For those at yards - is your turnout still open?

We are very lucky and have turnout all year round.
May-Oct (end) 24/7 turnout
Nov-April (end) turnout during day, stabled at night
Our YO manages our fields extremely well, even if they look trashed he manages to sort them out so they look like it never happened. :D
 
i have a better idea than you think the trouble is its easier not to think about your horse stood in for near on 24 hours in a 12 x 12 box for weeks and weeks if your neighbur kept a dog in a small kennel like that how would you feel
 
Arabesque Ani said:
im lucky my mare out 24/7 at small yard. i feel sick at the thought of horses living in a box for days only coming out for an hour or to in winter . owners should spend a day shut in a box : yards take on too many horses for the land they have and the horses suffer. if alll owners demand turnout, horses woudl live better
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Sorry, but this really bugged me. So many people think its so simple! I've got twenty acres and two horses and still can't turn my horses out over the winter as the land is wet clay and they get chronic mud rash. So that blows your "too many horses on the land" theory!! They have to go out on a little turnout paddock. Its not ideal, but when I kept them the "ideal" way they got very very ill. To re-do all the drains would cost thousands and thousands and the soil would still be clay, so it would still churn. When we used to do DIY we allowed horses out all day, and the DIYs brought them in because they didn't want them out in bad weather or mooching at the gates in the mud - you can't please everyone.

Sometimes I go to other yards in other areas and laugh at the mud they complain about. To me its a dry field! When our fields are muddy the 12h welsh used to have to swim to the gate and you'd lose your welly if you went through it. Obviously thats because I don't look after the land properly isn't i!

I think that all these people who judge yard owners for restricting turnout should go and buy their own field (current average is £10,000/ acre) and then look after it for a few years (we pay about £700/yr having our fields harrowed/rolled/topped etc / year) and see if their opinion changes.
 
Arabesque Ani said:
i have a better idea than you think the trouble is its easier not to think about your horse stood in for near on 24 hours in a 12 x 12 box for weeks and weeks if your neighbur kept a dog in a small kennel like that how would you feel
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No, you don't have a better idea than I think.
I think you need to look further than the end of your nose at different areas of the country.

Not surprisingly, there are others on this thread who are saying exactly the same as I am and they live in the same area as me.
It's not all sunshine and flowers across this small country of ours you know :rolleyes:.

I keep my dog in a small kennel, he's a small dog ;).
 
Honey08 said:
Sorry, but this really bugged me. So many people think its so simple! I've got twenty acres and two horses and still can't turn my horses out over the winter as the land is wet clay and they get chronic mud rash. So that blows your "too many horses on the land" theory!! They have to go out on a little turnout paddock. Its not ideal, but when I kept them the "ideal" way they got very very ill. To re-do all the drains would cost thousands and thousands and the soil would still be clay, so it would still churn. When we used to do DIY we allowed horses out all day, and the DIYs brought them in because they didn't want them out in bad weather or mooching at the gates in the mud - you can't please everyone.
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If you have 20 acers cant you set up 4 or 5 fields and rotate every few days? less churning and more turn out?
 
We put up with some issues at my yard, fencing needs sorting, no arena etc. but the grazing is fab. Very hills and on limestone so although you get stones coming through all the time it drains well. We tend to bring in to keep the weight off them, and if it is persistently wet, but that holds true all year round so they spend as much time in during the Summer as Winter. At the moment they are in most nights because they all need to lose weight. They may go back to 24/7 turnout when the grass has gone though.
 
Well, not to rub salt into wounds, but I have 6 acres for my two horses - most of which is still very nice and with plenty of grass - BUT the honest truth is that certainly the TB just does not want to be out for very long come this time of the year. Even when it's warmer than normal, there is something about her body clock that just tells her it's time to be in. If I leave her she paces, paces, paces - which together with trashing the field and potentially causing her mud fever, also does nothing for her already slight condition. So I'm afraid this horse certainly would HATE 24 hour turnout. That's not me saying that - that's her clearly telling me so!!!! She goes out for about 4, 5 hours a day which she's more than happy with. She does live in a barn with my other though, so not stabled as such.
 
The fields do get rotated. If I just rotated them every few days I'd end up with all fields and all gateways churned up and unusable. Don't confuse not being ablt to use fields due to mud with not having any grass - we are over run with grass. They still have grazing muzzles on! Its just the soil that causes the problem, combined with the fact that we are at the bottom of the pennines and have flat fields, so all the water runs down to us..

The twenty acres is divided up into five fields. One is for summer as it is the wettest, they came out of that at the end of Aug as it got so wet in early Sept and went into the autumn field, which is just about holding up, but the gateways get so deep in no time, and when you fill them with hardcore, the part around that churns.. So they will go into the winter field from Sunday, which is the dryer of the lot, until that starts to get muddy (won't take long if it rains a lot). As soon as they show signs of mudrash they will come in, and just go out for an hour a day (more when we're home) in a 20x30 paddock that has hardcore under the grass. They will usually get ridden an hour each too. Once a week we put turnout chaps on them and shove them out in the winter field for a blast. Its not the ideal - I'd love them to be out, but their health comes first.

The final field is a haylage field, so the grass is too lush for my good doers, and it too gets wet in winter.

There are two reservoirs in the valley where I live - they weren't put there because it is a dry area were they...

I'd love to live in Essex or Surrey where its a totally different ballgame!
 
We can do whatever we want.. but we have to live with the results. Mine are out 24/7 until it gets too wet, then they will come in at night. Eventually it will get to the stage where turnout is severely limited, if at all, and they will go in the sandschool for a hoon around.

I know it's too wet when my mare has to be virtually dragged out of her stable, she is a wise bird and knows she is better off in munching hay than standing knee deep in oozy mud. They are allowed hay in the field, but once again we have to deal with it and clear up the resulting wastage and mess or ruin the grazing.

Mine make me laugh, they have never read the rule books and are perfectly happy in with all the extra attention they get.
 
To give you an idea of the land I'm talking about...
(This year I'm going to take a photo of the horses in the mud we have to deal with so the people who have never seen proper mud realise what we're talking about!)

autumn2010141.jpg


autumn2010149.jpg
 
Honey08 said:
The fields do get rotated. If I just rotated them every few days I'd end up with all fields and all gateways churned up and unusable. Don't confuse not being ablt to use fields due to mud with not having any grass - we are over run with grass. They still have grazing muzzles on! Its just the soil that causes the problem, combined with the fact that we are at the bottom of the pennines and have flat fields, so all the water runs down to us..
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cant you put down gravel or wood shavings around the gate areas? we have fields like yours with alot of grass. however the mud is awful so we gravel the gate ways and turn out for about 5 hours. we keep water or put hay is needed as far away from the gate ways as poss and we rotate fields. we have about 12 acres for 10 horses and this works. its not great and we still get a feck lot of mud, however id rather them get a few hours where they can be 'horses'.
 
BSJAlove said:
cant you put down gravel or wood shavings around the gate areas? we have fields like yours with alot of grass. however the mud is awful so we gravel the gate ways and turn out for about 5 hours. we keep water or put hay is needed as far away from the gate ways as poss and we rotate fields. we have about 12 acres for 10 horses and this works. its not great and we still get a feck lot of mud, however id rather them get a few hours where they can be 'horses'.
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We've put tons of hardcore down over the years. The planning dept go mad - its green belt and illegal.. The mud just spreads around the hardcore. We tried putting shavings down once and it was dangerous. It created a bog that was like sinking sand! I'm not really talking about mud, but serious bogs - your pictures in your sig look like your land is much more arable, not moorland type, and the soil looks more loamy than clay, so it won't get as bad.

You can see from the pics that there are a lot of rushes and ponds around. This area was full of cotton mills once, who put all the ponds in because it was easier to dam up an wet area. The same decision led to two reservoirs being put in the valley too...
 
The pictures in my sig only shows the middle section of one field. Its horrible, and very very depressing lol!

Its a shame, as you've got alot of land to play with.

(You live in such a beautiful place, the scenary is georgous!)
 
Yeap fields are open and will be 365...wouldn't be at a yard that did anything other than this. ;) Our gateways get muddy (are muddy already) but the majority of the fields are sandy based and stay very dry and clean so there is absolutely no reason to shove the horses in stables for days on end. My lad might come in for a month or so at nights IF it snows again other wise he'll stay out and come in for a few hours in the day for food as he always does.

Some of the liveries have horses that are apparently allergic to mud and rain and they have been stuck in for the last few weeks but those of us with horses that don't melt are being very cruel and having them out in the wind and rain...oh mean mean mummies. :p;)
 
Ours is also 24/7 until this weekend when the horses come in at night. My two ponies will move into an acre paddock where they will live out all winter unless the weather gets very nasty for more than a couple of days (with this I mean wet not cold).
 
The yard I am on everyone has a stable, but you don't have to bring in so its up to us when we bring our horses in. Mine prefer to be out & will only come in when the weather gets really nasty. Luckily we have our own fields for ours horses so we are responsible for managing it. :)
 
Yes, still open. :)

The horses have been on 24/7 turnout since the middle of April, up on the sommerweide (summer meadows!;)). However, this coming Sunday they will all head back towards the yard, to the yard meadow, and depending on the weather, will remain out 24/7.

When the weather does eventually turn they will come in at night but will still have daytime turn out.

YO will be busy this winter though! His partner is just about to give birth (if she hasn't done so already! :eek:), so I think some help from owners will be needed this year! :)
 
Hmmmm - I really do understand everyone's point having been on both sides of the fence at varying times. BUT as a YO and former user of DIY and Full livery options over more than thirty years of having horses, my constant management approach has been make sure some turnout is available whether I've owned the land or rented access to it.

This is because I simply do not agree with any situation other than medical where horses are kept in for extended periods of time. If a yard didn't allow turnout in winter, I didn't go.

However, this does not mean as a YO I should allow my property to be trashed as clay soil and horses mix.

I asked a livery to leave therefore who came to me complaining (rudely) that the livery horses 24/7 was over in December (til March - I still allowed up to 12 hours a day) which wasn't 'fair' when my own horses had 24/7 turnout with access to bedded up stables in the field nearest my house.

Ummmm.. My land My rules!
 
I rent my own place, I have 5 & they are all still out 24/7, we have about 9/10 acres in total, two separate fields. The one is divided into 4 paddocks & a little restricted grazing area. The other is used for hay in the summer, but the horses are on it over the winter, I strip graze that, am just under half way down it now.

The field divided into 4 has two paddock shut off, one large one and one smaller one, ready for when they do come in.

Three horses will come in over night in a few weeks, and the two ponies will remain out all year.

Fields are always good, well drained & I always have a field left to rest! Lovely!

I've got two big tractor tyres for the hay outside so it doesn't blow about. We are also in mid construction of a shelter for the ponies.

I hopefully will have a few more stables this year too! I'm so lucky that our farmer knows how to manage the land correctly & always makes sure the fields are well looked after so they grow well.
 
Last yard was next to no winter turnout.
Fields turned into swamps. I found the horses were grand and coped well, we just turned them out into the little lean to for an hour a day to socialise, roll etc. Then just kept them exercised. Not an ideal situation but you get what you can take!

New yard has summer 24/7 turnout and winter daily turnout. They are turned out at 8am til whenever we come and bring them in. They are being left out as long as possible so are currently still 2 4/7at least the end of the month. If I wanted her on grass livery that would be fine but I want her in at night. There may be the odd day where weather dictates they stay in (Driving winds, snow, ice etc) but bar that she will be out most of the winter.

ETA: We will have hayfeeders in the field provided the horses provided they don't squabble over it! Fields are wet on the bottom halves but the yo's attitude is that the fields will be harrowed topped and rolled come spring so they will be grand!
 
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We are 24/7 turnout summer, in at night during winter. This year we went on to summer grazing 2nd week of April. Normally we would be told to start bringing in around the 2nd week of November, but we have been told that if the weather stays as it is at the moment, we can probably stay out until December. I will bring Doll and Bren in after fireworks night as they are starting to drop a bit, but Mac will stay out for as long as he is happy to.

We aren't allowed to put hay in the fields, so they are all coming in for a couple of hours to get some now.

We are on Essex clay, and when it is wet, gateways are awful. Farmer is good though and come spring, fields are rolled and look as good as new.
 
My yard has all year turnout apart from days where it would be dangerous (solid ice).

As Wagtail says, my mare is more than happy to come in by 4pm now. I went to bring her in about 3.45pm yesterday to ride and she quite happily ambled up to me when I called her. If she wants to stay out, she'll refuse to come to me and makes me walk to her.

They're generally brought in at about 5.30pm at the moment and they are all waiting by the gates.
 
it depends totally on the soil type. clay is the worst. you could have 2 horses on 100 acres and they'd still trash it.
i used to have land of 2 diff soil types in adjoining fields, one redstone/sand (max of about 3" mud) one clay (a foot of mud, easily). the difference was unbelievable.
as above, those that evangelise about horses always being turned out all day in winter need to think about the damage it's doing, and who is going to put it right, in time/effort and ££s.
i know someone who keeps hers out all year round and the fields are utterly rubbish, full of ragwort, no decent grass. i'd rather have really good fields for say 8 months of the year and all-weather turnouts for the rest of the time.
btw the grass doesn't grow in winter anyway, it's too cold, so unless you have oodles of grass in autumn for them to eat all winter (unlikely) they'll need hay anyway, so they may as well stand on all-weather turnout to eat that imho!
 
i'm lucky and have all year turn out. Our fields drain well and don't get muddy. My girl comes in at night because she likes being in. In the winter she will come in early or go out late if the weather is bad. If it's torrential, she'll happily stay in all day and looks miserable if i turn her out in bad weather!
 
lilaclomax said:
Ours is also 24/7 until this weekend when the horses come in at night.
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This. I would not keep a horse on a yard which did not allow a decent amount of turnout (6 hours plus) in a field with company. I did keep him at a yard for one winter (at Uni doing MSc and very few yards locally) when he only went out for 3 hours daily in a small paddock by himself and he was completely miserable :(
 
Honey08 said:
I'd love to live in Essex or Surrey where its a totally different ballgame!
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I wouldn't be too sure about that! I'm in Surrey and when I was at my first yard the fields looked like this in the winter :eek:
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At my last yard we put hardcore down in the "trash paddock" and front of the main field and the horses had that over the winter with hay whilst the rest of the big field rested. It seemed to work fine.
At my current yard we get winter and summer fields so have AYTO, I couldn't be at a yard with no winter turnout!
 
broke_but_happy said:
I wouldn't be too sure about that! I'm in Surrey and when I was at my first yard the fields looked like this in the winter :eek:
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At my last yard we put hardcore down in the "trash paddock" and front of the main field and the horses had that over the winter with hay whilst the rest of the big field rested. It seemed to work fine.
At my current yard we get winter and summer fields so have AYTO, I couldn't be at a yard with no winter turnout!
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You see, how can horses be happy in conditions like that? I have kept them like that before when on livery. One ended up with a broken leg. All suffered from varying degrees of mud fever. All the horses were crabby and darn right dangerous at bringing in time. As Kerilli says, the grass doesn't grow in winter in any case so you may as well have them munching hay in an all weather turnout. Happy horses, no mud fever, no slipping or twisting legs in the mud and happy owners. I can't think how I ever coped without it.
 
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