Introducing an adult horse to grass and turnout

TheSaddleLady

TheSaddleLady

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Hi all, I recently bought a PRE gelding in Spain. I have known and worked with him for 2 years so know a fair amount of his background. He arrives in late July.

My main immediate issue is that he has never been turned out or been on grass. Ever. (He's 8).
I have got an idea of treating him almost like a lami horse. Take him in hand for half hour/hour for the first week or so. Then turn him out on a limited patch for a couple of hours and extended time and then space from there.
Does this sound sensible?

Also what feed can I give him as well as the hay and a 'hard feed' that is or similar to CoolStand (coconut horse feed) that the livery is using? He is very 'upside down' and has muscle atrophy all along his back and no top line.
He was gelded very late and still gets pretty hot because of this and being a fiesta horse.

Any advice, comments or ideas very welcome.
 
Not sure I can help with the turnout.. I would probably do what you are thinking (keep his routine as similar as possible to start with) or even if possible just turn him out booted up on a semi bare paddock and leave him to it for a while? A bit like they do with ex racehorses?

With regards to the feed, if it is not something you can get over here can the current owners send a bag of it and you can gradually change him to something similar or whatever that you can get ahold of here?

I can't say I have ever (or will ever) been lucky enough to have a fabulous foreign horse but if it were me, I would try and keep routine similar if he is one to stress from routine change. That being said moving countries will be very different so perhaps a bare field and hay for a while would help him to chill out and get his head round the move?? Let us know how you get on - how exciting!1
 
I am tentative to let him out from the offset even on bare paddock simply because he has never been turned out. It's just not done where he's from. I'm afraid after 4 days travel and 8 years stabled it would blow his mind or overwhelm him.

He's very sweet and I want to keep him that way so am trying to make this transition as calm as possible!
It is very exciting though, he's a real little girls "unicorn" horse :)

conniegirl said:
You can get CoolStance very easily, why change it?
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Sorry I realised I wasn't very specific. The hay and CoolStance is what his new livery yard will be providing him, I was wondering if anything else could help him, any supliment etc? At the moment he's on pretty poor quality 'hard' feed. No hay (cannot get it) only alfalfa.
 
You will need to be very careful .
He will be a higher risk of various gastric issues including grass sickness .
Introduce it gradually grazing in hand at first and building up a little every day he won't have the gut fauna for grass .
So you have two problems firstly teaching the horse about spending time in the field something that some horses don't 'get'and getting his gut used to grass which needs to be approached gradually .
My friends PRE won't do turnout they have given up trying
I would consider feeding something like the supplement protexin to support his gut .
 
Thanks Goldenstar - I've tried doing so much research but not many people have this problem. Whenever I am in Spain I make it a point to turn him out for a couple of hours in a large sand area (it's the best we have) and he's runs around like a loon before standing at the gate for the next hour. It's true that some PRE horses simply aren't fans of turn out no matter how hard you try!
I think you're right though, slow and steady, in hand turnout first.

Toffee44 said:
Second the protexin gut balancer.
Amazing stuff.
How flexible is your yard, can you turn out in school for half hour a day? Just an idea
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Right will definitely look into Protexin, I think a friend used it on her ex-racehorse(?) Thzanks both of you.
The yard is busy but understanding, he'll be on pretty much full livery Mon-Fri. I don't see why it will be an issue for him to be turned out in the school to begin with.
 
Where I used to work, a girl bought a horse who hadn't been turned out ever. He was nearly 7..

She built it up very gradually with walks in hand, increasing to an hour in the small bare starvation paddock, then 2 hours supplimented with hay until after a month or two she put him out for a half day with a calm friend etc.

When he was ready to go out into the big field a few months down the line he really struggled with it at first and just stood at the gate. With perseverance he eventually made a pair bond who seemed to show him the ways of the "field horse".

It did take a long time as they did everything very slowly due to the risk of colic. However - she is resigned to the fact that he refuses to go out in any form of adverse weather! If it rains he could be in for weeks but he will not stay out in it.
 
Damnation said:
Where I used to work, a girl bought a horse who hadn't been turned out ever. He was nearly 7..

She built it up very gradually with walks in hand, increasing to an hour in the small bare starvation paddock, then 2 hours supplemented with hay until after a month or two she put him out for a half day with a calm friend etc.

When he was ready to go out into the big field a few months down the line he really struggled with it at first and just stood at the gate. With perseverance he eventually made a pair bond who seemed to show him the ways of the "field horse".

It did take a long time as they did everything very slowly due to the risk of colic. However - she is resigned to the fact that he refuses to go out in any form of adverse weather! If it rains he could be in for weeks but he will not stay out in it.
Click to expand...

I think I'll look into definitely getting a supplement like Equine Gold or Protexin. We do have a 30 something horse on the yard is free roam (totally secure yard away form road) so he might make a good field buddy.

I am in no rush, he can take as long as he needs to adjust. But as you say, he may just turn his nose up whenever it's too wet/cold/foggy/icy/mildly damp.
He is a horse that definitely has the attitude of "I'm not touching THAT! Don't you know who I am!?"
 
With regards turnout, I dont know how your yard is but is it at all possible to make a pen immediately outside his stable so he can at least stand outside and get used to that first? I had a horse who was stabled pretty much permanently all his life until I got him, he would tank about when out coz obviously it was such a novelty. His stable lead straight into my yard so I opened the door and let him get used to wondering about in there for a while first, then I tried putting him out on grass in a small electric fenced paddock - he jumped straight out ;) So I duct taped lengthener things onto the tops so the top line of electric was then about 5ft high, this worked. I'd put him out only for short periods (literally 20 mins at first) then slowly increased it a little every day. Once he was happy being out for a few hours then I began making very slowly making his paddock bigger until eventually it was a normal field size. He's lived out 24/7 since ;) It'd probably help if he had a sensible buddy to go out with? Otherwise, I'd make sure he has plenty of hay in the paddock too so he has no excuse to canter about.
 
MagicMelon said:
With regards turnout, I dont know how your yard is but is it at all possible to make a pen immediately outside his stable so he can at least stand outside and get used to that first? I had a horse who was stabled pretty much permanently all his life until I got him, he would tank about when out coz obviously it was such a novelty.
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The yard he is going to be on is lovely but I'm not sure we can make a pen outside as it leads right onto the main 'square' of the yard (he is also a very good escape artist so will have to careful about that!) and we have a free-roam pony on the yard too. Maybe something can be worked out though. It's a good idea for sure!
 
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