EquiDiaryWhat to record about your horse, and what to leave out
Last checked: 30 October 2026
Most horse diaries die in three weeks, and the reason is not discipline — it is that “log everything” gives you no way to decide. A better test: will someone ask me this later, and will I be able to answer?
This page is about record-keeping, not veterinary advice. Unlike our vaccination, parasite and papers guides, almost nothing here is a national rule — what is worth recording about a horse is the same everywhere. Those guides are linked at the foot of the page.
The one exception is medicines. In the UK and the EU a horse counts as a food-producing animal until it is signed out of the food chain, and until then its keeper has to record every medicine it is given — what, how much, when and on whose prescription — and keep that record for five years. The passport's medicines pages can hold it.
The test is not "did something happen"
Most people start a horse diary by writing down everything, keep it up for three weeks, and stop. The problem is not discipline. It is that "log everything" gives you no way to decide, so every entry costs a decision and none of them feel important.
A better test: will someone ask me this later, and will I be able to answer? That question has a small, specific answer, and almost everything else can go.
The five things that earn their place
| What | Why it earns a line |
|---|---|
| Identity and papers | passport, microchip number, registration, insurance, purchase invoice — the documents nobody can reconstruct if they are lost |
| Medical events | vaccinations, wormers and faecal egg counts, lameness, colic, wounds, medication given, vet visits — anything a vet would want to know about the last two years |
| Routine care | farrier, dentist, physio — the recurring things whose whole value is knowing when they last happened |
| Work | what the horse actually did: schooling, hacking, competitions, days off, rehabilitation |
| Money and ownership | what things cost, who did the work, and any change of owner, keeper or yard |
The 6 a.m. test
Your horse is not right at six in the morning and a vet you have never met is on the way. Within about two minutes they will ask: how old, any relevant history, when was the last wormer, what has it been vaccinated against and when, is it insured, and is it excluded from the food chain — because that last one decides which drugs may be used at all.
That list is the real specification for a horse record. If your notes answer those six questions without you having to find a folder, they are doing their job. If they do not, no amount of daily detail makes up for it.
The sale test
The second moment a record earns its keep is when someone else wants to trust it. A buyer, a vet doing a pre-purchase exam, an insurer after a claim, a new yard. What they want is not a diary of good rides — it is a continuous, dated history that nobody could have written afterwards, with the ordinary things in it as well as the dramatic ones. A gap of eighteen months reads as a gap, whatever was in it.
What not to bother with
Being deliberate about what you leave out is what makes the habit survive:
- Daily narrative. "Good schooling session, a bit stiff on the left" is worth writing once when it is new information, not every day.
- Anything you would never look up. If you cannot picture the moment you would search for it, skip it.
- Duplicating the invoice. Attach the document and record the date and the outcome, not every line of it.
Photographs and documents belong with the entry
A wound photographed on the day it happened, the radiograph, the vet's report, the invoice: these are worth far more attached to the event than filed separately, because six months later the date is the only reliable index you have. The same goes for the horse's own papers — passport pages, registration, insurance — which belong to the animal rather than to any one entry.
If more than one person looks after the horse
Shared horses fail in a specific way: the rider assumes the owner logged the farrier, the owner assumes the yard did. Two habits fix it — every entry records who did the work, and one place is agreed as the record rather than a group chat. Both matter more than either person's diligence.
How EquiDiary is built around this
Every entry carries a date, a type, who did it and an optional cost, and photos, videos or PDFs attach to the entry itself. The horse's own papers live in its wallet, separate from the diary and readable by everyone the horse is shared with. Care schedules compute the next due date from what you actually logged rather than from a fixed calendar, so the reminder is only as good as the record — which is the point.
Questions people ask
What should I record about my horse?
Identity and papers, medical events, routine care such as farrier and dentist, the work the horse actually did, and costs and ownership changes. The useful test is whether someone will ask you about it later — a vet, a buyer, an insurer — and whether you would be able to answer.
How much detail is worth writing?
Enough that the entry answers a question later: the date, what happened, who did it, and the product or outcome where there is one. Daily narrative is what makes people give up; write it when it is new information, not as a routine.
What does a vet actually ask for in an emergency?
Age, relevant history, the last wormer, what the horse is vaccinated against and when, whether it is insured, and its food-chain status — that last one determines which medicines may legally be used. A record that answers those without a search is doing its job.
Does it matter who logged an entry?
Yes, on any horse more than one person looks after. Recording who did the work prevents the common failure where each person assumes someone else wrote it down, and it makes the history credible to a buyer or an insurer later.
Related guides
- Horse vaccination schedules — what to record about vaccinations, and the deadlines that decide whether you can compete
- Horse deworming schedules — faecal egg counts, thresholds, and why rotation was abandoned
- Horse papers in the US — Coggins, health certificates and what each state expects
- How much work is your horse doing — measuring the work rather than prescribing it
- How often the farrier should come — the published ranges, and the interval you actually keep
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Next: horse vaccination schedules — the intervals, and where they come from.