Is no turnout in the winter the norm now?

holeymoley

holeymoley

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As title really. I appreciate we've had some rubbish summers rain wise but after being told that winter turnout is available to now being on 2 hours turnout max per day we're all a bit cheesed. So do you have winter turnout? Last year we were on hard standing which was at least something but it was done via a rota system which made it quite difficult for all.
 
Not helpful to you, but my own yard so even though my field is trashed, the horses still go out.
I keep one for winter and save the rest.
It has been an incredibly wet winter, too. I can understand yards wanting to protect their land, but some of it is the product of too many horses and not enough land.
 
As above said too many horses per yard for the grazing available.
We invested in drainage in our fields which has improved the situation.
This year has been particularly bad with the wet snow lying on the land and then melting slowly causing the fields to become saturated with water.
I wold also suggest that many yards do not charge enough so that they can properly maintain their grassland.
 
Is increasingly wet weather the norm now? If the answer is yes, then I think you can bet that winter turnout on grass will become more and more difficult to achieve. We have our own farm, with large fields - more than enough acreage for the number of animals we have - but they go out only into all-weather paddocks once the land becomes muddy.
 
Cortez said:
Is increasingly wet weather the norm now? If the answer is yes, then I think you can bet that winter turnout on grass will become more and more difficult to achieve. We have our own farm, with large fields - more than enough acreage for the number of animals we have - but they go out only into all-weather paddocks once the land becomes muddy.
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This is exactly what my friend does at her yard. The fields are saved for haylage and summer grazing and in winter the 30 horses are on purpose built all weather paddocks with piles of haylage during daylight hours.
 
I teach at so many yards and I always see the same thing - people wanting to turn out onto poached boggy and/or over grazed land. Turns into mud. Come winter 'we have no grass'. The following winter, the land is even more trashed and it becomes a progressively more vicious circle.

Really lucky to have enough to rest half for 6 months then change over, but even ours has suffered in gateways and on the walkway where we've got an enthusiastic mole.
 
Cortez said:
Is increasingly wet weather the norm now? If the answer is yes, then I think you can bet that winter turnout on grass will become more and more difficult to achieve. We have our own farm, with large fields - more than enough acreage for the number of animals we have - but they go out only into all-weather paddocks once the land becomes muddy.
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Yep exactly.
I'm currently making an all weather track at mine because I can't cope with another wet winter as we are
 
I think the area you are in has a lot of bearing on this, too. I grew up in the midlands on well draining, sandy soil and horses were out 24/7 and only in at night from mid-end October through to the end of march - with true all day grazing.

I'd literally never heard of the concept of restricted turnout until I moved to Cambridgeshire, where we are on flat, low lying, clay soil......and yes, turnout is pretty rare around here at this time of year!!!!
 
We have a fair amount of mud, but mine are still out for 12 hours every day, with additional forage in the field. It's clay, so it'll recover well enough come spring, with a bit of harrowing and work. It's hard to find places who accept that winter always looks grim, and allow sufficient turnout though.
 
It seems to be getting the normal thing now unfortunately. It’s ok if you can ride or exercise every day but I still wouldn’t be happy especially with youngsters or oldies that need to move around.
 
We are on clay so no matter how well the land is looked after it is deep as soon as it is wet for any length of time.

We let the horses 'choose' once they are stressed, waiting at the gate etc they get to come in. Mine likes about an hour and he has grass I think he doesn't like 'sinking'
 
Tr0uble said:
I think the area you are in has a lot of bearing on this, too. I grew up in the midlands on well draining, sandy soil and horses were out 24/7 and only in at night from mid-end October through to the end of march - with true all day grazing.

I'd literally never heard of the concept of restricted turnout until I moved to Cambridgeshire, where we are on flat, low lying, clay soil......and yes, turnout is pretty rare around here at this time of year!!!!
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Very much so - the first 20 years or so of horse ownership I was in an area with good land. Yes the gateways might have got muddy but the rest of the land horses could be out 24/7 no issue.

Where I am now the land is much much wetter. Not knee deep clay, but definitely more clay than sand/chalk. Add to that the increasing warmer/wetter winters, more horses per acreage to make the books balance, and I can quite understand restricted turnout.

Over the next few years there is going to be a huge shift in availability of affordable livery able to cater for winter turnout.

I’m very lucky where I am as they have sufficient land for the horses, but even so we are having the odd restricted day.
 
At my current yard, no, we have winter TO all day, no limits on they must be in by Xpm, but they must come in.

At my old yard they'd quite frequently stay in for a couple of months over winter, it was horrid and that's why I moved, I had a nappy, miserable horse to ride that stood in the back of his stable depressed. They had a walker too so he wasn't actually stood in all day every day.
 
The yard I'm on has reduced turnout in winter - nothing can stay out 24/7, and they tend to only be out during daylight - but they get 5-6 hours a day.

About a third of the land is set aside for winter grazing. It's taped off into paddocks, each with 2-3 horses, that are just large enough for them to have a bit of a buck and a canter but not a proper hooley. There are enough paddocks that the horses can be moved to a fresh one as they trash their current one, and there's always enough grass that they don't need additional forage in the field. They're generally in the winter paddocks for about five months.

It's not attractive, and the gateways tend to be a bit of a quagmire, but they all open off a paved pathway, so it's not as bad as it could be.

I wouldn't stay at a yard that didn't allow winter turnout.
 
The majority of my friends horses are barely turned out from November - Feb/March depending on the weather. I feel very fortunate that my mare is turned out 24/7 with open access to her stable and a hardstanding if she pleases. We only just have 5 acres which are split into 2 paddocks and provide hay on the hardstanding in winter. They are turned out in one field at the moment and will open up the other in the spring. The horses are good doers and the quality of our grazing is very average so the fields recover reasonably well once they dry out.
 
I don't think I would ever get a horse who wasn't out almost 24/7.

We move the two boys between two fields to try our best to stop them ruining it.
 
I think how wet it has been depends where you are, a month ago our paddocks (somerset) were beautiful as it had been so dry, so much so I took the opportunity for a quick lunge and you couldn't have asked for better ground. It is wet now but that is late for us.
We are on low lying clay (levels) so it does get wet but conversely it always recovers far too well, the land hasn't had fertiliser on it in my lifetime at least.

On wiltshire chalk it took longer to get wetter but when it did it was bad as their was just no structure/root structure to the soil and it needed a lot of help to recover.
 
Mine get out all day every day (6.30am-6.30pm) no matter the weather. It's not unusual in my area but it's certainly not universal. They have to come in overnight between mid Nov and the end of March but that's a much shorter period than most places.

We're very lucky in that the winter fields are on top of a hill with only about a foot of mud before hitting bedrock. It drains well but even if it's saturated it's not particularly muddy. We also have 14 horses, 4 cows and a few sheep on 55 acres. They move around plenty and our winter field has 6 horses and 2 small ponies on 7 acres so they don't trash it. The gate's a bit mucky but within 10m they've still got lovely grass to the extent that they're not really eating their haylage overnight. My two 700kg horses are barely getting through 5kg of haylage each. YO hates overgrazing and would rather miss out on extra cash to have well maintained fields. It's one of several reasons I never want to leave the yard I'm at.
 
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It's a very difficult thing for yard owners. I will not have horses standing in - most of mine live out 24/7 anyway, but when you watch your carefully maintained fields disappearing under a sea of mud, it's easy to see why many YOs restrict turnout. It's hard to be gracious when liveries whinge about the mud, but whinge just as much about lack of turnout. My lot are great - they accept that the fields are going to be dreadful all winter, and don't grumble. I have heavy clay which is a blessing as much as it's a curse, because the grass grows pretty much all year, and it recovers brilliantly from the winter awfulness!
 
I have been on yards with no turn out for six months of the year it does improve your riding
I got quite used to riding around people lunging out of control horses, while trying to control my own very excitable Appy-X
 
At New Yard we can go out as long as we want in winter the only rule is they can't stay out all night and have to come in but ours go out 7.30am to 6.30pm most days. We still have grass and the fields apart from gateway are pretty mud free but do have their boggy patches but I'm definitely not complaining and loving a fairly mud free winter 🙈😁
 
We have all year turn-out but it’s got increasingly horrible and muddy and definitely of our own volition we are either bringing in earlier or having the odd duvet day when it’s really bad because neither us nor the horses are enjoying slopping about in mud and pouring rain. They just don’t want to stay out there and as a DIY Yard once one horse comes in they start to get unsettled leading to tantrums and risk of injury.

We’re really lucky as have a good ratio of land to horse but it gets very water-logged and the path to the fields is a quagmire.
 
Not where we live fortunately.. Many larger livery yards have restricted turnout, but I'm thankful that I can turn out for at least 12hrs everyday (no matter the weather) and we've even left our 4 horses out overnight on calm, frosty nights. We're on sandy soil and literally have zero mud. All of the horses, including a youngster are all sane and happy going out in their 8 acre grassy field everyday.
 
Auslander said:
It's a very difficult thing for yard owners. I will not have horses standing in - most of mine live out 24/7 anyway, but when you watch your carefully maintained fields disappearing under a sea of mud, it's easy to see why many YOs restrict turnout. It's hard to be gracious when liveries whinge about the mud, but whinge just as much about lack of turnout. My lot are great - they accept that the fields are going to be dreadful all winter, and don't grumble. I have heavy clay which is a blessing as much as it's a curse, because the grass grows pretty much all year, and it recovers brilliantly from the winter awfulness!
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This - although mine don't live out 24/7 I too hate to see horses standing in so mine go out every day, no matter what the weather or state of the fields... luckily my liveries also have similar views ;-)
 
Mine is out in daylight hours. He wont stay out any longer than that anyway no matter what I do. We are very lucky though, I can still turn out and bring in in trainers although bits are muddy. Not sure how we are getting away with it as they are in small individual paddocks and we dont have tons of land. I suspect its well draining soil as a couple of hundred metres behind the yard it slopes down about 30ms to a stream
 
Thankfully I've never been on a yard where no turnout was a normal thing, I couldn't deal with no turnout.
I'm very lucky that my yard has 24/7 turnout all year round, we have muddy gateways and the fields are wet but they drain well. Ee have plenty of grass and enough space for the horses; 12 horses on 30 acres is brilliant. The top fields are shut off in March/April time for hay and then opened again at the begining of Autumn. Very very lucky to be on a hill in Yorkshire :)
 
At my new yard mine Is out 24/7 and has hard standing turnout if it really starts. I moved her because she hated being kept in during the day once she'd got used to going out.
 
The yard Im on has a winter field, its there to use but has restricted hours. This rule was introduced prior to me moving there because some liveries were turning out at the crack of dawn and leaving them til after dark and the field was trashed in no time, the horses were fighting at the gate to come in and the fences were regulary broken. The YM will turnout and get in for a small charge for those that the hours dont suit due to work etc. I think it works quite well, the field is sooooo wet though despite trying to manage it that I cant imagine what it was like when it was a free for all. My horse now gets a couple of hours most days and shes more than happy to come in. I remember as a kid having 24/7 turnout all year round but land is at a premium now and it seems less and less yards are offering winter turnout in the area I live in.
 
holeymoley said:
As title really. I appreciate we've had some rubbish summers rain wise but after being told that winter turnout is available to now being on 2 hours turnout max per day we're all a bit cheesed. So do you have winter turnout? Last year we were on hard standing which was at least something but it was done via a rota system which made it quite difficult for all.
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My livery horses go out at 7 am week days and 8.30am weekends and come in now at 4pm, my fields are split so one pair rested and the other used, we have more horses to acres but still maintain so they cope. Though we have no 24 hr turnout.

I have had livery horses move here as their previous yard offered no turnout for weeks on end. If fields get trashed they recover in spring when they move onto the other pair. They only moved onto this pair on the 1st December after it had 3 months off so they had plenty of grass and still do now to find.
 
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There's been no turnout on my yard for weeks - although my horse is the exception for medical reasons. Personally I am in favour of allocating some small paddocks to be 'trash' paddocks and letting horses out for a few hours. Its not just exercise, they are social animals and need to spend time with other horses.

we're on clay and the snow turned them into a bog and nothing has really drained since. I can see water lying even in fields that haven't been used since the autumn.
 
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