No facilities to restrict movement?

If you keep horses and have no stable access how do you cope if box rest is required?

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Wagtail

Wagtail

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It has struck me, how many people keep their horses on grass livery or in a rented field, or even at home with no access to a stable. How do people in these situations cope if their horse has to go on box rest?
 
Unless it is absolutely essential, I would rather use a small electric fenced paddock than a stable for 'box' rest. I think a lot of horses are generally much happier outside.
 
I'm probably going to have to run and hide after posting this :rolleyes:

I think its irresponsible to keep horses at grass if you dont have access to somewhere indoors in an emergency.

Yes I suppose you could electric fence small patches if you wanted to treat a tendon or ligament injury. Assuming you moved it every day I suppose the mud could be kept at bay. But what about shelter for the horse, it wouldn't be able to get under hedges or trees.

Worse still what it it was colic, cant imagine the vet being happy to treat one in the middle of a field in a blizzard or something. Then there is the lack of light if something happens in the dark. And then there are other things, mine has an abcess at the moment, wouldn't want her out in all weathers on a mud patch.

I'm guessing those who do have problems end up having to move them to a livery yard during treatment. OK if its not a real emergency I guess.
 
LynH said:
My field shelter can easily be converted to stables if needed for an emergency.
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Thats what I would have. Elec fence is not enough if its snowing of raining hard like last week.. Every horse living out should have a decent field shelter or emergency stable access. I agree that horses are better box resting au naturel if poss, there will always be times when you need a stable..
 
Big grass livery place near me has a few stables for emergency, & enough land & natural shelter that they never need to come in cos of weather or wet fields. No electric though, so I know when someone had a bogof mare on there that foaled at night they ended up messing about with a light on a car battery.
 
I guess that if a field had decent hedging, one could move the enclosure along.

I must admit that we have moved to yards with stables after been on grass livery as we just like having the option. I think we would have probably stayed on grass livery if there had been decent shelters that could be converted if necessary.

Where our neds are now we had two on grass livery. Two big stables for the mares (in work), and the two retired didn't have stables, but could use the mares' if needed. Didn't like it though. Just sometimes I like them all to be in at once, be it because of the rain or mud or sun and flies. Now we pay for stables even though two of them are used once in a blue moon.
 
I have stables available. However when we tried to box rest CM, she tried to kick the stables down on day three and it was decided (with the Vet) that field rest would be better than sedating her constantly.
 
My horse was box rested in a stable, but was turned out in a small paddock every day through the winter (in snow etc) But the paddock was centred on where our old field shelter was so mercifully was mainly concrete with woodchips on the rest, adlib hay all day (avoiding him getting obese was an issue!). The paddock was sheltered on one side by a thick hedge.

I would happily use that again and not stable at all. But I did have another horse in a larger companion paddock adjacent for company, which worked well as he is a veteran and wintered very well on adlib hay :)
 
MrsMozart said:
I guess that if a field had decent hedging, one could move the enclosure along.

I must admit that we have moved to yards with stables after been on grass livery as we just like having the option. I think we would have probably stayed on grass livery if there had been decent shelters that could be converted if necessary.

Where our neds are now we had two on grass livery. Two big stables for the mares (in work), and the two retired didn't have stables, but could use the mares' if needed. Didn't like it though. Just sometimes I like them all to be in at once, be it because of the rain or mud or sun and flies. Now we pay for stables even though two of them are used once in a blue moon.
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We did that once - we got rushed into taking some DIYs when the pony stables weren't done. We ended up with ponies in at night, horses during the day (all fatties and ponies were sweet itchers). I had a few occassions where I had to stand the ponies in the trailer on really bad days to dry them out and stop them shivering!
 
I guess that most grass livery yards would have a spare stable or two, though it would be tempting to fill the if the demand was there. If I kept mine out 24/7 I would probably opt for a field shelter that could be quickly converted for emergencies.
 
rockysmum said:
I think its irresponsible to keep horses at grass if you dont have access to somewhere indoors in an emergency.
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Really?
Is it also irresponsible of people to keep horses and not have transport so in an emergency if they need to rush horse to the vets they can't.....?
 
Super_Kat said:
Really?
Is it also irresponsible of people to keep horses and not have transport so in an emergency if they need to rush horse to the vets they can't.....?
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You should have at least a local transporters emergency number...

I have a trailer, but also the transporters number, and I make sure I keep in contact socially with him (known him for years)
 
In answer to the transport question - yes. Or at least have plans in place if you need it.

And to those who have sent pm's I am sure you can quote examples of when keeping outside has worked. I didn't say it could not. However I bet there are plenty of people who could tell the other side of the story
 
i wanted multichoice - i'd first choose the electric fence option. I even know of horses who have recovered from hoof absesses when they have been out instead of stabled.
I do know of who and where i could get stables in an emergency and transport.
 
I do worry about this sometimes as my youngster is on grass livery and is my first horse to go on grass livery. I'm fortunate in that there are a number of livery yards around and there'll always be a stable free somewhere, and I do have access to transport via a phone-call. We do also have a sectioned off part of the field where we bring the horses in to groom/have their feet done and any sicknotes can get put in there. We have a field shelter too but its currently occupied by goats, once they're out then that can be used as a stable (though ours will be built by the end of summer hopefully).
 
I always had a back up plan when I did grass livery. In one place I bought a shelter and fenced it off.

A number of vets will accomodate horses needing box rest...mine did and were surprisingly reasonable.
 
I even know of horses who have recovered from hoof absesses when they have been out instead of stabled.
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This made me LOL. :D

If the ground is dry, you can do poutices that will stay on and have good gaffer tape that doesn't ware through in 5 mins (that blue tape was brill) - why shouldn't the horse be out?

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Any of the above really. I have access to stables where I am but I know full well that he would rather be out if at all possible he also has a massive field shelter that could have a little area in front if needed so he could be in or out but not run round like a loon.
 
I've been in situations where the "livery" was just a field - and nothing else not even a field shelter. Thankfully I never had to box-rest my horse when I was there; but it was attached to a farm so hopefully it would have been possible to have put him somewhere, but it wouldn't have been easy.

Several people have elected that they would fence off an area with electric fencing; which is a good idea, BUT no good if you have for e.g. a situation where the horse has to have its foot/leg or whatever bandaged and/or poulticed and kept dry.
 
Faracat said:
This made me LOL. :D

If the ground is dry, you can do poutices that will stay on and have good gaffer tape that doesn't ware through in 5 mins (that blue tape was brill) - why shouldn't the horse be out?
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Me too :)

Ours are always turned out if they only have an abscess, stabling imho causes more problems. I have many ingenious designs involving bandaging the leg then covering in a feed sack (alfa a are good ;) ) and duct taping the life out of it. Of course I make sure its firm, but not restrictive etc :)

Poultice boots just do not work ime :)
 
I agree - I always turf them out when poulticed. Duct tape is a friend in this situation!

I think they heal faster because the movement get the pus on the go and the increased blood flow can't hurt.

Plus if it's so irresponsible, someone should give dartmoor a ring, I don't think they've heard. ;)
 
:p admittedly when my horse had an absess the ground was bog and i had access to a big cattle shed so she was in there with lots of movement and very firm footing, nothing like walking on concrete to get the absess to burst ;) now it would depend on the ground as to what i would do :p
 
I have a nine acre field and a very small yard ( two small boxes and one really big one, with room to put in more) But unfortunately they are more than two miles apart :(!!
When we had a mare with a bad injury she went to a friends livery yard as they had electric (we dont) so the vet could see to stitch her!
When my big gelding had an abscess the vet kept saying he should be in a stable, or it would take twice as long to heal, my argument was that as he had never been stabled before, he wouldnt settle and it would be a great hassle all round, he wasnt best pleased to say the least, but with a lot of duck tape (orange :D ) it was sorted, with no hassle, no wound up horse and a happy me!! :)
 
Super_Kat said:
Really?
Is it also irresponsible of people to keep horses and not have transport so in an emergency if they need to rush horse to the vets they can't.....?
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Is this a serious question?

Surely anyone can see its irresponsible not to have means to get the horse to a vet if they had to. Be that via a friend or hire company, you need to have all situations covered...



The same for having a box/shelter available if need be. Yes, in an ideal world, horses could be kept outside to recover, but there will always be something that needs to be in for some reason. I'd gladly put a horse out in a poultice and bandage, but duct tape wouldn't have stood a chance last week in all that rain and mud... Thats an example of an extreme when you would need a stable/shelter..

As for the Dartmoor comments - not sure what you're saying - that they are an example of the right thing to do? I see a lot of not very great condition horses, many of which would look better for better care when suffering... I'd say they were blimmin lucky not to lose more...
 
Oooh, I'm jealous of the orange tape - it would have matched CM very well. ;)

My farrier likes horses with abscesses out if possible.
 
I dont disagree with those who choose to treat their horses outside.

All I said was they should have access to a stable if necessary, colic is a good example.

I also didn't get the Dartmoor reference, I do hope some people on here are not setting their standards around the poor wild ponies in this country :eek: Someone will be telling me they can treat ponies better on a tether next :p
 
I am saying that horses have been out and not mollycoddled for much longer than they have been in.
I am a very laid back person - there are millions of healthy horses in this world who live more than 50yds away from a stable.
I can see times when you would need one, certain injuries etc, but then you can simply box up and take them to a stable, if you don't have one yourself. It is possible to travel with all but the most catastrophic injuries - how do you think they get to the horsepital?

I just don't think that it is right to make people feel bad for not having a stable, by calling them irresponsible. It is perfectly possible to care for a horse (which has been an outdoor animal for faaaar longer than it has been an indoor one) with just a well fenced field and a considerate owner.

For the record I have stables, grazing and transport of my own. But it has not always been this way, and I would certainly not want to make people feel bad for not having these things.

Plus obviously the dartmoor comment was tongue in cheek. I do not recommend we all release our horses into the wild.
 
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