"Safety" of turnout

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Always-Riding

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I've been thinking about safety of fields and how much this changes what I would do.

For example; I've just moved yards. Previous yard was an old dairy farm. Fields were 5acres plus, but fencing, well, left a lot of be desired at points - from broken post & rail to loose barb wire. But, we had 24/7 turnout all year if we wanted. Now, I have about 1/2 an acre but fencing is as horse safe as you can get - thick electric fencing and well-maintained post & rail. However, being of limited space, I have limited turnout and have to poo pick!

So is "safety" seen as more desirable than being free to roam with a higher risk of injuries?
 
I don't think either is more desirable. I would have put the increase in the number of small paddocks down to many yards wanting to accept as many horses as possible, and some peoples preference for individual turnout.
I don't think anyone would "desire" unsafe fencing :confused3:

In an ideal world I'd want both enormous fields (as that's what I was used to as well) AND good fencing ;)

As it is, we have limited land and want to keep the horses at home, so they have small (shared) paddocks with fencing as safe as I can make it.
 
People seem to be erring on the side of safety these days, with individual turnout seeming to be more and more popular. I can understand why, but for my boy herd turnout is far more suitable. He doesn't fret on his own but is so sociable I'd hate to turn him out without company. Even my usually anti-social share horse has his moments of grooming his fieldmates and although he's always on the edge of the group he's never very far away. Their herd is well established and the few newcomers that have joined them have been introduced very slowly and carefully. As long as the risks are mitigated as far as possible, group turnout will always be my choice.

Fencing is another issue and I'd never turn my horse out in fields with bad fencing. Ours are all bordered by old thick, natural hedges with sheep fencing in the middle as the horses share with sheep at certain times of the year. It's all so deep in the hedges that the horses can't get near it though. Having seen horrific injuries caused by a pony getting his foot through sheep fencing and then getting the fencing stuck between his foot and shoe, I wouldn't be there if they could.
 
I always poo pick across our 4-7 acres It reduces the risk of worms. If your horse is a sensible grazer and isn't going to get himself tangled up in barbed wire and you can electric fence the first yard so there is a low chance that he can get to the broken fences then the first one would probably be better.
 
That's a difficult question, I would say that you don't necessarily have to sacrifice the safety to get the turn out. I think if you have the large field with really bad fencing you can manage that by getting your own posts and electric fencing to keep them away from the danger... it will in the long run be cheaper than the vet bill that is sure to follow if you don't, so for me, I'd rather the big field and mitigate any risks that may be assoicated with that

I've never really liked these little postage stamp paddocks that many of my local yards are turning to these days. I can see how these set ups evolve-more pressure on land (esp near towns and cities) the need to maximise available space to make a living and horse owners being worried about injuries inflicted in a herd situation but for me I'd rather the horses have friends to be turned out with and a bit more space.
 
Always-Riding said:
So is "safety" seen as more desirable than being free to roam with a higher risk of injuries?
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Both are as important. Barbed wire is not an option, it is dangerous, I have seen horses PTS from wire injuries.

Horses are stupid, they do not rationalise the danger of barbed wire, it is not less dangerous in a bigger field.

My horses are in large turn outs with no barbed wire - I have previously had 28acres refenced as I just cant justify turning out on wire.
 
I think all fields should be as safe as we can make them.

However I'd rather see horses out in groups than in small paddocks. I don't think any man made fencing is ideal - in a perfect world I'd love to see horses in fields bordered by natural thick hedges but that just isn't going to happen is it.

The summer field that we rent is fenced with barbed wire broken up with hedges, we make sure every year that fenceposts are good and wire is tight and then we tie things on the wire to make it more visible. Because there is enough land for the 3 of them though they are very rarely near the fence line (apart from when we go there) and in 8 years we have never had an accident - even when we had 10 horses in there.

Personally my least favourite fencing is sheep netting - I think it's the work of the devil where horses are concerned. We spent weeks ripping old stuff up.
 
I have approx. 2 acre field opposite the house I rent. It comes with stock fencing (stops dogs getting in or out...) no major incident with the stuff whatsoever, some barb wire which my guys respect and mostly hedging (very thorny hedging) so there you have it, everything in place for disaster but I think it depends on how hungry horses are and your individual characters....

To date (touches large bit of wood!!) no incidents at all, it is fenced into four parts (saving two for the spring) two can be trashed....

I do believe that had I still got a TB he would have either been like a sieve from the thorns or got himself caught and tangled in something!! The large chap I have will never get feet through stock fencing as they are too big and my minis feet are too small to get stuck so I am very lucky.

I would choose space and freedom any day over "safety" with my current horses, if I had a tb I would be looking at electric fencing on every metre of field!!
 
I wouldn't put my horse on land that had an obvious potential to injure her, I want group turnout and I require good fencing. I have a group of 3 on around 3 acres that is P&R with a thin line of electric on top to stop any fence chewing, this is plenty of space as long as poo picking is done and the field is topped to stop other areas becoming stale.
 
All our fencing is double fenced with electric to the inside we never had a fence based accident since we did this although they do have access to a huge thick hedge for browsing in all the paddocks .
I understand why people do individual turnout especially livery yard owners but I don't like it it's not good for the horses .
I never poo pick apart from our small turnout squares and Fattys strip and have had no need to worm except for tape worms ever since we started dung sampling .
Bad fencing with barbed wire in it is a complete no no for me it's just too dangerous for horses .
 
unicornystar said:
I have approx. 2 acre field opposite the house I rent. It comes with stock fencing (stops dogs getting in or out...) no major incident with the stuff whatsoever, some barb wire which my guys respect and mostly hedging (very thorny hedging) so there you have it, everything in place for disaster but I think it depends on how hungry horses are and your individual characters....

To date (touches large bit of wood!!) no incidents at all, it is fenced into four parts (saving two for the spring) two can be trashed....

I do believe that had I still got a TB he would have either been like a sieve from the thorns or got himself caught and tangled in something!! The large chap I have will never get feet through stock fencing as they are too big and my minis feet are too small to get stuck so I am very lucky.

I would choose space and freedom any day over "safety" with my current horses, if I had a tb I would be looking at electric fencing on every metre of field!!
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^^it's more about character than breed though isn't it unicornystar... ;) my very worldly cob x is the one who puts her feet in places she shouldn't. Fortunately she seems quite happy to wait for rescue. We have footpaths so stock fencing is sadly a must to keep walkers dogs on the straight and narrow. We have added electric fencing but I didn't feel happy about it until I took her shoes off. Even that is not a perfect solution but at the moment it's the best I can do.

When we moved in there was anti-pig barbed wire below the stock fencing and that had to go immediately ;)
 
We have big fields, but all I do is strip graze them, bloomin horses :D

I have all sorts of fencing over the years, and to be honest if a horse is on a mission to hurt themselves then there is no such thing as safe fencing.

If money was no object I would have high stone walling!

I electrify all of my fencing, so safety wise the fact that my horses are scared of the fencing iykwim definitely helps.

Combined with mains electric some of my fencing is post and rail, some stock fencing and some plain wire.
 
Depends on the horse(s) in my opinion. When I had a big stupid accident prone warmblood he was in individual turnout paddocks, these were plastic stallion height as he could go through fences and /or jump them and at least plastic caused less damage to him!

We currently have a little welsh pony who will happily go out with stringly electric tape not even on and just respect it and eat! Any fence he is fine with!
 
I rent grazing in cattle/sheep country-I have no choice but to use stock fencing. Most of the fields I rent are high up, very big and very windy. Tape does not last either because of the wind or neighbouring cows. My winter field is 35 acres of stubble with several acres of bankings and margins of standing hay-I am not about to electric tape it.

My summer paddock (around 6 acres) is stock fenced, has a burn running through it and a massive banking which runs the length of the field at one point has a 30ft drop on one side. It also has the ruins of an old steading on it and a row of ash and hawthorn. They spend their time running up and down the banking, jumping in and out of the burn and acting like hooligans-they absolutely love it. Cant imagine keeping them on a bowling green these days. I have two smaller paddocks that do have electric fencing inside the stock fencing.

Because I rent off farmers, fields are not overgrazed, horses are not hungry and not testing fences. If they run through one or daft enough to roll right next to one, I'll deal with it then.
 
I hate the small individual turnout 'fields' that seem to be more and more common these days. I much prefer to have my horses out in large fields with company. Our fields have thick hedges on most borders with some post and rail and stock (horse not sheep) fencing with electric standoffs.

The worst fencing injury I've seen was many years ago when my friend's horse staked herself on a post and rail fence. Unfortunately her injury was so bad she had to be pts.
 
I hate small fields as if they have a hoon they run a real risk of slipping or not stopping in time at the fence. Plus they trash much easier due to the tight turns and skids which you tend not to get with big fields.
 
In an ideal world, I agree that horses should be in herds with access to acres to explore.

But, in the last 12months I've had one horse pts due to a fencing injury and another racked up a £900 vets bill through constantly jumping in and out of the field.

So, sadly now, "modern" practice prevails and my competition horse (who a well known member of here has the ride) is on individual turnout but has lots of neighbours within touching distance and the yearling is in a small herd in an average size field with very high electric fencing!

If I had sensible horses (I must attract the nutters!!) then they would be in large fields and manage the unsuitable fencing as well as I could.
 
I don't think unsuitable fencing is ever acceptable. But at least it's relatively easy to improve on by putting up a set-back electric fence. If your field is too small, it's too small and there's little you can do about that (other than move).
 
For people struggling in a wind to keep electric tape working, I now run sheep electric multi strand steel wire to carry the current and tape only to provide visibility. It's incredibly easy to join (bend a loop and twist, bend a hook through the loop, pull tight and twist) and lasts decades until it finally rusts through.
 
We have a relatively large field and the fencing in parts is a bit thin and rickety so we fence off those dangerous parts. The rest is a beautiful hedgerow. We find that as long as we regularly check the fence and feed them enough, we have no problems.

So to answer your question OP, I would far rather improve poor fencing than turn out individually on half an acre.
 
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