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Your Horse's Records

It is important to keep records about your horse so that you can look back and see how things went and how much it cost. It also helps to know how often you need to have your horse shod or when the vet needs to come give him shots. Below is a description of my record book, so that you can make your own for your horse.

On the front of my binder are pictures of my horse for both identification and decoration.

When you open it up you see a sheet with my horse's basic information. This includes his show name, barn name, registered name, breed, sex, date of birth, color, markings, registration number, height, weight, pulse, temperature, respiration, vices, veterinarian's name/address/phone number, farrier's name/address/phone number, barn's name/address/phone number/manager, my name/address/phone number.

Behind this you will find my horse's racing record and pedigree, since he is a Thoroughbred. This information can be found at the Jockey Club website if you know your horse's registered name.

Behind the first divider is my horse's Health Records, which are in a table. There is an example of this table below. In this divider you will also find the prepurchase exam which we had done for him before we bought him.

Date	Procedures Taken	Cost
1/21/00	Prepurchase exam + coggins test	$419
1/31/00	Wormed (strongid)	$7
2/1/00	Farrier- trim	$32
2/10/00	Farrier- new shoes/pads on front	$115

The next divider is for Riding & Conditioning. Here I have a copy of my current conditioning plan and calendars for each month which I printed off the computer. In the calendars I mark what I did each day and how he was.

The third divider is for expenses. Here is an example of how this works.

Date	Paid To	Description	Farrier	Vet	Board	Activities	Equipment	Other
1/21/00	****	Prepurchase exam		$419
1/30/00	****	2 lessons				$45
2/17/00	****	Board- January/February			$506
2/28/00	****	Trim	$32

The fourth divider is for feeding records. Here I have another spreadsheet with the columns Date, AM Grain, AM Hay, PM Grain, and PM Hay. Here I mark any changes in what my horse is fed.

The final divider is for important documents. I have a few of those plastic clip in covers which you can slide papers into. These hold my horse's coggins and papers, and a copy of my medical release for Pony Club. Here I also have a list of things to remember for shows/events/rallies, and some other papers for Pony Club.