Routines and checklists — so nothing gets forgotten
There is a moment every stable owner knows. The temp calls on Saturday morning: “I’m here now. What should I do?” You are in the car heading to a show, trying to explain the entire morning routine over the phone. Muck out all stalls. Give hay according to the feeding chart on the wall. Check the water bowls. Turn out group one in the big paddock, group two in the small one. Make sure the gate is properly closed.
Half of it gets forgotten. You already know that when you hang up.
The old way
Most stables have routines — but they live in the head of whoever has been doing the work the longest. At best there is a printed sheet on the notice board, yellowed and half-hidden behind farrier schedules.
Common approaches:
- Notes on the wall — no one knows which version is current
- Verbal instructions — works until the experienced person is away
- Rushed text messages — easy to miss steps
- Nothing at all — “everyone knows what needs to be done”
It holds together as long as the same people show up every day. But one sick day, one new helper, or one holiday week is enough for things to fall apart.
The EquiDuty way: routines that are always available
In EquiDuty you create routine templates — step-by-step checklists the whole stable can follow. A routine might look like this:
Morning routine (4 steps)
- Muck out all stalls
- Give roughage according to feeding plan
- Check water bowls — all should flow freely
- Paddock check: fencing, gates, water in the field
Each step has a checkbox. The person on duty checks them off one by one. You see in real time what is done and what remains.
How it works in practice
1. Create routine templates
You build templates for the stable’s most common tasks. Morning routine, evening routine, weekend routine, bad-weather routine — you decide what you need. Each template has a name, a list of steps, and an estimated duration.
2. Schedule them to repeat
A morning routine that should run every day at 07:00? Set it once. Evening routine Tuesday through Thursday? Weekend routine only Saturday and Sunday? Everything can be scheduled with recurrence so the routine appears automatically in the right person’s calendar.
3. Assign to the right person
Routines are linked to whoever is on duty. A temp who has never set foot in the stable opens the app and sees exactly what to do — in the right order, with clear descriptions.
4. Track completion in real time
As the stable owner you can see which routines are completed, in progress, or not yet started. Was the morning routine finished at 08:30 or 11:00? Was the water check missed yesterday? You see it straight away in the dashboard.
What changes in practice?
Without EquiDuty:
“I forgot that group two was supposed to go in the small paddock. And the water bowl in stall 5 was not running, but I assumed that was normal.”
With EquiDuty:
“Step 3 said to check all water bowls. Stall 5 was not running, so I reported it directly in the app.”
The difference is that the routine does not depend on experience or memory. It is right there in the app, structured and clear, every single time.
Routine analytics that reveal patterns
Over time EquiDuty builds up data about how routines perform:
- Average time per routine — does the morning routine take 40 or 90 minutes?
- Completion rate — which steps are frequently skipped?
- Patterns per person — does someone need more time or support?
This is not surveillance. It is a tool for seeing where routines can be improved and where the stable needs more resources.
Get started
You do not need to digitise everything at once. Start with a single routine:
- Create a free account — routine templates are included in the Starter plan
- Build your first template — start with the morning routine, four to six steps
- Schedule it — every day, automatically
- Invite one person — let them try following the routine in the app
Next time the temp calls, you will not need to explain anything. Just say: “Open the app. Everything is there.”
EquiDuty is built for stables. Routines and checklists are included in all plans — start free and upgrade as you grow.