Normalizing restricted turnnout ?

SO1

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 January 2008
Messages
6,685
Visit site
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.
 

Tiddlypom

Carries on creakily
Joined
17 July 2013
Messages
22,235
Location
In between the Midlands and the North
Visit site
I posted this upthread

Thankfully, same here. I am bringing all mine in at night for a kip, though, whereas normally they are out.

They will save up their charging about til after the last frost has left the ground, then they’ll have a mad half hour with bucks, farts and snorts :rolleyes:. Up til then, they will mince around carefully.
And this is part of the field this lunchtime, as they clearly decided that the ground was thawed out enough for their regulation post freeze gad about. The one with the wonky pelvis is doing her best to look innocent. They seem to all still be in one piece, they were just being horses...

1F87B123-BBF5-4183-94A0-BC6286A9A5A9.jpeg
 

Michen

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 January 2014
Messages
10,910
Visit site
Well I was mighty glad to have them out in the field today! They were hacked beforehand to get the sting out so that they didn't go too nuts (which they didn't, just ambled to the grass).

The hack was... interesting... Boggle was appalling and even Bear's halo slipped after an encounter with the keeper's quad bike :D
 
Top