A healthy horse means a series of regular appointments that come round all year. None of them is complicated; the hard part is forgetting none of them, especially when several people look after the same horse.
Why keep track of care
Memory is a poor adviser: "the farrier came recently" can mean three weeks or three months. A written record answers the vet's questions straight away, reveals your horse's own rhythms (how fast the shoes wear, dental sensitivity) and avoids duplicates or oversights when several people are involved.
The recurring appointments and how often
Every horse is different and your vet remains the reference, but the following orders of magnitude are widely agreed on:
- Farrier: every 6 to 8 weeks, shod or barefoot.
- Deworming: 2 to 4 times a year depending on lifestyle, ideally guided by a faecal egg count (droppings analysis).
- Vaccinations: annual flu + tetanus booster (mandatory in competition, with flu often requiring a six-monthly booster); equine herpesvirus (rhinopneumonitis) depending on exposure.
- Equine dentist: one check-up a year, sometimes two for young and older horses.
- Osteopath: one visit a year for maintenance, more for horses in intensive work.
- Routine vet visit: an annual check, often combined with the vaccinations.
Keeping a record, especially as a team
When owner, share-boarder and coach take turns with the horse, the question is not only "when was the last deworming?" but "who knows about it?". A shared tracking journal settles both: each care entry is logged with its date and author, and the whole team sees the same history.
Upcoming appointments belong in the shared planner, and can even appear in your personal calendar through calendar synchronisation.
Reminders rather than regrets
The best tracking is the kind that warns you. In GaloPlan, scheduled appointments (farrier, vet, dentist and so on) can trigger automatic reminders, so the question is no longer "who was supposed to remember?" but simply "who opens the door for the farrier?".
To go further on keeping a complete history, read our guide to the horse logbook.
