horses in 24/7 in the winter- anyone do this??

hessy12 said:
sensible reply above. I am shocked at the amount of yards not offering turn out. Horses should be outside, to keep them in 24/7 is nothing but cruel. No wonder there are so many 'problem' horses, being cooped up all the time would send most horses nuts. Get real and give horses a natural environment to live in. Rugs and feed are so good these days, there is NO excuse not to turn horses out and let them be horses. I will be villified for this, but i actually am beyond caring.
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No you won't, well not from me anyway as I agree completely with you.

Some horses don't like staying out in the winter because winter grazeing is hard work for them and they know that there is a big fat haynet waiting for them in their stable!

They are behaveing like human kids really and asking to have their tea at 11 in the morning, purely because it's an amighty burger and chips at McDonalds!

What fun!!
 
elsbells said:
No you won't, well not from me anyway as I agree completely with you.

Some horses don't like staying out in the winter because winter grazeing is hard work for them and they know that there is a big fat haynet waiting for them in their stable!

They are behaveing like human kids really and asking to have their tea at 11 in the morning, purely because it's an amighty burger and chips at McDonalds!

What fun!!
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That made me laugh!.

Mine dont know it any other way but to live out, but last year we had to hang up haynets in the field when the grass was eaten up. They watched me hang up the six nets every evening and would wonder down to their chosen net (after a little bickering) and stand and just eat and eat and eat, even when spring arrived and the grass was starting to grow, they would stand at their nets and eat away.

It dawned on me that this was the horse's very handy burger bar and i was the burger maker struggling down the field with 6 heavy Big Macs for them to eat and eat quite happily indeed!.

Well, ive found new grazing for this winter, two large fields, and they wont be hayed, they will have to forage for their food and use their legs....the burger maker has gone on strike!!!
 
hessy12 said:
sensible reply above. I am shocked at the amount of yards not offering turn out. Horses should be outside, to keep them in 24/7 is nothing but cruel. No wonder there are so many 'problem' horses, being cooped up all the time would send most horses nuts. Get real and give horses a natural environment to live in. Rugs and feed are so good these days, there is NO excuse not to turn horses out and let them be horses. I will be villified for this, but i actually am beyond caring.
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One of the main reasons livery yards choose to keep horses in is due to ground conditions; no amount of rugs or horse feeds can change this. If we change all of the clay soil to well draining soil so our horses can be turned out every single day I’d hate to see the negative impact on our environment.
Personally I think keeping a horse in 24/7 is not cruel. You say about horses having a natural environment but honestly, how many of us have the acreage to keep horses in their natural environments? Personally I do not see how keeping a horse one a few acres 24/7 counts as natural.
I do not think it is fair to say that keeping a horse in causes “problem” horses. If anybody would like to meet my “cruelly kept” girl and see how calm, relaxed and happy she is then feel free.

Charlie76, there’s no harm in seeing how your horse’s cope, at the end of the day they’re your horses so it’s your choice as to whether you keep them in or not. :)
 
After a few years in a yard with limited winter turnout, which in the last two years went to zero winter turnout, I'm now deliriously happy to have moved my horse to a yard with plenty of land where I can turn my horse out through the winter.

Yes, he did get kind of used to not being turned out for months on end, to the point where he no longer exploded every time I sat on him, but he also came out of it with a permanent cough and a tendency to filled legs. Everybody knows it's not physically or mentally good for a horse to be in a stable 24X7, other than a trip to the horse walker or ridden exercise. It's common practice at a lot of yards for the simple reason that most of them have too many horses on not enough land.
 
I couldn't and wouldn't, my horse has COPD and would be a raving, mad eyed lunatic if I kept her in, even last winter, when we had a foot or so of snow, she still went out for a few hours, in the summer she is out 24/7. :D
 
elsbells said:
Some horses don't like staying out in the winter because winter grazeing is hard work for them and they know that there is a big fat haynet waiting for them in their stable!

They are behaveing like human kids really and asking to have their tea at 11 in the morning, purely because it's an amighty burger and chips at McDonalds!
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Great post!

Likewise, just because some children would happily spend all day in front of the TV or on the computer in the winter, doesn't mean we should comply and not encourage them to get moving about outdoors! Perhaps we should think the same about our horses!
 
QR - I would never keep a horse in 24/7 aside from for veterinary reasons. It's not good for their joints/breathing/state of mind. :(
 
I see no problems with keeping horses stabled all through winter. At the end of the day, I look after my horse and it should be easy for me. I hate horses being dirty and wet and its much easier for me if they are all warm and snuggy in their stables. Besides my horse gets to walk around on a horse walker for an hour which they love and that's their time to play around and be a horse - sometimes I will let her loose in the school for a half hour leg stretch and what with being stabled 23 hours of the day that's definitely enough to keep her active.

I know my horse hates being outside so I do it for her. However, I do sometimes let her sniff another horse as we walk down the stable aisle, as I think it's important for horses to contact with other horses, just like in the wild.
 
heidirusso said:
I see no problems with keeping horses stabled all through winter. At the end of the day, I look after my horse and it should be easy for me. I hate horses being dirty and wet and its much easier for me if they are all warm and snuggy in their stables. Besides my horse gets to walk around on a horse walker for an hour which they love and that's their time to play around and be a horse - sometimes I will let her loose in the school for a half hour leg stretch and what with being stabled 23 hours of the day that's definitely enough to keep her active.

I know my horse hates being outside so I do it for her. However, I do sometimes let her sniff another horse as we walk down the stable aisle, as I think it's important for horses to contact with other horses, just like in the wild.
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I'm praying you are being sarcastic! If so I agree with you. :)
 
My yard doesn't have winter turnout but it does have winter pens (on hardcore) and we can turn out for a few minutes in teh walkway between the fields so they can roll. I can't have teh horse in 24/7 coz she'd kill me but the pony is in. I can't turn her loose in the walkway because I would never catch her again and she keeps damaging herself in the pen - how she does it I don't know even my accident prone horse is fine in there! I walk her out in hand everyday, lunge every other day and she's quite happy with it - she was born and raised on the welsh mountains so I think she likes the pampering lol :D
 
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