Restricted turnout

[TicTac]

I am very lucky enough to livery my two horses at a private yard where they can stay out 24/7 365 if I choose. At the moment they go out at 6am and come in at 5pm. They are happy.

How do you people who have restricted turnout cope? I personally would never consider keeping my horses at at place that enforced this. If your horse is in full or competition work then that is understandable but Livery yards should not take on horses if they cannot provide this basic need.

It is a well known fact that horses do trash fields. But I have seen what looks like a hopeless mud patch recover in the summer with a bit of TLC. I am sure that many behavioural problems stem from horses being cooped up for too long.

Yes there are always going to be the exceptions, and my horses are always pleased to come in on a winters day especially after a day like monday. But I feel that yards that offer stabling and grazing should provide that, even if it means sacrificing a field or 2 for winter turnout.

 

[angiebaby]

I agree, trouble is a lot of people don't manage their land properly.
For instance; I have a friend who has three horses on 2 acres, all good-doers. Instead of restricting them over spring summer ( they are all overweight) she uses all of her land. Hence there is nothing for winter. Her fields are trashed already, and has to feed hay in the field as well as when they are in!
False economy.
I have three as well, and use less than an acre in the spring/ summer as they are strip grazed. They now have two acres for the rest of winter ( although only on one acre now)

 

[katie_southwest]

Our yard all horses are out 24/7 365 if we wish. I dont think I could be on a yard that doesnt allow this, mainly because my working hours dont allow me to be at the yard at certain times each day, and my mare has never lived in so would like to keep it that way

 

[gummybear]

Sensible yard owners would really help! We have plenty of land and use some for the summer and some for the winter. Unfortuntely our YO have just bought 4 extra horses - put them on our winter grazing, which has stuffed us up! They said it is their yard, it is up to them where they put their horses, which I think is totally unfair because we pay for turnout and have restricted grazing in the winter (1 day in, 1 day out), but now there is hardly any grass in our winter paddocks!!! Needless to say I am looking for another yard!

 

[JM07]

i have 14 youngsters on 4 1/4 acres over winter.

the paddocks are "stripped" x 5.. with 3 in 1 section each, 3 in another section and 2 in another....

the 6 colts have 3/4 acre paddock.

they all come into the barn at night with ad-lib hay

over the winter, the above only covers 1.75acres..yes it gets muddy but its recovers...

i also have 10 out in a 15 acre field out the back out 24/7..its also our hay field..it also get wet and boggy at times but is used all year round as well

it can be done if managed properly

 

[SilverSkye]

We have plenty of land and it is well managed ( no more than 3 in a field) but are on clay land so doesnt recover well. Horses come in over night from bonfire night through till beggining of april, and periodically we keep in for a few days ( although have a small trash paddock so horses can go out for an hour) I reckon through the winter in total our horses probably have to stay in in the days for no more than 10 days in total.
If we were allowed no turn out for weeks on end i would move yards.

 

[TGM]

Thankfully I have my own land now and can manage it as I want, which means they are out most of the time, but I will bring them in overnight when the weather is very wet as I find it helps to stop damaging the field too much.

It did used to find it strange when I was at livery yards that they would restrict turnout in the winter to save the grass, but then restrict turnout again in the spring because 'there was too much grass'!

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

I'm not sure what the point of this post is? Are you genuinelly asking how people at yards with restricted turnout cope... or is it just a post to insinuate that anyone WITH restricted turnout is not caring for their horse adequately and the YO is implementing bad ground management?

My yard has restricted/no winter turnout. I am happy to describe how we manage it but I'm not convinced that this is really the point of your post.

 

[jumpthemoon]

Ours have been in for 3 days this week

We struggle a bit tbh as although there is quite a lot of land the horses all have to be split up. YO's two are on individual TO, 3 liveries TO together, mine is on individual TO and my mare and YO's mare go out together. That means that we have to use all of the fields pretty much. There is a new one coming this weekend as well that I'm guessing will have to go on I-TO too. Tbh if the fields were bigger it wouldn't be such a problem, but when they are 1/2 acre each the horses tend to fight a bit.

 

[Stoxx]

I'm used to no turnout during the winter at all. The horses that are brought out of their stables twice a day for a leg stretch and riding cope fine. It's generally the lazy buggers who can't be bothered to ride that moan the most. The fields were always brilliant for the summer and those that wanted to turnout 24/7 could because there was adequate grazing.
However this wasn't going to work for me now that I am restricted in the amount I can ride so I've moved my horse to a yard with all year turnout. We have some paddocks that can be rotated should the ground get too wet. This does not mean my horse will be out from 8-4 sloshing around in mud, pulling shoes off and generally getting bored and cold all winter. It means he can go out for a couple of hours to have a leg stretch in the morning and can come into lunch and a nice haynet.
Sorry but my horse does not want to be out in all weathers just because horses are 'supposed to be out'.

 

[Baileysno1]

Ours our out for half a day everyday unless its very wet then they're in, my horse is ridden daily and thrives off this routine, the 4 hours turnout allow him to do his thing but then he comes in for an afternoon net of haylege and is dry for when I arrive to ride after work, last year we did alternate days and I arrived a 5pm to some very wet bored hungry muddy neds so desperate to come in it was dangerous handling them.

As someone has already pointed out its usually the ones who don't ride that have such a bug bear about turnout.

 

[T_K]

I've moved from a yard where the turnout was restricted through the winter - it's not something I'm willing to put my horses through. I was also at a yard where the horses could only go out between 9am and 4pm so I moved from there too. I'm happy to say that I keep the 3 I have now out 24/7 and we manage the land ourselves.

 

[Damnation]

I have a mare on restricted grazing but it hasn't been enforced yet due to the yards lack of hayledge to cope with horses being in. Its not too bad because they are only in 3 days a week. Monday Wednesday and Saturday. I wouldn't move yards though because the facilites are amazing and there are alot of nice, experienced and helpeful people at the yard.
However from May to November there is no restriction. At the moment we are asked to bring our horses in at night to try and save the fields a bit. We can turn out everyday though. Don't know how long this will last though. But the yard can't put restricted turnout into force unless it has enough hayledge. Personally I hope we don't have to restrict turnout..

Izzi

 

[KeyHold]

Ive had no turnout before now and it was a nightmare. Just the time to get down to the yard and sort them out was a pain to find. i felt i needed to ride alot more too. now i have 24/7/365 turnout and it makes life so much nicer for me AND the horses.

 

[BID]

I have no turnout from November to the end of March as our fields are so waterlogged you cannot see a blade of grass but my boys get the run of the yard and sand school with their stable doors left open so they can go in and out as they please, they do not seem to have a problem with this set up as they have ad lib hay and a nice 20 x 60m school to stretch their legs in.

 

[charlyan]

[ QUOTE ]
As someone has already pointed out its usually the ones who don't ride that have such a bug bear about turnout.

[/ QUOTE ]

To throw a spanner in the works on that one- what if you are on a yard that only offers a hardstanding turnout area from October to May (plus stabling) but no exercise area, e.g indoor/ outdoor school and you live in an area where sunrise is no earlier than 7.30am and sets no later than 4pm through the winter. This is the only place that offers livery in the area.

The only opportunity to ride is the weekend for people working fulltime. It is not just a case of "those who don't ride" that have a problem with limited turnout.

Sometimes circumstances can dictate a less than ideal situation so I don't think it's fair to say that only those who who are too lazy (another poster) to ride that have issues with this.

Not having a go, just another opinion!!

 

[Ziggy_]

I'm going to answer your original question although I do feel inclined to agree with SouthWestWhippet that this wasn't the point of your post. I worked at a dealers yard with no winter turnout.

All the horses were excercised for about 45 minutes daily and most coped fine. They were groomed during the day and chucked a few slices of hay intermittently (sp?) which more or less kept them occupied.

A few of the bigger horses (particularly the warmbloods I found) were pretty much unrideable (lots of bucking/pissing off etc) so we would work them in different ways on alternate days if that makes sense.... like a 2 hour hack one day with loads of hills and when they were knackered from that a good hard half hour schooling session the next day, all in trot and canter. If they were really tricky they would be lunged/free lunged in the morning to let off steam and worked properly in the afternoon. One particular monster would be worked with a rider and two people hanging on to a lunge line to keep her under control (guess which one I ended up buying LOL!!!)

We had one winter field and the horses would be turned out in pairs once or twice a week for an hour or so for a good hooley, particularly on Fridays as people would be coming to try them over the weekend.

Incidentally all the horses on this yard were fed a lot of cereal but even then most contained themselves most of the time. We found if we kept their routine varied with lots of hacking and a bit of jumping they were less inclined to play up when ridden although you did have to prepare for a buck or two when their feet first hit the bridleway. We only had two horses that weaved on a yard of twenty with a high turnover, and even in those two it was obviously an ingrained habit.

Of course they were all much happier over the summer when they were living out but we managed. They were doubtless have been much better off on a more sensible feeding regime but with plenty of work it is possible to keep a horse stabled 24/7.

And in a strange sort of way it worked.... this dealers was a cr*p hole, all of the horses there had 'issues' shall we say, but when people bought them and took them to a yard with turnout they would all breathe a huge sigh of relief and behave immpeccably for their new owners. Cue lots of happy purchasers

 

[Faro]

I couldn't cope at all with no turnout or restricted turnout for several reasons.

Firstly, if I simply had to ride/lunge my horse every single day just to ensure that it had adequate exercise, that is when horses would become not a pleasure to me any more but a chore. As it is, I ride most days anyway, but the rebellious streak in me won't accept somebody/something telling me I "must" ride.

Also, I work full time and rarely get out of the office on time and quite often don't get to the horses til 8, 8.30 or even 9pm. And some days when the work comes in fast and furious I just can't predict what time I'm going to get away - so I can't arrange for services because they would all require booking in advance (and I can't really afford to book in advance "just in case" when I might not need the service after all).

However, I am lucky enough to rent some land on which my 5 live out 24/7/365, which is achievable with sensible land rotation (I do have two stables also, but rarely use them). Yes, the horses are healthy and happy living like this, (in fact 4 out of the 5 of them have never known anything different!) but so am I - because realistically, with my working hours I couldn't keep them any other way.

And also, if there is a day when I don't fancy riding (and yes, there is the occasional day when I do feel too lazy to ride), or if I'm too late out of work to ride, I needn't worry, because my gang have all had adequate exercise in the field. And for the same reason, I have found that I don't have to work mine every day - if I give any of them a day/week/fortnight off work, then none of them go loopy when they're next ridden. We literally can just pick up where we left off last time.

So those are my own reasons for why I couldn't/wouldn't put up with limited or restricted turnout, but I fully understand that everyone's personal circumstances are different.

 

[3Beasties]

I keep my two at home which is great but unfortunately we only have a 1 1/2 acre field which is on Clay. During winter it gets very very Poached, almost 2ft (deep) of mud along the fence.

I usually keep the horse in at night and out in the day, but by 3pm they always seem to be stood in the mud waiting to come in, as I don't get home from work till after 8.30pm it means they are standing around for long periods of time which can't be great for their little leggies!

This winter I have decided to do things differently. If the field is to wet I will keep them in for the day (but they may go out for 1/2 hr morn and night whilst I muck out etc), and they will stay in until it drys up. This I am hoping will stop the field getting to the state it usually gets in.

Due to recent weather they have been in all this week and seem to be coping fine. They are in with ad lib haylage and are exercise daily.

That's how I'm coping, not ideal but not the end of the world either!

Around Christmas time I get the use of a 4 acre orchard which is just over the road from us so they will go back to in at night out in the day.

I don't think I would go to a yard that offered no winter turnout at all but wouldn't be to put of by one that offered restricted turnout ie. one day in, one day out.

 

[LankyDoodle]

I agree with you Tictac, and that's why we are probably moving.

When we went to look at the yard 10 weeks ago, we were told we could turnout year round whatever the weather, as they have good drainage (true about the good drainage). Why, then, have my horses spent 6 of the last 21 days in their stables?

Pithed off doesn't even come close - my horses, particularly George, NEED regular, daily turnout. I know that the groudn will recover in summer as I've been doing this for a long time and know how to manage my field to help it recover. It might help if they'd given us a slightly bigger field.

I wonder if he changed his mind when he realised how much more a 17.3hh and 15hh churn up a paddock than 3 horses under 15hh. In any case, when our house is sorted and we know where our money stands, we're going to sort out his mum's land ad have our own yard. Will be cr$p hacking out onto main road for 100 yards until better hacking, but worth it to have everything we want from a yard.

 

[LankyDoodle]

What makes matters worse is they have just taken in 11 ponies from a friend for the winter (was only meant to be 4), and they have the run of 3 fields about 20 times the size of our paddock. They are out 24/7 and will not come in even if we have a tropical storm. So why not allow us a little bit more of a field and not restrict us so much. One of my biggest bug bears is horses being in 24 hours a day.

 

[tabithakat64]

I like and currently have unresricted turnout. At the very least I would want all day or all night turnout 365 days a year, this is because I cannot ride every day due to work and my health. It wouldn't be appropriate for either my life style or my horses well being considering my limited riding time to be at a yard with very restricted or no turnout.

 

[OWLIE185]

Provided the horse is ridden enough most can cope with living in without grazing. For example the police, army and riding stable horses that are stabled in inner London cope very well with this arrangement because they are kept occupied and exercised.

However I would agree that most horses that are only ridden occasionally are better off in an establishment where they can get daily grazing.

As regards grass management I am afraid to say that there are many yard and horse owners who do not understand grass management and need to update their knowledge on the subject.

There is no reason to see large areas of mud in fields or totally trashed fields. Either reduce the amount of horses on them, the hours they are turned out for or install drainage and re-seed the field with a more robust grass and then maintain them properly.

 

[ironhorse]

I have had to nag like crazy to get regular turnout for my mare thru the winter even tho I was assured it wouldn't be problem when we looked at the yard. The mare has had breathing probs, so needs lots of fresh air.
Fortunately the mare is very quiet in the field (might gallop about a bit if it gets cold or wet at bringing in time) and doesn't trash the electric fencing plus I don't mind her getting muddy and having to be washed off in order to ride so I have got my way, for now.
But I do feel sorry for the other horses - they can be in for days on end, and often getting no more exercise than a quick loose school as the arena is frequently flooded, on some days not even that. As a consequence they are all jumping out of their skins, and should the weather ever improve enough for their owners to ride them will be completely wild.
It's frustrating cos in so many other ways it's a great yard - just not my idea of how to keep horses happy over the winter.

 

[Stoxx]

QR -

A bit late now but I wanted to say that earlier when I mentioned people being lazy, I was refering to my own experience, no one else. At the yard I mentioned we had a perfectly adequate indoor school with lights etc, it would be totally different if there was no arena/ lights at the yard.

 

[amandaco2]

if the horses go out for a horse walker/riding or in a turnout pen each day i think its workable
mine all need to go out each day for at least a few hours, even the 5yo who is in full work
i wouldnt like to stay somewhere with no turnout at all,mostly as i have a 2yo who isnt ridden yet and an 18yo who gets very stressed if kept in and cant be worked hard due to an old tendon injury
plus i hate mucking out twice a day!

 

[burtondog]

My yard can do all day turnout all year round but I choose to only have my horse turned out for just 2-3 hours each afternoon. He seems happy enough in his routine. I ride him in the mornings. He goes out with one other horse in a huge field, they run around like crazy, graze a while, run around some more, then hang around at the gate waiting to be brought in. Obviously, this might not suit everyone but it works for me.

 

[mrdarcy]

It's a difficult one. Where I live very few livery yards have any winter turnout. Last winter I was on yards with no turnout and hated it. One of my horses copes fine, the other had never been on restricted turnout before and lost the plot - plus he lost his top line and got a pot belly (I compete hard all summer so like to pretty much rest them over winter).

This winter as well as being on the livery yard I've rented my own 4 acre field. I've split it in two, put good quality shelters up and now my horses spend most of their time out. I'm so much happier and so are they. I couldn't ever have them on restricted turnout again - I feel too guilty. If they do spend any time inside (farrier/vets visits or fireworks etc) as soon as I take them back to their field they just look so happy as they gallop off bucking. And it amazes me just how much ground they cover in a day, grazing and mooching, grazing and mooching. Compare that to watching them eat their nets in their stable - where they basically stand still all day. They both look much better, have kept their top line and will get fit again much quicker after Christmas. I'm lucky though in that my field has land drains so even if it gets a bit wet on top and little churned at the gateways it's not as muddy as most of the fields round here. I wouldn't like them stood in a foot of mud all day and night - the disadvantages start to outweigh the advantages then.

My ideal would be field into large area of hard standing leading into a big barn, where I could also make some pens if something needs keeping in or just to feed/tack up. My old dream of a traditional stable block round a cobbled courtyard has gone forever - it looks nice but isn't what horses would design for themselves.

 

[Tia]

It really does seem to depend on the horse, however I've met many horses whose owners say that the horse couldn't live out 24/7 because it has been a show horse all of it's life and has only ever had an hour or two per day turnout. Well that does not appear to be the case as I have found out every time. Yes it may take the horse a few days to get into the change in routine, but all have thrived on it.

On the other hand, some horses, who have previously had a lot of turnout, do fine confined to their stables for periods throughout the year. Others never get used to it.

I don't know how many acres I have down to pasture right now; probably about 45 acres I'd guess. I never ever overstock fields where boarding horses are living; these fields are always run slightly under horsed. Not that it makes any difference during the winter mind you, as we do not see a blade of grass for months here - lots of white stuff but no green stuff.

My own horses are dotted about all the fields. I don't keep my own horses separate from boarding horses; I keep friends together regardless of who owns them. At present I do have my yearlings and some of my mares (10 in this herd) and they are running in an 8 acre field however as winter progresses the size of the field is irrelevant; I could easily corral them as their field has a decent sized corral, but I do like them to be able to run around and have fun. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have 2 blind old mares, 1 old gelding and 2 weanlings running in a 10 acre field; overkill but they are all happy in there, so why move them is what I say.

The other fields have a mixed amount of horses; they all get along well, so I have them live together.

I am able to have a lot of flexibility because I have lots of fields, but mainly because we do not have mud as you know it! My fields don't get trashed ... ever! It's just not possible for them to get trashed really, as most of my fields are tile-drained anyhow so there is rarely any standing water on my farm; however this is not the case in most areas of the UK and so any YO who does not have the space or resources to have "sacrifice" paddocks is doing the responsible thing by restricting grazing, otherwise they would have fields full of weeds in the Spring.