Reduced/No Turnout

[9tails]

I'm on a yard that advertises all year turnout and 24/7 in summer. We do get 24/7 in summer but that has been pushed out from April to June so we've already lost 2 months of 24/7. Now, we're being forced to keep the horses in due to wet fields. Since 1st January, the horses have had 2 half days and 2 full days on the fields. Needless to say, they roared about ripping up the grazing when they were allowed out and we had complaints about it from the YO.

This is a purely leisure yard, there are a few teenagers who get out competing but the rest of us are middle aged fulltime workers who are on DIY livery so get up really early and finish quite late. There is no provision for assisted livery. We are not allowed to let them loose in the school and the only bit of freedom they can have is a roll in the lunge paddock. We are told that competition horses are kept in but these are not competition horses.

It's fair to say that everybody is feeling betrayed by the YO who is very unhorsey and wants the property to look nice. We feel we are an inconvenience that brings in some extra cash but we should be neither seen nor heard.

So, WWYD? Get out now and possibly out of the frying pan into a fire? Or hold fire and look REALLY hard for somewhere suitable in Summer? Put up and shut up? Is it really that bad to be kept in for so long without any glimmer of resuming normal turnout?

 

[galaxy]

If you're not in my area (and I teach people on that yard) I know a yard exactly the same!

Difficult one. The yard I know is in a area where the grazing is not good. But there does seem to be a trend of YO's wanting their fields to stay perfectly green in the winter!

 

[Sanolly]

I'd leave, every yard I know has 1 or 2 fields set aside for getting trashed in the winter, its the nature of horses that they wreck fields in the winter.
My mare would have kicked the door down by now if I left her in that long !!

 

[soloequestrian]

If you like it there, and you're not able to have a casual chat about it with the YO, then perhaps you should write a polite but firm letter, from all the liveries, explaining why you need some of the land to be set aside for winter turnout. Horses evolved to move about slowly all the time, so stabling them 24/7 is fairly damaging - to circulation, respiration, digestion, locomotory system and probably most of all to their mental health.
Mine are out 24/7 all year round, and because of that they are calm and don't trash the field although even the bits that do get churned up recover very quickly in the spring.
If you're not that keen on the yard, move. There are always yards to be found that will allow 24/7 turnout all year round, although you may have to accept lesser facilities and quite often have to do a lot of the management yourself.

 

[topclass]

Thats awful I offer all year turnout and 24/7 summer but I have set aside winter fields for this very reason we do make a small charge for that but this is paid to the contractor who after winter is finished chain harrows and rolls all the fields ready for next winter. But if you advertise all year turnout then you should do it not jsut as and when it suits you my horses have only been all winter a total of 5 days and that was down to individual livery choice and nothing to do with me. Id find a place that offers all year and means all year not as and when the YO feels like it. Let me know how you get on hun.

 

[9tails]

Not near you, Galaxy, we're on clay but it's old cow pasture so very rich. It recovers so well, but the YO wants perfect fields to ensure that the place looks great for new customers who obviously get disillusioned very quickly! It's also one of the most expensive DIY yards in the area, but we aren't getting value for money.

 

[spaniel]

Id move purely on welfare grounds.

You cannot keep a leisure horse in 24 hours a day with no access to exercise or grazing.

 

[ISHmad]

Id move purely on welfare grounds.

You cannot keep a leisure horse in 24 hours a day with no access to exercise or grazing.

^^^ This.

There are far too many YO's who want the money from liveries but don't actually want the liveries there.

 

[Ella19]

I would look to move. I would not wait until summer to look, if you want to move then winter is the time to look at yards, then you get the true picture of turnout issues like you have now. You also find out other bits and bobs you might forget to ask in summer such as does the school have floodlights? Can you use the hosepipe? are you allowed to wash off your horse? Are there restricted "visiting hours", does your horse have to be in at a certain time? do liveries bring in before dark and if so can you get assistance? Is the yard lit or are you wondering about with a headtorch on trying to avoid the huge puddles that have iced over on the yard!?

 

[9tails]

Thanks all, there are a fair number of us totally disillusioned by the state of affairs at the moment. The yard has good facilities for the most part, but other areas of the business take precedence over us. Good ideas there, Ella19.