How far do u walk to turn your horse out?

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Horseyjen!

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I am completely redesigning my fields and due to the shape of the land and the quantity of it (20 acres) what ever way I do it, because I make separate fields for each horse its going to be a trek to get there. Not too far but I would say it might b a three minute walk each way. The plus side is the fields will be two acres per horse to be used as livery likes. There is no water issue as they will all have automatic waterers.
My question is would that put you off? How far do you have to walk to your fields?
How does it work in winter?
I was thinking of putting solar lights on each post on the walk down to guide the way when its dark.
Thanks in advance for any feedback
 
That sounds like a perfect set up, although some might not want separate turnout. I have to walk 10 minutes down a road to turn mine out, which means that in the winter I have to turn out at the same time as others, so we can have somebody driving behind us with their hazard warning lights on. If people are going to have locks on their gates could I suggest a light by each gate too? I have a tiny torch attached to the zip of my fluorescent jacket, but it can be quite frustrating trying to turn the combination wheels whilst holding a torch and a restless horse, and trying not to drop my gloves in a puddle at the same time!
 
I can't imagine 20 acres / 3 min walk would put liveries off.

Usually it's a case of last livery in gets furthest away field and the option to upgrade as people move on! 2 acres a horse sounds like a great set up! Not anywhere near Cotswolds are you?!
 
Our winter field is a 2 min walk from the yard - however if they are standing at the far end of the field it can be a 5 min walk to catch and bring in. This has never bothered me - it is a well draining hill field with loads of natural shelter so lends itself to the job perfectly.

However I did have a livery who hated it and complained that it added another 10 mins to her duties - in hindsight my reply should have been if you can't afford an extra 10 mins, then maybe you shouldn't have a horse........!!!
 
Currently it takes me about 30 seconds each way per horse. Previously it took 7 minutes per horse each way, which was approximately a third of a mile. As it was unsafe to lead all 3 horses at once in winter on this particular yard, I did the round trip twice which took 28 minutes in total.
There was much competition among some liveries to get the nearest fields, with accusations of favouritism and general ill feeling.
 
It takes me 20 mins to walk down to the field, catch horse, and walk back. It's the furthest field away, down a long farm track. I walk the full length of three big fields and one small field to get to the gate. I'm quite happy though as he has individual turnout. I just tend to drive down and park my car down at the field (there is a convenient place to park as the gate is on a bend in the track with a wide outside edge), walk him up, and tidy everything up before turning him out so I can leave from there!

At my old yard, there was a 3/4 mile walk down a private road and up a hill to the winter grazing!!!
 
Easiest way to remove livery bickering about which field they get (and 3 minutes is fine :) ) is to rotate the liveries. So they swap fields every week so that they all have the furthest and the closest at some point :) Also stops over grazing of one field if they like having their horses out 24/7.
Nice idea about the lights by the way. I would second having lights at the gates - nothing worse than not being able to see the gate to open it!
 
We rotate our fields every few months and they each probably take about 2 mins but the fields are huge so it is dependant on where the beastie is situated (normally at the furthest point from me to be extra helpful). I wouldn't mind further though as turnout is an important factor and would be happy walking longer if it meant decent fields.
 
Sounds fine in principle - Auto waterers great!
One thing to consider, is it going to be a mud bath in the winter - Pushing a wheel barrow full of poo more than 100m in the dark wet winter mud isnt a motivational tool to poo picked fields ;)
 
3 minutes sounds wonderful!!

Our summer fields are a mile walk from the yard - though to be fair it's a fantastic fittener when it's multiple times a day!
 
I wouldn't be put off by a bit of a walk but I wouldn't like fields rotated. There's always going to be one who doesn't poo pick and on small individual turnout fields you generally need to. I'd rather have the same field all the time then I could poo pick, collect up ragwort and worm my horses and know that its done.
 
Mine is about a minute (if that) each way. My horse is in one of the closest fields, but it's also one of the smallest.

The biggest field is about 2-3 minutes walk. Never heard anyone really complain about it - unless it's torrential rain and they forgot their waterproofs!
 
On my yard the furthest field away used to be mine, it could take 10-15 minutes down and back, in the winter it was as black as pitch and the made the horses jumpy as there was a tall hedgerow on the one side of the track,

Now ive moved up as others have left and im about 2 -3 minutes away, which is fab, although the track gets very slippy in winter, sometimes meaning they stay in if its unsafe to turn out.

The lights sound like a great idea, it is nice to be able to see what your doing, some horses object to the head torches similar to the ones i use.
 
Dyou know what, Ive never timed it but its about 200 yds to my field gate from the yard, across 2 smaller paddocks which have sheep in from time to time. In winter we leave the yard lights on, the YO has a house at the side of one of the paddocks and always leaves a light on until about 9pm plus an old fashioned streetlamp type thing on her driveway, so that along with a headtorch is fine, you never feel isolated and the horses are usually at the gates waiting. I agree about not rotating paddocks. If each one is 2 acres surely each owner could manage it themselves, preserve a bit for summer if they want to and rest the worst of the muddy bits when needed. Thats what we all do and it does mean that we can each follow our own worming plan and poo picking regime.
 
2 seconds for two of the fields - the fields are right outside her stable. There is a third field about 1/4 of a mile up the road that they have to go in occassionally (though I have been very lucky this year - I haven't had to go to that one at all), and that takes about ten to fifteen mins there and back to the yard.
 
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ONe place I grazed at had a poo bunker in the corner of each field - just an area where we could safely empty a wheel barrow - it had a ramp and a gate at the top which was part of the fence, you opened the gate, pushed the wheel barrow up a short ramp and tipped the poo over the edge. Farmer came around regularly with the front loader and removed the dung.
 
One yard we were at had a half mile walk to the field, no lights in winter and track between paddocks extremely muddy at times. Usually took 15-20 minutes to get GG in from field?
 
At the moment, about 30 seconds. Maybe 90 when we go to winter grazing.

On my last yard I had a 5-10 minute walk to the field with no lights (except my head torch), didn't put me off in the slightest. Yard before that had a 15-20 minute walk to summer grazing and a 5-10 minute walk (up a very steep slope) in winter; summer was fine but winter was pretty dire, trudging up a massive hill in the dark when up to your ankles in mud is precisely zero fun.

Your setup sounds like it would be ideal, best of luck with it!
 
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Most of the year they're either 10 seconds (winter field) or about 30 seconds (early summer field) from the yard. When they go down to the hay fields however (which they did yesterday, quite a bit later than normal as they still have such good grass up the top) it's about a 3 minute walk down a steep hill and therefore about 5 minutes back up! Once they're down there they have 40 acres in 6 different fields so it can take up to 20 minutes to find them. They do often come to call, but not always. This bothers me more than the walk. I'd much rather they shut a few of the fields off and rotated them so at least you'd know whether to go left or right to look for them!

With two acres however this wouldn't be a problem so it sounds very reasonable. The lights sound good - I hate going to the hayfield in the dark as it's down a narrow tree line alley way and it's very spooky not to mention slippery.

If you've got existing liveries, assuming none of them have a physical reason (human - if a horse can't manage a 3 minute walk there's a bit problem!) for needing to be close to the yard I think you'd have to pull names out of a hat. New liveries would then take the furthest away and move up as space becomes available as others have said.
 
I would say I have about a 3 minute walk to the field. Not a problem. Bit annoying when it is muddy but I would walk 10 minutes if the path is good. For me that would be the most important bit.
 
just to consider - poo picking and water?

My field is 10 seconds from the stable - we open doors and they know which field to go in...so in all honesty i dont turn out the yard owner does for me.

walking in is a treck though :D the field is massive..[absolutely love it]....

So for me, yes it would put me off only as i prefer things close by as i havent got time to be faffing....but if i didnt have to poo pick and water then it would be no issues at all
 
Thanks for all your replies I really appreciate it. The walk is only fenced paths through my horses fields so very safe and the three gateways will be very close to each other although the fencing will be more it should make everyone happy with it being fair. Each will also have its own pooh pile so I think that should cover most things apart from mud!!
:)
 
The gate to our field is actually on the yard! As its split into four they are in the furthest field as a turn around and the closest. Furthest field is still barely a minutes walk, we're lucky :)
 
I have a short track down the centre and all the fields lead off that. You can greatly reduce the walking distance to all the fields it you have all the openings coming into the centre. But I don't think liveries would be put off by a 3 minute walk.
 
I am lucky in that I am now less than 1min from the yard. Before that I was a grass livery who rode every night, the mares is the furtgest, it takes 20mins at a brisk pace down a slippy farm track in the pitch black. 3mins would be bliss!
 
Our paddocks are triangular and spread from the gate this way no one has to walk to turn their horses out ... They are kinda like segments of a semi circle - which is a great way of minimising turn out distances
 
Our closest is 5 min walk... Furthest is half hour!! If mine are in the furthest , they get there in the lorry... Lazy I know but I don't have hour to spare twice a day! When they are in far field in the summer they normaly go there Sunday pm and come home fri morning. Then I drive there each morning/ pm to check them .
 
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