Great insight, @McGurk. I was picturing sitting there reading the greats of Western literature, offering ice chips and leg massages to the ladies, and once labor starts, phoning the grown-ups to take over. Could you at least have a cot set up next to the stall to doze now and then, or do you have to be alert at all times? (Some watchman I’d make — already asking about sleeping on the job.)
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I slept on a sofa in a tack room and watched video monitors, and if I saw any activity on the monitors, I would go out and check.
Most broodmares did not like being disturbed, so we tried to intrude as little as possible.
It was possible to cat nap and set your alarm for every hour, but it wasn’t like it was very good quality sleep.
It was an experience I am very glad I had, but it wasn’t exactly like you pictured.
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Multiple colics, one peritonitis, and a broken leg. I purposely feed my outside horses at this time to make sure they all come up and are in one piece. Sometimes when they are just standing there it can be a bit hard to tell in the dark, but a turned down meal never lies.
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I think foal watch sounds like my most un-ideal job, a mix of tedium and anxiety, as well as physical discomfort, and high risk if something goes wrong to 2+ valuable animals!
One of the first lesson barns I took lessons at as an adult didn’t do night checks, per se (it was a pretty sketchy barn, looking back, but I didn’t fully realize it at the time). One day, I was the first person to arrive to tack up the eighteen-year-old pony I rode (the first horse I cantered on after going back to riding). There had been a severe thunderstorm over night. He’d reared up in his stall and caught one of his legs in a small gap between the door and the stall wall and died. We were never sure if he’d had a heart attack out of fear of the storm or if he’d broken something and passed. I don’t think a night check would have saved him, but yeah, it was an brutal lesson that horses can hurt themselves on anything.
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Which is why I said it depends what time they are given their final hay and how long it lasts.
If people are giving sufficient amounts in slow feed bags, as Clanter clarified, then it all works out the same as throwing hay later at night. But in another thread there is a lot of discussion about horses not having access to any hay between dinner and breakfast, which IMO is unacceptable.
I think cameras are great - especially the convenience of being able to check on a horse from anywhere via your phone. But I still prefer an in-person night check where I can put my hands on the horse, see their eyes, glance at poop etc. and give hay if needed.
I’ve never found any big emergencies at night check, but have found them at other times of day. Most of what I find at night is my own mistakes, like forgetting to close a door. The main purpose of my nightly visit is to give the horses more hay. I feed hay 4x per day and not in hay nets, so space it out so they’re not out of hay for a significant amount of time. I’ve never needed to refill water at night.
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A foal born between when I checked the mare barn, and fed the rest of the barns and came back to double check a couple.
Colics and cast horses of course, and a foot stuck in a bucket
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This is our 30th winter here and I have 4 oldies who live out 24/7 most of the time and I have always counted heads, hang their overnight nets, double check trough and get their morning nets ready… usually around 9pm. Feed cat & bunny.
If, for some reason… like this 3-day blizzard… they are all inside for a day or so, I pick stalls at 9pm.
I also board 2 horses out (indoor!) where there are 20 horses, all on indoor board, and they also do night 9/10 pm check (hay/water). I would never board where nobody looked at the horses after 4/5 pm.
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Another preteen boarder spotted the fact that two of my three horses were colicking within 15 minutes or so of receiving their spring vaccinations. I was with the vet, holding my third horse when they came running up and told me. Thanks to her noticing their distress, the vet was able to give them shots of Dex and Banamine immediately to relieve the reactions.
I brought that boarder cookies and a thank you card the next day!
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What a proud moment for the pre-teen boarder. I hope she sticks with horses and remembers this for the rest of her life.
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Sadly, just a little over a year ago, I found one of my retired mares (who had been showing bad neurological symptoms and had multiple vet visits during the week) down in her stall and unable to move anything behind her poll at night check around 10pm; poor mare told us clearly she had finally had enough. Our amazing vet was there within 30 minutes and mare was euthanized that night. It was hard for me to go into the barn after dark for a few weeks after that. A sight I hope to never see again in my horsey life.
Gosh Argo same here I could have written your post. 
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I’m sorry. How precious that you were with her in the end.
Horse vets are special, special people.
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That’s the big downside of boarding retirees: you are guaranteed to find a horse in distress at some point. It’s the end of their lives, and you will be there for their death. I don’t do night checks, they are out 24/7 in big fields with a TON of hay (or grass). I will add, I’ve never come to the barn and found a horse dead – none have ever died on their own.
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Twice my old retired gelding kicked his door until the latch broke and he got out and ate a lot of hay. He did get into some oats, but luckily not any sweet feed and he didn’t eat a lot of the oats.
Still had to have the vet out to tube him, just in case he ate something we didn’t know about.
The barn did not have nite check, even so, who knows he could have done this at 4am
We have found the occasional stall doors left unlatched, blankets askew, a few times a water bucket totally dry (either consumed or forgotten?), and once a high fever reaction from a vaccine. I wish that our staff had caught a colic that became a lethal gastric rupture, but that likely happened in the wee hours of the night. I’m still heartbroken over that one.
When I was a young teenager my neighbor (and 4H horse leader) used to hire me to watch her broodmare at night when she was near due date, because she (neighbor) worked at a club and got home around midnight. It was boring and cold. Her mare never did foal at night, although once I thought she was in labor and got my neighbor to quit work and rush home. She assured me I had done the right thing although I felt stupid.
As an adult I’ve spent many a night up with laboring goats. There’s a lot of joy, terror, and sheer hard work involved with small stock as well.
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I’m surprised no one has mentioned malfunctioning automatic waterers. They always seem to be leaking, freezing up or not running, and then when you get them right, a horse comes along and yanks the plug out.
A few weeks ago the BO’s husband was coming out for night check and flagged me down just as I was leaving. The one mini on the place had gotten out and was in the barn aisle helping herself to hay. He isn’t really a horse person and has bad knees, so I got a rope on her neck and tackle her back into her stall.
One morning the BO came out to feed and my mare had managed to clip her fly sheet to the fence. Who knows how long she had been stuck there, but she apparently hadn’t tried to pull away and just waited to be released.
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Colicky horses twice, one who ripped his nostril off, one who escaped his stall because owner didn’t latch stall door. I always do night check because you never know what you’ll find. They are horses after all. If I’m boarding and it’s late, I’ll take a few minutes and walk the barns to check on everyone just in case.
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