Horses living in turnouts - how do you deal with........??

Porkie

Porkie

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The cold nights and warmer days?

Our YO has decided she is no longer changing rugs and therefore they have to live in their turnouts.

Trouble is my lad is old and normally has more on at night than during the day when the temperature starts to drop. :-(
 
Make sure the rug is breathable so if it is not changed or the weather heats up unexpectedly in the middle of the day then he will not have a wet sweaty rug on. Go down and change rug morning and evening or pay someone/swap chores with someone who will if you cannot.
 
No, no one else is allowed to touch other people's horses (dont' ask!) and unfortunately I cannot get there EVERY single morning to do it myself, it's just not possible with work commitments............
 
Porkie said:
No, no one else is allowed to touch other people's horses (dont' ask!) and unfortunately I cannot get there EVERY single morning to do it myself, it's just not possible with work commitments............
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I would stay at a yard like that!

Its always good to have friends you can reply on at the yard and make each others lives easier by swooping chores.

Really your horse needs his rugs changed morning and night, you cant do this yourself and other liveries arnt allowed to do it so you are stuck!
 
The Bucas rugs cover a very wide range of temperatures - some of them go from something like - 15 to + 20 degrees. May be worth looking at something like that if your YO is adamant this is the way forward. Personally I think it's a real liberty taking peoples money to look after their horses and not delivering what is really a fundamental service.

Time for a new yard maybe or at least a look around perhaps?
 
Its better to have a slight cold horse than one thats over heated, just rug acording to the day time temp!

This time of year is a nightmare, warm during the day and cold at night
 
We don't have our rugs changed either they live in turnouts, This has always been the case and I have never had a problem with it, its getting more and more common around us. I just layer and the YO will take off/add top layer in morning/evening I layer with breathable lightweights/medium weights unless it goes like last winter did!! and it works, we have some old retired horses at our yard too and theres never been a problem.
 
The yard has no right to say who you can appoint to deal with your horse - what happens when you go on holiday and want a friend to ride? Or if you had to have an operation etc so weren't going to be around for quite a while.

If you are happy for someone else to do something with your horse then that is up to you.

If this is really the stance of the YO then you have no choice but to move - if she won't do it, won't allow you to get someone else to do it and you can't do it then what other option do you have?
 
I often leave my horse in his T/O rung overnight. I don't tend to put on a thicker rug at night as the horse is in the stable which is warmer than outside.
 
My horse.....if he needs a rug on....has a T/O rug on overnight. Saves time in the morning;)

There seems to be a lot of YO around who dictate to owners what they can/can't do with their own horses......wouldnt be standing for it myself, but hey ho.
 
This is fine IF you can afford the likes of Fal, bucas or Rambo as all these are breathable, however, not so fine if your horse is stuck in a cheap turnout rug all the time.
 
If I was paying for livery I wouldn't stand for the YO's attitude. Every horse is different and should be treated as such. I wouldn't dream of leaving my horse in the same rug 24 hours a day without taking it off and completely resetting it twice a day. My old girl gets really itchy over her withers when she is rugged, even though I put a pad of gamgee underneath it for extra protection. I take the rug off while she is eating and give her back 20 minutes or so without it and a really good scratch before I replace it. I also take the opportunity to check for scrapes and rubs that the rug would otherwise hide.
 
Smurphy said:
Its better to have a slight cold horse than one thats over heated, just rug acording to the day time temp!

This time of year is a nightmare, warm during the day and cold at night
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My mare lived out for 18 months and this is exactly what I did....... Although as it started to get cold at night only a friend used to take it off every morning and I would put back on every night. When it got really cold she had it on 24/7 but only to suit the warmest temp.
 
Does your field have a field shelter or hedges? This gives the horse the ability to have some control over its temperature and therefore you could leave him with a lighter rug. If not check which way the prevailing wind is and see if you can arrange something!
 
Porkie said:
No, no one else is allowed to touch other people's horses (dont' ask!) and unfortunately I cannot get there EVERY single morning to do it myself, it's just not possible with work commitments............
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Surely as she's changed the rules so she doesn't change rugs, then this not touching other people's horses cannot be upheld?
 
All horses on our yard live in turnouts,they are breathable and lightweight these days!As weather turns colder we add on top and remove in morning!If people want rug changes we charge for it,except full livery of course!Most of our liveries atm are diy,i turn them out with rugs for the weather that morning,if weather turns during the day it is owners responsibility to come down check and change or take off!
 
prorider said:
The yard has no right to say who you can appoint to deal with your horse - what happens when you go on holiday and want a friend to ride? Or if you had to have an operation etc so weren't going to be around for quite a while.

If you are happy for someone else to do something with your horse then that is up to you.

If this is really the stance of the YO then you have no choice but to move - if she won't do it, won't allow you to get someone else to do it and you can't do it then what other option do you have?
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The yard has every right i am afraid :) They own the place and you agree to those rules when you move your horse...am assuming most of you sign and actually read your contracts(but to be perfectly honest most yard contracts are not worth the paper they are written on as most liveries clear off and leave YO's minus what they are owed anyway)!May be unreasonable but they are quite within their rights!If you dont like the rules then you leave :)
 
If you are paying for a service she should provide it. I can't believe that you aren't allowed to 'do' each others' horses - that's nuts! We used to alternate mornings/nights so that you could at least ride every other morning - was nice to go down just to ride and the horse already done ;) Pain to do two though lol but worth it!
 
My horse lives in her t/o rug 24/7 in winter - I keep the same rug on day and night..... the way I look at it is, in summer when they are not wearing rugs at all, and the temp fluctuates, we don't worry about it then, so just the same in winter with the same rug on.......

Horses don't feel the cold like we do.....

Last winter, when the temps went down to -6, everyone was putting 2/3 rugs on their horses, I just used a HW 450g and put the neck rug on if very cold....
 
Inky_and_Sunny said:
If you are paying for a service she should provide it. I can't believe that you aren't allowed to 'do' each others' horses - that's nuts! We used to alternate mornings/nights so that you could at least ride every other morning - was nice to go down just to ride and the horse already done ;) Pain to do two though lol but worth it!
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We do allow that...the diy's are quite welcome to sort things between them,with regards to bringing in etc,However we turn out ALL of them 7 days a week so that they all go out at the same time and there isnt anything left in stressing!
 
natalia said:
This is fine IF you can afford the likes of Fal, bucas or Rambo as all these are breathable, however, not so fine if your horse is stuck in a cheap turnout rug all the time.
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If this is the case then you seriously need to be looking at your management regime IMO. As someone else has said it's better for a horse to be slightly cool, rather than too hot. Just because the mornings are cooler at this time of the year, does not mean that the horse will not be too hot during the afternoon. I would say that it is unreasonable to expect YO to be running around with rugs all day. Does your horse REALLY need a rug? Ours are out 24/7, unclipped with no rugs, including the 28yr old, on the very exposed Pennine hills and are very happy and healthy on it. Horses are designed to live out and keep themselves warm and with very few exceptions they are very good at doing this without being molly-coddled.
OP, having said all this I think I'd be looking for a new yard, if your YO dictates to you like that.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
If this is the case then you seriously need to be looking at your management regime IMO. As someone else has said it's better for a horse to be slightly cool, rather than too hot. Just because the mornings are cooler at this time of the year, does not mean that the horse will not be too hot during the afternoon. I would say that it is unreasonable to expect YO to be running around with rugs all day. Does your horse REALLY need a rug? Ours are out 24/7, unclipped with no rugs, including the 28yr old, on the very exposed Pennine hills and are very happy and healthy on it. Horses are designed to live out and keep themselves warm and with very few exceptions they are very good at doing this without being molly-coddled.
OP, having said all this I think I'd be looking for a new yard, if your YO dictates to you like that.
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Ditto ^^
 
hadfos said:
The yard has every right i am afraid :) They own the place and you agree to those rules when you move your horse...am assuming most of you sign and actually read your contracts(but to be perfectly honest most yard contracts are not worth the paper they are written on as most liveries clear off and leave YO's minus what they are owed anyway)!May be unreasonable but they are quite within their rights!If you dont like the rules then you leave :)
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Clearly they have the legal right - that's basic common sense, I mean the moral right to make such rulings. The yard also has the right to say that every horse that comes onto the yard must be fully clipped, hogged and dyed bright pink, but that doesn't make it "right". I didn't realise someone would be so pedantic to pick up on that.

And sorry but your post comes across as very superior and rude - "most liveries clear off and leave YO's minus what they are owed". Really??? Not on our yard they don't. Obviously because we have a good 'give and take' relationship between and liveries and the YO.

There will always be 'bad' liveries but if you are finding as a YO that "most" of your liveries do this then you need to think about why, and what it is that is going wrong rather than simply blaming all your customers.
 
Porkie said:
No, no one else is allowed to touch other people's horses (dont' ask!) and unfortunately I cannot get there EVERY single morning to do it myself, it's just not possible with work commitments............
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This will be down to insurance & health & safety, unfortunately as more mindless people feel the need to sue & get compensation for accidents usually caused by there lack of common sense then this rule will keep cropping up.

I have my WB in a lightweight turnout, with a medium neck peice at night & Wimpy TB in Lightweight with a bit of filling also with Medium neck piece at night. All that I have to do is remove neck pieces in the morning.
This is a 2 min job especially if they are happy to have them pulled over their heads, surely she is offering this service a little extra charge?

I personally prefer leaving mine in turnouts all the time as I know what I feel like having cold clothes on my back & how long it can take for them to warm up. On cold mornings would much prefer to put my work clothes over my already snug fleece PJ's might get some funny looks :p
 
OP, I my horses only wear turnouts and it mostly works fine. As there is such a difference in temperature between nights and days at the moment, my old pony is swapping from a lightweight to a medium weight at night.

I would go to the YO, say that you appreciate that changing rugs between stable and field is mostly unnecessary but your horse needs a warmer rug at night than he does is the day and you want this service to remain available.

See what they offer you, they might be happy to throw a top rug over a lightweight turnout, but if they are not prepared to find a way to offer the service, you'll have to live with it or move. :(
 
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