For most horses, away checks are about making sure enough goes in. For a Shetland pony, they are mostly about making sure too much does not. Shetlands evolved on sparse grazing and gain weight with alarming ease, and the pony most at risk during your holiday is the one whose carer relaxes the restrictions you set. So her feed, water, and shelter checks are really one connected discipline: forage measured, grass controlled, water placed inside the controlled area, and a daily hands-on look at feet, crest, and muzzle fit.
Feed: weighed, restricted, and non-negotiable
The carer's feed check starts with the scales. Hay should be given at the weight you set, soaked if that is your routine for reducing its richness, and never topped up because the pony looks hopeful. If she wears a grazing muzzle, the check is that it goes on for exactly the hours specified, comes off when specified, and is inspected for rubbing at the nose and jaw. If her grazing is a restricted strip or track, the fence or tape stays where you left it: moving it for fresh grass is a feed change, and feed changes are yours to make, not the carer's. Add a blunt line to the instructions: no treats, no extra bucket feeds, no handfuls from visitors, however small the pony and however persuasive.
Water: inside the boundary, checked twice daily
Water checks for a Shetland are simple but easy to get subtly wrong. Her trough or bucket must sit inside her restricted area, because a carer who lets her out to drink from the main field trough may leave her out grazing while doing other jobs. The water itself should be fresh, the container scrubbed of slime, and her drinking observed: a pony who stops drinking, especially one on soaked hay and dry forage, needs watching. In cold weather check for ice at both visits. Note roughly how much she drinks if she is stabled, since a change in intake alongside any footiness or reluctance to move is a combination the vet should hear about promptly.
Shelter: dry lying space and an intact pony
A Shetland's shelter check is about dryness and soundness. She needs a dry area to lie in, out of the worst weather: hardy as the breed is, an older or clipped pony, or one in poor condition, should not be standing in mud and driven rain for days. Check the shelter bedding or the dry patch she uses, and confirm the shelter itself is not being monopolised by a bigger companion if she shares. Then the hands-on part: run a hand over her crest for the firm, cresty thickening that warns of weight gain, pick out all four feet, and feel for heat or a bounding pulse in a lower leg, which together with reluctance to move are the signs that mean the vet gets called the same day.
Watching for the problem the checks prevent
The whole routine exists to keep her weight steady and her feet comfortable, because excess weight in a Shetland is closely tied to laminitis risk. Brief the carer on what footy looks like in this pony: shifting weight from foot to foot, lying down more than usual, walking as if on eggshells, or refusing to come up the field. None of those waits until you get home.
Checks shared clearly between helpers
Shetland cover often falls to two or three people splitting visits, which is exactly where muzzle hours and hay weights get lost between handovers. KinsLe's Care Teams lets you assign the feed, water, and shelter checks for your Shetland to named helpers, each task marked complete with a timestamp, so the morning person and the evening person are following one routine rather than two interpretations of it.