T/O on frozen ground

R

Radwaymare

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15 February 2006
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I was wondering how many of you turn out on hard frozen paddocks.

Ours are pretty churned up after all the wet weather we have had and are now lethal ankle breaking, frozen ruts.

I was under the impression I shouldn't turn out on ground like this and have been keeping my 3 liveries in until luchtime when the sun has had chance to soften a little.

Am I being a wussy wimp? Should I just let them out to deal with it themselves?
 
i never turn mine out on frozen ground, not worth the risk for me. I know others do and some are still living out in it!
 
I think it depends on the land really. All ours go out, but then apart from the gateways being a little rutted the fields are in pretty good nick.
 
We put out some of the ponies on our yard on hard ground, not the fine legged ones but the cobby types seem to manage fine, we dont put the bigger horses out unless owners have given us the ok for that!
 
I do but the field isn't churned up and they don't run around anyway - just roll, have a wee then go and munch their hay
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I turned out on it this morning and dropped some haylage down to stop them charging around and slipping too much, but our land isn't rutted.
 
Mine goes out in his flat paddock with ad lib hay. I shut his paddock with the stream running through it off when it is like this. He doesn't charge around as a rule unless a friendly looking villager is passing the wall with an apple!
 
Mine as MH. If I din't turn out they would go ballistic. I always put out hay and they mostly stand and eat that for a while and then amble off to munch grass later. Whisk did stomp off down the field the other morning but I think they can sense the ground is not too good and don't go mad. That's my theory anyway and I have never had a problem so far. Rushes off to touch wood!!
 
I turned out on it this morning - they had big piles of hay and the ground isn't rutted. However, my heart was in my mouth this morning when my gelding proceeded to do his Bambi impression at mach 5 round the field! Normally it's as much as he can do to drag himself over to the hay - I don't know what got into him this morning! He didn't slip though, thank God!
 
i dont, if the ground is hard/frozen then i dont think its worth the risk. i do have a young horse though that is liable to gallop round like a fool! if i had a sensible cob then, yes, i probably would
 
I turn out on frozen ground, i like to think that Jed is sensible enough to go hooning around while its icy! Our gate ways are churned up but they never come near them until its time to come in.
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ETA: I ment to say "he's sensible enough to "NOT" go hooning around!"
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Our ground freezes to about 3ft down, so my horses which live out 24/7 are obviously living out on totally frozen ground for many months of the year. We don't have any ruts though. Horses are generally extremely careful when they live on ice for months on end.
 
Yes you're being woosy! Sorry but it worries me how many people limit turn out for little things which are perfectly normal. Horses are DESIGNED for living out. They CAN cope with a little frost! Look at what Tia has to deal with, there are FAR FAR worse conditions horses live out in but hey they all handle it
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Mine live out all year round up here in Scotland. We get frosty ground but it makes no difference to the horses. They're pretty intelligent, if its covered in snow and slippy then they just dont gallop about :P
 
Ours all live out 24/7/365 perfectly happily, regardless of the weather. They definately prefer frost to rain too!
 
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