What things are handy to have in a horse owner's kit?

Question

Horses are complex animals to keep as pets. They require a lot of care in ways that may not always be apparent. After many years of accumulating knowledge from research and experience, it would have been handy to have a list of what to keep in your kit when owning a horse.

Answer 1

A horse owner should have some different kits that cover up. I will mention not only those things which a horse owner renting at a barn with many other people will own, but also those, which the stable owner will find useful. During my work at stables we needed most of them and I wouldn't want to miss any of it somewhere in the stable. The list might be incomplete.

• horse pass
• Knife
• Scissor
• Halters
• Ropes
• Hoofpick
• Brushes, soft, hard, ...
• scrunchies
• some stuff of whatever kind to protect against flies and other insects
• buckets (at least two or three, one for water, one for medical stuff, one for cleaning, ..)
• sponges. i'd recomment at least 2 for the horse (genitals <> head), 1 for medical stuff (replace after use), 1 for cleaning
• hay net
• nippers (in the case of horse shoes), all kinds of tools in general that might be needed to free a horse from whatever your stable is built of
• Diapers (they make excellent hoof-bandages)
• First-Aid-stuff for both human and horse
• zinc ointment (at least i'd recommend some)
• milking grease
• Emergency phone numbers and addresses (!)
• Disinfectant stuff like Iod, but also other variations that allow sewing lateron (medicine-lexicon at hand is always a nice thing)
• Rugs. At least one, better two so you can change them
• Towels (the normal cloth ones, but also steril ones)
• thermometer with rope (!)
• gloves. all sorts of. warm ones, handy ones for work, medical ones, shoulderlong ones for breeders, ...
• maybe drugs like Vetranquil (if you are experienced enough to know how to deal with that and cannot rely on having a vet there fast enough on emergencies)
• transport-related stuff in case of emergency
• material and tools needed for repairing stuff, especially for fences.
• spare colostrum and foal milk in case you are breeding. mare could die or not able to give milk for another reason. in this case, a lot of towels, and iod.
• sad to mention, but in case you live far away from medical treatment, some gun might come in useful sometimes, you do not want to wait for a horse to bleed out when it tore off a hoof and vet cannot come in time for whatever reason :-/

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Depending on the stable many things can be shared, but it is important to have access to all this in case of emergency.