Usually either me or my son is always home. On the very rare occasion we are both away from the farm, we do have the entire farm fenced with double fence rows and gates that are chained & padlocked. We have every corner and the gates posted with “No Trespassing” signs.
Plus I have 3 very good friends who are police officers that are always going by the farm. If they see anyone strange here, they will stop and check them out.
Interesting that this is a concern. I thought this thread would be about leaving them overnight or something.
I don’t see how it’s that different being gone during the day versus sleeping at night - horses can do just about anything at any time.
What about ranches out west? Horses roam for a long time just making do for themselves.
Again, I can’t imagine this being a concern. I guess one does just get used to what is “normal” for the area.
I’ve been to boarding barns where not many people are around much more than before 9 and after 5 as well…
So, to answer the question, my horses are not under 24/7 survelliance.
Sheesh…I grew up on a ranch and the horses on summer pasture would go several days without being looked at. That included mares and foals. They survived somehow.
Stallions, mares and foals . . .if weather is bad they stay in, if weather is good they are out . . .regardless of whether I am home or not.
I love my guys but would go insane if my life revolved around watching them 24/7.
I’ve had two escapee’s over the past 20 years. My mothers horse when she forgot to shut the gate properly and a pony who took the gate off the hinges. My mother was home to catch her own horse. As far as the pony a stranger driving by stopped at my neighbors to tell them a horse was loose. The neighbor called me at work and I came right home. By the time I got home neighbor and stranger had already caught the pony, put him back in the pasture and fixed the gate. I live in the country and for the most part people around here are wonderful. 
Mine are out from morning til night and then when the weather gets better, they get kicked back out again for the night (as long as the mosquito’s arent bad).
That includes the 2 stallions as well who just hang out, happy as clams that they are with “their girls”.
Sometimes Im in the house. Sometimes I have deliveries to do and am gone for 2-6 hours at a stretch. Sometimes Im in the barn and can keep an eye on them
Lets see - what HAS happened while I wasnt watching them the entire time …
The mares managed to get a bottom board down on their paddock and they stood in a row trying to figure out how to shimmy underneath! :lol:
GG got a top board down on his paddock and leaned over and ate grass on the other side
My worst one though was my new stallion Winner had just arrived 2-3 days before and I had an “Oh $#!T” moment when I turned the corner and saw him wedged solid underneath the bottom rail of the fence. I guess he had rolled closed to the fence and then somehow got wedged under there as he tried to get up. I have NO idea how long he’d been there for, but I was home alone so had to figure this one out quickly. I grabbed a hammer from the barn and figured my best bet was to whack the bottom board off to give him room to roll and get up. Or I had to get the tractor and try and drag him out from under there. Luckily he stayed calm while I was whacking away a foot or so away, I popped the board off 2 posts and he lurched and up he came
I guess Ive made peace with the fact that even if I go up and do a load of laundry or make dinner, in that hour or so Im away from the barn, they can get in no end of trouble. Or not. And I cant live down there 24/7, so I have accepted that some stuff just may happen, I try and make it as safe as possible for them and deal with problems as they occur
The one precaution I have to offer is to make sure that all of your horses aren’t in the same pasture if at all possible. All of mine are in groups of 2 or more in several different pastures/paddocks. If I have an escape it is limited and the horses that get out are much more interested in visiting their buddies than they are in wandering around and off of the property.
I have two who are out 24/7 with access to their stalls. They are left with full water buckets, a full stock tank, and a suitable amount of hay at 8am. They are there alone until I return around 6pm. Never had an issue! (knocking on wood furiously now…)
The main thing is a reliable water source, either a giant tub that they cannot knock over or automatic waterers.
And, I would post your contact info in some conspicuous place, like your hay barn, in case someone notices a problem.
As another poster said, how is leaving them while you work any different than while you are sleeping? And I assume you DO plan on sleeping!
I work 35 miles away so the 3 days a week I work, they are “on their own” for 9-10 hours. They survive just fine. I have an electric front gate since we do live on a road that is busy enough that it would be very bad if they got out on. property is perimeter fenced so any escapee will just be wandering our 40 acres. (And yes, I have had an escapee before.)
In the winter, they are out during the day (weather permitting) and in at night. In the summer, they are in during the day and out at night. Usually they have access to their stalls while out.
I just make sure they have plenty of hay and water and they manage to entertain themselves and get along without me.
Besides, I can’t see my barn from my house and I don’t spend my days at home down at the barn staring at them. More things have probably happened while I was at home than while I was at work. (Like the morning I went to feed breakfast to discover the fence between the mare and foal and another mare was down and they were all in together. Or the afternoon 2 yahoos leaned on a gate enough to pop it open and were wandering around the farm for several hours.)
[QUOTE=morganpony86;5329248]
:lol::lol: Are you completely sure about that? 
Do you guys then leave them inside (stalls) or out (paddocks/pastures)?
JoZ- I share your anxiety. I posted this thread with the idea that someone would say “oh, I’ve installed digital cameras that I can watch online from work”. It will be hard the first few months for me, I’m sure![/QUOTE]
Not to worry! I’ve been doing this for YEARS as the ponies multiply and clone themselves. Okay, so I have four horses now, stopped breeding a few years ago. I have a stallion, a 2 yr old stud colt, a 3 yr old filly and my old broodmare. They are alone allll day long, used to be from 6:30 am to 7:00 pm at night, now the shorter commute…takes it down to 8:00 to 5:00…just great. Time to do chores in the daylight.
Sooo…they all have run-in shelters and gravel paddocks. The fences are electrical rope. Never had any problems over the years, just one day “someone” has undone the gate chain, leaving it ajar and luckily no one wanted to leave the comforts of home that day. I was so thankful.
I do stock them up with plenty of hay in the morning which means there is wastage but better too much than too little.
I do have neighbours that are farmers so they would know what to do if something happened. It can be done. I would not ever lock them up all day in a stall. It’s unhealthy both physically and mentally.
It’s perhaps not ideal as yes, there is a possibility that something could be wrong and you wouldn’t know about it for hours. But for most of us, it’s just a reality of life–and as we all know, you could wrap these d*mn things in bubble wrap and put them in a padded stall, and they would still find a way to get hurt :). And I am always kind of amused by people thinking that it is so much safer for someone to be on the farm but sleeping at night–you are very unlikely to hear, for example, a colicking horse out in the field, from your bedroom. I wouldn’t overly stress about it–but I would make sure that you have good, safe pastures and fencing, good relationships with your neighbors, etc–all of which would benefit you if you were home all day. One thing you do need to keep in mind is that if something does happen, you won’t have the luxury of a barn manager to walk a colicky horse, or do meds 4x/day, etc, so you will want to either find someone that you can pay/trade out these types of care duties, or a job that will allow you that flexibility when needed.
9 to 5! :lol: I want a job like that.
7 to 7, usually, and they get fed on the way to work (check water, make sure no blood is pumping out on the ground and everyone’s on four legs) and sometimes fed on the way back home (same thing) when the day/week is VERY busy. Barn chores are done daily but sometimes quickly if the other aspects of life are squawking louder. Days off and half-days off are for major barn chores, grooming, riding, etc.
I knew when I built this place what my hours were like, so I built accordingly: 24/7 turnout, shelter, automatic waterer, sacrifice paddock. That way nobody has to bring in, put out, water, etc. Maybe open a gate or throw some hay; that is within the capabilities of my husband and son if I’m delayed or the weather takes an unexpected violent turn.
I have nearby people I can call on for help, and although I usually can’t leave work at a moment’s notice unless it’s an absolute disaster, I’m not very far away if the need should arise.
I don’t picture horses as needing constant supervision, provided they’re normal behavior-wise and in a safe environment.
[QUOTE=morganpony86;5329168]
How many of you keep horses at home and have a “regular” 9-5 job, thereby leaving the horses unattended during the day?
In the near-ish future, once my SO & I finally finish schooling and settle down, we’d like to buy property so I can keep my horses at home. But we would both have regular jobs (+ commute, depending on where we end up), and I’m curious as to whether others leave the farm unattended during the day and what precautions you may take if you do.[/QUOTE]
Regularly and frequently.
Just remember your Robert Frost: Good fences make good neighbors. :lol:
G.
Thanks for all your replies!
[QUOTE=Go Fish;5329691]
Sheesh…I grew up on a ranch and the horses on summer pasture would go several days without being looked at. That included mares and foals. They survived somehow.[/QUOTE]
I don’t think I’m worried so much as how they’ll get in trouble in nature as opposed to man-made troubles. E.g. getting loose on highways, across neighbor’s yards, people breaking in and stealing them/accidentally leaving the gate open while hauling out my saddles.
But mostly the getting loose part.
[QUOTE=deltawave;5329971]
I knew when I built this place what my hours were like, so I built accordingly: 24/7 turnout, shelter, automatic waterer, sacrifice paddock. That way nobody has to bring in, put out, water, etc. Maybe open a gate or throw some hay; that is within the capabilities of my husband and son if I’m delayed or the weather takes an unexpected violent turn.[/QUOTE]
Very good idea.
At this point, if I kept my horses at home, I would have about a 1.5-2 hour commute that relies on public transportation. So what are back-up plans for those disaster situations? Excellent neighbors again? Or do you make sure you don’t have that long of a commute?
I definitely see a difference. If I’m home, if there is a problem, I’m right there and am more likely to know there’s a problem. Whereas at work, I’m a commute away. My oldest crashed through the fence at my boarding barn in the middle of the night last summer and the BO was woken up by the stuck pony (he was stuck in an alleyway between fencelines) and his BFF having conniptions, screaming “you’re gonna get in trooooouble!!!”
[QUOTE=morganpony86;5330238]
I definitely see a difference. If I’m home, if there is a problem, I’m right there and am more likely to know there’s a problem. Whereas at work, I’m a commute away. My oldest crashed through the fence at my boarding barn in the middle of the night last summer and the BO was woken up by the stuck pony (he was stuck in an alleyway between fencelines) and his BFF having conniptions, screaming “you’re gonna get in trooooouble!!!”[/QUOTE]
Don’t be so sure about that. I was on one side of my barn and a horse on the other ripped open his chest and never made a sound. There was no blood on the ground or the house walls. The only reason I found it was I had the vet coming out to look at the same horse for another reason.
My stalls are less than 10 feet from my bedrooom and there are many times when I don’t hear things happening, e.g. when two horses took out 20 feet of 3 board fencing at midnight. I found it when I went out to do my normal night check. Who knows how long it had been down?
Yes, I do catch plenty of issues but no more than I would going out the barn once a day.
I have 5 horses at home (they are on 12 acres) and am gone up to 13 hours. I just make sure I see 20 legs on the ground when I feed.
Reed
I would befriend/hire a nearby student, farmsitter, vet tech, etc–because there is going to be a day when the horse needs eye meds 4x/day, or a neighbor calls you about a problem, etc. Just be prepared to pay for the times that you need help and can’t be there (whether that is buying gift certificate to dinner for the neighbors that found your colicking horse, or paying a farm sitter). Better to be prepared for the worst and never have a problem.
I also second designing the property to be as easy for horse care as possible, and personally after doing it both ways I wouldn’t even consider building pastures without automatic waterers. Make sure that you are designing a place that will take little enough time for care that you don’t end up consuming all of your riding time on barn chores.
Invest the time and effort it takes to be a good neighbor. That’s probably the single best thing you can do for your horses if you are away a lot. Many people consider horses to be a bit of a nuisance, so the more effort they know you put into keeping them clean and safe, the more respect they tend to have for you (and by extension your horses.) Stuff has happened while we were gone, stuff has happened while we were there, but fencing in good repair, regular feeding times and an always-full water trough seems to keep them in line.
We have wonderful neighbors, and are careful to not abuse their good natures! We don’t ask them to feed when we are away all the time, and make sure to thank them for the nice things they do for us and we try to reciprocate. They have kids who love our horses, and because we have a relationship, it was easy to communicate that the horses can have carrots, apples, but no sugar please. We were also able to communicate that the horses are young and therefore we’d appreciate having no one in the fence when we aren’t home. We also clear out the paddocks of manure and try to keep the horse area looking decent (although we do struggle with mud in the Spring and late Fall…dirt paddocks, not sure what else to do…the horses have dry spots.)
Our neighbors call us when they see something amiss (like the “little brown horse attacked the big horse, but there was no blood.”)
So far, so good…but good neighbors are no happy accident. You need to invest the time!
I use to have two horses that had access to the barn, and a huge 25 acre pasture…and worked and sometimes did not get home till 7pm.
Now, I have 10 horses, and the mgt is much more intense. I have had to divide pastures, etc.
Also, some of the horses are older, or young, and well, they can be trouble.
Yesterday, I had quite the scare.
My helper let the horses out, and I was busy doing other things outside. Anyhow, I went out to the front paddock just to make sure she had put the hay where it wasn’t muddy, etc, and there was my old gelding down.
He had gone to roll, and I have temp fencing up so they don’t go on a hill and slip on the ice(I do this every fall, take down in spring), and there he was on the other side, with his head and back on the down hill side.
I ran over, and yelled to him, and he looked at me and said, no, sorry I am just too tired now. Well, I called the helper to bring rope, and kept my youngster from jumping on his feet and biting his feed(he does that and probably what inititated the problem).
I undid his blanket, since it seemed to be pressing on his chest and restricting him, and started to yell at him to get up. He managed to turn himself around so his legs were downhill, and got up.
I think if I hadn’t gotten to him, no, he would not have survived…he was cast, but outside. He had probably been like that for 45 minutes. He had already given up, so I was very lucky to have gone to check on them before I came in to have my coffee and go to work.
It really freaked me out. Sooooo, I would be very thoughtful about where you turn them out, the age, etc.
If your horses roll first thing, as most of mine do…watch them to be sure they get up.
I lived pretty stress free with just two horses. Even with 5. But, now with 10, it just seems to be a very huge mgt priority and they need to be checked on. 10x more chance for injury/calamity! Also, I am dealing with an aged horse, who just doesn’t seem to get that rolling next to a fence post isn’t the best idea. I don’t know why he is doing that more often now that he is older?!! or rolling on a hill with your head and back on the downhill side!!?
That was an unusual and traumatic incident, but horses seem to find trouble.
otoh, no one can doctor/observe wierd behavior like you can.
Sometimes, I’d like to ship them all off and board them(if I could afford to) and just go over once a day and pat them, and ride, etc. My life would be less restricted.
But, having horses at home is a lifestyle too. I don’t think I’d trade it for anything!
Just plan it well, have outside flood lights, plenty of electricity in the barn, outside auto waterers(inside too if you can), good fencing(I prefer no climb), but in new england that is difficult here with my terrain and if there is a pet sitter in the area, consider having them come during mid day.
Also, make things easy for a non horse person to access the field/barn, etc without being in with the horses to do feeding, checking water, etc.
have fun. my incident was highly unusual and a one time thing in 20 years of horses at my home.
I’m pretty sure that mine are perfectly capable of hurting themselves when I’m staring right at them…in fact, I think they like it, the masochists!
To the OP - I totally freaked when we bought our place and I was face with going to work for the first time after bringing the horses home.
Then I reminded myself…even when I boarded, there was not someone on the property, staring at my horses 24/7. The BO would leave, run errands, etc. Or be on a totally different part of the farm.
So take a deep breath - and it will be OK!
I will say that one of the things that gives me great comfort with my set up is that we’re double gated. All of the fields and the barn are enclosed by another fence which has a gate. So, if the gate to a pasture is left open, the horses will get no further than the barnyard. This was a mandatory fixture when we bought the place to me, and has saved my bacon (mostly when bringing horses in for dinner) on a few occasions.
