June 29, 2017

WWYD: Paid Night Watch at Shows

Survey time!  I'm curious to know if you take advantage of paid night watch services at shows.  NDPC is the first show I've attended that's offered it, and I'm curious how many people use services like this, and why.

The service:  "We will be providing individual Nightwatch for the stabling areas from 9pm to 5am.  This includes checking your horse every 2 hours, hay as needed, water as needed, turning off fans and feeding in the AM if you desire.  The cost is $10.00 per horse per night."

Personally, I'd rather my relaxed, easy-going, experienced show horse get some sleep than be bothered by water filling and hay throwing every couple of hours.  Connor always gets two buckets of water and enough hay before I leave.  Maybe if I had a young horse, I'd feel differently?

Have you taken advantage of this type of service in the past? Would you if your show grounds offered it?  Why?

18 comments:

  1. Not that I (to date) have gone to any overnight shows, but all my guys are left alone in their stalls overnight at home and are totally fine. Most of them travel enough to be chill in new places. Potentially I could see using a service like this if my young horse seemed super unsettled in a new place? But aside from that, I'm with you, let my experienced show horse catch some Z's! ☺

    ReplyDelete
  2. Night Watch is very common at HJ shows, what I like about this option is the ability to sleep in a bit later since someone else is feeding my horse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Truth. It's not something I'd usually take advantage of when I show at the HHP since I live so close. Maybe at this one.

      Delete
  3. Night watch is $10 for the entire weekend at the shows I've been going to and I love it, mostly because I like Hero to have eaten his grain well before I ride and have hay constantly in front of him and it's so nice to be able to sleep in and not worry about any of those things happening.

    They will mark on the walk by sheet when they actually refill water and it's usually once a night if that, so I don't think a person quietly walking by and peaking in the stall is going to be any more disruptive than the one horse in the stabling area that seems to never want to stop screaming.

    Plus I've seen Hero flat on his side asleep during the day at a show despite all of the commotion so I think if he really wants to sleep he will!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's really good info! Yeah Connor is the same way. At least once per day I find him laying down at every show.

      Delete
  4. I have never had that offered at a show.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never seen that offered before, interesting concept! I don't think I would use it with my mare though. I don't like other people messing with my horse, and she gets a giant slow feed bag of hay so she always has something to eat at shows anyways (which also means morning feed isn't required)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't really mind other people messing with my horse, especially not pro's hired by the show, but I get that.

      Delete
  6. I used this service when I showed at the big KDA spring show in 2014. It was worth every cent. They give you a little chart, and they marked on his chart each night whether he was up, or lying down. And whether they refilled his water. And they will throw a flake of hay at 5 am if you want. Boy did it buy me peace of mind (I was driving back and forth to Lville that year)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok that's really cool and may have convinced me to sign up for that. I would love to see when he was laying down and wouldn't mind getting hay in front of him early. Thanks for sharing!

      Delete
  7. I've never seen that offered at a show! I could see how that would be useful, but I always camp on-site and throw enough hay and water to last the night.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interesting! I've never seen night watch offered in this way. At my club's rated dressage show, we pay a local police officer to keep an eye on the stabling area overnight, but that person is really only keeping an eye out possible thieves. They're definitely not checking the horses every two hours and filling water buckets!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wouldn't mine paying for the morning feeding since I hate having to get up early, but the rest of it I don't care about.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's mandatory at a lot of shows, but they don't feed or do any of that shit, just patrol.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well it's kind of nice they asked -- ours is a mandatory fee.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've never had it offered but would do it in a hot minute because my brain is a minefield of anxiety and I already wake up every few hours wondering if my horse is dead and no one has noticed yet.

    ReplyDelete