Whether you’re a horse owner or a yard owner the responsibility of horse care doesn’t pause for the Christmas celebrations. Making plans to care for your horses, whilst spending time with loved ones, over the Christmas period can be a bit of a juggle. Here we look at some useful tips to ease the workload.
Ask the Yard to Cover
This can be a simple solution if your yard offers assisted services, although its worth bearing in mind these may come with a premium cost over Christmas and the New Year, and services may be limited. However, this can give you peace of mind that your horse is being cared for as part of the normal yard routine.
Whilst it may cost you, its certainly worth weighing up the removal of the need to attend the yard, get grubby and spending precious time on Christmas day at the yard.
Share the Workload
If you don’t have services provided by the yard, or the yard permits liveries to swap jobs, buddying up to help care for each others horses over the Christmas period can be a great time saver. If two or more owners share the responsibility of their equines at certain ends of the day, this can reduce visits to the yard. If you organise a rota it means, for example, that while you’d be at the yard to turn your own horse out, you’d turn others out too but that in return your horse would be covered by other liveries at different times.
This can work well with even a small group of owners if the care is simplified over this period. Coming up with a defined plan and rota in advance is a necessity for this to work smoothly, remembering to tell your yard owner, if applicable, of your plans. so they know who will be caring for which horses at which time.
Plan Ahead
If your routine is likely to be disrupted for several days over the Christmas period, its important to be prepared, especially if you are away and someone else is covering your horse. Make sure you have plenty of hay, feed and bedding in stock, and that anything you may need- rugs, hoof picks, headcollars are all to hand.
You should also check the weather forecast in advance and be prepared if turnout is likely to be restricted due to heavy rain or snow, and to have plans in place if the weather is cold and things like taps and troughs are likely to be frozen.
Simplify Horse Care
Being prepared for Christmas visits to your horse can certainly save time. Pre preparing things like feed and hay nets a day or so in advance can be of great use, especially if others are covering your horses care. As long as the horses are provided with the necessary routine, care and feed then to change their routine slightly for one or two days won’t have too much of an effect.
You could also save time by only lightly mucking out over the period (followed by a good mucking out in the days afterwards!), skipping grooming, and if you usually exercise your horse daily, then consider giving them the day off, or something less time consuming such as lunging.
However, whilst simplifying horse care can be a bonus, its important to make sure that basic needs are met such as forage, water and at the very least to remove the horses rug and give it a quick check over. If stabled, then your horse should still be attended to each end of the day.
Maximise Turnout Time
Timing can often be a tricky thing to manage over Christmas, you may find that you need to attend the yard later or earlier than you normally would, leaving more time between seeing your horse. This could mean that they are left running low on hay or water, or left in a dirty stable for long periods if they are staying in. If you have the facility at your yard to leave the horse turned out for a longer period, this can be a huge advantage as means they will not be stabled for a prolonged period, and will give you more flexibility with the time you, or those on your behalf, need to visit the yard.
Make it Christmassy
For those who do choose to attend the yard over Christmas, especially Christmas day, then make it festive! Arrange for all the liveries to attend at the same time. Take along mince pies and mulled wine and crank up the radio with Christmas songs! For those who have more time on Christmas Even and Christmas Day, a Christmas ride around the local village, festooned with tinsel and antlers- and even perhaps a stop for a Christmas drink at the local pub- can bring great joy!
By implementing these time-saving tips, you can keep horse care manageable over Christmas. With a little preparation and creativity, you’ll be able to enjoy the best of the festive season without compromising on the well-being of your equine companion. After all, the joy of the season is best shared when everyone—two-legged and four-legged alike—is happy and cared for.
Cheryl Johns, is the founder of LiveryList and the Yard Owner Hub, and also an experienced yard manager and business consultant. Since its launch in 2011, LiveryList has been the UK’s leading Livery Yard Directory. The launch of the Yard Owner Hub in 2020 created a unique resource to guide and support yard owners in all aspects of practical and administrative yard management. The development of working relationships with organisations, charities and businesses across the equestrian industry have allowed Cheryl, and LiveryList, to become an industry-recognised point of contact for all things yard-related! Through this, Cheryl and LiveryList help develop awareness of the issues experienced by yard owners, and helps add value and credibility to the livery industry through the promotion of best practice for the industry, and by helping educate and inform yard owners, their clients and the businesses and organisations that work with them as to the expectation of standards and management for yard of all types and sizes.