Horse Feed Chart Template: Build Yard Feed Sheets With AI

Collect every owner's instructions in writing, paste them into an AI assistant with a fixed prompt that turns each into the same row layout and flags anything vague, then send each owner their own row to confirm. The yard records only owner- and vet-approved feeds; the assistant tidies and questions, and never chooses a quantity.

Most horse feed chart templates are written for one owner and one horse. A yard has the opposite problem: fifteen or twenty sets of instructions arriving as WhatsApp messages, door cards and emails, each in its own shorthand, read at half past six in the morning by whoever is on duty. The real risk is a "scoop", a "handful" or an "as usual" that means something different to each person. Each of those has to be found, and settled in writing with the owner, before it reaches a feed bucket.

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Where a vet has prescribed or restricted a diet, the vet's written instruction is the row: the sheet points to the letter rather than retyping it, and a change needs the vet's updated letter, not just an owner's message. Anything the assistant adds that the owner or vet did not say is an error to delete, however sensible it looks.

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The yard, and where its feed instructions lived on day one

The yard in this example has 18 horses: nine on full livery, five on part and four on DIY. The manager, two grooms and a weekend helper share the feeding. DIY owners feed their own horses, so the sheet covers the 14 on full and part livery, with a short section for the others. Which tasks belong to the yard under each livery type is a question for the agreement, and this tutorial on drafting full, part and DIY livery terms sets that out.

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Feed instructions lived in six places: a whiteboard in the feed room, a clipboard, a card on each stable door, a WhatsApp group, emails, and a folder holding two vet letters. No two agreed completely. The manager audited the 14 horses and counted the gaps.

The counts overlap, and 11 of the 14 horses had at least one gap. All of this is invented to show the method, but anyone who has run a yard will recognise the pattern. Here are the kinds of message the manager was working from, lightly tidied:

Box 2, WhatsApp: "morning 2 scoops hardfeed + handful of chaff, evening same. haylage as usual. joint powder am only. NO carrots pls!!"

Box 5, email: "Breakfast: 1kg balancer, soaked beet (about a bucket), 2 handfuls chaff. Tea: chaff and beet only. 2 haynets overnight. From Monday add a scoop of [supplement] to breakfast."

Field B, text: "He's on hay in winter plus a small feed at night. Same as last year. Ask the vet if unsure."

Box 7, vet letter: [the vet's written instruction, pasted exactly as written]

Box 9, photo of a handwritten note: "AM 1.5 sc mix, PM 1 sc mix + 1/2 sc chaff, 4kg haylage, NO ALFA"

Week one: collect everything and weigh the scoops

Week one needs no AI. Copy every message into one document, photograph every door card and note, and scan the vet letters. Ask each owner for one thing: to send, in writing, their horse's current instructions if they have not already. Then weigh the yard's scoops, because most arguments about quantity are really arguments about scoops.

Fill a level scoop with each feed, weigh it on kitchen scales and write the figure down. The numbers below are illustrative; your scoops and feeds will differ, which is exactly why you weigh them.

Then set house rules and put them on the feed room wall. A scoop is level unless the sheet says heaped. A handful is not a unit and does not go on the sheet. Hay and haylage are written in kilograms per day or per net, and the net weight is known. Handwritten notes and door cards can be read from a photo by assistants such as ChatGPT or Claude, but digits and fractions are easy to misread, so have owners confirm every number rather than trusting the transcription; this tutorial on what ChatGPT can read and where it breaks shows the failure points.

Week two: the prompt that turns messages into rows

Run the assistant on four or five horses at a time. Give it the horse, the box, the livery type and the owner's words, and leave out owners' names, phone numbers and addresses, which belong in your contact sheet and not in an AI chat. The wider case for that habit is in this tutorial on customer data and ChatGPT.

You are helping a livery yard manager turn owners' feed instructions into one standard sheet. The yard records only what the owner (or the owner's vet) has approved in writing.

Rules:
1. Use only what each message says. Never add, convert, round or suggest a feed, quantity, soaking time or supplement.
2. Copy quantities exactly as written. If a quantity is "a handful", "a bit", "as usual", "same as last year", or a scoop without a named scoop, keep the owner's words and add a question.
3. Where a message gives nothing for a field, write NOT STATED.
4. Anything the owner says not to give goes in do_not_give, in their words.
5. Return a table with these columns: box, horse, livery, am, pm, forage, supplements, do_not_give, approved_by, questions_for_owner.
6. After the table, list the questions again, grouped by box, as short messages I can send to each owner.

Messages:
[paste four or five messages, one per horse, with box and livery type]

Save the prompt in a ChatGPT Project or a Claude Project, so that everyone at the yard starts from the same wording and nobody retypes the rules from memory. Here is what a run on three of the messages might return (illustrative):

Read the output as a list of gaps, not a finished sheet. Here are four typical slips from first runs, which the manager deleted or fixed. The assistant turned "a handful of chaff" into "about 0.1 kg", an invented conversion; a handful is not a unit and the yard's weighed scoop replaces it only if the owner agrees. It added "soak for 12 hours" to the beet from general knowledge, though the owner said nothing about soaking. It converted "2 haynets" to "8 kg hay" by assuming 4 kg a net. And it read "NO ALFA" as alfalfa without asking, where the right output is "NO ALFA (confirm what this means)". All four are guesses presented as facts, which is why rule 1 in the prompt is the longest rule, and why the manager reads every row against the source message before anything leaves the building.

The master sheet the yard settled on

The template itself is short. Each horse gets one line, and the same headings go on the printed sheet and on the board.

• Box or field, horse and livery type, so that part-livery and DIY rows are never mistaken for full ones.
• Fed by: yard, owner or both. On part livery the sheet must show which feeds the yard prepares and which the owner gives.
• AM, midday and PM feeds, each item with a quantity in kilograms or a named scoop.
• Preparation where the owner specifies it, such as soaked, dry or mixed, in the owner's words and with the owner's timings.
• Forage: type, weight per day or per net, and where it goes (stable net, field).
• Supplements: product, dose and measure, exactly as the owner gave them.
• Do not give: the owner's or vet's list.
• Approved by and date: owner or vet, in writing.

That is the whole template; resist adding columns for things the yard does not decide. In practice the manager built one table in a spreadsheet, one line per horse, with "fed by" folded into the horse column. Unconfirmed cells are shaded and say ASK OWNER, so nobody can mistake a gap for a decision.

The vet's letter for Box 7 is pinned in the feed room beside the sheet, and the row points to it rather than retyping it. A few layout rules made the rest readable at half past six. Keep one line per horse and put the columns in feeding order. Write quantities in kilograms or in a named scoop followed by its weight in brackets, so a new groom never has to ask what blue means. Print the sheet landscape on the largest paper your printer takes (A3 or tabloid) with a type size of 12 points or more, and show the version date in the header. The "Approved" column says who approved the line (owner or vet, in writing) and when. Medication is not a feed and does not belong here: a separate medication record, with the owner's or vet's written authority, is the right home for it. If a cell is unconfirmed, staff carry on with the routine the horse is already on and the manager asks the owner the same day.

The sheet can live in Excel or Google Sheets. If you want a hand with formulas for flagging unconfirmed rows, this tutorial on Google Sheets AI prompts is a useful starting point; a simple filter on the word ASK is enough.

Week three: owners confirm their own row, then a cold read

The manager sent each owner only their own horse's row plus its questions. A short message does the job.

Hello [first name],

Here is the feed instruction we hold for [horse], Box [number]:
[paste the row as plain lines]

Please reply "confirmed" if it is right, or send corrections in writing. We still need an answer to: [questions].

Until you reply we will keep feeding what [horse] is on now. If your vet has set or changed the diet, please send the vet's written instruction.

Thank you,
[your name]

Within the week, 13 of the 14 owners had confirmed in writing. The fourteenth asked their vet to put the diet in a letter, so that horse's row read "continue current routine, letter awaited". Two owners answered the questions with a feed that was not what the yard had been giving; the manager changed nothing until the written confirmation arrived, then logged it.

Then came the test that matters most, a cold read. A groom who had never fed those horses was given the printed sheet and asked to prepare the morning feeds for five boxes without asking anyone anything. Every question the groom asked was a gap in the sheet, and the manager wrote each one down and fixed it. Three turned up: one unit missing, one abbreviation ("hf"), and a box number that appeared twice. The sheet then ran alongside the old whiteboard for three days before the old board was wiped.

The change log: who asked, who approved, from which feed

A sheet that is right on Monday is wrong by Friday unless changes go through one door. The manager added a second tab to the same spreadsheet.

Four rules keep it honest. No verbal changes: when an owner says something at the gate, the reply is "please message it to me so I get it right", and the manager means it. Every change starts at a named feed (Wednesday PM, not "from now"). A second person checks that both the sheet and the board show the change, and initials the log. Rows are never deleted, so the log answers the question "what was this horse on last month?" Send owners the request format so that their messages arrive complete.

To change your horse's feed, please send me:
1. Horse name and box.
2. What changes, from what to what (in kg or the yard's named scoop, not handfuls).
3. The feed it starts at (date, and AM or PM).
4. Whether your vet has approved it. If it is a prescribed or restricted diet, please send the vet's written instruction.
I will reply when the sheet and the board are updated.

Once a week, check that the sheet and the log agree. Paste both tables into the assistant and ask it to find mismatches only.

Below are the master feed sheet and the change log. List every change in the log whose start date has passed but whose new value is not on the sheet, and every value on the sheet that no log entry or confirmed row explains. Do not correct anything. Return a short list, one line per mismatch.

[paste the sheet, then the log]

A run on the example might return one line: Box 2, haylage logged as 5 kg from Wednesday evening but the sheet still says 6 kg. That is a genuine catch, and the manager fixes the sheet and the board, not the assistant. If the list comes back empty, spot-check one row by hand anyway, because an assistant can miss a mismatch as easily as it can invent one.

The whiteboard copy, made from the master

Staff read the board, not the spreadsheet, so the board must be made from the sheet and never edited on its own. Ask the assistant to compress it.

From the master table below, write the whiteboard version: one line per box with the columns Box, Horse, AM, PM, Notes. Each cell at most 12 words. Replace any cell marked ASK OWNER with "?" and list those cells separately. Put DO NOT GIVE items in capitals in Notes. Do not add, convert or round any quantity.

[paste the master table]

A run on the rows above gives lines such as "2 | Grey mare | 2 blue hard feed, 1 blue chaff | same | Haylage 2 x 3 kg. NO CARROTS" and "Field B | Cob | not fed | ? | Hay, amount ?", plus a separate list of every cell it replaced with a question mark. The manager checks each line against the sheet, copies it onto the board by hand and writes the date and initials in the corner. Four rules apply to the board. It is a copy, so if it ever disagrees with the sheet, stop and check the sheet and the log first. Only the manager or a named deputy writes on it. It is updated on the same day as the sheet, and the second person in the change log checks both. And the weights of the scoops are written on the wall beside it.

Week four and the numbers

These figures are illustrative, in the spirit of the rest of this example, and show what to record rather than what to expect. Setting up took the manager about 3 hours 50 minutes: an hour collecting messages, 20 minutes weighing scoops, an hour and a quarter on the assistant runs and corrections, 45 minutes on layout and printing, and 30 minutes on the cold read. Owners spent perhaps five minutes each confirming. The open gaps fell from 11 horses with at least one to none, bar the one horse waiting for a vet's letter.

In the first month the log recorded nine changes. Each took about five minutes to log and to update on both the sheet and the board, which is the real saving: the manager no longer rebuilds a mental list every time an owner sends a message. Feeding itself takes as long as it always did. What went away was the phone call from a groom at seven in the morning asking what "as usual" meant. Count the questions your staff ask during the first week of the new sheet; each is a gap, and the target is none.

Paper agreement is not the same as the bucket, so the manager also audits the real thing. Once a month the manager picks three horses at random and, at feed time, weighs what is in the bucket or on the net against the sheet. A difference is not a telling-off. It is evidence of a gap, such as a swapped scoop or a net that now weighs something different. Log what was found, then fix the sheet or the habit that caused it.

Every quarter the manager repeats the confirmation step: each owner gets their row again and replies "confirmed" or corrects it. It takes an evening and catches the instructions that drifted without anyone logging them. If you later move to livery management software, the same rows and log carry across; this tutorial on livery yard software, billing and notes covers what to look for. And if you want the same discipline for feeding and medication fields at a boarding business of a different kind, this intake form for dog boarding shows the fields.

The handful, the gate and the stale board

Invented, but easy to recognise:

The helpful conversion. A groom reads "chaff 1 handful (about 0.1 kg)" on a sheet the manager did not check against the source. The owner's handful was a good deal bigger. Nobody is at fault except the process that let an invented conversion onto the sheet. The cure is rule 1 in the prompt, the cold read, and the owner's written confirmation of every number.

The change at the gate. An owner tells the groom on Friday evening to stop a supplement. The groom remembers on Saturday morning; the weekend helper never heard. The horse receives it on Sunday. With a log and a board, the owner's words arrive in writing, the board changes, and the second person checks it.

The stale board. The manager updates the spreadsheet on Tuesday night and plans to rewrite the board in the morning. Wednesday's feeds are prepared from the old board. The fix is procedural: the log is not complete until the board is changed and the second person has initialled both, and the date in the board's corner makes a stale board easy to spot.

Feed sheet questions from yard managers

Can AI tell me what a horse should be fed?

Not for a livery yard's sheet. The yard records feeds the owner, or the owner's vet for a prescribed diet, has approved in writing. An assistant can tidy wording and spot gaps, but it can state nutrition facts with confidence and be wrong. Treat anything it adds that the owner did not say as an error, and send feeding questions to the owner, their vet or a qualified equine nutritionist.

What if an owner's instruction looks wrong to me?

Do not override it or quietly change it. Ask the owner to confirm it in writing, and if you are worried about the horse, say so and ask them to check with their vet. Record the question and the reply in the change log. For a prescribed diet, the vet's written instruction is the instruction, and a copy should be filed.

Do DIY livery horses go on the sheet?

Give them a short section: owner feeds, what the yard supplies (for example hay or haylage), and an emergency instruction for whoever covers if the owner is away. You are not recording a ration, only making sure nobody guesses. Ask each DIY owner to confirm their line in writing, as for every other horse.

Is a spreadsheet better than a whiteboard?

Use both for different jobs. The spreadsheet is the single source of truth and holds the change log. The whiteboard is a copy for the feed room, with the date and the updater's initials on it. If they ever disagree, stop and check the spreadsheet and the log before anything is fed.

Further reads

• Riding School Software: Lesson Booking, Rider Notes and AI Reminders — Software for the riding school side of the yard
• Riding Lesson Cancellation Policy: Weather, Welfare and Late Notice — Weather and welfare rules for the lessons you run
• Personal Chef Client Intake Form: Allergies, Diets and Menus With AI — Capturing allergies and diets from clients, the same habit
• Restaurant SOP Template: Opening and Closing Checklists With AI — Turn the feed routine into opening and closing checklists
• Hotel Shift Handover Notes With ChatGPT: From Desk Logs to a Daily Report — Shift handover notes drafted from daily logs
• How to Write SOPs With AI: From Rough Notes to Clear Procedures — Write the yard's other routines from rough notes
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.