4,777 answers about horses & farm animals
Horses and farm animals run on routine — feeding schedules, hoof and health care, safe fencing and calm handling, in all weather. This page gathers the horse and farm animal library of KinsLe Answers in one place, organized by topic from daily care to travel and senior animals. Every answer is original, written by KinsLe, and tied to a real KinsLe feature.
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405 answers in Records & Organization — page 15 of 17
Write the agreement around the horse, not around goodwill: identify him precisely by name, breed, age, colour, height, microchip and passport number, then set out the loan period, where he will be kept, what he may be used for, and exactly who pays for feed, bedding, shoeing, routine vet care and insurance. Decide in…
A horse's passport is transferred through the organisation that issued it, not through the seller: find the issuer's name inside the front cover, ask for its transfer of ownership form, and send the completed form back with the passport itself and the required fee. While it is away, keep your bill of sale safe as your…
Write it down as a named instruction, not a family assumption: for every animal or group, record the person who has agreed to take them, add a backup name, and keep the signed document with your animal records where your family can find it fast. Tell both people what you have written, and re-check the arrangement…
Start each kid's record at birth: tag or identity, dam, sire, birth date and sex. Then update that same record at every change of status — kept for breeding, sold, or registered — with the date and, for a sale, the new holding, and for a registration, the number it was given. The herd book stays accurate when status…
Write the log as if the next trainer reads it without you there: after each session note the date, what you worked on, what the horse understood, what he found hard, and where you plan to go next. Keep a milestones page — first saddle, first loading, first hack out — with dates and a line on how each went. Record the…
Give each alpaca a photo file built from the same standard set each year: a side profile standing square on level ground, front and rear views for leg conformation, and a close-up of the fleece parted at the midside to show density and character. Take the fleece shots at shearing, when the staple can be parted and…
Score by hand at the handling race, feeling over each sheep's loin and spine rather than judging by eye through a full fleece, and write the score down with the date, the group, and the stage the flock is at — tupping, lambing, weaning or shearing. Individual scores for recorded ewes and a group tally for the rest…
Keep a single chronological book, paper or digital, and enter every movement on the day it happens: the animal's official tag or identification, its species, the date on or off, the holding it came from or went to, and who transported it. Never keep separate lists per species that have to be merged later, because that…
Log each test as its own entry: the date the dung sample was taken, which horse it came from, the count the lab reported, and what your vet advised on the back of it. Record worming dates in the same log, with a note of what was given as advised, so treatments and test results can be read side by side instead of being…
Keep one stock book with three running lists: deliveries in, with the date, what arrived, the quantity and which hay batch it belongs to; use out, with bedding per stable each week and hay drawn from which batch; and a monthly total that turns both into a cost per horse. Note the cut or field a hay batch came from and…
Record milk per doe rather than as one herd total: the date, the morning and evening yield for each doe, and where she is in her lactation. A per-doe record shows you the shape of each lactation — rising after kidding, peaking, then easing off — and makes a sudden drop in one doe stand out against her own normal…
Give every horse its own record page: what it is actually fed each day — forage, hard feed and supplements as fed, not as planned — plus a weigh-tape reading and a hands-on condition check at regular intervals. Note every change and the reason for it, whether that is harder work, a season change or weight creeping on,…
Put the fixed points in first: enter competition dates before anything else, then work the farrier's cycle backwards from them, so a fresh set of shoes never lands the day before an event — most horses go best a few days after shoeing, once any slight tenderness has settled. Book the next farrier visit as the current…
Good poultry breeding records follow each batch from pairing to chick: which cock ran with which hens and from when, how many eggs were set and on what date, the candling results, how many hatched, and how the chicks did in their first days. Record parentage at setting time, not from memory at hatching, because eggs…
Keep the log daily and keep it per pen: the date, eggs collected, how many hens are in lay, and a short note on anything unusual — a broody hen, soft shells, a feed change. Weekly totals per pen tell you far more than any single day, because laying naturally drifts with daylight, moult and age, while a sudden stop in…
Build the schedule from each horse's own cycle: most horses need the farrier every five to eight weeks depending on growth and work, and teeth checked about once a year, more often for the very young and the old. The habit that keeps it effortless is booking the next visit before the farrier or dentist leaves the…
Give the pony one home for everything: a single binder or folder with sections for identity and ownership, health records, travel documents and competition paperwork, instead of separate piles that drift apart. File in date order within each section, newest on top, and put a one-page summary at the front listing…
Write the diary so a cover who has never run your yard can work from it alone: for each horse, each day, record feed given, turnout, and exercise, then anything unusual, jobs done, and jobs left for the next visit. Keep entries short, factual, and in the same order every day, signed off at the evening check so gaps…
Note three sets of facts, in this order, and hand them to the new barn in writing before or on moving day: his current feed written exactly, his routine and quirks, and his health history. The feed note must say what he eats, how much in his own routine amounts, and when each feed is given, and his routine and quirks…
Build one loan pack before he leaves, covering four things in a set order: condition photographs labeled by entry, a tack and equipment list, the agreed terms settled in writing, and a copy of his health history. Photograph him from both sides, front and back, with close views of his legs, hooves, marks and any old…
An alpaca's file starts with identity, birth date, sex, colour, and source. Dated sections for shearing, breeding, births, and health build from there. Start every new cria's file on its birth day with dam, sire, and birth notes — that first page is the hardest to reconstruct later. KinsLe's Pet Passport keeps that…
Write the sheet in a fixed order and keep to it: first, what he is fed and when, using his own recorded feed, amounts and times; second, his blanket rules by weather, saying which blanket goes on in rain, cold or mild spells; third, his turnout and exercise, where he goes out, for how long and what work, if any, the…
Build the pack around his life as he actually lives it: his current diet written exactly, meaning the feed, amounts, feeding times and treats already recorded for him, plus any foods he must never have. Add the housing and bedding he is used to, his shelter, fencing and rooting area, his veterinary details with the…
Keep one record per fleece, written at shearing while the details are in your hands: the animal, the shearing under its entry label, the skirted weight, the grade, where the fleece went — a named buyer or your own use — and notes on the fleece itself, such as color, staple length and any contamination. Filed fleece by…
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