Snow and no hay in fields - would you turn out?

Can't you just ensure he gets a good feed before he goes out?? I don't see what the big deal is..unless there's no grass whatsoever under the snow that is? Mine go out at 8am - they get hay 6am..they come in at 6pm...With no hay in between those hours.
Horses are foragers, they will seek out the grass from under the snow or search in the hedges etc..Once your horse is moving around nuzzling through the snow then he's fine and he's picking at what he can. I would be more concerned if he wasn't doing any of that and standing in the field doing nothing.
 
So many worrying things in this thread :eek:

9 hours without food :eek: horses are a trickle grazing animal - their bodies need to be eating high fibre low sugar at all times. Any yard that doesnt allow this does NOT have enough equine knowledge for my peace of mind.

Horses being allowed out for a leg stretch - theyre supposed to graze for several hundred miles a day - an hr out of 24 is simply not enough. And before anyone starts with the 'oh they want to come back in' thats not surprising when there is hay in their stable not in the field :eek:

This is why we have a nation of obese, ulcer riddled, laminitic, leg filled crib biters and weavers. Somehow the UKs attitude to horses has become that of pampered pet not functioning animal. Most seem to prefer them in in individual stables, spotlessly clean, with fleece pajamas including belly rugs up to their ears :mad: Sod their mental state.

If theyre being turned out to dig for grass there needs to be decent winter foggage underneath, not just little sparse over grazed bits.


Rant over!
 
Last edited:
ShadowFlame said:
I could if need be. He's not usually great at being cooped up for long periods though, and at £3 a go the cost adds up pretty quickly if this weather sticks around :(
Click to expand...

Well, yes £3 a day does add up. But there are always unexpected costs that need to be made allowances for, especially during winter.

If you have to do this for a week - you're talking about £15 (so not a lot of money at all).
 
If there's nothing at all for them to eat then I'd think twice about turning out (and I wouldn't stay at the yard). Horses standing around with nothing to eat, and gate-hanging waiting to come in, can cause fights. I stood with a couple of friends for about 3 hours in a blizzard waiting for the vet to come to shoot a poor mare with a broken leg once as a result of this - never again. It was an RDA yard, my friend and I had warned them a couple of hours before that the horses were fighting and needed either hay or to come in. They didn't "do" hay in fields... We brought ours in, they waited until the usual time. Result was a couple of young girls who had gone to start fetching the horses coming screaming and crying to the yard because they'd found the mare with her leg hanging and surrounded by blood. She was on livery as well, didn't even belong to the RDA yard.
It just takes one irritable kick.
 
TigerTail said:
So many worrying things in this thread :eek:

9 hours without food :eek: horses are a trickle grazing animal - their bodies need to be eating high fibre low sugar at all times. Any yard that doesnt allow this does NOT have enough equine knowledge for my peace of mind.

Horses being allowed out for a leg stretch - theyre supposed to graze for several hundred miles a day - an hr out of 24 is simply not enough. And before anyone starts with the 'oh they want to come back in' thats not surprising when there is hay in their stable not in the field :eek:

This is why we have a nation of obese, ulcer riddled, laminitic, leg filled crib biters and weavers. Somehow the UKs attitude to horses has become that of pampered pet not functioning animal. Most seem to prefer them in in individual stables, spotlessly clean, with fleece pajamas including belly rugs up to their ears :mad: Sod their mental state.

If theyre being turned out to dig for grass there needs to be decent winter foggage underneath, not just little sparse over grazed bits.


Rant over!
Click to expand...

? OP didnt say horse would be 9 hours WITHOUT food...
 
I wouldn't leave out for 9 hours with no food but would turn out for a leg stretch. Anyone who can bring in at lunchtime? though can you be sure that your horse really can't get any grazing? I know that a horse that knows that there is hay in the stable will stand and wait to come in rather than work at getting bits and pieces out (well most do)
 
I think it depends on the grazing and how much snow there is. Mine went out at 8am and will be brought in around 4.30 -5pm. there is no hay in the fields but along with every other horse on the yard, they are happily moving the snow with their noses or hooves and enjoying foraging for the best spots.
Last night, neither of them were particularly hungry and even the professional eater left some of his bucket feed.
 
In your shoes op I'd turn out. If the horse is a good doer, & there's enough grass he can root for so his digestive system has something going through, then provided he has plenty of hay to eat when he comes in, & is turned out full, I'm sure he'll manage. But if it was a poor doer who wouldn't make up for it later, or there wasn't enough grass to root for then I'd stick to a few hrs.
 
My boy stood in with a good net while I mucked out round him this morning, I then schooled him and he stood for another 20 minutes eating and had his breakie before I turned him out and as soon as I did, his head was down, nose shifting snow out of the way so that he could get to what was underneath.

We really don't give our horses enough credit. If there is grass under the snow, they will find it. If there isn't, there lies the problem.

My boy will be out til at least 4pm today if my friend thinks it neccessary to bring him in, otherwise he will be out til 6.

Horses won't stand and starve all day if there is food to be found.

I do understand why some yards don't allow hay in the fields. It can make a mess because some people put way too much out and don't clear up the bits that the horses inevitably poo and wee on!! plus hay can contain the seeds of weeds which then germinate in the field...
 
Wow, there's some strong opinions coming out on here!

He won't be fully without food, as previously mentioned there is still grass in said field and the snow isn't deep. I'm more concerned about tomorrow etc if we get the dumping we've been forecast.

Another girl from the yard has just uploaded a vid on FB of her boy galloping round in the snow like a loon - I can see my boy in the background quite happily mooching through the snow, head down, nowhere near the gate (FB's quite handy, really).

Of course I'm willing to put extra money in should the need arise, that's all part of having horses. However, that boosts my DIY livery to £55 a week, which is verging on ridiculous. As mentioned, my cob isn't great at being cooped up. He's happy when he's out, and he's a pain if he's kept in too long. Add the two together, and I'm reluctant to spend that much and have him stuck in for 20+ hours a day. I'm going to ask about possibilities later today, I had assumed that hay would be put out during snowy weather. I found out this morning (on the way to work) that I was wrong.

I appreciate all the opinions, butI do find it slightly... wrong?... that some people seem to have strong opinions that foraging in the snow is unacceptable, yet if we revert back to summer it's quite the opposite to put a fatty in a bare paddock? I'll add in the mix that cob is a fatty, and has held his weight painfully well over winter. Joys of horses, eh?
 
All my previous yards never allowed hay in the fields, and I turned him out every day regardless of weather it snowed if not

Dizzy, due to mud fever, is currently stabled in his shelter overnight. This morning he was sooo excited to see the snow (mind you he is Russian :D) he was chomping at the bit to get out - he even ignored his breakfast

So I've chucked him out, he's had 3 rolls, a gallop around bucking, rearing and squealing with delight. He ate his brekkie in the field and I've left him shoving the snow aside to munch the grass

I've never in the 19 years I've owned him, been worried or had problems chucking him in a field of snow because he'll always find something to munch :)
 
i turned my warmblood out while i got her stable ready after the farrier had been this mornign and she wont eat hay outside. after 1/2 hr i called her and she came over to come in and was quite happy to slip and slide her way back to bed and stay there eating her hay and straw and breakfast. the walker is well salted and being used most fo the day by up to 8 horses so will bing her on there later for 1/2 hr and she will be fine. the stud that bred her dont get sun for 6 weeks of the year as they are on the wrong side of a hill so they all stay in in stables and barns and go on walkers from youngsters so she doesnt care. I drop her hard feed and up her hay and she is fine.
 
I think it's ridiculous not being allowed hay out if necessary. We had this at one yard... because it made a mess. God knows what they were doing with it as yard I ran and now at home both had/have hay and haylage out... never once had a mess when doing ourselves. You put out enough for the horses a couple of times a day and they clear up. The little bit they don't clear up gets raked up. One livery took the mick and did make a horrendous mess... so the dinky tractor went in after and we used that to rake up. You don't put a random amount out, you tailor it per field. Their other reasoning was that it stopped the grass growing (because apparently when there is snow on the ground the hay is the concern...)

We are now on large haylage bales in the field which do make a mess where ground is trodden a lot... but it would be very easy to feed twice daily again, I like this way round at home though and can sacrifice a small area for this.

I don't like either option tbh, but if there is enough grass to root about for I'd do this. Agree entirely with Littlelegs post.
 
Depends on how much snow is on the ground and how much grass is in the field!

My horse will be out today from 9am - 3.30 ish, so 6.5 hours. She will not have hay in her field.
But then we only have an inch (if that) of snow - it is easy enough for her to snuffle about for grass.

If we had a foot of snow, she'd get a leg stretch and then come back in for a haynet.
 
Too lazy to read all the replies but for a plump cob it sounds perfect - he has to work for his food!

I do feed hay in the field when there is snow on the ground but wouldn't have a problem with mine being out all day without - assuming we're not talking 3 feet deep here! There is grass underneath and they're all perfectly capable of digging it out. :)
 
We can feed hay in the fields, but one of ours (native) would rather be in. And that's the honest truth.

If I put hay out and left him out in the field he'd eat what grass he could find (ignoring the hay) then ten minutes later be standing by the gate screaming. If he was then ignored he'd just trash the fences to get in.

He doesn't even want to go out for a walk. He DOES go for walks but pulls faces the whole way. As it is he has a massive stable (all the horses have huge stables or barns), so can stretch his legs.

I tied him up on the yard so I could muck out this morning, and fed him his breakfast. He finished, untied his rope and came into his stable :o :rolleyes:

So there he's stayed.

With his big quilted rug on. And his toys.
 
I didn't put my mare out today, normally I would as she's only out for 4-5 hours but everyone has kept their horses in so she has no company. We aren't allowed hay in the field either.
 
We have 24/7 turnout on our yard if the owners wish. I love as a yard owner to see the horses outside munching through a slice of hay in their fields, especially as there is so little grass now. As for waste - as long as its put out in regular slices, rather than a bale at a time, there is no mess as its all eaten!
 
ShadowFlame said:
Same reasoning here aswell I think. We can't tie haynets on the yard either, all hay HAS to fed in a stable. It does seem ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Why so? Have you considered the cost of hay/haylage? Have you considered that YO is just trying to save on not wasting good fodder as opposed to avoiding the mess it makes? I'm amazed that no one has mentioned this, or have they?? I rarely feed any hay in the field, with the exception of the 2 brood mares, who have a round feeder. But no other hay is fed in the field, mainly due to the amount of waste it incurs and yes secondly, this waste leads to a mess..Mess i can deal with but having forked out hard earned money to both make and buy my fodder, fodder which is in short supply this year, last thing i need to see is excess hay wasted and trampled into the muck in the field.

So perhaps those of you who are critical of your YO's reasons for not feeding hay in fields or in the yard, had to fork out a fortune to buy/make your own fodder, you might understand the logic and sense behind it all & think differently.
 
R.I.D These problems could be solved quite easily by providing/letting people buy things to help reduce waste, such as hay hutches, or a simple tractor tyre if you're cheap like me :)
 
If no access to grass in field & hay not allowed would turn out for max of 2 hrs just to let horses stretch their legs. Where I am they have access to haylage whether in or out @ all times
 
My post was about when there's nothing to eat. I've got no problems with horses foraging in snow if there's grass to find, they will often do that by choice over any hay put out. I would not turn out in a group when there is nothing to eat (as would be the case in my field now). In those circumstances I'd need hay out for them.
 
I think that half the problem is that in any group of livery horses one or two cannot cope with dry hay and their owners do not want hay put out for that reason .
 
Two yards I've been on owned by same people put hay in the fields in winter as they had a lot of horses out together and although big fields (15acres plus most of them) they were used all year round, sometimes withe less horses in though. At the second of the yards they put it out for youngsters and broodmares who lived out all year but the ridden ones didn't as always had enough grass. In the snow they'd get stuck on the yard anyway as no way to get them to the fields. So they'd go in the broodmares field while they were shut in the barn. They'd be out from 9/10am till 3/4pm no hay and were fine. Happily dig around for grass even in several inches.

Then next yard they weren't allowed out in bad weather let alone snow, just allowed to go out while we mucked out for a hour or so some days. So no hay.

Where I am now they do hay in the fields as some are out 24/7. Though the ones in the field mine is in that stay out havent had hay yet as still got plenty of grass. Think if the snow got bad they might get some though. Think YO would decide seen as the owner of 3 out of 4 never comes up I've seen them 3 times since I moved in june. I'd turn mine out all day as normal in the snow he'd have something to eat before he went out and then theres enough grass to dig and find some.
 
Last edited:
Littlelegs said:
In your shoes op I'd turn out. If the horse is a good doer, & there's enough grass he can root for so his digestive system has something going through, then provided he has plenty of hay to eat when he comes in, & is turned out full, I'm sure he'll manage. But if it was a poor doer who wouldn't make up for it later, or there wasn't enough grass to root for then I'd stick to a few hrs.
Click to expand...

I find myself agreeing with you a lot Littlelegs!

I don't always put hay out in the field for mine when its snowy. I wouldn't put much today - its only an inch or so deep and they're all enjoying playing and digging.

When we had that really long cold spell a couple of years ago, and there was snow on frozen ground, yes, hay needed to be put out.

OP it may be worth doing some research into hayhutches or a hayrack for the field and suggesting that to the YO.

It does make a mess when horses are mooching around hay piles, and chashing one another away.
 
Yes,

if you are feeding ad lib at night OP, and there is hay left in the morning then he will be fine digging up. IME, (and I do live in Aberdeenshire so pretty extensive) snow at this temperature actually insulates the soil and out of my 8 none were at my haylage bales this morning, all were snuffling, if you have a dig I think you'll get a shock at the colour underneath!

Fully get why YO's don't put hay out, I have 3 big bale feeders and you get left with basically a dung heap by the end of the winter. This needs to be removed with a digger and then disposed of, all of which is costly. It also kills the grass. I chose this route as I have far too many but if I was trying to operate at a profit defo wouldn't - they even pull loads out for bedding and sleep on it!
 
i agree with little legs if there is grass for him to find i would turn out. mine live out whatever the weather and on the rare occasion i feel its necessary to put hay out they nibble at out of interest then go back to the grass. i have control over the horses in my field so get to decide if we hay out there.

yard policy however is no hay in communal fields its nothing to do with mess and everything to do with horses fighting over food
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top