Several ponies means several overlapping cycles: feet on a short rhythm, teeth on a longer one, vet visits scattered between them, and each pony on a different start date. Separate notebooks, scraps on the tack-room wall and dates held in one person's head all fail the same way — nothing is actually overdue until the day it is embarrassingly overdue. The clear system is a single shared calendar, one entry format, and due dates entered at the appointment itself rather than reconstructed later.
One Calendar, One Entry Format
Choose one calendar that everyone involved can see — a shared digital calendar suits yards where a partner, groom or sharer also books appointments — and put every pony on it, not just the ones you ride. Every entry carries the same five fields, in the same order: the pony's name, the job (farrier, dental or vet), the due date, the provider, and a short note of what was done. Starting each entry with the pony's name makes the calendar searchable and scannable: a glance down the month shows Maple's feet, Bramble's teeth and Poppy's booster without opening a single entry. Colour-coding by job rather than by pony — one colour for farrier, one for dental, one for vet — shows you at a glance which professional is due a booking call, whichever pony it concerns.
Book the Next Visit at the Current One
The rule that makes the whole system work is that the next due date is entered before you leave the appointment. Farrier cycles typically run at six to eight weeks, so the farrier's next date goes in as the tools are packed away, adjusted per pony — a pony in work on hard ground and a retired pony on soft grazing may honestly sit at different ends of that cycle. Dental checks are usually every six to twelve months, set by what the dentist or vet finds in that pony's mouth, and routine vet visits such as annual boosters follow the schedule your own vet advises for your ponies. Entering the due date at the appointment, while the professional who just examined the pony is still there to agree it, removes the guesswork that creeps in when dates are 'sorted out later'.
Reminders That Fire 14 Days Early
A due date alone only tells you that you are late once it passes, so attach a reminder 14 days before every due date on the calendar. Fourteen days is the working window: long enough to phone the farrier or dentist, agree a day that suits their round and yours, and arrange to have the pony in, caught and clean; short enough that the reminder still feels like this booking, not next season's. Keep the 14-day lead the same for all three jobs — farrier, dental and vet — so nobody has to remember which cycle gets which warning. If a provider is booked out well ahead in your area, raise the lead time for that job alone and write the reason in the entry note, so the exception is visible rather than folklore.
The Monthly Sweep and the Record Behind the Calendar
Once a month, sweep the next six weeks of the calendar: confirm every appointment inside that window is actually booked, not just pencilled as a due date, and check that completed visits have been written up. The calendar tells you when; the record behind it tells you what happened — which teeth were rasped, what the farrier found, what the vet advised — and that history is what the next professional asks about. Keep each pony's history with that pony, updated the same day, so a new farrier or a covering vet inherits the full picture instead of a summary from memory. KinsLe's Pet Passport keeps each pony's dental findings, vet history and visit notes together in one portable record, giving every pony on your calendar a file that travels with it to appointments, shows and new yards.