Anyone gone from bells and whistle livery to basic?

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ghostie

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Sorry, I'm boring myself with my ongoing livery dramas let alone everyone else, but I'm considering a pretty drastic solution so would appreciate some input from other horsey folk.

I am struggling to find decent turnout for my boy. At the moment we're on full livery with great facilities but he gets limited turnout. I'm desperate to get him some decent turnout as it would be much more natural, better for his ulcers and he would be much more chilled out.

I've found somewhere where he could live out 24/7 365 days a year, but I wonder if he would cope with this as he's not used to it and is a TB. The owner seems absolutely lovely, she has 12 acres and never more than 12 horses/ponies so pretty good land to horse ratio for the area. I would pay her to check on him twice a day and change rugs if necessary. In winter she brings her two horses who need more feed to keep weight on into a smaller paddock and gives them ad lib hay from a round bale and then a hard feed either once or twice a day and would be happy to do this for me too. She has stables if they're needed, but doesn't use them as standard.

It would be a bit of a shock to the system - seperate riding area but gets boggy in winter, 1 mile down a busy road to get to very good hacking (although others on the yard do it so could hopefully do it with them), no electricity. Possibility of hacking to somewhere where I could hire an arena but for the amount of money I'd be saving I could look at hiring transport to box out to lessons once a week.

Have those that have done something similar managed? What would you do? I've only just moved to my new yard, but turnout still isn't ideal and this seems like it could be a good solution to my lack of turnout problem if I'm brave enough to go for it.
 
I moved from glorious, purpose built yard (Indoor with sprinklers(!) outdoor, large stables, walker, great hacking) to home (grazing and stables) I fully intend to trailer to lessons/hire arenas etc. It's a potch really though.

Horse is hugely content, I am less so, however on the grand scheme of things that balance is not too bad ;) we're 5 mins away from our nearest venue, 20mins e/w from two others so not far and like you, once we get one busy road out of the way we're onto good hacking.

I think you should consider it, I enjoy having a better, more natural life for my horse - YES I'd like the shangri-la of horse set-ups and that will come, but for now a happy horse is pretty satisfying :)
 
Although the stables are not used as standard, the YO sounds nice, so maybe you could ask if you could use one short term to get your horse used to increased turnout if you don't think he'll cope going straight to 24/7 turnout. The fact that he can be separated to be fed and have extra hay sounds great too.

If it helps I have a TB and she lives out all year. She's rugged and fed/ hayed in winter and does well over the winter.
 
The actual 24/7 turnout wouldn't be the key issue for me (especially if I had a slightly stressy TB, very good way to manage them IMO), but the lack of access to hacking and decent surface for schooling would be deal breakers. We are all different though, so you have to weigh the pros and cons.
 
You'll be fine. Facilities really aren't that necessary. It was fab having them when I worked on nice comp yards. But I managed before & after without any problem. Tbs live out fine, more likely to need good rugs than a native & a bit more hay/feed. Sounds a nice set up for you.
 
I did. Took my horses away from luxury livery with unluxury grazing (!) to fab grass livery with optional stables but little else.
One of the horses was a finely built Hanoverian X TB competition horse who had previously lived with little TO and was triple rugged. She blossomed through 2 winters of snow and ice. She maintained her weight much better and needed less rugging. It seemed that because she was less stressed and free to move around, also having access to shelter, - she kept her condition through the winter.

The downside was in only having a grass menage, too soft in winter and during the hot summer last year, the ground then became rock hard. We did have fab hacking and this enabled us to do a fair bit that we would have done in a school anyway. However, road hacking in the depths of winter with poor visibility and ice was a bummer. All riding had to be done during the short daylight hours.

Grass livery was great for the horses, they were chilled, fit and well. For me, it was a bit of a sacrifice at times but on balance, I don't see how I could have choosen otherwise.
 
Thank you, always helpful to have some perspective. Have one other option to investigate this weekend which is a compromise of some facilties, 24/7 in summer and 8 hours a day in winter so hoping that is a good option then we will both be happy :) if not I will give this some more thought
 
I moved from a beautiful part/full competition livery yard which had everything but only limited turnout as they were very protective with their fields to a basic DIY farm livery. I moved to the farm as it was just minutes from my house, the turnout is 24/7 but during winter or a rainy spell it can get very muddy. Also the farmer is quite lazy so everyone ends up doing everything themselves. Sometimes I do wish I was back on the clean livery yard but I'm still there:)
 
I am going through the exact same situation. I'm at a competition livery yard with all the facilities and amazing hacking, which is excellent for my youngster, but he only gets 4 hours of turnout per day!!!!!!! :mad: It is driving me absolutely mad to the point that I cant sleep for worrying about it! I have asked and asked for him to get out with other horses (he is in his own paddock with horses on either side of him) or to go in with the grass liveries but I am told no and if I want more turnout I should go to a different yard.

We have only been there 2 months and tomorrow I am going to look at other yards which are miles and miles away from my house (current one is only 2 miles), are still bells and whistles yards but provide a personalised routine for your horse. He is showing signs of stress and gets really agitated when he sees other horses whilst I am riding him as he is desperate to be in a herd environment again, I can just sense it, and it is being so detrimental to everything we are trying to achieve. He is full of beans and I have to lunge him before I get on him every day... so unneccessary when all he needs is a field and some buddies to have some fun in! Apparently I am told by the YO that young horses with lots of turnout turn into wild beasts and if they are out all day they will get injured and lose shoes... :confused:

I think that limited turnout deprives your horse of their most basic need. How can we expect them to be happy and healthy, physically and mentally, if they are essentially caged animals for most of the day... Your horse would get used to the new routine and environment, even if you build up his outside time gradually at the new place. The owner sounds nice and I'm sure would be accomodating!
 
We did and don't regret one minute. Horses are out at least 12 hours a day in all weather apart from storms. Lightning strikes are a real possibility when your horse is the highest point for miles! Fields can get muddy but the hours of grooming increases the bonding process ;)
 
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