How much turnout do you all get over winter?

Out pretty much every day 8 to 4 ish - YO gets in. I quite often get him in at lunchtime to do something but then he goes back out. Might have a very rare day in if it is torrential rain. Previous yard was a nightmare, on random days weren;t allowed to turn out but you never knew that the previous evening so couldn't plan and then when they were out most would be got in after a couple of hours as no one else there worked full time. Horse and I both got very fed up with that. it wasn't that bad when I first moved there or wouldn't have moved there in first place but it got more and more restrictive as time went on.
 
milliepops said:
My last place was full DIY where the YO would decide on a whim in the morning what the arrangements would be. But never until after I had already seen to my horses and left for work. There would be a message on the group whatsapp saying they had to come in after an hour. :rolleyes:
Current place is mainly a full livery yard but those of us on assisted DIY get ours turned out and brought in as part of the deal.
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Our current place is like this - so we are moving. I was up the yard this morning, exercised and then put them out. Got home and there's a Group message saying turnout is limited to 2 hrs - pretty sure its aimed at me. I cant race back up the yard just to get them in.
This is the first time I've been on livery and its just not working. So notice handed in and moving to a yard that's not so precious (hopefully).
 
Kept at home and we have sacrificed a part of the field each winter. We only have 2 oldies but i like them to go out. If it gets way too wet then they have a day on the yard and have to lump it! They can walk in and out of their stable just not stand in the mud and as we are on clay that is already like a bog i find its the best way.
 
My two (big horse and small pony) have 2 acres to go out in all year round. They go out pretty much every day from 8 a.m to 5 p.m and overnight during the summer. On the very odd occasion I will keep them in and they have an open yard to walk about in. We do have clay fields which get very wet but the mud is generally fetlock height only and they can always find some grass. Fingers crossed though as this winter seems the wettest so far.
 
Ours get out every day no matter the weather. The winter fields are at the top of a hill so drain fairly well. We have no set going out or coming in time as long as they're in at some point overnight but ours are usually out roughly from 6am-7pm. If it snows enough to cover the grass they go out for a few hours in the morning, come in for some hay then go out again for an hour or so in the afternoon as YO won't let us put hay in the field to prevent fighting. It's totally DIY though so we have to manage this so when it snows we all get together and work it between us.

This year, they're in overnight 3 weeks earlier than usual as the summer fields (when they come up off the summer fields they come in overnight) at the bottom of the hill are so wet. There's plenty of grass but it's all under about 3" of water. I've never seen them like that in the 17 years I've been there.
 
The yard choices where i am fall into 2 categories, loads of turnout and yard a bit rubbish or fab yard and restricted turnout.
I went for the loads of turnout option so have compromised in other areas, we get 24/7 March to Oct and all day (as many hours as you like) in winter. We have a very large field between 2 so the condition of the field isnt compromised and doesnt get very muddy no matter what. I figure that my horse doesn't care that the yard is scruffy but would care about being banged up on a fancier yard.
 
Our DIY yard has 24/7 turnout from end April to beginning Nov and then from there it's in by night out by day but exceptions can be made and sometimes are. We are lucky that we are not overstocked grazing wise and that generally speaking the fields don't get boggy. As a rule mine go out between 730-830 and get bought in between 4-5, sometimes if the weather is very inclement they might have a shorter period of turnout, but we are lucky as most yards around here have no or very limited winter turnout. There's no rotation of fields as such, though they tend to try and swap horses into spare fields at various times of the year to rest the main fields but there's no set routine for this.
 
Mine go out every day. I ride one in the morning and then turn them all out at about 6:45, and I get them back in at about 6:30 in the evening and ride another. But I keep them at home and give hay in the fields and my winter field gets trashed whatever I do, so I just adopt an approach of not looking at it too much for the few hours a week that I'm here in the daylight through winter 🙈

I much prefer the second of the two regimes you describe - some horses are fine on a chop and change routine, but most are happier with a steady turnout regime.
 
HelenBack said:
My next post might be along the lines of how far would you be prepared to travel to find that!
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I go 13 miles and between 25 and 35 minutes away for my yard. It is on the way to work, but I only work 3 days a week in the office, so not as useful as it sounds! Its worth it though. We dont have huge field, typical livery yard paddocks of about an acre between 2 of them, but we can do what we want with them. The only proviso is that we are sensible and if its really wet the horses dont stay out 24/7. Mines out from 6.15am to 4pm most days. On my days off she does sometimes come in earlier to work, but not always.
 
Until recently I was on a yard run by a BHS approved/respected person who keeps her liveries stabled 24/7 from October to May. Apparently this is 'reasonable' and common practice these days. What?
 
I would prefer if they went out every day for half a day, rather than sometimes always out, and sometimes for a few weeks in.
I am lucky to have my own place, they can be in or out whenever they want, the gates are always open. They choose to be inside during summer days, to hide from insects, or when it's wet ant stormy at any other time of year. Interestingly enough, they stay happily outside at minus 25C in winter.
 
scats said:
We manage our own fields, but we are sensible. I mostly give mine full days, but I will bring in just after lunch if the weather is very wet. On a rare occasion, I will leave them in for the day. This is usually due to high winds (I have trees around my fields and several have come down in recent years) or ice/frozen ground.
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Yup, same here and they’re quite happy with it.
 
HelenBack said:
My next post might be along the lines of how far would you be prepared to travel to find that!
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Sometimes there is no choice but having kept mine 20 miles away on full livery thinking he’d be looked after I would never choose to have my horse so far away again. It came to a head when he had colic. It was a good half hour in either direction and in the winter at night I found the journey horrid. At least on f/l I didn’t have to go every day twice a day. If the yard owner and the yard itself had turned out better I may have felt differently.
 
Land owner leaves us to it. 4 on 8 acres, we try to get them out every day from 6ish until 3 ish, but sometimes they just want "in". If vile weather, my daughter and I turn out, do chores then bring in. No point in having unhappy horse churning up wet fields.
 
I can't help on the turnout situation I'm afraid, if generally they were out and it truly was in the worst of weather only that they had to be in I'd be tempted by that, but it's being able to believe and trust that that would be the case.
If I was at all unsure then half a day every day would be preferable.

Re travelling- I was travelling 28 miles/about 50 minute drive each way, and it was absolutely worth it. BUT I had the most amazing YM, nothing was too much trouble and I knew my horse was in good hands.
Now at a yard 12 miles/25 minutes from home, and I don't have the same trust in the standard of care (for good reason) and I wouldn't want to be any further away.
 
Our land gets very wet and can be boggy, so we've created a hardstanding turnout area around the yard. This way my horses can go out 8am to 5pm every day, even if its not quite in the field. We do give them a day in the field every four or five days. We've recently taken on a few liveries and are changing the hard standing so that its bigger and a circuit, so nothing can get cornered. Im quite amazed at the current liveries, their horses stand in for days on end at their owner's choice. I think they must be conditioned to it from previous yards, but it baffles me and i hate seeing the poor horses stood there. Also amazed they havent had their horses tie up.
 
Mine are out everyday from 6.30am and currently in by 3.30pm to be ridden, or if we're hacking out for a couple of hours, it'll be 1pm to catch the daylight.
In the past I've left livery yards because the promise of daily winter turnout didn't happen. Keeping horses in 24/7 for 3 weeks at a time was unacceptable. I'll happily keep them in or give them an hour or two in the fields if the weather is extreme, but those conditions are usually short lived.
 
The second option would be fine for ours - a 1/2 day out each day is enough too keep them sane, even if they can't be exercised daily.

We are very lucky to rent an 8 acre hill field, and even with the current wet conditions, the only mud is around the trough. Consequently ours live out mainly 24/7, unless the weather is so appalling it is dangerous, or thick snow so that they can't get at the grass.

Prior to this though, I kept my cob on a livery yard, where the winter paddocks were the size of a tennis court and often shared between 2/3 horses, and to make matters worse, were very low on the water table so were usually trashed by christmas. My idea of hell - my lad was lucky to get an hour out a few days a week, and was just fortunate that at that time I was working part time so could exercise him every day. If not I think the poor lad would have gone stir crazy........never again.
 
Mine are out 24/7. They also have access to stables that are kept open for shelter. They like to wander in there but never when it's wet, cold or windy:rolleyes:
 
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We have the option of keeping them out as much or as little as we like. If we want them out 24/7 in winter, we have that choice, but if we prefer to stable them overnight or for part of the day that’s also entirely up to us.
 
Mine is out from 8am-4pm in winter. We are on chalk so the fields drain quite well. We tend to get really bad flies in summer so they stay in, in the summer and out at night.
 
Mine are at home, so very flexible. However, I don’t have much land, so in this current wet weather they are out for about 3-6 hrs a day, depending on what I’m doing with them. What I observe is that as long as they go out every day, even if it’s only a couple of hours, they seem quite happy. Maybe they don’t have a great sense of time!

What seems to agitate them most is when they don’t get turned out at all when they think they are supposed to be.
 
I've been on yards with various different set ups. The first one I was ever on, the YO flipped midway through winter and closed her fields completely. There was no turnout, nothing, for what at the time felt like ages and may have been several months (I was 11 so it's hard to remember). This was the first year I had my horse and we were on that yard as it was nearest to home and owned by a family friend, so I didn't really have a chance to up sticks and move. I remember getting up at 6am and getting dropped at the yard before 7am to muck out and hand walk my horse, then ride in the afternoon. It was a nightmare and, in retrospect, it's no wonder my horse was so wired that winter! In fairness, for following winters the YO then built 4 all weather paddocks and got a bit more sensible about her winter turnout - if it was dryish or frosty, they could go in the field, if not they went in the all weather pens in 3 hour slots. That wasn't too bad. I moved when I was 17 though, to a yard that initially had very good winter turnout and they could go out every day even if the fields got trashed. They usually only did 9.30 to 4ish but it kept the horses happy. But my last year there the YO got funny about the fields and they were only allowed in the arena, and her son in law was in charge of turnout and was putting the livery horses out later and later each day (my mum flipped out when they were still in at 3pm!). After that I decided turnout was the most important thing and for the last 7 years I have sacrificed other things in order to be able to turnout 24/7 all year. The first yard I was able to do that at we did have to bring in sometimes as there was no natural shelter and the fields were very exposed, so in high winds/ snow they simply couldn't stay out. But we had super fields! Then I moved to a different part of the country and my sister and I rented a field and shelter, with no facilities, and for the last 3 years I have had our two down near Brighton and we currently have stables but great turnout, so they will stay out 24/7 unless we have a shocker of a winter. I couldn't go back to stabling overnight all winter. That said, I recognise I am able to sacrifice things like lights/ having a school because my two are both retired now. It was a lot harder when they were still in work!
 
TheProdigal said:
Until recently I was on a yard run by a BHS approved/respected person who keeps her liveries stabled 24/7 from October to May. Apparently this is 'reasonable' and common practice these days. What?
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I bought one that had lived on a yard like this for 2 years. She was sold very very cheap to me the last week in October. She was terrified of stables and had panic attacks if asked to go into one.

The poor beastie would lead into one but then turned round and legged it out again, she would be dripping with sweat on the yard after just the one try. She lived loose on the yard until the barn system was up and running.
 
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