Livery and individual grazing paddocks

I thought about this this morning whilst walking dog in freezing cold. There are some fields close to my house that contain a lot of horses, a group had got one cornered and were kicking the s*** out of it. So glad my lovely boy was in his nice large stable!
 
That’s not good obviously and you need to do some work to find out about compatibility but it’s still essential to have company I think. There’s always an exception to the rule with certain horses, I know that too.
 
Slightlyconfused said:
Not necessarily. Ours offers turnout in groups, pairs or individual.

I have my two together, spotty could go in with a group if we lose the big one.
The big one however is an arse to other horses, charges them around the feild and then will block the owners of those he considers "His" from taking them out the field. Which is why I have my two together. So he would have to be on his own if we lost spotty.

Sometimes it for the horse as well.
I wouldn't chose it just because but there is a need for it in circumstances.
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Ours are at home and we had to separate 2 of them because they fought, which meant rather than a group of 4, they were kept in pairs. I did not say that horses should never be on individual turnout but that I would never take my horse to a livery yard with *only* individual turnout.
 
I suppose it also depends on the setup of the yard?

Our yard is a mix of part, DIY and full livery. I’d imagine it makes it awkward if you’re putting a DIY livery out with a full livery, because then who does the poo picking? Its different if 2 DIY owners make an agreement to put horses out together and share the poo picking.

Henry was out with 2 others in the summer when they needed to graze down the jumping field, but he’s been out on his own since about September (except when he decided to rearrange everyone’s fencing ??) Previous yard he was usually out with another horse, but sometimes by himself. Luckily he doesn’t seem to mind much either way. Last horse wasn’t much of a fan of other horses unless she’d “picked” them, and could be quite handy with her back legs, so she went out alone most of the time.
 
For me, happy horses have room to run and play with their friends. I love seeing mine get a bit of speed up when they get the zoomies.
I do appreciate it terrifies some owners though.
We have always had herd turnout where i am and its a lovely sight seeing the geldings herd come thundering up the fields.
I think it keeps them all a lot fitter and sounder. Very rarely seen any laminitis over the years and all are living to ripe old ages.
i know there is the odd very antisocial horse that doesnt do well with others but i’d say the vast majority benefit.
 
Threads like this make me appreciate my livery situation a whole lot more...! All horses are out in small herds all year round, turnover of liveries is very low, the groups stay the same unless there's an issue. It's very rare to have a kick injury as the groups are quite stable and managed in a sensible way - i.e not putting two super dominant horses together etc. The fields are big enough they can get away from each other if they like.


There's plenty of things I'd like to change about the yard, but mercifully the turn out situation is excellent - which is the most important thing to me, and to my horses themselves I would imagine!
 
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