Thin horse on poor turnout - why?

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Smogul

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My pony shares a small paddock with minimal grazing with another horse. On Sunday another livery said to me that she wanted her horse to be turned out there too. I said it was up to YM but did she realise how poor the grazing is as I understood her horse was needing to put on weight. She said that this wouldn't be a problem as hay could be put out for her horse. I tried (and failed) to picture my pony and J's horse standing watching placidly as G's horse chomped away at his haynet. My jaw then dropped when she said that her horse couldn't be turned out alone and she would expect J and me to make sure this didn't happen. As politely as I could, I said I didn't think this would work.
When I spoke to YM, she groaned and said she had already explained to G why this wasn't practical.

Why would you want to turn out an underweight horse on poor grazing then supplement it with hay?
 
I think it's probably the expecting you to make sure her horse is never turned out alone thing. Sounds like she wants free assisted livery TBH so hopes that by being out in your field you will bring her horse in.
It's not going to work & if the YO agrees then just don't let her move into your field.
 
Is it not a case of turning out with a small amount of grass is better than not being turned out at all? x Are there other fields available but she's asked to join yours? x

Maybe she wants her horse out to stetch more than wanting weight on him/her - even if it needs weight.
 
Don't think so as yard is full livery. Yard rules state that only owners and staff handle horses except in an emergency.
This is her first horse so maybe she doesn't understand horse nutrition or how yards work.
 
lcharles said:
Is it not a case of turning out with a small amount of grass is better than not being turned out at all? x Are there other fields available but she's asked to join yours? x

Maybe she wants her horse out to stetch more than wanting weight on him/her - even if it needs weight.
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Horse is currently turned out on good grazing with 5 other horses. Group includes an unbacked 2 year old and a semi-retired oldie so chances of horse being out alone is minimal.
 
Bizarre, would be interested to know why she wants to move from her current field-is her horse being bullied, maybe? Or is her current field too small for 5 horses?
 
I quite understand why she would want to turn out her horse on poor grazing and then supplement it with hay to keep the amount of sugars down that the horse is eating. Maybe she is having problems with the richness of the grass in the other field. It isn't practical to expect anything else in the field not to eat the hay though. What she needs is another pony/horse that is kept in the same way, bare field + hay, to share the plot with.
 
Gloi said:
I quite understand why she would want to turn out her horse on poor grazing and then supplement it with hay to keep the amount of sugars down that the horse is eating. Maybe she is having problems with the richness of the grass in the other field.
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YO might have something to say about being expected to provide extra hay at this time of year!
 
She can always buy hay. Not much grass and soaked hay in field is a pretty common way of keeping animals that are sensitive to too much grass or potentially laminitic. It works for some of ours.
 
Gloi said:
She can always buy hay. Not much grass and soaked hay in field is a pretty common way of keeping animals that are sensitive to too much grass or potentially laminitic. It works for some of ours.
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Yep

Mine is on hay and not much grass or she gets sore feet. Not really that unusual a concept surely?!
 
Exactly as others have said. I have a hard keeping TB that is very sugar sensitive. Soya also. She can handle night grazing with the others but it's not overly lush and I have it taped off for maximum walking. On pretty much a dry lot daily with low sugar haylage. Maybe that's not the reason here but sometimes it's necessary.

Terri
 
I have to say it didn't smack me of being weird keeping it on poor grazing and feeding hay - it's weight could be being control due to EMS or laminitis - i do the same with mine and its taken a few years for my OH to understand why (farmer!).

Silly to expect the other two not to eat the hay that is being put out for it though - it does sound like it needs to be sectioned off or put with another horse on a similar regime?!
 
As others have said, feeding hay in the summer isn't unusual. Until recently I was putting a bale of hay per day in the hay feeder - however just putting one haynet out would surely result in the top horse eating it rather than the intended one (unless the new horse turned out to be the boss).

Re leaving horses alone in the paddock. The majority of horses that I have known will get upset to some degree (some just neigh and then settle, some will hoon then settle, others get really frantic or even jump out of the field) so when I was on livery it was a rule that you never left a single horse out alone. When I brought my mare in, if she only had one companion left, I would bring them both down. It never bothered me and I was happy to do it. I would have been upset if the other horse had injured itself because I took mine away.
 
I understand that there are reasons for turnout on poor grazing with hay...I keep one of mine like this.
But you wouldn't catch me putting that pony in a field with 2 strange horses who weren't getting hay & trying to give her hay. One way ticket to scrapping & injuryville if you ask me.
The only way I would feed supplementary hay in this case is to feed the pony her hay in her own fenced off area.

As other posters have pointed out there are reasons for putting a thin horse on poor grazing but I suspect the girl in question here hasn't really thought through the implications of moving her horse to this field.

OP has anyone actually asked this girl why she wants to move fields? If it is the sugars in grass thing then maybe you could work with her to ensure that the hay is fed without any horse getting beaten up.
It might be that she doesn't get on with the people who she is sharing a field with. We've all seen stories on hear about how sly & spiteful some liveries can be to each other. She might be feeling upset about how someone else is treating her.

It might just be she sees how well you & your friend gets on & would like to be part of your friendship (albeit going about it in a clumsy manner). Maybe you could try & invite her on a few hacks etc.

I appreciate I might be waaaaaaay off the mark here but there might be other reasons for her behaviour.......or she just might be strange :D
 
glamourpuss said:
I understand that there are reasons for turnout on poor grazing with hay...I keep one of mine like this.
But you wouldn't catch me putting that pony in a field with 2 strange horses who weren't getting hay & trying to give her hay. One way ticket to scrapping & injuryville if you ask me.
The only way I would feed supplementary hay in this case is to feed the pony her hay in her own fenced off area.

As other posters have pointed out there are reasons for putting a thin horse on poor grazing but I suspect the girl in question here hasn't really thought through the implications of moving her horse to this field.

OP has anyone actually asked this girl why she wants to move fields? If it is the sugars in grass thing then maybe you could work with her to ensure that the hay is fed without any horse getting beaten up.
It might be that she doesn't get on with the people who she is sharing a field with. We've all seen stories on hear about how sly & spiteful some liveries can be to each other. She might be feeling upset about how someone else is treating her.

It might just be she sees how well you & your friend gets on & would like to be part of your friendship (albeit going about it in a clumsy manner). Maybe you could try & invite her on a few hacks etc.

I appreciate I might be waaaaaaay off the mark here but there might be other reasons for her behaviour.......or she just might be strange :D
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I think she may just be strange. My pony is out with J's horse because they both need poor grazing, not because we are friends. Sorry, this makes it sound as if we don't get on! We do. As far as I am aware, neither G nor her horse is being bullied. I think there is less of this on a properly run yard which only does full livery.
Nor do I know of any foot problems. One of her stated reasons for moving to current yard was because of poor grazing at old yard as horse had not done well over winter. Having read the other post, I am wondering if she has seen various pieces on sugar sensitivity, not understood them and decided to apply this regime to her horse.
She doesn't hack out, despite my OH saying he would be happy to go out with her and show her routes.
 
Faracat said:
Re leaving horses alone in the paddock. The majority of horses that I have known will get upset to some degree (some just neigh and then settle, some will hoon then settle, others get really frantic or even jump out of the field) so when I was on livery it was a rule that you never left a single horse out alone. When I brought my mare in, if she only had one companion left, I would bring them both down. It never bothered me and I was happy to do it. I would have been upset if the other horse had injured itself because I took mine away.
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Frankly,if I wanted to handle other people's horses, I would run a yard! Anyway, J is away competing this weekend and I am away most of Saturday for a lesson then on Sunday I am taking my pony down to a friend. Are you seriously suggesting we abandon our own activities to babysit someone else's horse?
 
Heck no! Only chimed in about the poor grazing. As far as the other stuff is concerned, it's not going to work. I couldn't imagine having to work around those issues.

Terri
 
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