Lack of winter turnout - any ideas?

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sarahp

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I am on a full livery yard and the horses have been in for a month now with no real prospect of change. The YO says that the fields are waterlogged and so the horses can't go out because (a) they will injure themselves on the slippery surface and (b) the fields will be destroyed and no good this summer. My farmer husband is not hugely convinced by this. There's about an acre per horse with no spare. I am getting desperate because I work abroad during the week and am dependent on the yard to exercise my horse during the week. They will school or lunge but not hack, and with schooling, lunging and horse walker but no opportunity to let off steam he is fit but out of his mind with boredom which is causing some interesting behaviour out hacking at the weekends. I'd quite like to go and see the YO with some constructive suggestions for what could be done to give my horse (and the others) at least a bit of turnout but I cannot think of any options. Can anyone suggest anything?
 
Is there any hard standing they can make into a t/o area, or can they drain and lay stone on a small area (say, the size of a 50ft round pen, ideally round so they can hoon round and round and round, in shifts if necessary :)). Lots of yards are having this problem, I have plenty of poaching even though I am hugely understocked so I can sympathise with the YO. But I also have an elderly grass livery who had to endure no t/o last winter, and lost a huge amount of weight due to the stress. You might point out that stress leads to ulcers, circulatory and other health problems?
 
Our two horses are on the driest bit of the winter field with an electric fence making a pen of about 10m x 5m. There is easy access (for me) to the hay barn and a tap for water, and a bit of shelter from an adjacent building. Still a fair bit of mud but at least it isn't mud soup, and they come in at night.
 
Move yards - the fields won't dry up for another couple of months and suspect you will not be getting any turnout until spring.

Can you turn out in the school? At least it would get the horses out of the stables for a leg stretch?
 
The problem is that the longer they are kept in with insufficient exercise the more likely they are to hoon around damaging the fields and at risk of injuring themselves, my fields are wet and in places poached and muddy but there is still a fair amount of grass so with turn out most days, if possible after exercise, they do very little other than settle down and eat. I get in fairly early so they do not get bored and start hanging around the gateways, it is a vicious circle really no turn out means fresh horses so they end up staying in and getting wound up.
I think it is short sighted of the YO to compromise the welfare of the horse and put the owners at risk just to save the fields, which will recover, a few hours turnout every other day would probably suffice and make a huge difference to how settled the horses are.
 
Unfortunately the realities of our climate mean that the winters are now unrelentingly wet. There is a culture in the UK of turning horses out, which is the accepted norm. In many other cultures this would be considered strange, and horses are kept in with no turn out whatsoever. Horses cope well with both regimes.

A stocking rate of one horse per acre will stress the land no matter what the climate, and in the winter I can imagine the state of the ground (I have 3 horses on 7 acres and I do not turn out in winter unless it is exceptionally dry - this is the way I choose to manage my horses and my land).

You will have to find a system that works for your horse and situation, perhaps cut the hard feed, turn out in an arena or pen, lunge before riding and generally up the exercise. It is my experience that horses will cope with their regime as long as energy in = energy out.
 
last winter when we had the horrendous weather i kept my 2 in. the other liveries still turned their's out but the fields were so boggy and poachy i couldnt see the benifits of turning out. they had 30mins a day out in the school to play and their feed was cut back. one was retired but he was happier in as when out he just stands by gateway wanting to come in. the other i rode everyother day. we shared our 4 acre field between 5 horses (including my 2) there was no grass, my 13yr old doesnt like walking in water and the older one didnt like bogs so what was the point in turning out? the field did recover for the summer and both were kept out 24/7. this year i just have the one horse and he is out during the day and in at night, he has moved into a drier 10 acre field between 9 horses and they all get hayed out in the field twice a day aswell. (this is why my horse has put on weight as he then gets hay when brought in for the night!- 3x hay=fatty!!) i wouldnt worry about not being able to use the fields for turnout, as above can you ask them to turn out in the school) also if they are exercising the horse in the week for you could they not adjust the work load to suit him so he is not silly for you at the weekends? even if he goes on the horsewalker for an extra hour in the evenings when they are doing stable duties?
 
Our fields are very wet, and our retired tb hates mud, He will not go in the field, no amount of tempting will get him there. He is very happy in his stable adlib hay, two feeds a day, loves a good roll on his new bed daily.Four Alpacas in next stable with grill inbetween, for company. This is the second year like this, we are not riding him yet, he is not shod either. hope this helps. Neg worm count, checked by vet when he had his yearly jab.
 
I live in an area very prone to flooding and also on clay so you can imagine how bad it can get. I set aside about a least half an acre dump loads of hestons of straw, which is about £20 a bale and make an island, and put a hay rick on it or a round bale and turn them out in two or threes. They may run round the whole bit to start with but my lot tend to stick to the island with the odd wander. There will be a mess of rotted straw and it will look untidy but get a good tractor and harrow over it and it will be fine.
I think people are going to have to come to terms with the extremes of weather. I have two barns , one with my brood mares in and one with young stock, as long as they have plenty to munch they seem pretty happy but they do have the whole barn to wander in. I think small barns are better than each horse having their own stable as long as they get on. They amuse themselves naturally wandering round.
 
Having lost a horse to a muddy field injury, I know where your YO is coming from, I moved house over the xmas period, on checking the old fields, I was so glad my horses no longer had to risk life and limb getting to the barn, it was nearly impossible to walk without slipping, my initial reaction was to say graze your horse inhand each day, but that's not possible for you, if there is an arena, I would hire it for a couple of hours giving your horse time out of his stable. good luck, no easy solution to this problem
 
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