Huge change in routine for horse. Will he cope?

mini-eventer

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I am looking to buy a 2nd horse at the min and have one I have made an offer on.

When I get him his routine will drasticly change.

Currently
Mostly Stabled 24-7
Turned out for 6hrs twice a week on poor grass
Occasionaly put out overnight (bit randomly but he seams settled out)
Fed a hayledge ration (Not even close to adlib) plus half scoop pony nuts. I would say he spends less than half his time eating:(


The horse is very poor but not an rspca case

My planned routine
Turned out 24-7 on good grazing good natural shelter
Supplimented with as much hayledge as he can eat
I only plan a basic hard feed such as fast fibre with and suppliments needed, as I feel he should gain weight with the increase in forage. Literaly what he gets now would leave my native pony lean.

If he doesnt gain condition I will put him on something more conditioning. He is 3/4 TB and I dont want to blow his brain too much with feed.

Rug wise he is unclipped but poor weight and a fine TB coat & used to being stabled with fairly heavy rugs on. So I was thinking a medium to heavy weight. I have quite a few rugs and under rugs so can change any soaked ones.

The plan is to give him a holiday and fatten him up. Then bring up to my yard in spring when there will be a space available in the spring.

My yard is fantastic and I will have masses of support when I take him there

Does this routine sound ok? I feel a bit of a numpty asking but I have never has anything out 24-7 in winter and have only had natives in the past

I feel like his routine at the min is a bit random and as he is settled when they chuck him out the odd night he will be happy enough out.

Just to note there is a stable I can use if there is an emergancy.
 

Ancient Hacker

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It looks to me as though your plans will be a huge improvement for this TB! I've recently moved one of mine from his old yard to my new yard (had to build more stables) and he has enjoyed the increase in turn out - from getting about 4 hours a day previously, he gets about 12 hours a day with me.
(It's summer here!)

One thing in my experience, all the TBs I've had have taken a little while to settle, realise there are no tigers in the new paddocks etc... but that's just my experience.

Good luck with the move when spring arrives, and enjoy your new horse.
 

Dubsie

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Am sure will cope fine, we took on a 19 year old as companion to our NF who lived out. He was throughly loved and cossetted, was stabled overnight from 4pm to 8am and came with hundreds of rugs We offered a stable but it wasn't used, we found he preferred to be out 24/7 (with the company of course). We do have to feed him as he's a poor do-er and our grazing is limited so they're supplimented with hay. He just gets a bit of sugar beet, handful of chaff and pony nuts but in winter I add some linseed oil and change the pony nuts to Bailys No 4. The first winter I don't think we got it quite right (he arrived at the end of November and he got the cheaper pony nuts plus I think it took him a while to get used to the new set up - it rained for a few weeks then snow on the ground for a month!) and he lost a bit much weight for my liking, but both last winter and this he's done fine on the No4 - he's also been exercised a bit more so is correspondingly fitter. As it's been so mild this winter he's manged without a neck and I think he's appreciated this as it makes his favourite occupation (rolling in the muddy patch) so much easier.

We did keep him in his stable overnight on a couple of days when it was wet and miserable while the other was at pony club camp which I think he enjoyed as there was no reason to want to be out with his mate not there, but other than that if he's in for any reason even if rainy he really wants to be out (it's that muddy patch, irresistable).
 
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