Horse living out

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tessasmyth

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Has anyone made the switch to turning their horse out - 24/7, all year round?
I'm writing a feature for Horse magazine about the the pros and cons and how to go about turning your horse out.

I'd love to hear your stories - good and bad.
Has grass livery saved you money? Time? Your horses's sanity?!
Why did you make the switch?
Most seem positive so far but I'd also like to hear from people who have tried having their horse live out and had to stable them again. Maybe your grazing wasn't up to it? Your horse had health problems - allergies, mud fever, laminitis etc.

Please post anything you can on this thread.
Or private message me.
The more stories and experiences the better!
 
I didn't really make the switch - I bought Diego with the thought of having him living out. He's a cob (by type, so says the passport,) and he's pretty good at living out - this year he didn't lose any weight at all, despite the bad winter. Which wasn't all that great!

Grass livery, now that I've been keeping him at a livery yard, is definitely cheaper. At the moment, where I am, it costs £12 a week for him to live out, with water included as well as use of facilities - tack room, the yard, outdoor school. The grass is very lush where he is, and I can get away with not giving him any hard food. Only requires hay in the winter.

Cons? He can be a prat to catch - big ol' field, one over excited gelding, I got no chance when he's in a mood (such as for the last MONTH, ugh.) That is pretty much the only con I have, but again, he's not a show horse, so competitive riders might have difference experiences. He does collect scars from time to time, but that might be because Diego thinks he's a boss.

Also - mud.

In the six years I've owned him he's only ever had two injuries - well, one injury, and one mysterious cough. The injury was because he, thinking he's a tank, tried to kick his way through a very sturdy fences. The mysterious cough remains a mystery.. happened last Spring for two months, never had it since, or before. When he was stabled for the leg injury as well as the cough, Diego tried to destroy the stable... whenever his hay supply was depleted by HALF.

Needless to say I'm stuck with him living out, but I'm very happy for it.
 
pink was out in the day, in if it rained and at night until i got her. now she is out 24/7 in a nicely sized well sheltered feild with a little sec A for company and she really seems to love it. She still gets breakfast and dinner because she came to me a bit skinny but she is building condition quite quickly (its only been 3 weeks) and seems very content in herself. She is definitely less spooky at new things and happy in herself.

i rug her on days like today, wet and windy, and colder nights with the chance of rain, and in winter no doubt ill put her in a heavy rug combo so she doesnt get chilly and look for somewhere with a feild shelter for the snow, but overall im 100% happy with her being out. its how horses should be imo.
 
I have had both positive and negative. I bought a mare to bring back into work for eventing and for the first 6 weeks, she had to live out. We both hated it with a passion. Me because it took 15 mins to walk up and catch her every day for her 5 min exercise, Madam because she doesn't do living out. She was well rugged up, fed, had company and looked fine but was clearly not happy about living out full time. Now she is home again and semi retired, I have to keep her on part livery as she has made it plain she likes her stable (more relaxed mare). Mare is a TB x cob. I also had a gelding- another TB x (we think warmblood) and when I bought him back he was also chucked out but he loved it. He was fed twice a day and hayed anyway, rugged accordingly and came in for a bit each day while I rode my other horse. He looked really well on it and was much happier. Conversly a friend tried to move one of her horses to grass livery (he had similiar breeding) and he stressed so badly and lost weight so was brought back in again.

Grass livery - better in that the horses get to move around more, better access to forage and socialisation with other horses. Downside is less convenient and actually, you don't save a lot of time on care by the time you have messed around with alternative rugs or waited for them to eat up/poo picked the field! So, properly done I think its a good alternative but am aware that some horses just seem to prefer to not be with other horses all the time (like my mare). I choose to have my youngster stabled for my convenience though.
 
My youngsters live out 24/7 in all weather - even 2ft of snow. But last year the fields were totally trashed and the grass has suffered this spring/summer because of it. This year I am extending their field shelter and adding gates or slip rails so I effectively have two 12x12 stables and they will come in when it is very wet or snowing to save the fields.
 
I had originally planned to have my pony on DIY mainly living out in the summer and then on part livery during the winter in at night.

However as always plans never seem to work as he did not like being stabled at all and after jumping out and then trying to kick the door down if he had a grill up I decided he would have to live out all the time as it was too stressful for both of us trying to contain him.

In a lot of ways it has been great as it is much cheaper probably saving over £100 a month. He is happy and it is less hard work and more flexible in terms of when I go and check him. He is a good doer so only needs a small feed once a day. I would love him to enjoying coming in at night but it would probably more be for my benefit most of the time rather than his.

Living out he also keeps himself fitter by moving about more too and is quieter too.
 
A couple of years ago I attempted to leave my mare out 24/7 during the summer months. After a few weeks when I brought her in to ride, she started to collapse when tied up being groomed. My vet investigated and diagnosed sleep deprivation!!! (Sparks rolls in her field but has never been seen to lay down and sleep in it). I changed her back to being out at night and in during the day for a sleep and she stopped collapsing.
 
I had my 2 horses on DIY livery, having to be stabled at night from mainly mid September - May.

I moved them at the beginning of the winter a couple of years ago to living 24/7 in a field of their own with a field shelter (part of a DIY yard set up) and honestly I have to say my horses and I have never been happier.

One of my horses who used to constantly itch in his stable all year round, is now relatively itch free, apart from this month - horse flies, hate them.

I find I spend more quality time with them.

From a selfish point of view, I am free to come and go at all times, instead of my life revolving around turn out and bringing in times in the winter - gone are the days of constant clock watching at weekends.

As long as they are warm, dry and have access to decent grass or hay they appear to be happy and so am I. I have been to see them in pouring rain, imaging them shivering in a corner feeling unloved - where are they - standing in the middle of the field munching away.

Their field shelter is filled with a straw bed in the winter into which I hang 2 hay nets every evening and they must put themselves to bed for most of the night as evidenced by the amount of "presents" I am left the next day.. but its their choice.

I enjoy having my horses out 24/7 in their own field... it's our private "little world"..
 
I made the switch 19 years ago and have never regretted it.

However I am always aware of how lucky I am to have really good pasture. The horses live at home, and have 4 acres with about everything I could have ever asked for - 2 walk-in barns in different places and facing different ways, so one will always be sheltered; two streams, a piece of woodland sheltering them from the west winds, two levels (the top is a plateau and the bottom is more like water meadow), with willows for shade. If I had only of those oblong sterile paddocks you often see at livery yards, with no protection from the elements, I'd think very differently. The main advantages of horses living out to me are:
- horses constantly able to move about (brilliant for older or arthritic horses)
- no bad stable habits as horses never bored
- minimal bedding costs (we deep litter the barns and muck out in the spring)
- much lower feed bills
- in illness or crisis, provided they have water, the horses can look after themselves

The only downside I can think of is if for some reason (has happened once when somebody stole our gate!) you need to locate and catch them at night. But they all behaved admirably - probably because the wonder torch that was meant to be lighting up a horse a mile away was illuminating about 2 metres in front of my feet.

I would NEVER go back to having horses stabled, even though mine were only kept in at night.
- they stay very healthy
 
We have a beautiful well bred WB who has probably always been stabled at night. We made the switch to out 24/7 in January and he had to go rugless due to his attitude. He had stomach ulcers and the vet's advice was out 24/7.

He has been out and rugless since although we hope to rug him this winter. He has a field shelter and he is a much much calmer horse living out. His temperament has improved 100%.
 
We left ours to choose for themselves, they had access to stables and fields,
the weather didn't seem to factor as sometimes they were out in pouring rain, then chose to stand in on fine nights.
The downside was the damage to the fields in wet weather, the grass stableyard was a pure quagmire
 
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