Hey everyone, I'm trying to put together an equine record keeping system for the stable I work for over the summer. It's a trail riding stable where people (mostly tourists) come for a trail ride. We have 15 horses at the stable, and until now, pretty much no record keeping system for deworming, shots, etc. I'm doing my best to change that but I've hit a snag. I'm not sure if I should have each horse have an idividual record, with each horse's own deworming, farrier, vet records, or if I should simply have sheets available to record deworming and farrier and vet visits, but listing which horses were treated or shoed or what not for each entry. I'm leaning toward the second option because I think it would be easier with the number of horses we use and for the super casual way the records are handled. I'd prefer to do the first, but since I won't always be there to fill out the records, I think it'd be easier for the owner to do the second one. Which one do you think will be more effective under these circumstances? Also, besides deworming, farrier, feed, and vet records, are there any other things that I need to keep track of?

if you're only going to keep track of the basics such as farrier, vetting, feed and deworming, then your second option should work ok, but what about when the vet has to make an emergency visit for one?  And are all the horses eating exactly the same diet?  What if the vet changes one's diet?  How would you keep records of that?  You should also keep dental records of floats, etc.

That being said, if it were my stable, I'd want an individual file on each horse.  There are going to be too many variables as you go along.

Depending on how much time & effort you want to put into it, a combination of both systems might do the job. Have a notebook or whatever with pages for vet, farrier, feed, whatever, where you can write down the horses that get whatever procedure is being done. Then have another book - perhaps that you can be in charge of - that has pages for each horse, that you can transfer the info from the "general records" book. That would allow for charges/procedures particular to a certain horse, but also be easy enough that the other "super casual" people who would be filling in the records would be able to keep up with the info. The individual records could have identifying information, special notes on feed or handling, things like that that are important for any recordkeeping system.

If you're familiar with Excel, you should be able to come up with a couple of spreadsheets.  One could be a basic one to cover all of the horses, or even a month-by-month record.  You could also set up a second sheet (or even a low-tech paper file system) for each individual horse with records of what specifically was done with each horse during vet appointments, etc.

Thanks everyone! I think I will do both, one for individual horses and then a combination one as well like you suggested. And like kara83809 said, I could be in charge of the individualized one. I want to be thorough with this, and if that is what it takes, then no problem. And I am using Excel to make these sheets robison02, and Excel is making this so much easier! Thanks again everybody!