Rant - about the importance of turnout and a poll

How many hours do you think the average country GP works every week?

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My boy is out for about 4 hours a day during the summer and then not at all during the winter unless I fancy walking him ten mins away from the yard to do it! No winter turnout doesn't bother me as he gets bad mud fever and he prefers being in, as if I leave him out too long in the winter he just stands by the gate in the mud!
 
Mine are out 24/7 and as I live on a farm I dictate how much they get. Flo will come in in the winter and get about 6 hours of turnout a day as shes in heavy work and Lottie about 12 hours, but the other 5 will be out 24/7 until the 2 mares come into work again (once the foals are weaned).
 
Mine stay out 24/7 and just use the stable as a field shelter in the winter wear rugs and have access to hay. they have no shelter in the summer but I do put rugs on when the temperature drops to single figures or its really wet and windy. I just love summer they have been rugged up nearly every night
 
my horse comes in for the morning everyday- not because he is fat (hes TB) but because he hates being out- he stands at the gate all day and whinnies at you to bring him in- he isnt bullied and there is no reason as to why he should hate being out. in winter he is out from 6.30am til 2pm- this regime,most importantly, suits solo and it suits me. if he did want to be out for longer, he would be.
my bf's horse stands in for 3 hours a day due to him being FAT. in winter i should think that i will turn him out when i turn sol out and then bf will bring him in when he gets back from work, at about 6pm.
before we bought red, whether a yard had turnout or not wouldnt have bothered me. but since we have red now, it will in future.
we are lucky because at the yard where we are now we get 24/7 turnout 365 days of the year if we want it- and its of reasonable quality.
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All of ours are out 24/7/365.
They are part of a business so sometimes do a lot of hard work, sometimes they spend the day doing nothing but graze and having fun.

They are all perfectly capable of being stabled should the need arise., althoug one suffers from RAO.

We are, in no way, scared of any of them.
 
Mine are out 24/7 during the summer with odd nights in pre competition. We keep an eye on the available grass so their weight stays steady. From October they will only be out during the day until spring.

I would be just as happy to have them in at night during the summer too, but I quite like being able to stay in bed a little longer and save money on feed and bedding.
 
my horse is currently out 24/7 and in the winter will come in at night for 3-4 months going our for about 10-12 hours a day. We have tried the month in due to ground conditions and both hated it (i have M.E so had probs with energy both his and mine!) hence why i am moving to somewhere with a guarenteed opportunity to go out every day. plus i bought my horse to be a horse. i love seeing him out in the field in his herd and his happiness and well being means a lot to me so if he's happiest in the field then thats where he'll be
 
Horses are active animals who spend most of their time in the wild moving, even if it is only a gentle walk from one patch of grass to the other. So I feel it is important for them to have plenty of exercise one way or another.

Horses in serious ridden work may get enough exercise that way, although often they can benefit from time out in the field as well. However, if you cannot ride everyday then I feel it is important to get the horse out of the stable as much as possible, whether that is grass turnout, or a combination of school turnout, horsewalker, handgrazing, loose-schooling or whatever.

When I had my horses at livery, I looked for somewhere where my horses could be turned out everyday, summer or winter. Now I have my horses at home I have them out according to weather conditions. During the summer they come in for a feed during the day and the amount of time they stay in depends on the heat and the flies. During spring and autumn they are out most of the time and just come in for a quick feed and to be ridden. In winter they are out most of the time but come in a night if the weather is really foul.

I do feel that some horses cope better than others without turnout. My old mare hates being in - she can cope with being stabled overnight but if kept in 24 hours a day (even with adlib hay and company) she gets stressed and starts to boxwalk and stops eating. Whether my young mare doesn't care whether she is in or out as long as there is food available!
 
moved H to be out 24/7 he was fine in the stable but not happy if that makes sense. Living out suits him best, he is out all year round no matter the weather
 
im sorry but i disagree with you. My horses MUST have turnout. However i am not scared of them at all (i think one putting me on a spinal board with suspected severe spinal injuries and then getting back on him 2 weeks later proves he doesnt scare me). A horse cannot behave like a normal horse without turnout. Ive currently got 5 on 24/7 turnout. An Arab, a TB, a connemara, a welsh B and a show pony, all of them enjoy being out.
The arab and the welsh B come in at night in winter as the arab needs to be kept warm because of his artheritis and the welsh B because the arab wont stable alone.

I wouldnt even concider a yard with restricted grazing in summer or one with severely limited grazing in winter.

We are on our own land with one field only. Now this field is just 4 acres and is in use all year round, but we can keep it in good condition, the ground if treated properly does not poach except for round the gate and if fertilized with calcified seaweed (you can put ponies on the ground within 3 hours of it going down) then the grazing does not die.
I would put riuned fields down to poor management not horses going out in winter, and good on the girl who put her horse out when others were in, at least her horse got to stretch its legs properly and have gallop.

As for more energy well mine are better when out. More settled energy then fized hyper energy which is nicer and you can do more with. I dont have to fight mine for concentration, and believe me when i ask my connie to shift his bum up a hill he can go faster then the 16hher we ride out with and often has less brakes at the top. He is fitter then my friends stabled horse, she rides out with me and does the same amount of work but stables her horse and it isnt as fit as mine is, mine also gets most of winter off as im away at uni and when i come back i dont have to worry about starting right at the beginning with fitness and he keeps a base level of fitness mucking round in the field.

stableing horses leads to stable vices. I have one that before he came to me was stabled 24/7, was very very stressed and he weaved and box walked very very badly. i shoved him out in the field 24/7 and he is happy now, he is not stressed and when he does have to come in (a few days last week as he had an injury) he doesnt weave or stable walk.

If the field is dangerously rutted when frozen then that is very poor management of the field. Also as far as i know the liverpool mouted police do lots more then just plod round, they do displays which mean they have to practice and that involves more then a walk or trot. they also have a small amount of turnout for thier horses, ok its not alot but they can get the horses out for at least a few hours a day.
Ive seen the police horses in edinburgh go for a damn good gallop across the meadows (not sure if it was intentional or not though as one was only a baby in training).
 
Incorrect - our big barn system with a corral and them living as herd means they don't need turnout. So that's a restricted view you have

Horses and cattle have big feet and will poach the ground. Its not poor management, areas like the water trough are going to get ankle deep in mud whether you like it or not.

Horses tend to stand in the same place and are possibly the worst animals for poaching the ground and making it rutty.

If you believe that you can stop this - the good on you, but no amount of calcified seaweed (which destroys the sea bed and severely damages the marine ecosystem) can stop the damage animals do when out over winter.

However if you have a big enough field, you are able to ignore it better than smaller paddocks!
 
I insist on turnout for mine, but their at home. We turn out 24/7 at summer and at least 8hrs/day in winter, although in a paddock for some of that. It is the equine interaction I'm most concerned about, they also get a day/2 in the field during the winter to stretch their legs and plenty of exercise. (and no, I'm not scared of mine, he is the same turned out of stabled)
 
the poll offers light work as hacking / local shows - not sure my boy would agree his agenda is light work with his hacks taking up to 4 hours and soon to attend sponsored ride at 10 miles!
 
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MagicMelon - you have the PERFECT set up - Can I and my Neds come and live with you?
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Please?
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He he, but alas we don't.... I dont have a surface to ride on which is hell! I have a paddock which is like concrete in the summer (my horse got 2 splints last year......) and a mud-bath or frozen solid in the winter! Far from ideal when trying to keep 2 horses fit! And in an ideal world Id have far more land so I could rotate paddocks more and a massive big barn which was always open both ends. We can all dream cant we......
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And she gets far, far to fat when out more than 6 hrs a day.

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Surely if the horse was turned out on a smaller / less grassed paddock then she wouldnt get fat! Horses who live out should in theory be slimmer (if the grass is right) because they get to move about all day rather than stand about in a stable. I know Im getting fat now I work in an office coz I sit on my ass all day!
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connigirl - I disagree with your comment that if a field is muddy and rutted then its down to bad maintenence. Every year we pay to have our field maintained (rolled, weed killed for broad leafed weeds, topped, limed / grass seeded if needed etc.). Yet every winter my field IS muddy. We have 5 acres with 2 ponies and 2 horses on it 24/7. They DO make it muddy! There is nothing that I can do about it at all! The mud is pretty bad around the stables / shelters / water trough. It certainly isnt about bad maintainence! It totally depends on how well drained a field is as well! Sadly we built our stables near the house which means the field slopes down towards it..... bad idea!
 
All my horses are out 24/7 and i wouldn't want it any different. I find they get more stressed when stabled (maybe its just mine lol)
They are all in work (even the 2yr old gets 'worked 5 days a week with walks round the road inhand etc)
They are all heathy and most importantly - Happy!
 
mine are out 24/7 in summer and in at night in winter
have been at place where they were in all time in winter and only went out in a menage and they were very stressed and going ballistic everytime they went out in the school.
turnout(safe turnout-no barbed wire for mine) is the first thing i look at.
 
My anglo arab and my welsh cob live out 24/7 in a 12 acre field in a mixed herd. Works very well and they are rugged when needed. The anglo is fed a lot over winter to ensure he stays warm and keeps weight on. He wont be clipped but the welsh might have her chest taken off - will have to see
 
Too much grass isn't good for them if they're fit, but mine have been fit enough for advanced level endurance (ie sub 5 hour 50 and 60 milers) while living out on sparse-moderate grass. My older guy isn't doing the bigger stuff any more but he's still fit enough to do lower-middle level endurance with 24/7 turnout. The grazing is sparse enough that it needs supplementing with hay all year round, and they have a decent sized field shelter. Having them moving round all the time keeps them fitter and increases their stamina. And the low grass value means that I can supplement with whatever extra feed they need. It also means they're not weaving themselves to death and making themselves lame which is what happens if they live in.

I'm lucky in that I've got my own field and I don't mind trashing the grass, but we rent overflow grazing as well and 24/7 turnout is a must for us.

The only thing I'd swap is the mingingness of a muddy grey hairy ayrab in winter as that's not always conducive to easy exercising.....
 
have to disagree a little.....I have managed most of my horses on very limited turnout (a couple of hours each turnout time, but maybe only every couple of days) due to space and have always managed to keep sane ponies! I always make sure that if a horse has to be in it does get exercised (obviously if on box rest it kinda defeats the object!) once if not twice a day, so if a yard had excellent facilities (indoor/outdoor school, jumps, xc course, horse walker, hacking, nice boxes etc etc...) but limited turn out compared to a place that had fab turnout but nowt else, then i'd chose the facilities. I've made sure I've had hay ad lib, normally quite little hard feed and all have been fine.
Obviously if any routine is different to what they're used to then they're not going to like it either way, current horse HATES 24 hours turnout! she tries to fetch herself in after a few hours!
so have to agree with you Reynold on that one.
 
the 3 yr old filly and semi retired mare (through injury) are out 24/7. My TB horse in work- which id consider at medium work- for 5-6days competing fortnightly at BD, hacking 2x weekly and schooling and then is taken to the gallops a few times through the year- he is fed compettion feed is out for 9-11 hours, stabled at night. Hes compeltly sane and fit.
 
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