I was inside brushing my teeth for bed and something told me to get dressed and go give all the ponies a treat.
Colt just didn’t quite look himself (ate the treat, was eating and drinking) so I put my hand on his forehead. He was on fire. 106 temp. Turned into a long night of icing feet and administering bute and banamine. I battled it for over a week, checking temp every 4 hours and icing whenever it spiked.
No idea what caused it aside from something viral.
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Depending on how horses are managed, it can be a quick walk through to check with no additional hay or water added. My horse, for instance, is in a DIY section of a barn, and I make sure that she always has 24 - 48 hours worth of hay in front of her and both water buckets are clean and full. BO’s doing night check basically just make sure the DIY horses are breathing and that there is evidence of owners having been out - cleanliness of stalls, sufficient hay and water, but they don’t DO anything unless evidence says owner has not been out and horse needs attention, or is acting weird and needs medical attention.
I don’t throw hay or have to refill waters, but they do get an apple or soupy beetpulp snack at night check.
They have at least 30 lbs of hay in their net and two insulated water buckets. Usually they are napping or sprawled out.
There are ways to control your horse’s weight that don’t include leaving them without hay for 12+ hours. Not my idea of acceptable care but everyone has a different standard of what is normal.
Perhaps you are misunderstanding the concept of night check feedings? It’s not the “middle of the night” at any barn I’ve worked or boarded at. It’s the last visit / check / hay feed of the day, usually around 10pm but that varies from barn to barn. By then their supper hay (around 4 or 5pm) has run out and this tides them over until breakfast at 6am. I guess a lot depends how much hay they are given at supper and how long it lasts
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I failed to see where @clanter said their horses go without hay for 12 hours? I mean maybe they do, but I don’t think that as an absolute can be inferred from that post about not feeding in the middle of the night.
One last week that had rolled and was cast against the door which meant it took both of us to get the door open. She has a double stall, 12 x 24, and rolls against the door. SMH.
Other than that very little other than a door not latched properly.
The worst was a shattered elbow that resulted in euthanasia. Have also found a mysterious allergic reaction, a choke, & several mild gas colics. All were things I’m glad I saw before morning.
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You know what I’ve learned from this thread? Any time I come to my new barn and not many people are around, no matter what time of day, I’m going to peek inside each stall before I get started.
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none of our horses are left to starve, they are fed their hay in slow feed hay bags which are secured to hay racks with two snaps to hold the nets in place. Their daily hay allotment is broken into three to four feedings depending upon weather.
It is important to remember that the health consequences of having an overweight horse are oftentimes FAR more severe and dire than having a slightly underweight horse . An obese horse puts more stress on its joints, tendons/ligaments, and hooves.
https://esc.rutgers.edu/your-horses-body-condition-too-much-too-little-or-just-right/
One of the reasons we chose to have Morgans was the breed is know to be easy keepers with a slower metabolic rate
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The summer student having a romp in the hay with some guy 
One night a couple of winters ago, I was up way too late drinking by myself. I looked out the window to see that the water trough heater had somehow started a fire! The trough was melting and the fire was travelling up the cord toward the fence. Had I not seen that, the fence and barn would have caught fire a few minutes later. Only time I’ve ever gotten drunk on my own. I sobered up in a hurry, but was so glad that I had stayed up to see that!
But on my little farm where the horses are out 24/7, I rarely do night check and everyone survives.
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Not a night check incident, but I was the only one at the barn one day. The moment I walked in, the horses in their stalls snapped their heads around to stare at me very intently – not normal behavior – and the talkers among them began calling out.
I thought “How odd,” and started walking slowly down the aisle, trying to figure out what was up. Came to the stall of a cutting-bred yearling, owned by a teen-aged boarder, that was bundled up in heavy blanket and hood; this was a barn where barn lights were timed to stay on until late at night to help reduce winter hair growth, and several boarders also blanketed heavily at the slightest drop in temperature in an attempt to lessen the same.
The hood had slipped forward, essentially blinding the yearling, who was a somewhat bad-tempered filly known for being quite difficult and challenging. It was like entering the lion’s den to walk into her stall. Nevertheless, she allowed me to remove her hood without trying to bite or kick me, and I found that she almost looked as though her eyes were missing – you know how horses can retract their eyeballs into their sockets? It was eerie, and I figured that the hood had been out of place for a while.
Ever after this episode, that filly had a changed attitude, at least towards me, and tolerated me acceptably (she was still not the friendly type). Her owner offered to take one of the shifts when I came out to the barn multiple times every day to care for my thirty-something Old Man – which saved me a daily trip.
The other horses settled as soon I’d arrived at the filly’s stall, and I truly believe they had been communicating to me that there was a problem.
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This is absolutely fascinating. I wonder whether her panicky vibes alone were causing upset to the others: Maybe they were thinking of a predator? Is this species capable of communicating, “Halp! Halp!” and the herd legitimately can pass the message? You seem to have witnessed something really important.
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Indeed!
Fillies gonna filly. Colts gonna colt.
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When I first had horses we never did night check. Then we had this accident prone filly who had got her leg stuck in the gate that day. We weren’t sure the degree of damage and were waiting on the xray (back when the vet had to go get them developed)…she was 3 legged lame. Did a check on her since she was in and wrapped. Found her colicing pretty badly. Have not missed a night check since then!
Over the years have caught a few colics, a few fevers, and one that couldn’t get up. I just sleep better when I’ve done night checking knowing that all is quiet for at least that moment in time! LOL We also have cameras now, so I can do extra checks in the middle of the night without getting out of bed if someone looks a bit funky.
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I believe this to be true. I’ve witnessed it far too often in dairy cattle to think it’s a fluke. Mind you, they don’t much mind if one of their buddies passes away (it happens), but when something is amiss they WILL communicate to the first person that walks in the barn - water bowl busted - the whole aisle will probably be standing even though the water hasn’t gone that far, out of feed - there will be hell to pay, someone caught up in something - you’re going to know about it, calf wandered into the milking barn/baby calf escaped from the maternity pens - you’re going to want earplugs until you get the little troublemaker back to where they are supposed to be and I mean a whole aisle will be standing yelling that “SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT HERE AND YOU’D BETTER FIX IT NOW!!!” Meanwhile, if it’s a maternity pen escapee, the dam is just as like to be hanging out grabbing a moment’s rest as she is to be yelling with the rest of them lol
I’ve seen it a few times with horses for the weirdest things. Farm dog goes missing, people are calling for it, all horses will stand and “point” and the dog will emerge from the place they were staring at. My current horse will glom onto sick/injured/antique and getting ready to die horses. “MUST VISIT THIS HORSE” My reaction used to be, “Oh how cute, she wants to make friends.” Now it’s, omg, what is wrong this time 
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I never found a colicking horse on a night check, but a cast horse, blankets askew, empty water buckets, malfunctioning auto waterer, stalls unlatched, feed room unlatched, etc. - pretty much everything mentioned up thread.
One year when we actually hired a night watchman for the foaling barn, the mares started to foal in the pastures in the afternoon at the dead time between shifts.
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Dream job: night watch for foals. Sigh. Can you imagine?
OMG, @ZuzusPetals, no, it is not a dream job!
Night watch is not fun, it is usually cold, miserable and lonely.
Also, it’s hours and hours of tedium and boredom relieved by either pure terror (mare or foal in trouble) and a few moments of pure joy (watching a healthy baby be born.)
Waiting for the baby to stand and suck is exhausting, trying to teach a dummy foal (dummy is a medical term in this instance) to suckle requires the patience of a saint.
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Same thing many (25+) years ago at the barn DH & I were boarding.
We rode (indoor) very late, finishing up after 9P.
Came back into the attached barn - oddly totally silent - to see every single horse looking towards one stall. Mare in that stall was cast.
I sent DH up to trainer’s onsite house, got a lead around mare’s hind legs, but was not strong enough to shift her.
DH & trainer arrived & we got her up.
{Frantically Knocking Wood}
Here, at my barn, I call last check CookieTime.
Anytime after 9P (I feed around 4ish), I provide hay if there’s none left, top water buckets & the trough out front, eyeball my 3 & dispense gingersnaps.
Horses have free access from stalls to pastures & in nice weather they may be out, but when I turn on the lights, they meander in.
So the cookies assure I can put eyes on everyone.
All are dark bays, so if they stayed out I’d have a hard time checking on them.
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