turning out 24/7 - advice needed

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Ottinmeg

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our horses are going out onto the summer paddock this weekend. i havnt had the 24/7 option before so need some advice. the plan is to put them on the summer field at night and the winter one during the day for a couple of weeks so they get used to it. do i still continue to feed them their hard feed or wean them off that as well? the girls currently have a handful of honeychop and some sugar beet twice a day. otto has comp mix and a scoop or so of honeychop plus beet. there work load will be something like this 3 x 30 min to one hour hacks (lots of hills) in the week , 2 hour hack on weekend plus lesson which is a 30 minute walk to the arena both ways or a competition. they are currently ridden sat/sun and one day during the week for about 30 mins. reading that i might need to increase their hardfeed! any advice greatfully recieved.
 
What about clips... have they grown out...

I have to say that I turn mine out 24/7 in April and he looks the same sort of stamp as yours. However, I make sure that he is on very good grazing as his condition does dip to begin with. However, 3 weeks on and he's fattening up ready for restricted grazing again.

So it depends on how you feel about it really, I wouldn't feed mine hard feed outside but I know that many people do.

Your choice, conscience and pocket
grin.gif
 
Mine is out 24/7 all year, and blanket clipped in winter (He's an ISH). I feed him on Baileys Lo-Cal all year plus outshine. Then in winter he gets hay and some No 4 (half a scoop). His weight stays steady. Lo-cal is a better option as it makes sure that you are getting the right nutrients in, and the outshine just gives some extra energy and coat shine without bulk.
 
Suzysparkle, very interested to hear you keep a horse out all year, clipped and in Scotland (colder than down south!). I would seriously like to hear more about how your horse fares in the elements, what sort of work you have him in, how often you check on him and lots else! Would love do the same, just wondering how to go about it. Let me know if you get a chance.
 
If a horse has access to feed water and adequate shelter and, if clipped have a rug on to act as artificial 'coat' then they are fine to be out 24/7, at the end of the day horses are meant to live out. I bring two of mine in during the evenings in winter as they are fully clipped and do more work and it helps to keep their energy levels up and stop my horse's hair growing back all wiry quite so quickly.

The two retired ones are out all winter, not clipped but with rugs on (not sure why really, guess we are just soft and helps keep their weight on). They are all out 24/7 now although rug on mine at night but we are still feeding twice a day and giving hay although that'll stop this weekend as they're moving fields. We are cutting down on the hard feed now though.
 
i keep all mine out 24/7 all year round including a show pony and my veterans, with a good thick rug, good food and just keeping an eye out for any loss of condition they are all perfectly happy.
Infact one is now out unruged (and believe me it aint warm here in wales, ive just come home from edinburgh to wales and i'm frozen)
 
Ours live out 24/7 all year, a very mixed bunch of horses and ponies in all shapes and sizes, including a 16yo Shire X, 25 yo TBx, Dartmoor yearling and 2 34" minis among others!

The oldies are rugged, babies not. Riding ponies lightly rugged, mainly to ensure they're dry when the kids want to ride.

For feeding we treat each one individually. We have several native good doers that have had no hard feed through winter, and no supplementary forage either - and they're still very chunky! The very old and very young get supplementary feeds as needed for condition and nutrients. and ridden ponies may be fed according to their type / condition / workload.

Just check them regularly, be flexible but introduce change slowly.
 
Ours are out 24x7 year round. We had a cob that we rugged till we realised he was wrecking his rugs because he preferred to be unrugged. This was a pony stabled and rugged by its previous owner. Natives we leave year round with no rug, only our riding pony has a medium rug in the winter, but he's unrugged now.

We keep feeding them hard feed as the grass comes through, but scale it down gradually till they are on 100% grass. We think it's better for them to switch over gradually.

We don't clip them either. Towel them down if they get really sweaty but over the winter they don't get ridden for more than about 90mins at a time, and never above a steady canter.
 
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