hoir14
Active Member
Hoping you lovely people can give me some advice/guidance as i have so many ideas flying round my head right now haha! sorry i think its going to be a long one!
In a couple of weeks I am moving my horse to a new yard/field. We have a 1.5 acre field and a 3 acre field between 3 horses (i have a 16hh cob x shire and my friend has a tb and a 13.2hh cob) for 24/7 turnout, no access to stables except in an emergency. Each field has automatic water and a field shelter.
We both live about 20 minutes away and due to work etc, the plan is to do one visit a day between us so we are able to have a couple of days off a week each. (owner has her horses on site and she looks in on all the horses daily and other owners up regularly so if anything went wrong they wouldnt be left for long at all) so we really aren't able to switch fields 3 times a day/get grazing muzzles or anything on/off without leaving them on for 24 hours until our next visit (which i obviously won't be doing).
The TB is in his late teens and struggles with his weight a little in winter but soon bounces back in spring so not overly concerned with him on the grass side of things, the 2 cobs are good doers anf my big lad has CPL so increasing movement is a massive contributing factor to us moving. my lad has only ever been on individual turnout with me so I am wary of introducing slowly.
With all that information, i have a couple of questions where we'd like some outside input-
what is the best way to introduce the 3? (the fields are not next to each other so over the fence isnt really an option and the little cob often doesn't respect electric fencing and i wouldnt want an unsupervised meeting!)
I've considered a track system but I dont think the ground would cope come winter and i suspect the track would need to be too wide to really do anything in the smaller field, is 1.5 acres too small to track for 2 good sized horses and a pony?
how long should we leave the fields to rest? should we do straight summer and winter fields? or should we alternate multiple times through the year?
I'd love to see some similar setups and how you guys manage them. i know there will be a lot of trial and error but just want to get started on the right foot! I have only ever been on normal livery yards with no opportunity for managing the land in any way so this is all very new to me! and well done if you got this far haha
In a couple of weeks I am moving my horse to a new yard/field. We have a 1.5 acre field and a 3 acre field between 3 horses (i have a 16hh cob x shire and my friend has a tb and a 13.2hh cob) for 24/7 turnout, no access to stables except in an emergency. Each field has automatic water and a field shelter.
We both live about 20 minutes away and due to work etc, the plan is to do one visit a day between us so we are able to have a couple of days off a week each. (owner has her horses on site and she looks in on all the horses daily and other owners up regularly so if anything went wrong they wouldnt be left for long at all) so we really aren't able to switch fields 3 times a day/get grazing muzzles or anything on/off without leaving them on for 24 hours until our next visit (which i obviously won't be doing).
The TB is in his late teens and struggles with his weight a little in winter but soon bounces back in spring so not overly concerned with him on the grass side of things, the 2 cobs are good doers anf my big lad has CPL so increasing movement is a massive contributing factor to us moving. my lad has only ever been on individual turnout with me so I am wary of introducing slowly.
With all that information, i have a couple of questions where we'd like some outside input-
what is the best way to introduce the 3? (the fields are not next to each other so over the fence isnt really an option and the little cob often doesn't respect electric fencing and i wouldnt want an unsupervised meeting!)
I've considered a track system but I dont think the ground would cope come winter and i suspect the track would need to be too wide to really do anything in the smaller field, is 1.5 acres too small to track for 2 good sized horses and a pony?
how long should we leave the fields to rest? should we do straight summer and winter fields? or should we alternate multiple times through the year?
I'd love to see some similar setups and how you guys manage them. i know there will be a lot of trial and error but just want to get started on the right foot! I have only ever been on normal livery yards with no opportunity for managing the land in any way so this is all very new to me! and well done if you got this far haha
