Change of routine

[Petmurf]

Hello,
I need some advice please, my pony is on full livery at a yard we’ve been on for about 6 weeks and he loves it, when we first moved he was on overnight turnout, in during the day and was so well behaved, great to catch etc, however this week he has moved to day turnout and in at night and his behaviour has changed, I’m putting it down to the change of routine, he is taking ages to be caught even though he can’t wait to get back to his stable so much so that he wouldn’t be caught on Monday afternoon, was by the gate with the YO, jumped a wall and galloped down the track and put himself in his stable which obviously isn’t ideal. The grazing isn’t good this time of year so they usually put hay in the fields but haven’t done this yet so I’m thinking he’s hungry and just can’t wait to get to his stable, today he jumped a wall and over a bath to get to another field to graze with a mare who hates strange horses in her field and took 15 mins to be caught.

He has hay overnight and has his breakfast so I was thinking maybe I should up his breakfast so he goes out with a full belly or do people think it’s just the change of routine?

At our last yard, he was out 24/7 and I’ve only had him since the end of May so he’s gone though quite a lot of changes for a 6 yr old, we were evicted from our last yard for escaping into different fields so I could really do with not being evicted from this one as we both love it.

 

[Lois Lame]

I suspect he would prefer to be in during the day and out at night.

Daytime seems to be very much a time of rest for horses. I speak about horses who are retired or do little work.

Heavily worked horses must have to live a very different routine to how wild horses live.

 

[Lois Lame]

Regarding horses who are keen to get to their stable where hay awaits, I'd be keen too. I am ruled by my stomach at times, and a biscuit of lucerne (alfalfa) hay would tempt me, then I'd be fuming that I'd fallen for it after I'd polished it off. And I'd want out.

 

[Annagain]

Is he the only one left in the field by the time he's caught? If so and you think he's hungry, I'd take a bucket of feed to catch him. I'd also make sure he has plenty of hay so he still has some left in the morning or give him an hour with a fresh haynet before turning out so he goes out with a full tum and comes in when he's hungry.

Hopefully he'll settle into the new routine soon. When ours start coming in at night, it normally takes about a week to go from having to be found and caught to hanging round the gate from 5pm onwards (they come in at about 6).