Keeping on top of my horse’s yearly wellness program can be overwhelming, especially if it has a lot of components like mine does! Although my horse is relatively young, all of my horses over the years have had an annual maintenance program, meaning I have the vet come out once a year and evaluate the horse to see if the horse needs maintenance or additional support.

The checkup is always done in the spring, but the maintenance is usually the only thing that I am slightly flexible on with the timing. We know that winter can be hard on their joints, so we want them to be comfortable, but I also try and get any maintenance done before show season or halfway through show season if we need to have the vet out again. Luckily, my barn takes care of having the vet out each spring for annual shots so I don’t worry too much about that as they are always incredibly on top of the correct timing every year.

For me, that leaves my annual maintenance program to ensuring my horses have their teeth floated, get chiropractic care, do massage therapy, and update their insurance renewal. I’ve found the best way to balance these out is to put reminders in my phone. I know that typically every February or March I will have my vet out to do maintenance, and I mark that on my calendar and set a reminder for the following year, 12 months from when it is completed. My vet is usually booked out 4 – 6 weeks in advance so I set a reminder in my phone to call and schedule an appointment 3 months prior to when I would like him to come. When that reminder pops up to call and schedule, I make a decision at that time, based on my horse’s current status, whether or not I need him to come out at the one year mark, or a month earlier or later. I then schedule accordingly. For his dental appointments I do the same. I mark my calendar when he was last done, and make a reminder for 6 months out to have his teeth checked and floated if needed. I do the same for chiropractic care, I mark the date on my calendar and put a reminder out 5-6 weeks and then I send a text to the chiropractor to schedule my horse’s next appointment. I’ve found that this method tends to work really well because you can easily push the date out if you need to, plus you include notes if you need to.

One thing that I feel has also helped me balance out the cost of all the specialized care, is by saving money every month for these expenses. A couple years ago I realzied that my horse’s insurance, annual maintenance injections, plus spring shots were all within a few weeks of each other which made me feel like I needed to be smarter about saving more for these expenses. Of course it seems like a no brainer to save in advance, but I really needed to be disciplined about it. I took all of my expenses (aside from monthly board, farrier, and SmartPaks), and added them up to one annual cost. I added 20% to account for annual cost increases, then divided by 12. I took that amount, opened a new checking account and called it ‘Horse Expenses’ and created direct deposits directly from my paycheck into that account. It helps balance out the expenses when you have a big chunk of expenses at one time!

It seems like a lot, but calendar reminders and specific savings have been a lifesaver for me and a big help in keeping my horses comfortable and cared for to the level I want them at! What do you do to stay on top of your horse’s yearly health and wellness needs?