SO1
Well-Known Member
We have all year daily turnout out lots of grass even in the winter my native pony has to be muzzled most of the time but it still gets muddy if there is a few days of heavy rain nothing to do with not enough grass just horses on wet land will make it get muddy even if grass is really long especially when areas of the field get a bit flooded.
The sacrifice to get daily winter turnout for 7 or 8 hours a day, is that to move the horses regularly when it gets too wet to avoid turning out on really muddy wet ground with no grass as the grass has been trodden into the mud and to prevent finer breed horses who don't have feather from mud fever is that a lot of land has to be rested during the summer months, so our turnout during the summer is 7am to 2.30/3pm the same as it is during the winter. He is also on part livery so I don't have to fit catch in times around work but would not really work for people on DIY who work normal hours.
The winters seem to be becoming wetter which is worse than cold and dry as once everything becomes water logged it takes ages to dry up even if the ground drains quite well.
When I used to be on grass livery on a different yard only native ponies and cobs could live out and YO allocated two acres per horse to be able to keep them out over winter and two fields were rested over summer, they got hay if it snowed or the weather was really bad. Sadly they was a case of atypical myopathy and so I moved to from grass livery to part livery stabled at night current yard about 6 years ago as I didn't want to take the risk of being in a field with sycamore even though there had been no troubles for the 6 years I was there until the last year when one horse died. Despite the extra costs I do find part livery better as it is a bit easier to manage his weight and easier for me with work too.
The sacrifice to get daily winter turnout for 7 or 8 hours a day, is that to move the horses regularly when it gets too wet to avoid turning out on really muddy wet ground with no grass as the grass has been trodden into the mud and to prevent finer breed horses who don't have feather from mud fever is that a lot of land has to be rested during the summer months, so our turnout during the summer is 7am to 2.30/3pm the same as it is during the winter. He is also on part livery so I don't have to fit catch in times around work but would not really work for people on DIY who work normal hours.
The winters seem to be becoming wetter which is worse than cold and dry as once everything becomes water logged it takes ages to dry up even if the ground drains quite well.
When I used to be on grass livery on a different yard only native ponies and cobs could live out and YO allocated two acres per horse to be able to keep them out over winter and two fields were rested over summer, they got hay if it snowed or the weather was really bad. Sadly they was a case of atypical myopathy and so I moved to from grass livery to part livery stabled at night current yard about 6 years ago as I didn't want to take the risk of being in a field with sycamore even though there had been no troubles for the 6 years I was there until the last year when one horse died. Despite the extra costs I do find part livery better as it is a bit easier to manage his weight and easier for me with work too.