Herd kept horses...

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RosieTink

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Does anybody have lots of acreage and have horses kept in a herd together just being horses (at least for the most part). So being kept living out together without all the bells and whistles and just being horses I guess. Just curious as to whether anybody has or does this :).
 
i keep a herd on very basic bog field with no field shelter or fancy stuff at all. Last year the herd stayed there full time and was made up of oldies, retired ones and pregnant mare and youngster. They all got along grand, but were given forage and rugs when needed
 
We have a 'full' normal yard (stables for all, 5 of the 7 are in work, have arena with lights etc.) but they're out 24/7 as a group so the few hours a week they work is no hardship! 3/7 have rugs on and only 1 is fed hard food.
 
Yes, the yard I keep my pony at is like this. All live out and are interfered with minimally.

My pony is in a field with one other. Next to them are 7, 4 geldings & 3 mares.

Then over in another huge field are 13, 1 mare and all the rest are geldings.

In total 18 belong to yard owners, non are ridden or broken in.
 
We have 5 geldings (we only ever have geldings!) on 12 acres. They get separated and in smaller paddocks in the summer as some of them are real fatties.
 
Yes and they love it. Ex-racer gelding, 2 mares and a gelding pony.
If they come in (have done for the weekend as sadly rubbish very boggy field and no hard standing area in it) they come into a barn together- no seperate stables


At old yard they were in pairs. Then moved to berkshire to a mixed herd of 12 with my gelding and mare at the time. Then gained 2 and got my own rented field. Aged 6-19. Older ones keep younger ones in check but younger ones have also perked up my old boy!
 
tallyho! said:
Yes, most people around here do.
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This^^.

I only have two, so not sure it counts as a herd. They are barefoot and live out un-rugged with only natural shelter and just a daily mineral supplement in a handful of feed. I do have rugs for them, but the only ones used last year were the fly rugs. They very rarely get any additional forage. We have around 6 acres of grazing split up into lots of little paddocks by dry stone walls. I use it as 4 different fields, in some of the fields they have to jump low walls to get around. We also have use of some 4 acres of common land during the summer (its under water in winter).
 
Mine lives out on 12 acres, 11 horses. They have ad lib hay through the winter and are all very happy! Mine is ridden approx. five times a week and competes low level all year round.
 
I currently have 7 boys (mix of stallions, colts and geldings) on 35 acres for the winter, they love it. They are all roughed off so un rugged, they come in for the day one day a week so I can give them a really good check over as it's still dark when I do my morning and evening checks. Other than that they are pretty much left to it.

The field is pretty perfect, partly hilly with a small wooded area as well. Shelter no matter where the wind blows. I'm lucky to have use of it each winter.
 
My youngster has been turned away for the winter before being broken in. He is at a stud and is out full time in a massive herd of huge coloured horses (he is a section B) he appears to be having a whale of a time and I hope he comes back well adjusted for the experience
 
Mine live in a herd of seven, ranging in age from four to 23, and in height from a smidge under 13hh to 17.2hh. They're out 24/7 all year round, with ad-lib hay when they need it. Mine are rugged to keep them clean and do have a hard feed once a day, but they spend the vast majority of their lives just being horses and having a whale of a time with their buddies.
 
My old YO had a bunch of retired/never started mares and geldings on 22 acres. Mine was the only ridden horse out of the lot! Barn for shelter, ad lib hay in winter, all very happy and good with farrier, etc. Now I just have a herd of 2 on 9 acres at home ☺
 
Ours all live out 24/7. There are 9 altogether and they get mixed and matched a bit through the year depending on work, weight and amount of grass. They all know each other well and it only takes a few minutes for everyone to settle down if we do change them round a bit. Currently split into one group of 5 and a group of 4. There are mares and geldings in each group and they range in age from 5 to 30 and include TBs, WBs, cobs and Anglo-arab crosses. They all seem to stay fairly healthy are settled, happy to work when needed but just spend most of the time being part of their herd.
 
Yep my gelding is out 24/7 in a herd of 17, natural shelter from woods and tree lines surrounding the field but no man made structures and he absolutely loves it despite being around 3/4 TB.

My mare is out in a herd of 14 but not 24/7 at the moment although will be in the summer months and likewise she seems to like the big group turnout.
 
I have four. They live out 24/7. They have ad lib haylage. They are rugged. 2 are elderly mares. 2 are geldings, one of whom is retired now due to health problems. The other gelding events, does dressage and RC stuff.
They all get hard food to keep weight on (oats) and obviously more for the ridden horse.

They are quite happy in their herd. It's very interesting to watch them interact. The geldings are so different to the mares. They spend a lot of time play fighting whereas the mares spend more time grooming. Of course the mares are older but even when they were much younger they didn't play.
 
Mine live out in a little herd of 5. In winter they can go where they like on our land, they have lots of natural shelter and none of them are rugged or shod ( all native ponies). If the weather turns really really bad they all come in to a large barn together. In summer they do have to go onto a smaller paddock to stop them turning into little round fatties though!
 
RosieTink said:
Does anybody have lots of acreage and have horses kept in a herd together just being horses (at least for the most part). So being kept living out together without all the bells and whistles and just being horses I guess. Just curious as to whether anybody has or does this :).
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I don't have a lot of acres but still keep them in a herd as we won't do individual turnout
 
yup mine too live out 24/7 are brought in to be ridden about twice a week but beyond that they stay together. no problems with separation anxiety and are all very happy for others to come and go
 
We have 5 living in a small herd. The eldest is 18 the youngest 7. They do have a shelter, but only 2 have rugs, the other three are natives. We rent 9 acres so not a huge amount of land, it is split in half, with a smaller paddock for the two that would otherwise get very fat in summer.
 
I kept my horses at a yard for while where they had 60 acres split into two fields one for winter and one for summer there were between 18 to 22 horses out together in a mixed herd, it worked really well my horses were very happy there, I really wish I had that amount of land myself now as they live at home but unfortunately I only have about 4 acres.
 
I used to be on a yard of 26 horses and they were turned out together, mares and geldings in massive fields. Fields with streams, hills and forest areas. Could be a nightmare to catch a difficult horse but they were all so chilled and settled. We never seemed to worry about fighting or bullying. Never in all the years I was there did one get injured in the field.
I suppose not many places have the space to keep them this way.
I loved it!
 
Sadly not would love to keep horses this way. A neighbour has a small herd on about 40 acres. About half of it is rough ground on the side of a valley with gorse bushes and little patches of trees. The rest is productive grazing land and they only go on that for a few months a year so as not to interfere with hay production.

Mine are out 24/7 in a little group but only have 4 acres and it isn't nearly as interesting as it is divided into little paddocks and they don't get to be on all of it at once except towards the very end of winter.
 
poiuytrewq said:
I used to be on a yard of 26 horses and they were turned out together, mares and geldings in massive fields. Fields with streams, hills and forest areas. Could be a nightmare to catch a difficult horse but they were all so chilled and settled. We never seemed to worry about fighting or bullying. Never in all the years I was there did one get injured in the field.
I suppose not many places have the space to keep them this way.
I loved it!
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I think this is the thing - space = no one having to defend anything. Where you get accidents are in confined areas ime so far
 
Yeup. Got 8 currently and I either have them out together or housed in pens in barns together. Gotta be honest, I treat the equids exactly like I treat the cattle and it seems to be fine. I have one exception - I won't put my mule and little ex-stallion together inside because they fight like hell and neither side wants to give in, ever. Just can't seem to bear each other. Out in the field they can get space so it's fine.
 
If I had my own place, I would do away with stables, I too would keep them in a big barn like cows :). They do in some places like Denmark, Sweden, Germany and America. However, those are one owner ranches usually. I don't know how that could work in livery yards here in UK as in the main, they have a high turnover of animals so you would need introducing pens etc and there could be scuffles and owners wouldn't like it.
 
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