caved in on my 24/7 turnout principles

[rubysmum]

for the last couple of yrs Ruby has lived out 24/7 - always brought in each day for hard feed/break from the weather/grooming/rideing etc - but she has started looking a little poor [ she is big & old] & her field is really now just a swamp with some sad damp looking horses standing there - so, on Sun i caved in, made up a lovely deep fluffy bed, dug out her pjs & put her on full livery for a week - she will be walked around the menage/yard every day to stretch her legs & ridden/schooled every night - but otherwise she can be a stable princess for a week - 1 day in & she seems v happy indeed & i am rather enjoying the lack of mud in my world
sometimes its useful to check that your horse keeping principles are actually still working or need a bit of a re-visit

 

[howengold]

I turned my two vets out 24/7 the beginning of Feb in my hill paddock and on sunday they came back to the yard for stabling as my hill paddock is strangely not draining off even though its the top of a hill on my friends land! Also my mare dropped some weight, so they are both now in at night in their nice warm stables and looking very smug...I think Mony decided to give her feeds to Willow while I wasn't looking so I would worry and have to bring them back in lol!

 

[sugarlump121]

Hello Howengold how are you?! You dissapeared off my fb- used to talk to you on ew hope youre ok!

OP a prime example of each horse to their own individual needs and a point that we sometimes need to re assess our routine rather than sticking to it no matter what.

My big horse unfortunately is showing signs that he's ready to live out as my 2 both do from about March - November but unfortunately the field wont take it so I may leave them out one night over the weekend as I used to until about a month ago (unless too cold) as this used to take the edge off them both- other is a youngster. Their feed and hay is still the same along with usual times the only difference is they dont come in which they both seem to like lol!

 

[ISHmad]

It's all about listening to your horse and doing the right thing for him or her. Ours live out 24/7 but only because we have enough dry land for them to be on. If we didn't have that there would be no choice but for them to come in at night. Please can spring hurry up and get here!