The emergency sheet for a Tennessee Walking Horse should be written by someone who understands what makes the breed distinct: the gait and the feet that produce it. A general horse carer will know to call a vet for colic, but may walk past a subtly shifted pad shoe twice a day, or report that the horse is moving oddly without being able to say how his running walk has changed. Your contact list therefore needs the usual chain of people, plus the vet and farrier detail that lets the carer protect this horse's way of going and get expert help to the right problem quickly.
The people on the sheet
Begin with yourself and the periods when you cannot be reached, then a local backup who knows the horse and is empowered to decide in your absence. Your equine vet practice follows, with its out-of-hours arrangement spelled out. Next, and for this breed unusually prominent, your farrier: the person who shoes him, knows his angles and his shoe and pad setup, and should be the first call for anything underfoot. Add the transport contact who can move him, the referral hospital your vet uses, and a yard helper for extra hands. Against each name, write what that person is for, so the carer is not guessing roles under pressure.
Shoeing details the carer must have
Describe exactly what is on his feet: plain shoes, pads, any built-up package, and the date of the last shoeing. Instruct the carer to run a hand and eye over each shoe daily and to treat a sprung, shifted, or loose shoe, a risen clinch, or heat in the foot as a same-day farrier call, because a Walking Horse travelling on a failing shoe can damage the foot and strain the leg quickly. Note whether he can be turned out if a shoe comes off, where his boots are if he wears them, and whether a pad should ever be left in place once disturbed. This is the section most generic contact sheets omit, and for this breed it is the section most likely to be used.
Gait and general vet information
Give the carer language for what normal looks like: his running walk is a smooth four-beat gait with a head nod and a long hind overstride, and he should move evenly on both reins and in hand. A carer who can report that he has gone pacey, short behind, or uneven, or that the nod has disappeared, gives the vet something genuinely useful. Alongside that, record his normal resting temperature, pulse, and respiration, his current feed and workload, and any condition under management. List the general triggers for an immediate vet call: colic signs, refusal of feed, a hot swollen leg, lameness at walk, or breathing raised at rest.
Authority to act on gait and foot problems too
Your written authorisation should cover farrier attendance as explicitly as vet visits, since the likeliest emergency in this stay is underfoot. State that the carer may call the vet, approve emergency first response and transport, and summon the farrier without reaching you first, and confirm with both professionals in advance that they will act on the carer's call. Name what the backup contact may decide, and sign the sheet. A carer measuring their authority against a lame, shod Walking Horse at dusk should find the answer already written down.
The whole picture, in the carer's hands
Contacts, shoeing, gait notes, and records are one document in practice, however many pages they fill. KinsLe's Pet Passport gathers your Tennessee Walking Horse's records, contacts, and care details into one portable packet, so the carer holding the headcollar is holding the complete picture too.