No turnout horse very unhappy

Mine are turned out in the outdoor aw school or the indoor sand school, depending on which school the yos are turned out in, so no need to pay anyone to hand walk, and i only start work at 2pm so have all morning to hand walk if i wanted to, or ride, or lunge, i was just thinking of those who are not that lucky. So what would you do if your horse had an injury or the liveries horse and the vet said it needed to be lunged for 2 weeks before ridden exercise........ I take it you dont even jump in your school then in case the take off or landing gets a bit upturned.

Thats why i dont buy expensive clothes, it would pain me to wear it and it got damaged, applying a bit of logic here, i think!!
 
Goldenstar said:
Cut out all hard food .
Feed hay only and soak it if necessary .
Don't get stressed its silly and does not help never stress over what you can't change .
Things to try
A stable mirror
A turnip to chew on
A radio
You can give different low energy fibre sources things like oat straw chop , low calorie alfalfa / straw bloks or Timothy hay bloks ( can get them online from halleys ) I am using these ATM as we have resticted turnout .
Look at this as a exercise in teaching the horse to accept this life style many horses at some point in their lives must accept box rest look at this as a exercise in making that easier if it should ever happen.
Having horses with no turnout but exercised is hard work for the owner but it's mid Feb it won't be for long.
Exercising twice a day and leading out in hand regularily ( even its just round the yard ) will help.
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good reply and all valuable advice, I would even just try and hand graze him somewhere if you can, he just needs to be out of his box as much you can manage, tie him outside whilst you do jobs, ask someone to walk him round, graze him whilst you do jobs and share the favour. And as others have said, just a five minute stretch and roll for them in the menage will help a little so try again with YO. It must be really really hard and I sympathise. Usually mine would much rather be out but they are standing by the gate most of the time now as I insist they go out (in at night, out during day) - they absolutely want to be in their stables. It will get better soon and hopefully within the month.
 
putasocinit said:
Mine are turned out in the outdoor aw school or the indoor sand school, depending on which school the yos are turned out in, so no need to pay anyone to hand walk, and i only start work at 2pm so have all morning to hand walk if i wanted to, or ride, or lunge, i was just thinking of those who are not that lucky. So what would you do if your horse had an injury or the liveries horse and the vet said it needed to be lunged for 2 weeks before ridden exercise........ I take it you dont even jump in your school then in case the take off or landing gets a bit upturned.

Thats why i dont buy expensive clothes, it would pain me to wear it and it got damaged, applying a bit of logic here, i think!!
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as a one off or course i would allow controlled lunging for rehab...... as a regular winter theme of loose horses charging around like idiots-no effing way!

i should clarify i do allow controlled lunging anyway, but not lunging to let off steam ie spinning round in demented circles, and no loose schooling at all unless it was for medical reasons (but cant actually think of one).

im all for buy it/use it but would not allow people to destroy thouands of pounds of work for the sake of people getting on top and working in a controlled manner.
 
putasocinit said:
I take it you dont even jump in your school then in case the take off or landing gets a bit upturned.
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Lol we used to showjump so a slight moot point.

FTR, Fig and livery pony jump and all of them do pole work. They just don't go hooning round, creating dips and ruts and generally trashing the surface.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
not really seeing your point? i dont allow riderless horses full stop so no riderless horse is going to go tear arsing round trashing the surface?
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I don't know if I'm going mental or not, but I'm pretty sure you've posted pics of your horses loose in the school before, and getting up to various antics?
 
stencilface said:
I don't know if I'm going mental or not, but I'm pretty sure you've posted pics of your horses loose in the school before, and getting up to various antics?
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There will of course be a difference between turning a horse out loose for ten minutes after being worked hard/turned out regularly, and turning out a horse who has been stabled for extended periods of time and is as fresh as unicorn shyte.
 
stencilface said:
I don't know if I'm going mental or not, but I'm pretty sure you've posted pics of your horses loose in the school before, and getting up to various antics?
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Yep and we haven't attempted it again since (for that very reason)!!!!

Made a right mess of the school and Fig had fat legs the next day.

Not to mention Bruce nearly jumped out!
 
To be fair - there isn't really a solution is there?

Arenas are expensive, they are inevitably more expensive to the person who has paid thousands of pounds to have them installed, and less expensive to the person who pays their livery bill and expects to use them.

If you have a yard of 20 horses and one arena, you are not going to get away with allowing arena turn out without causing a fair bit of damage, and at the least you are not going to be able to ride AND turn out in it, so I suppose the logical thing for the YO is to decide one or the other, and usually you have more control of the horse if you are sat on it doing something constructive rather than yelling at it spinning about in small circles.
 
nikkimariet said:
Yep and we haven't attempted it again since (for that very reason)!!!!

Made a right mess of the school and Fig had fat legs the next day.

Not to mention Bruce nearly jumped out!
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So at least I wasn't going nuts!

I think in some replies in that case you are both a little unfair, you've tried it and not liked the results and it didn't work for you so to come across as if free schooling is a stupid, idiotic idea is a bit harsh. If my horse was stuck in for a week and I let him 'rip' in an arena, the most you'd get is one lap and a few bucks :rolleyes3: So I think for most hacking types, providing they're not fed up to the eyeballs a leg stretch in an arena is more than reasonable. Yes, highly fit, strung up competition horses might go into orbit, but the vast majority of horses kept in this country are not of that variety. :)

And at least if the horse is at liberty it won't wear a trench on the outside of the arena like people do when they 'school' their horses.
 
RTE has a good point, four horses use my school .
And I manage it's care it cost a lot of money and we supervise the horses if they are loose and any digging and we stop them .
Would I want say twenty horses a day in the school playing and digging holes unsupervised by the person who had part with the cash to build it , no I don't think I would .
 
Why don't you just ride your horses if turn out is not available? If I was lucky enough to have a school that cost me £30,00, I would also be very precious about it! My horse has had no turnout since christmas as we want the fields to be usable in the spring when they want to be out. It is winter, and an exceptional one at that, even the sheep are making a mess, let alone 3 horses charging about. Leading out in hand is to me one of the most dangerous occupations you can do. Put a saddle on and RIDE them, that when all said and done is why you have them.
 
I feel for you OP. It's just another example of a greedy yard owner - too many horses and not enough land. When did it become acceptable for horses to have no 'free-time'? Horse walkers, lungeing, ridden/in hand work cannot replace freedom in the field - my paddocks would have to be literally under a foot of water to prevent me from turning out. My advice - put the word out that you're looking for a new yard with enough land for all year turnout and not a postage stamp sized paddock.
 
We would have to know how much the YOer is charging to assess if they are greedy knowing how much it costs for me maintain my own yard I am shocked how cheap most livery is.
 
There is no way I could keep mine locked up like this. I would be looking for a new yard or field. Limited turnout out or every other day in is acceptable but not everyday, especially for a young horse that is obviously not happy being kept like this.
 
justabob said:
Has it not occured to you that this is extreme weather?
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It doesnt sounds like OP's yard is flooded so obviously isnt in one of those affected places which of course would change things (and is extreme in those places). We had a horrendous winter 2 winters ago where we had deep snow solidly for 3 months with down to -19 degrees, that was pretty extreme for us - yet my horses still lived out 24/7...
 
MagicMelon said:
I'd move yards. Dont see what else you can do if the YO demands the horses stay in. I personally could never put up with that. Horses need daily turnout at least (even if that is a bog).
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No they don't, owners want/need daily turnout. It is unexceptable to expect to be able to have turnout in these conditions. It is only for a few weeks until all these storms stop. Horses will come to no harm and if you ride them and give them some work, they don't need turn out.
 
I've been on my livery yard (21 boxes) ten years and we've always been able to let the horses have a roll and a run in the school if the fields aren't usable, and have been able to on other yards in the past. The only damage in those ten years has been due to us always lungeing in the same place. Next to go would logically be the outer riding track or the landing spot where jumps tend to get set up across from E and B. IME loose horses moving around randomly doesn't do any harm, as I would expect of a decent horse arena getting use, but you do need someone to keep an eye out to make sure they don't dig holes.
 
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justabob said:
No they don't, owners want/need daily turnout. It is unexceptable to expect to be able to have turnout in these conditions. It is only for a few weeks until all these storms stop. Horses will come to no harm and if you ride them and give them some work, they don't need turn out.
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Incorrect. The OP has stated he was "absolutely horrid". I could go on but quite honestly you're boring me.
 
By not allowing t/o the YO may also lose financially if forage is included - more stabling, more forage required.....

I am so glad I don't do livery anymore as would be tearing my hair out....

And for those that say y/o's are greedy, you try runnning a yard and keeping every livery happy - from experience it just isn't possible!
 
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MagicMelon said:
It doesnt sounds like OP's yard is flooded so obviously isnt in one of those affected places which of course would change things (and is extreme in those places). We had a horrendous winter 2 winters ago where we had deep snow solidly for 3 months with down to -19 degrees, that was pretty extreme for us - yet my horses still lived out 24/7...
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Snow is not a problem, wet and windy is far worse. It also depends on the breed of horse, my TB will be happy to be turned out in the conditions you had 2 winters ago for an hour or 2. He does not want to go out in this weather we are having this winter.
 
blazingsaddles said:
But I'm still managing to turn out... Hmmm.....
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I'm not sure it's simply a case of 'still managing to turn out... Hmmm...' More a case of you're happy to (whatever your conditions might be).

Whilst I'd not be happy with being told I couldn't turnout - given the current weather conditions there are any number of reasons why that might be the case.

I'm not sure there's any reason for smugness under the circumstances.
 
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