Sometime within the next year or so, my husband and I hope to purchase our first house. One of the requirements of this house will be a few horse-friendly acres so our Thoroughbred can come live with us. There's only one little problem with making this move.... there will be times when we have to leave town and have someone watch our animals. (we also have a dog) I'm hoping to get a lot of feedback on this one, because I really need advice on choosing a reliable, capable farm sitter.
The easiest option is obviously to ask a friend or family member to help out. They usually are willing to help out and in many cases, have been around the animals before. As I recently found though, for some people, the simple task of letting a dog out a few times over the course of two days is too difficult. Let me summarize: We went out of town last weekend. My hsuband's friend (who has two dogs of his own) agreed to stop by our house a few times and let our dog out and top off food and water bowls. We asked him to leave the house key on the property so that if something came up and he couldn't make it, we could tell someone else where the key was and they could take over. He came over once, the afternoon of the day we left and let the dog out. He did not return and took the key with him. The dog spent the next 27 hours inside the house with no potty break and no one to check on the food and water levels. Fortunately, the dog is used to a "full bowl policy". He has constant access to food and will eat a few bites here and there, so the full bowl was more than enough to get him through. I had filled a second water bowl before we left, so there was also more than enough water. The lack of potty break is what made me FURIOUS! It's extremely unfair to expect a dog to hold his bladder that long! Amazingly, my dog DID hold it, we returned to a perfectly clean house. I felt so horrible though and will never, EVER ask a favor of this friend again. I had left a note asking him to let us know on Saturday night if he didn't think he could make it back early Sunday morning. I explained that I had a coworker nearby who could stop by on her way to work. He never told us he wasn't going to make it, and did I mention, HE TOOK THE KEY HOME! He made it completely impossible for me to get someone else there for the dog. It was so inconsiderate of him and even almost a week later I'm still enraged by it. It was only a dog. We were only gone 2 days (one night). All he had to really do was let the dog out a few times and it proved to be too much for him.
So now I'm worried about when we have the horse with us. I now know of one person I can't and won't ask for help. It scares me though. Horses aren't quite as simple as dogs. I can't ask just anyone, it needs to be someone with horse knowledge. If Ace is colicking, I don't want the sitter standing there watching thinking how cute it is that he's rolling in the grass. It's going to be very difficult to find someone who I can trust to do the job properly. I know there are farm sitting services who's people are screened, insured, and supposedly reliable, but I've seen plenty of "horse people" screw up things that are pretty simple just because it's not their usual routine or their preferred way of doing things. There are also a lot of lazy people who will half-ass the job because no one is around to catch them. I certainly don't want my animals to suffer because someone happens to be in a bad mood that day.
I'm really curious, how many of you blog readers have had to find a sitter for your pets? How did you choose the person and how did it work out? What would you do differently next time? Is it better to hire someone who does this as their job, or have you had better luck with friends/family? How did you make sure the job would be done properly? Is it better to ask two people to do it (alternating shifts) so one can pick up the other's slack?
