Horses living out in winter - advice purrlease

[cyearsley]

Hi, looking for some advice on horses living out all winter on restricted amount of grazing. My boy is always in during the winter months but am looking to help a friend so thought would check facts first.
We are thinking of a set up where basically they are able to come in and out of their stables as and when they choose to though this may have to change as grazing is limited. Will obviously be looking to feed hay/haylage as a grass substitute and calculate feed accordingly but wanted to check other things eg whether to rug or not? One is native so prob not needed but one is a id x tb so would he need to be rugged or maybe only rugged during very wet/cold weather?
My horse is clipped and lives in so totally unfamiliar with natives or wintering out horses! As their winter paddock is fairly small, do those mesh things over the floor at gates etc really work, would it be worth feeding hay from a dispenser in the field etc and is there anything else we could do to reduce wastage and mud, any tips, comments much appreciated.
In your experience, does the system of leaving them to come and go from their stables/shelter work in an area where turnout is restricted or would we be better going the traditional route of stabling at night? Phew sorry for all the questions!

 

[dunthing]

We have had lots of different breeds and still have a pure bred arab and a highland. My highland is happy being out as he has a stable phobia and the arab prefers to be out too. Arab is rugged because he's thin skinned but mine won't have a rug on. My daughter had a tb who developed COPD and lived out all year round. We had five at that time and fed them on haylage. the tb had a feed to keep weight on but the others only had a double handful of HiFi light as a token. They had open stables which they could use as and when they wanted to and it worked perfectly. We had a concrete yard which they were fed on and shut onto if the gateway got too deep. No problems. I think it's a great system and far more natural. Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

In an ideal world I would have a shelter for my two to mooch in and out of at their leisure. In reality the ones who live out here with shelters spend standing outside of them than in them - they tend to go in to eat their feed and tootle out again. the most important thing is to make sure that they have enough hay/haylege - they will eat probably 3 times as much as when stabled especially if the grazing is poor. I would make sure they have access to hay/haylage 24/7.

As far as rugging concerned all the usual stuff applies - ie how much work they do, how thick their coats are and how cold they feel - just rug accordingly.

Mud you can do nothing about.

 

[MrsMozart]

Ours live out as much as possible

. When I'm riding again, Dizz (Dutch Warmblood) will have a lightweight with a neck on - she gets very warm so doesn't need a lot; I only put it on so's she is dry when we want to work. If she does a lot of work she'll be clipped and then wear a medium weight, but still be out as she is a total stress head when stabled.

Little Lad will have a lightweight with a neck because he gets wimpy when wet, though he has a good coat that's fine when it's dry cold.

Little Cob will be clipped but still have a lightweight with a neck as he's on the porky side and needs to lose a bit.

We have a lot of grazing at the moment, but may get to need hay in the field.

Field hay is best from a hay feeder. Hay nets tied to the fence are a bit iffy. We've used big rounds, but there is a fair bit of waste.

Ours have trees to shelter under, which they use, and field shelters, which they don't.

 

[Archangel]

What sort of soil are you on? This will have a big effect on whether the land will cope with horses on it during the bad weather (especially when restricted). I am on sand which is amazing, no mud! I was previously on clay and it was unusable after Christmas, sometimes earlier. Also looking forward, if you use your field for winter turnout will it ruin it for summer use?

My friend has stables in her field and they leave the doors open, it would not work for me as I have a ferocious pony who would duff his friends over if he trapped them in a stable. However if they get on famously then it might work, would personally prefer the doorways to be much wider - as in a field shelter.

Re hay in the field, I used to lug hay out twice a day but now feed round bales (2 horses, 1 pony) and it lasts 7ish days. The time varies due to one of them using it like a trampoline and unnamed individuals tiddling on it

I am looking to acquire a feeder this year.

If the weather is foul (raining and windy for days on end) I bring them all in for a few hours so they can dry off and have a break. They seem to be able to withstand any amount of cold and love the snow but rain rain and more rain is hard for them. Mine have all lived out for 18+ years now (previously stabled every night) and I think it is the best option if the land is right and you have natural shelter. I don't think it is always the easiest option though!

Personally I would not rug a native at all, they grow a coat for the job. My riding horse has a chaser clip and is rugged to keep him dry (he grows a mammoth coat so wouldn't rug if not clipped).

Hope this is helpful

 

[pottamus]

My lad lives out in a field 24/7 with access to his field stable at all times under normal circumstances. I find he rarely uses his field stable in winter and stands in the field through all sorts of weather conditions!
I use a hay hutch to feed hay from as I can move it about so no areas in the field become messy and poached up.
The area in front of his field stable does get pretty muddy though as he comes in and out at night for a sleep and lie down! This year I have dumped a load of sand down in front of it to try to prevent so much poaching so we will see how that fares!
Rugging is really dependant on the horse and what he has been used to in the past. My lad is a native and wears a light weight rug most of the winter to keep the worst of the wind and rain out.

 

[Jericho]

Native should be fine unrugged as long as not clipped and there is access to natural shelter as well particularly winds. Might need a lightweight if constant rain. The IDx TB I would think would need to be rugged unless a very good doer.

re hay as others said, I would reckon that hay should be given adlib. I am lucky as I have a field shelter with a centre partition to wither height so the 2 horses have their hay in there using haybars. They do use it a lot and come and go if the weather gets bad. They wouldnt use the stables though because they couldnt see each other whe both went in. The small pony lives in a small paddock with access to stable and yard and she loves her stable. The benefit of using the stables / field shelter is that it does contain the hay wastage somewhat and the mess. I also put rubber mats in the field shelters and stable so that they have no bedding to mess up or poo in (meaning mucking out!) - if they want to lie down they can use the field and nice soft grass! I actually they prefer this as often catch them all lying down in early morning sun.

Try giving them the hay in the stables and see if they get used to it. maybe put the grass mats around outside. If they absolutely refuse to go in then try a large tractor tyre to feed the hay - you can move it around and it helps to contain the mess / waste a little. You should be able to go to a tyre fitter and get some for free!

 

[SO1]

I have a native chaser clipped living out but he is on very good winter grazing as the two winter fields are rested for 9 months a year so they have loads to eat. They have a field shelter but don't tend to use it.

Most of the natives are not rugged - mine is only in a LW as he is clipped. Depending on his weight I will up the rugging later - the grazing he is on means that I struggle to keep his weight down during the winter so don't want him too cosy! Last winter when it got exceptionally cold down to -12 he was in HW but if it is not too cold this winter he will move up to a MW when it gets much colder

If their stables are being used like a field shelter so they can go in and out as they choose I would put their hay in their stable it will help prevent the ground from getting poached - if they do not have good grazing then they will probably wait about for hay so better for them to wait in their stables for hay to come than to feed it out in the field.

 

[Luci07]

Also depends on where your yard is - we are literally on top of a hill and it is freezing up there come winter. The grass liveries all do well and there is a big variety from babies with nothing on to clipped and hardworking TB. YO puts down big bales of hay in a feeder when the grass gets poor, and the feeder gets moved - most also get hard feed for varying reason. The other thing is that everything that is going to living out gets well and truly fattened up so they start winter with a lot of extra condition, then come into Spring just looking a little on the well side. Only one who loses out is the very small pony prone to laminitis!

 

[spookypony]

I know someone who uses a type of round-bale sheep feeder for hay---they had to take out alternating bars so the horses could get their noses in, but it apparently reduces wastage quite a bit.

My random-native-X lives out, unclipped and unrugged, and last winter, he still came out rather round at the end. I put a rug on him on 3 nights only, when we had horrible freezing rain. Re. the IDx, I'd just wait and see. If he's cold, give him a rug.