How Important Is Routine?

So sorry to hear of your loss. (((Hugs)))

Routine? Good when you have a large yard of horses and staff to go along. Horses do thrive on routine for sure but when you have just one or two too strict a routine has them hanging around at the gate arguing and banging at the gate.
 
I've never had a routine on timings with my horses, I deliberately avoid it for same reason as OP mentioned - it just stresses them out when you have to change it. As someone else said I do stick to a routine as to the order I do things, particularly around feed times.

I have known some horses that had to have a strict routine though. Generally "institutionalised" horses - an ex-racehorse and two European dressage horses who'd not been turned out for several years until they came to the UK. One of the dressage horses in particular would have a breakdown if not in an absolutely strict routine, so his owner had to work with that and accept it.
 
Ours don't have a strict routine, the first group goes out at 7, when they're bored next ones go out and they come in when bored or 5pm. They get worked first thing at the weekends, but all different ponies get the first slot. In the week they're often ridden 9/9.30pm if I'm busy and dads are done usually crack of dawn or lunch time. We rarely work them all each day with a few of them having days off and a few on lunging. Through the summer most months they'll have 5 days away camping so everything on its head, and during the winter competing but only every fortnight or so, they'll often stay in the day before but as they're not set in their ways this doesn't affect them :) Doesn't seem to affect any of them fortunately :)

Very sorry to hear of your fell :(
 
I don't do routine, then there's no expectation - mine live out though. They aren't standing at the gate waiting for me and they aren't stressed out if I'm not there. They are happy and healthy, have no medical or mental issues at all.
 
I'm sorry for your loss, OP. What a lovely life your pony must have had with all that freedom. I doubt it was the grass which caused the colic. Twisted guts are just something that happen and nothing to do with management IMO.

I think most animals prefer routine. In the wild, herbivores especially stick to their own routines for example visiting waterholes around the same time each day etc. I think dogs also thrive on it. In our house we call it 'sames'. Our dogs love 'sames'. I have quite a strict routine with the horses too and if anything crops up to disrupt it, I make sure I have someone to come and do things at around the same time as I would otherwise have done. So if I go to a competition, I arrange cover. The only part of my day that varies is the time of the last feed and haying up/skip out. That can be any time between 9pm and 10.30 pm. Everything else takes place at roughly the same time. I do this for my benefit as well as for the horses. I like my routine.
 
So sorry to hear about your pony. How very sad :(

My ponies live out 24/7 so routine isn't massively important to me or then. I am busy and my timings change daily. They tend to meader over when they see my car pull up and just wait to either be fed, groomed, ridden etc. We are all happy.
 
Kinda have a routine, generally same things get done in the same order each day, but timing can differ. My youngster has caused the least fuss out of the yard as from day one it has been this way. As long as she is fed she's happy :)
 
My horse goes on strike from sanity if not in a routine. I mean, I can ride her whenever, that's no problem, but turnout times and feeding times have to be fairly fixed. Had her at a yard where there was no set routine; they could be brought in any time between 4 an 8, fed whenever after that, and as it was a mix of DIYs and full livery, horses were on different routines. My horse said no. I said, "Suck it. You'll adapt." She fencewalked, and fencewalked, and fencewalked, and started to look like an RSPCA case no matter what I fed her. I said, "Okay, you win," and moved her to a yard with a pretty set routine. Weight came back on with no trouble and now she only fencewalks when she's pi$$ed off about the weather.

Many years ago when I was an undergrad, horse was at the university's barn. It had limited turnnout so all horses went out in two hour slots, which were generally the same every day but sometimes changed. My horse's slot was 7-9am. The one time they tried changing as a one-off because someone else was going to a show and wanted theirs out early that day, Gypsum made it plain that she was going to charge around her paddock like a maniac for two hours. Barn didn't want that. I didn't want that. She never got shuffled off her 7-9am slot again.

It ain't up to me. She likes what she likes and her tenacity with complaining can far, far outlast my tenacity, or any half decent yard owner's tenacity, at ignoring it.
 
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EKW ,So very sorry for the tragic loss of your horse,but you didnt do anything wrong. these things happen. It is terribly sad ,but the constant thing about horse ownership is the loss of those we love. You are looking for a reason where none that we know ,exists. I lost my first horse to colic ,at ponyclub camp,many many tears ago. I have just spotted the typo and ,TBH ,it is more correct than what I intended.Many tears ago.
 
Mine have no routine whatsoever. They live out and so have access to grass, water and their shelters 24/7. I feed them anytime between 5am to 9am depending on my shifts and again between 4pm to 10pm.

I think it suits them as they are never waiting for or expecting anything.
 
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