How do you teach a horse to turn out on uk grass

Gingerwitch

Gingerwitch

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How do you start a foreign horse to get used to being turned out -how do you get them to climatise to the weather, the grass, the freedom and being out with others ?

What do you do with an 14 year old that has never gone out ? how do you start ?

How long might it take , what do you watch out for - is sweet itch the same all over the world ? ie can you buy a horse from abroad only to find that he is allergic to sweet itch in the uk? Would you need to be concerned about grass sickness ? even if other horses are already grazing the field ?
 
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Crimbowitch said:
can you buy a horse from abroad only to find that he is allergic to sweet itch in the uk?
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I can only answer this one. Yes.

I have had several horses here that had sweet itch here when they did not have it where they were, with no difference in midge population.

Now that I have corrected my imbalanced minerals in my grass with supplementing copper, I no longer have the problem, but clearly different grazing can cause horses to itch.
 
You can lead him/her out to the field and hold them on a loose rein while they graze. Let him or her out while you are losing for about an hour. (No guarantee this will work)
Then within a week unclip the lead rope and stand next to him or her. Do this for a week.
Then eventually take off the headcoller and stand about 10 meters away. Then a few days later leave him or her alone .
Hope this helps-I'm not hat experienced in this kinda stuff!
 
Its an interesting one.

My mare was very quiet to handle with a placid personality. We tried turning out on her own for a week or so, but she must have associated it with being loose schooled and trotted/cantered around the perimeter of the paddock for the week.(all very relaxed though).

She only started grazing when we introduced a very quiet pony with her. She was baffled at first and didn't want to leave the perimeter of the field but after three days started grazing with the pony.

Word of caution though, my friend had a very different experience with her gelding who cannot be turnned out with anything. He found it to hard being with others and so is turnned out on his own.

Start off slowly- small paddock with boots on for 30 min ir so and go from there.

Just my experience
 
Thanks to everyone - the more experiances the better - my little racer took to turn out at the drop of a hat.... he just loved it - but is not very good socially so i have to pick whom he is allowed out with very carefully.

The newbie.... well hopefully he will be able to go out with my other two... but he may need his own paddock by the side of them.... or we may end up getting a little pony for his company....

Yes i except it could be a long long process, but i am happy to invest time and effort to get the horse used to going out - although i dont think he will ever be an out 24 hour/7 day horse - but we will see
 
When rio was brought over from spain he hadnt been within a few miles of another horse in 8 years, he was never turned out and if he was it was in a sand school.

When he came over here he left spain at 38 degrees and arrived here to 8 degrees... He had to adapt quickly and as soon as we got him we taught him to accept rugs... He adjusted to the cold well but wasnt and still isnt a fan of mud or rain. Turn out wise we put him in a well munched down paddock for an hour at a time gradually making it longer until he was out 10 hours a day (its all he will ever be out). Being a stallion hes fenced about 4 meters away from the others but it took him about a week to get used to it.

Things to look out for - they can be super fussy as they are quite often only fed alfalfa so if you give them hay or haylage they may be really fussy at first!

Another thing is lami - as they havent been on grass before this is quite a worry and also colic from everything changing
 
StormyMoments said:
When rio was brought over from spain he hadnt been within a few miles of another horse in 8 years, he was never turned out and if he was it was in a sand school.

When he came over here he left spain at 38 degrees and arrived here to 8 degrees... He had to adapt quickly and as soon as we got him we taught him to accept rugs... He adjusted to the cold well but wasnt and still isnt a fan of mud or rain. Turn out wise we put him in a well munched down paddock for an hour at a time gradually making it longer until he was out 10 hours a day (its all he will ever be out). Being a stallion hes fenced about 4 meters away from the others but it took him about a week to get used to it.

Things to look out for - they can be super fussy as they are quite often only fed alfalfa so if you give them hay or haylage they may be really fussy at first!

Another thing is lami - as they havent been on grass before this is quite a worry and also colic from everything changing
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This is what i am concerned about too..... the grass we have at home is pretty rich - but i hate to think of him stood in a stable all the time, when with thought and hard work he could have a nice time being a horse.
 
Ours is very rich... Grazed by cows so i made a small paddock and turned taz out until it was munched right down then when he was getting used to it we would strip graze him so he would have a little bit more grass.. At first he didnt know what it was but he watched the other horses and got the idea :)
 
my new livery was in this situation. Personally I would increase the grass time gradually.

She did not she just turned him straight out for the whole day. He lived in Bermuda all the time then went 3 months to NY for quarantine, then to Amsterdam before traveling to us.

the horse is used to Bermuda weather and very dry terrain and poor grass. Little turn out as its too hot
 
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I can only answer for Spanish horses, but yes: they are very prone to sweetitch (from midges), and just itching generally, the latter is diet related; Spanish horses REALLY don't do well with sugar. They can also get astonishingly fat, on air, apparantly - I feed mine on clean barley straw and limit grazing strictly.
 
Re grass sickness, all I can suggest is to read up on the website regarding making sure you feed pro/pre biotics, keeping stress to a minimum etc. I've had horses graze my land at home including foals for the last 4yrs. My friend brought her pony here from a field literally 5 mins away and he was on antibiotics for a bad runny nose. Within 2 weeks, he was ill with grass sickness. The vet said that the antibiotics killing off his gut flora coupled with being stressed in a new environment had let the grass sickness take hold. He recovered but it was scary to think it was that easy for him to get ill. I'd always make sure I had their tummies as healthy as possible before I moved any horse anywhere, whether it was down the road or a different country. x
 
On the sweet itch issue, here (south France) we don't have the midges that bite and cause the irritation so perhaps the same is true of many places in Spain? I believe the midges can be found in the north of France but as you head further south they disappear.
 
We've had 3 imported warmbloods over the years
#1 - 14yr old, initially would stand by the gate after and hour, but soon got the hang of it. Would be out 7 hours a day, and now deceased (at 30yrs)

#2 - 4yr old, just backed by a UK dealer. Turned out with #1, and was into the routine straight away. Now 18yrs, stabled at night and lives with my Shetland.

#3 - 8yrs when imported, initially at home, but kept separate to #2 and shetland by electric fence. Would gallop up and down the fence line till dripping wet. Then difficult as didn't like to be the only one stabled.
He was ultimately moved to a local yard as never settled into a longer term turnout regime.
Hes happy as a pig in poo at the yard, is turned out for an hour in an outdoor school in the morning, and has single turnout with neighbours for 2 hours in the afternoon. Weve managed to keep him out for 4 hours, but it's very rare as he still gallops to the point that he's dripping wet & lathered - which is just pointless. Hes now 12 years old, and were resigned to him never being happy to turnout all day. He has a huge stable though.
Ultimately every horse is different, and you'll find your way :)
 
That's what puzzles me... my RI often goes to Portugal and brings 3 or 4 horses back with him.... but they get kept in virtually 23 hours a day- unless being worked or on the walker. I just dont want to think this is the life for one of mine - and it will be hard I am sure - but even if he gets 4 or 5 hours a day out by the end of the summer - that has got to be a much better life for him- or would it ??

Does the mental impact take longer than the physical side of things - what happens if he can't get used to turn out - then he will have to be excercised twice a day - so it is a huge responsibility we have taken on - but I never like the easy option !
 
Spanish horse no.1 - lives out 24/7 and hates to be in

Spanish horse no.2 - goes out to pasture in the am and mooches about nibbling the odd bit of grass, but likes to have a haynet on the fence (with straw in), and wants to come in at 4 - 5pm.

Spanish horse no.3 - will go out in the field for ONE HOUR, max, nibbles a bit, then stands weaving at the gate until you bring him in to his stable, which he adores and will happily spend all day in.

Depends entirely on the horse, but don't try to impose "your way" on them. They will tell you what suits them.
 
I think iberian horses are VERY prone to sweetitch as others have said.
I am on a yard full of them and a lot of them if not most get VERY itchy. A lot have rubbed their manes away. Most of the liveries that own an iberian on our yard spend most of their time taking care of the mane LOL!!

Thankfully my boy does not have an itchy mane and his mane and tail is very long. However I keep him in a fly rug in the summer because he gets upset with the biting.

With regards to turn out, like others have said it depends on the horse. My spanish boy was easier to get used to turn out than an Irish Sport horse I had. The irish boy used to pop over the 5-bar gate from a stand still (down side of a show jumper!) and go back to his stable. Eventually I could turn him out for a few hours a day and he would graze....but he did prefer his stable.

My spanish boy after I imported him had never even had any contact with horses let alone been turned out before. I castrated him and he was going out into a field after a week if I remember correctly. He would never even think of jumping a fence bless him, in fact walking over a branch on the floor would be challending enough for him haha! He does however love his stable! he had an operation last year and was on 3 months box rest.....as in was not aloud to come out at all. Well the easiest horse ever he didn't mind at all. He does have a grass allergy, so I only allow him to go out for up to half a day as his face swells up! he is fine but we dont have any grass at the moment anyway, and he gets grumpy if he isnt constantly eating!!!
The spanish boy is a right princess though, he doesnt like bad weather and in his ideal world he would go out in a nice field with lots of grass for a few hours then come in to his stable full of hay and a nice warm rug!!!!!!!!!!
 
My grey was imported from Portugal, he aclimatised very well though I was told and has certainly been absolutely fine turned out 24/7 in North East Scotland including over winters. Just make sure they're rugged up well, have shelter and are fed well - thats all you can do really. He's half Iberian (Luso x TB), he didnt suffer any sweet itch when being moved here and we get midgies pretty bad up here.

My new horse is 13 and he's not used to much turnout, he basically was fully stabled most if not all of his life with only 20 mins max turnout occassionally as I was told he'd start to gallop about after that. Given too much space, he does gallop about and I mean non-stop, he just seems to think its normal to canter about and literally not stop until he's taken in! So I started by putting him in a highly fenced tiny paddock at first (about the size of a stable) for only say 15 mins, then slowly increasing the time he spent out until it was all day. Then I began slowly increasing the size of his paddock (Ive still kept it super high fenced so he doesnt jump out). He's still coming in at night until spring. Its been 3 months and he's now in a paddock where he has enough space to canter but not get up a gallop. He goes out into it all day and loves it, he's settled down loads now - before he'd canter off as soon as I let him go but now he just mooched off and grazes straight away. I'll slowly make his paddock bigger until he's out in a proper field but will do it very slowly! So yeah, thats what Id do with your 14yo, just take your time.
 
What do you do about introducing company ? or do you do turn out individually first with company at the side then see how that goes before you introduce them to other company in the field?

I just assume that if they are not used to turn out then they wont be socialised or is this me reading too much into thinkgs?
 
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