Is no turnout in the winter the norm now?

chocolategirl

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Personally for me anyway, there is no circumstance under which I would not turnout. If I had to imprison mine and my clients horses routinely, I’m afraid I would just have to pack up. I just don’t think it’s acceptable, EVER. But like I said, this is my own personal view. Even when ve had one on box rest, I still make a pen within the field so they don’t feel like they’re on lock down! I hate, hate, hate to see horses stuck inside. Yes our fields are literally destroyed in winter, but our horses are happy and settled with no behavioural issues at all. Hay fed in their paddocks when grass is gone so they don’t mind the mud!
 

wiglet

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My yard is on sandy soil so there’s little mud. It’s a full livery yard and we have turn out every day although only 5-6 hours at the moment. In summer we get 8-9 hours but they come in at night year round.
 

MyBoyChe

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Im on a diy yard and each owner has their own bit of field and we can do what we like. We have no school or any other facilities so YO understands that he cant tell us all we cant turn out, he also knows that despite being on clay, the land will recover in summer. That said, my boy goes out at 7am and comes in about 2pm Dec-Jan as once he's had a wander round he gets fed up and will fence walk if left any longer. I section off a fair chunk of my field which rests all winter and means in spring I have a nice fresh gate area and can shut up the other side which has taken a hammering all winter, to rest all summer. It also means that it takes longer for the grass to start coming through, which in my case is a bonus. Im a bit of a fair weather rider these days so all year round turnout is essential for me, both horse and I are happy with our self imposed restricted hours, tbh he would happily stand in all day every day just eating, but I insist he goes out for at least half the day :)
 

Cortez

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Reality, folks: in the winters we are now enduring, it is wet, miserable and sodden. NO animal wants or deserves to be out in these conditions. Either be prepared to exercise your animals properly, or stop keeping animals - but don't subject horses to quagmire conditions.
 

The Fuzzy Furry

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I moan all summer as have too much grass for mine :wink3: and this year I even had 2 acres out of my 4.5 topped in early October.

To date, they've only had 6 nights in this winter, spending nights out in the 3 small sandy paddocks that have the field shelters in, and days either in the winter paddock (which can get boggy v quickly when it pours, but equally dries out in a week or so if I keep them off and frost sets in) or adjacent paddock.
Today they had a great time up in the top field in the sunshine:)

I don't DO mud, hence why not having extra horses through the winter :)
 

SatansLittleHelper

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My opinion may not be popular but I always cringe reading posts like these...I strongly feel that this is a serious welfare issue. Horses are big, social animals and for them to be confined for months on end is wrong on so many levels.
I think yard owners would be better charging more and having less horses on their yard so that turnout is less compromised.
 

Cortez

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My opinion may not be popular but I always cringe reading posts like these...I strongly feel that this is a serious welfare issue. Horses are big, social animals and for them to be confined for months on end is wrong on so many levels.
I think yard owners would be better charging more and having less horses on their yard so that turnout is less compromised.

Horses are only "confined" if their owners do not make the effort to exercise them. If they cannot be turned out, then the onus is on you to get them out working. Fact of life.
 

SatansLittleHelper

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Horses are only "confined" if their owners do not make the effort to exercise them. If they cannot be turned out, then the onus is on you to get them out working. Fact of life.
While I do see what you are saying most people only ride for an average of an hour a day...That's 23 hours confined to a box. IMHO that is extremely unfair.
 

TheMule

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Reality, folks: in the winters we are now enduring, it is wet, miserable and sodden. NO animal wants or deserves to be out in these conditions. Either be prepared to exercise your animals properly, or stop keeping animals - but don't subject horses to quagmire conditions.

NO animal wants or deserves to be out in these conditions?!
Tell these 2. Living out 24/7. It looks tough for them, huh?! (This was today btw and it has been incredibly wet round here) I look after my land and don't have more horses than it can sustain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyeubrUWTeo
 

Leo Walker

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This was at Christmas time. The grass has now been eaten down a bit but its pretty much the same, so I think the conditions are ok ;)

25551950_10154989088666440_881028415146349090_n.jpg
 

Charlie007

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Ours go out daily but after Xmas started coming in at lunch. They still get out for over 6 hours. Even though they had hay in the field they were standing about. They seem to like coming in at lunch to big haynet's! ! As soon as it dries up a bit they will be out all day again.
 

maisie06

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Reality, folks: in the winters we are now enduring, it is wet, miserable and sodden. NO animal wants or deserves to be out in these conditions. Either be prepared to exercise your animals properly, or stop keeping animals - but don't subject horses to quagmire conditions.

I stopped keeping mine - had the PTS both were lame and retired anyway and I couldn't cope with another winter with the poor things stuck in mud upto their knees...keeping in wasn't an option either.
 

cavalo branco

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'Ok
Personally for me anyway, there is no circumstance under which I would not turnout. If I had to imprison mine and my clients horses routinely, I’m afraid I would just have to pack up. I just don’t think it’s acceptable, EVER. But like I said, this is my own personal view. Even when ve had one on box rest, I still make a pen within the field so they don’t feel like they’re on lock down! I hate, hate, hate to see horses stuck inside. Yes our fields are literally destroyed in winter, but our horses are happy and settled with no behavioural issues at all. Hay fed in their paddocks when grass is gone so they don’t mind the mud!
I couldn't agree more, my two are out every day, they love their turnout and luckily I have my own yard. My fields get trashed but they recover with some attention in the spring and I'd rather have muddy horses than mad horses.
 

Auslander

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Mine seem to be perfectly happy with mud - they have the option of their nice dry pens, or the field, and they spend about 50% of daylight hours wallowing/playing/dozing in the mud, even when there is hay in the pens. The only thing that none of them want is to come into the stables!
 

Ali27

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I’m lucky as I have always been on yards with daily turnout in Winter. I could never keep mine confined to a stable 24/7. We are in Staffs on clay but fields always recover. My current yard has separate Summer/Winter grazing😊
 

JFTDWS

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Reality, folks: in the winters we are now enduring, it is wet, miserable and sodden. NO animal wants or deserves to be out in these conditions. Either be prepared to exercise your animals properly, or stop keeping animals - but don't subject horses to quagmire conditions.

Seriously?

Beyond the gateways and high throughput areas, my 3 are on nearly 4 acres of solid ground. No there's not much grass, but they get forage in the field, and they're all happy to be out - I turn them out and they disappear down the field, they don't come back up to the gates until they hear me out there doing their stables for the night.

It would be a cold day in hell before I considered it a better option to be standing in a stable for 23 hours a day and then worked intensively for one (which is the life of many worked and stabled horses in the UK, if they're lucky). I find it almost equally to be a welfare problem when people fail to work stabled animals, as when they do, but drag them out of their stables to work them heavily after only minutes of walk work - it's terrible management for soft tissues etc. If you're prepared to ride horses out for multiple hours a day, mostly slow work, then that's grand. Those horses are still missing out on all those natural, social behaviours though, and I find that sad.
 

ester

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we're still strip grazing... on flat, clay, somerset levels land... in previous years they have had the whole 3 acres to protect the ground a bit more and they have standing foggage but even though we didn't take a cut off it until september (farmer troubles ;) ) there is far too much grass!
 

rara007

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Our quagmire! 2 of these are too lame to hold up to daily work fwiw. We have 5 living out, 2 in for days 2 in at nights and no one stood around in a bog! It’s 8 ponies over 30 acres with 6 shoes between the lot of them. When they’re not using the gates they don’t churn up either!

26814890_10159718328010648_34950107990059410_n.jpg


Feel pretty lucky to be able to give them this sort of retirement/off season break.
 

Cortez

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I said no animal wants to be out in a quagmire. If it's not a quagmire then that's great; obviously fine to be out - but I don't see the point of forcing horses out in a bog just for the sake of saying it's out: need to find a better solution. And if you are keeping horses in 24/7 that is just plain wrong: if it's stabled then it very obviously needs to be properly exercised. If you only have an hour a day to exercise the horse (or less), then you are not looking after that horse properly: need to find a better solution.
 

spookypony

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I started trialling an Equicentral system last year (a bit like your standard rotational grazing, except horses have 24/7 access to area of hard standing, where all hay and water and feed are located). Part of the reasoning is to save the fields from abuse by encouraging then to use the hard standing when they just want to hang around.

At the moment, they (2 mares, 1 gelding) have free-choice access to the hard standing (the yard, including one stable permanently open), the school, and about 2 acres of field. Hay (free choice) and water are on the yard. They bring themselves in and out, as desired.

Judging by poo distribution, they are spending about 1/2 their time on the yard, 1/4 in the school, and one presumes the rest in the field. The field entrance is a bit churned up, but the field itself is not too bad at all. Occasionally, there is one poo in the stable.

They seem pretty chilled out, and it's far less work for me. I can sort the daily chores in 20-30 minutes. Would highly recommend giving it a try if you have the facilities and the autonomy.
 

Goldenstar

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My winter field looks terrible it’s clay here and it’s been very wet .
It’s five acres and there’s two horses not working in it during the day .
I turn them out daily but if they start hanging about looking miserable at lunchtime I bring them in .
I had to open my emergency field when I bought my new horse as the winter field was simply not a safe place to turn out a strange horse .
I have the three working horses in there now they get about three hours a day, the days are short and the reality is to get them turnout and work in a day you need to get them in by lunchtime so I am hacking in the best light and when the roads are least likely to have any ice .
They get longer when they have a day off .
These wetter winters are horrible .
Things are not going to get easier for those reliant on livery .
 

SEL

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Of course when horses who have been in for days on end finally go out, they tend to be very silly and charge around messing up the fields even more - which means YO want them back in again....
 

Ahrena

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We have turnout 365 days a year. Our fields do get wet and trashed but I turnout 24/7 in the summer fields in spring (we have fields a bit further from the yard where you’re allowed to turnout 24/7) so we’re very lucky.

I would never ever go on a yard which doesn’t allow unrestricted turnout
 

Flicker

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Of course when horses who have been in for days on end finally go out, they tend to be very silly and charge around messing up the fields even more - which means YO want them back in again....

In many ways, turnout for an hour or two daily I far preferable because it ameliorates this type of situation. With a bit of turnout and exercise, most horses can be kept pretty sweet through winter. This is what our yard aims for (although on dreadfully windy and rainy days they stay in).
 

ester

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Reality, folks: in the winters we are now enduring, it is wet, miserable and sodden. NO animal wants or deserves to be out in these conditions. Either be prepared to exercise your animals properly, or stop keeping animals - but don't subject horses to quagmire conditions.

I said no animal wants to be out in a quagmire. If it's not a quagmire then that's great; obviously fine to be out - but I don't see the point of forcing horses out in a bog just for the sake of saying it's out: need to find a better solution. And if you are keeping horses in 24/7 that is just plain wrong: if it's stabled then it very obviously needs to be properly exercised. If you only have an hour a day to exercise the horse (or less), then you are not looking after that horse properly: need to find a better solution.

No you said that the reality is that it is wet, miserable and sodden, that is why people posted their photos of non-quagmires because while that may be your reality it obviously isn't for everyone across the country, mine is in Somerset, Rara's in essex, Leo is somewhere inbetween (can't say what it's like up north!).

In my formative teenage years I turned other people's horses out in much more wet muddy conditions and watched them have a good scratch together and mooch about for a bit they always seemed perfectly content and I would never deny a horse at least some free movement and interaction every day, it isn't just for the sake of saying 'it's out' and am always surprised that you consider structured exercise sufficient for their needs.
 

MotherOfChickens

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well, I'm in South Lanarkshire/Borders-its pretty wet and wetter than anywhere else I've lived. I have two unshod ponies on 8 acres-its very wet but I don't have mud per se although I do have water running off the field in parts.I have had three on the same field though and its surprising how much difference the extra one made. Its not clay but peaty gley-a charming mixture of peat and silt given to waterlogging. I'm lucky to have found a pony-friendly farmer with some hill grazing and I know he's turned down other horse owners who've wanted 5 out 24/7. I also have a barn that they come into when the weather is really bad and to give their feet a chance at drying out. The summer pasture becomes too wet by end of November to use-as does my own paddock. We have an understanding that if he says get the horses off, I get the horses off-its only happened once in 2013.

I can't ride mine much in the winter-so I make sure their needs are met wrt space, company etc. I think my ponies get a good life. I expect people will think its OK for me as I obviously have loads of money (said sarcastically), but I expect I keep two much more cheaply than one on DIY-the flip side of that is lack of facilities but its worth it to me that the ponies get what they need.
There are livery yards locally that have trash paddocks-hock deep in holding mud with a filthy round bale and miserable looking horses. I would not put a pony of mine in it so I understand where Cortez is coming from. If I couldnt keep them how I wanted to, I wouldnt keep them.
 

milliepops

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There are livery yards locally that have trash paddocks-hock deep in holding mud with a filthy round bale and miserable looking horses. I would not put a pony of mine in it so I understand where Cortez is coming from. If I couldnt keep them how I wanted to, I wouldnt keep them.

Yes, what caught my attention in Cortez's post was not an assertion that everyone was underwater but that those who were should consider the horses quality of life...

2 of mine are on restricted day time (4 or 5 hours) turnout,we are on clay, the fields are tiny and lack of maintenance means we have a healthy crop of moss and no grass. They always want to go out though, but are happy to return to haynets when I arrive in the afternoon.

The retired pair are 10 miles away on a big area of foggage and happy as larry. On the opposite hill to them, about 30 horses are on a similar space up to their knees in bog. not a blade of grass to be seen, and they all crowd around big bales fighting over the hay :( it's grim.
 

Embo

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In the South East; yes, restricted or no turnout at all in the winter is normal.

No, it's not ideal, but this is just the reality many of us face in order to keep horses.

The livery yard I'm on provides 24/7 turnout in the summer months. The big field is opened April/May (weather dependant) and then closes October/November (again, according to weather). We have a small indoor school which the horses are turned out into in small groups for an hour or so, daily. This gives them the opportunity to socialise and have a buck and a play. Occasionally, they do get turned out into the top "trash" field, but not often, as they do try to save it as much as they can.

My own horse is then exercised daily, a mixture of schooling, hacking, and lunging. He gets ad-lib hay, with a bit of haylage for variety, and a token feed of chaff & balancer. As far as I can tell, he is quite happy in himself and his work.

Of course I'd love it if I could turn him out in the winter, but finding a yard in this area that offers winter turnout is rare. The yards that do have it are generally too far away and sadly I'm not in a position to keep my horse further afield.
 
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