Riding straight after a horse has been out on grass

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PnO

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I have always thought that before riding if the horse has been turned out on grass for a few hours or more that you should not ride straight away?? If my horse has been turned out before i ride i always get him in and let him just stand for 30 mins or more whilst i muck out and groom ect before i get on and ride, especially if i'm going to be doing more than walking (which is nearly always). However when speaking to a friend on my yard today who has more than 30 years experience with horses said that it was nosense and that she's never heard of doing that. The reason i was lead to believe this way of doing things is that it can cause impactions in there gut leading to colic. This will also lead onto feeding straight after exercise, which i also try not to do, i'll put the bed down if i've left it to dry and leave him for 20 mins or so to cool down. What do you think?
 
Our two are kept on grass 24/7, 365 and we tack them up and ride out without any resting. The only rest they get from grazing is while we groom and tack up, and if the weathers not condusive to grooming, we leave that bit out.

We also feed them as soon as we return from a ride.

I'm not sure what the long term implications are for the horses, my OH has been doing this with her horse for around seven years now, so I guess we'll find out in the fullness of time.
 
I ride straight from the field, albeit after grooming
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my friend always brings hers in and leaves them an hour before riding, because thats how she was always told to do it.

my mare lived out as much as possible and i would get on within about 20 mins of bringing her in and we never had problems with that...
 
It is a load of nonsense; your friend is right.
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But who cares; if it works for you then that is fine.
 
all of our horses lived out 24/7 years ago and i would get right on and ride, my mare now lives out most of the time, say 20/7 as it were, i ride straight from the field and have been doing so pretty much since i got her 16yrs ago, i would not feed a meal before riding, thats for after
 
i ride straight from the field, haven't got time to hang around for an hour. I do wait until he's cooled down after exercise before i feed - which doesn't take long as we don't exert ourselves
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I ride straight from the field, albeit after grooming
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Ditto - but then again by the time I groom the wild beast and tack him up it's a good 20 minutes anyway!
 
I have read that it is fine to ride straight from grass. The reason is that forage is digested in the hind gut, well away from the stomach. Hard feed is digested differently which is why you shouldn't do work immediately after a feed. Neither should you feed straight after a ride if your horse is hot or blowing. I'm no expert but this makes sense to me. After all, horses originated on open plains and had to be ready to flee from predators at high speed!!! Even with a full belly!!
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my horse and my friends horse are both on grass 24/7 365 days a year and in the 5years i've had mine he had never had any trouble going straight from field to riding and going straight back in after riding. however if he is really worked up i would not give hard feed straight away as i have had friends horses get colic in such situations but thats my own personal thing
 
Cavalo, that is what I understand too about the difference between forage feeds and cereal feeds. If you think about it, by the time you have caught your horse fromt he field, tied it up, groomed and tacked it up, it has had enough time for a lot of the grass to have moved out of the stomach. I don't know if I would want to do a serious gallop without more of a rest before.

As for not feeding when hot, when I was in France we went out for a quite strenuous ride, but we did walk back the last 1/2 mile or more and dismount and led them back for the last 10 minutes, but when we got back all the horses were tied up and given about 2lb of crushed barley, which they ate before being turned back out into the fields. They all seemed to thrive on this regime!
 
It is nonsense, this question was in horse magazine a while back. Horses are trickle feeders and are designed to eat grass and forage all day, what cavalo said. Forage is digested in the hind gut, but cereals are digested differently which is why you shouldn't ride immediately after a hard feed.
 
I have always believed that it depends on the horse to a certain extent, also whether the horse is out on very rich lush grazing or fairly average pasture. If the horse is out all the time then it moves around a lot and doesn't gorge. If the horse is stabled say overnight, then turned out in the morning for a few hours on lush grass then you get it in to ride, it's almost certianly going to be pretty bloated, in this case I would always take my time grooming and tacking up to allow it to de-bloat a bit. I don't think you can be that black and white about it. After riding I never give hard feed if I've done more thank walk, for at least half an hour. But also what you can do with a TB is different than what you can do with a welsh cob for instance, and I love welsh cobs. Sorry if this rambled on a bit!
 
The breed or type of grass makes absolutely no difference. there is no need to wait before riding. If you want to, no problem, but absolutely not necessary
 
I agree with you that it depends on whether the horse is out 24/7 or what type of grass it is. Our horses are not allowed out for a good few months of the winter and when they are turned out in the spring (even just for a few hours) they can come in completly stuffed and Iwouldnt want to ride for a good hour while they were like that. When it comes to this time of year and the grass isnt very good there isnt really a problem riding straight away. I always think better safe than sorry
 
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I ride straight of the field and will happily feed/turn out as soon as I am back from a ride. BUT I always warm my pony up well before doing strenuous work and cool down before finishing the ride.
If you warm up and cool down properly, you are protecting your horses muscles as well as safeguarding against colic.
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