How to help tell the difference between to horses when someone else if feeding them?

[Phaedra1]

I’m going away for a couple of days, and a friend will be helping out with the horse chores. They have some knowledge about horses, and I want to make sure everything goes well.
I have three horses that need to be fed grain daily, but I have two similar-looking bays that they may have trouble distinguishing between. Since they have similar personalities as well, it’s confusing for someone who isn’t very horsey.
I was considering using animal-grade spray paint to put a colored dot on one of the bays to help them tell them apart.

Is there a better way to distinguish between them, or has anyone else dealt with a similar situation?

[endlessclimb]

Halters, collars, a ribbon braided in mane. .

[Phaedra1]

They live in a field with a lot of bushes, so I don’t like leaving halters on. But, maybe a ribbon would work.

[clanter]

we have had Bays for ever, looking at the feet was the easiest method, number of or lack of white feet and position. Foxie is the one with the two white rear and so on

[Simkie]

If this is going to be a regular thing, putting a mare collar on one or both (or all!) with the name is kind of a nice way to go, and classy. And an opportunity to buy nice strap goods, hooray.

If it’s a one off, just braid a mane. Put a fly sheet on one. Leave a halter on. Etc.

[Displaced_Yankee]

I had used to farmsit for a friend who has two big black Percheron crosses. One had been trained to drive and had his tail docked (prior to my friend). Dobbin has a tail, Robbin does not.

(I am not advocating docking a tail for any reason…but it was a quick easy check to see who I had)

For my sorta-horsey husband…I always tell him to just throw everyone 3 flakes of timothy. No one will die from lack of feed if it is one feeding or even a weekend. And he never has to move horses around. If you use something like soaked beet pulp or alfalfa cubes with dinner for everyone, that may suffice as their ‘grain’ meal if they get rowdy about not having a ‘meal’.

[BrownDerby]

A local riding school used photos with a card that also specified markings and quirks. And trust me on this one: indicate gender.

[Demerara_Stables]

Depending on how similar they look, I’d do photos. Do they have different leg markings? If so, photos of those as well. My emergency contact card at the barn has color, gender, and facial markings because all of mine are different enough.

[mmeqcenter]

Write down anything that differentiates them.
Fly mask color
Face markings
Shoes or barefoot
Etc

If you need a differentiator, put a flask mask on one, or give them different colored fly masks, bell boots, etc.

[Festivity]

You can get the livestock markers and put a colored mark on one bay’s hind quarters. Should last a weekend. They’re often used for endurance rides.

[SusanO]

Don’t overestimate a person’s ability to differentiate between horses. Doctor friend went out to ride his horse which he had owned for several years. Two grey horses in the pasture. Brings in the grey mare, saddles her up and rides her and then puts her out in the pasture. He owns a grey gelding. And no - I did not make this up. Was discussed with great hilarity by the people that knew him for years.

[Foxglove]

I have four bays (two are silver tipped bays --or commonly called roan bays) all geldings. In the feed room is are four clear sleeves (plastic, like teacher puts announcements in) that have a picture of horse’s head and face so markings can be seen and instructions on what to feed --the picture/instructions are updated regularly. Should for some reason, I not be home to feed (it happens --recently DD was in an accident and I was at the hospital with her so asked DH to feed) --whom ever does feed knows who-gets-what.

[clanter]

@SusanO

Don’t overestimate a person’s ability to differentiate between horses. Doctor friend went out to ride his horse which he had owned for several years. Two grey horses in the pasture. Brings in the grey mare, saddles her up and rides her and then puts her out in the pasture. He owns a grey gelding. And no - I did not make this up. Was discussed with great hilarity by the people that knew him for years.

I used to do Coggins paperwork checks at local horse shows, the number of times people handed me paperwork that did not match the horse was endless. Yeah this is for a Bay but it says He is a Mare. Please give me the proper paperwork if not leave,

Our local animal control ordinances were update last year I had to get them to remove wording referring to pony or horse as None of the animal control or police officers could tell the differences. I actually took a pony and a horse to one of the committee meetings that was drafting the updates. Every one there said oh That One is the Pony…all identified the horse as a pony. Admittedly I did take a 14,1 pony and 15,2 horse but had official measurement cards for both. So all wording of horse or pony was removed changed to a specific height and how to measure the height to determine if it is a small or large animal

[Phaedra1]

I will probably end up doing pictures like many of you suggested, and maybe using a crayon marker just in case. The other problem is that they don’t leave things on either, so if I used a halter or fly mask, they would probably just rip them off in the trees.

[Texarkana]

Text them photos of each horse and leave labeled or color-coded halters on them. Or neck collars if you don’t want to use halters.

[endlessclimb]

I’d braid something in the mane. Put a bunch of rubber bands all the way up the braid in case one or two breaks. And in the off chance the horse rips the whole chunk of hair out, that’s a still a positive identifier.

[Simkie]

Pictures are great and yes, absolutely do that, along with calling out specific differences in your instructions. But mark the horses in some really obvious way. The bell boot suggestion above was great if you don’t want them to wear anything like a halter or fly mask–you could even put a different color pair on each, so if someone manages to ditch them, they’re still marked. It’s not likely that BOTH horses will manage to remove all of them. Or different colored fly boots? Or ooooh, clip a design into one? Tis the season!

My husband isn’t “horsey” although he can catch a horse, lead one, groom, feed, etc. And even though he sees our horses daily and they literally live at home, he still mistook one bay mare for the other despite a size difference and different markings. Make it reallllllllly apparent on the horse who is who.

[Phaedra1]

If someone asks me to describe my horses:

Horse One: She’s a chunky bay with a lot of chrome on her face and a friendly personality. Her nose is the color of peanut butter.

Horse Two: She’s a tall, lanky bay with a small stripe on her face and a bit of a belly. She can be slightly pushy but also has a peanut butter-colored nose.

To a person unfamiliar with horses, they’d just see two bay mares.

[Phaedra1]

I guess my game plan is to print pictures, put the animal marker on, and braid their mane.

[Texarkana]

I boarded at a barn once where on more than one occasion, the staff mixed up my plain, dark bay gelding with no white anywhere and my red bay mare with a good amount of white on her face and legs.

This was not a “cheap” barn of newbies but rather a barn that considered themselves a high end show and training facility.