it well. Horses attach to routine, not to the calendar; two weeks with a good sitter he barely notices. A horse that is ill or on a course needs someone who really can.
Do I have to pay?
A yard owner or sitting service: yes, agree it beforehand. A barn mate: reciprocity works better than money, but a thank-you is part of it.
May the sitter ride?
Only if you agree it, and then what, how long and where. Put it in the instructions; “can he be ridden?” is the question that most often leads to trouble.
Does the sitter need Halster?
No. What he needs is on paper: the feed chart and the instructions for your horse sitter. If you use Halster, you share the feed board as a PDF or as text; he doesn’t need to install anything.
In Halster
Prepare your horse’s holiday care
Keep a note of feeding and care arrangements in Halster as you prepare the handover.
Install the test version through TestFlight.
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