My gelding lives with my parents who do night checks between 8 and 9 pm. However, everyone is out 24/7. In the winter they will usually be in the run-in at this time, otherwise they’re out grazing. I admit that when I farmsit, I do a head count, even if I don’t see them up close. It helps me sleep at night! And I’ll try to put eyes on everyone if I happen to wake up during the night. I’m a little neurotic about this. Thankfully I don’t farmsit often!
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We don’t have night check per say but then are numerous cameras with audio around the barns and in a few stalls that play on a tv so facility owner can easily hear a horse cast or in distress. At our winter facility we don’t have cameras to the house so most nights I will walk out at 10 before I go to bed and lay eyes on everyone. I caught a nasty virus and 105.5 fever on a 3 year old that way. He looked totally fine but I knew the horse and he was just a little quieter than normal. Walked in his stall put my hand on his head and about burned my hand off. Not really but he was burning up. I cringe to think what could have happened if I didn’t find him til morning and he cooked all night.
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My critters are home and I’ve never done a night check, except when I couldn’t remember whether I Iatched the stall doors closed or when I thought I heard weird noises. Barn is fairly close in near my bedroom and we try to sleep with windows open as much as we can. None of the places I’ve boarded at have offered it as a service either, so it never crossed my mind until I saw a recent thread here. They have 24/7 access to their stalls with ample turnout and I have a heated waterer in the field. I do want to get cameras though.
^This. Thank you, @alibi_18 - you said it perfectly. I wasn’t sure if night check was the norm or not (from reading the responses, it seems pretty evenly split). I’m working and taking night classes, so I can’t drive 45 minutes to the barn and 45 minutes home when I don’t get out of class until 10pm (which is when the barn closes anyway). So unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of just going to “check on my horse.” I’d love it if I did!
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I keep mine at home and I don’t do night check except if I want to cuddle with them 
. That being said, I ride after work so usually I don’t come in the house until 630/7 and I leave for work around 630.
They are out 24/7 and have a automatic waterer which I check at feed times. You can’t watch them 24/7 and if you check on them at 8:59 pm, they will colic at 9pm.
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My BO’s live on site but I don’t know that they do an actual night check. That being said, they are on top of each individual horse’s health, from how much they eat and drink to how much they poo and the consistency. They both have other jobs as well, but the horse’s care is utmost of importance.
I can’t understand barns having hours. I had to go and check on my daughter’s pony at midnight after a colic. What do people do then?
Most barns have normal hours of operation, but will make exceptions for medical issues or on a case by case basis. Usually one would talk with the BO/BM about their individual situation.
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I agree it’s not silly. I don’t do night checks at my house because my horses are out 24/7. It’s more likely that a stalled horse that travels to shows regularly may have some illness (colic, virus) than mine who don’t really work or leave the property. I’ve only boarded once, but they had people there until at least 8pm (no one lived on the premises). Morning staff were in by 6am or so. As far as I know there was no additional night check after 8pm but definitely there were eyes on horses until at least then.
I would think that the horses could be set up for 12-14 hours in a stall without having to have water buckets refilled and more hay thrown in. Throwing one last flake in at 10 PM? Hope it’s huge. I find that they get in the least amount of trouble with plenty of hay, and keep forage in front of them 24/7.
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My horses are home. I don’t do night checks. Horses are in a dry paddock at night with 24/7 hay and water (unless inclement weather then stalled). I had my beloved young mare pass from colic this Fall. Would a night check have saved her? I don’t know. I checked on her about 6-7 pm and then found her colicing at about 5:30 am. My vet said not at all so I will not allow myself to think a night check would have been the difference as that just hurts even more.
I still do not do late night checks.
HOWEVER, if I were boarding ie. unable to be there to put MY eyes on my horses and be SURE someone was there at the times stated giving adequate hay/water AND night checks were previously being done…I’d probably want a “night check” meaning like 8-9 pm maybe, a last look.
Apparently, I don’t trust people anymore! :eek:
I’m completely anal about my horses now that I have complete responsibility for them at home. I’d be a nightmare boarder if I ever went back to that…
lol:
Most barns around here do night checks between 8-10pm. Its quite the norm…
I have my ponies at home and during the crappy winter weather, they come in around 5:30pm to grain and a flake of hay. I do a night check around 9pm and feed more hay and pick out stalls. My guys eat all of their hay by 9 and I couldnt imagine them going all the way until 5am for their next feeding. To me it seems too long to go without hay.
I acutally caught one of my ponies colicing last thursday at my night feeding. Brought him in at 5:30 and he ate his grain and hay and was normal. When I did my night check he was colicing and I was able to treat him with some flunixin and did not have to call the vet. But I believe I caught it early and perhaps prevented it from getting worse.
I know he could have coliced at 3am and I would never have caught it, but at least I was able to get my eyes on him one more time until the morning. It was a long night and a tiring friday at work thats for sure lol! But totally worth it for me. I don’t blame the OP for wanting a night check and a night feed.
Now during the summer months, I don’t bring in until 9pm and I don’t do a night check then.
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Places I was at had 2 water buckets per stall. They were refilled either by night check person or the day person just before s/he left for the day. Horses did not run out of water. Worst problem to worry about was buckets freezing if it was cold.
24/7 forage has been debated over and over. Most boarding barns in my area just won’t do it. There are also horses who cannot get fat without risk to their health. Small hole hay nets help, but not always enough (says my prone-to-fat hay hoover mare…)
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OP mentioned her BM was doing night check for awhile but stopped then after told us her barn closes at 10pm. Night check would be no earlier then 10PM at closing…and to really be a night check not just closing staff checking before lights out, it should be midway between 10pm and AM lights on…
With BM living on the property, she’d be doing the closing check and likely turning on the lights for AM feeding, Think that’s the answer to why she stopped doing it.
Think sometimes there’s an unrealistic expectation of what boarding barns can do without having to hire enough staff to provide 24/7 coverage or mid nite checks and still be affordable.
Even my pricey show barns did not have staff in the barn between closing and AM feeding unless there was a problem, then there was a couch in the tack room. Owner was on the property but not expected to run house, family, business and barn 24/7/365. Most of my friends keeping at home throw hay around 8pm and don’t return until dawn. After the first year of keeping at home anyway.
OP needs to just ask the BM if she is willing to offer the service, offer to pay more for it or accept there’s nobody to check in the wee small hours unless there is a known problem.
I do not personally think rotating boarders doing late nite check is a particularly good idea for numerous reasons including dependability and safety.
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One thing in this thread that makes me scratch my head some is the number of people who say they are boarders and randomly top off water buckets when they are the last one there in the evening.
Does the person in charge know that boarders are topping off water buckets?
I can only imagine the scare when the BM came out in the morning to find two totally full buckets in Dobbin’s stall not knowing the SuzyQBoarder filled one empty and one half full bucket the night before and Dobbin did not drink anything else after that but the BM is used to seeing the empty and half full bucket in the AM.
And the joyous amount of extra work it makes for the morning crew who has to dump those full buckets.
I am not saying that horses should be with out water … I just think people doing hay or water with out the people in charge knowing it was done can cause an issue.
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I don’t .
I do check my goats when kidding is close or when my cow is due to calve. I also do middle of the night checks if there was a health issue in any of my animals. No night checks if everyone is fine.
I board where all horses are out 24/7 unless the weather is absolutely terrible. The BM lives on site but does not do night checks. He may glance towards the closest pastures when he lets his dog out around 10:30 but I doubt it. They are fed at 4-4:30pm and 8am, so 16ish hours without true checking unless we are any riding that night and then it is closer 13-14 hours. Never once has this bothered me, I would prefer feeding spaced out every twelve hours but the horses have adapted and are all healthy. Have we lost some to colic, yes two oldies, do I for a second believe if we had checked them at any certain time it would have been prevented? Nope not at all, as many have said colic can happen the second you tuck yourself in for the night and go south fast.
I am not saying you are wrong for wanting it OP. If it was being done when you arrived but stopped months later I would ask why. You have a right to know what is included in your board and if night checks aren’t then it is up to you and the BO/BM to figure that part out. I don’t have experience with barns having hours so that is a new concept to me but I’ve also only been my current barn. I do know the 4 of us that board there know all of the horses intimately and could do our own checks if we were concerned but if that is not the case for you I would be cautious about boarders checking. Just my two cents for what it’s worth.
If there is internet in the barn, look into what it would take to set up a camera in your horse’s stall. Then, you can easily check on him.
i don’t do formal night checks on my two who are at home. They are easily visible in the field from our house windows until dark. At night, they come close to the house when I call. I feel like we would notice a problem, unless it was in the middle of the night.
I feed around 7-8am and 6-7pm, and all horses presently on my farm are out 24/7. I do a night check around 9 or 10pm (horses at home, have a couple boarders) if there’s a specific need - new horse, new pasture groups, I have a suspicion I left a water trough’s spigot turned on, etc.
I never boarded anywhere that did night checks, that I can recall. Yes, I would consider it unreasonable to ask a BO to add night checks to their schedule.
However, it doesn’t really matter what people’s “norm” is. The OP’s issue is a bit different, in that a service was provided and now no longer is. If you aren’t okay with it, I suggest finding a new barn. I doubt you’ll convince this BO to resume the practice. Or, as others suggested, work out a rotating schedule with the other boarders.
I’ll throw another emphatic note behind the others who said, colic and injuries can happen at any time. Night check or no night check, a colic can easily happen after the last check of the night (whether it be 6pm. 8pm, 10pm, midnight) and not be caught until morning.
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I don’t quite get this argument from some about how colic (or whatever catastrophe) can happen anytime, so night check is pointless. Yes, something might happen about anytime, but if I go check mine at 10 pm, I hopefully catch whatever might have happened since dinner, and thus lower the risk of a really bad outcome. Now I don’t necessarily expect it to happen at boarding barns, but I sure do appreciate it when they do actually do so.
One example - we had unusually cold weather, an ice storm, and my doofus horse got cast between dinner and night check. He’d given up, and by the time we had him on his feet, his temp was scary low, and he’d likely not have made it til morning without our intervention. I have no regrets for time spent doing our night checks at all.
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