Everything about a new horse is information, and most of it evaporates. The first month is when you learn how this horse eats, rests, socialises and reacts — and it is also when small changes are easiest to spot, because you are watching closely. A short record kept through that month becomes the horse's baseline: the description of normal that every later worry gets checked against. Without it, 'he seems a bit quiet' has nothing to stand on.
Settling and behaviour notes
Write down how the horse settles into the routine: appetite at each feed, whether it lies down to rest, how it behaves in the stable when neighbours come and go, and how introductions to herd mates actually went rather than how you hoped they would. Note the practical handling facts as you discover them — easy or wary to catch, stands or fidgets for the farrier, loads willingly or needs time, respects electric fencing or tests it. Behaviour under saddle belongs here too: nappy at the gate, green but willing, sharp in wind. None of this is judgement; it is the raw material from which you will later judge what is out of character, and out of character is often the first symptom of pain or illness.
Feed changes, one at a time
New horses frequently change yards, workloads and diets in the same fortnight, which makes reactions impossible to untangle. Where you can, change feed gradually and one element at a time, and record what changed and what followed: droppings loosening or firming, condition gaining or dropping, behaviour fizzing up or settling. Note the previous owner's feeding if you know it, what you are feeding now in actual measures, and the forage situation — new grazing alone explains many first-month changes. A horse who reacts to a feed in week two has told you something valuable, but only the written log connects the reaction to the change rather than to the weather.
Body basics and first appointments
Take a weight-tape reading and a condition score in the first days and again at month's end; tape readings drift with gut fill, so note the time of day for consistency. Record the first round of appointments as they happen: farrier's assessment of the feet, worm count result and any worming, dental check findings, and vaccination status confirmed with your vet. These entries close the gap between the horse's paper history and his actual state in your yard.
Why the baseline pays for itself
Months later, the log answers questions memory cannot: when a behaviour started, whether a feed ever suited him better, whether this is the third unsettled week or just a bad day. It also travels well — a vet, a physio or a future buyer gets the horse's story in order rather than in anecdotes.
That is the point of keeping it inside the horse's permanent file from the start: KinsLe's Pet Passport holds a horse's records together in one portable packet, so the first-month baseline sits alongside the passport and vet history instead of in a notebook that stays in the old yard's tack room.