turning out on a hill

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mudmonkey17

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My horse is turned out in a large field which has quite a large hill. He has arthritis but seems ok on this turnout. Do you think he would better with flatter turnout? This would mean moving yards and he is settled where he is now with excellent hacking.

I have looked at another yard with better turnout and good hacking but my bugbear here was that they would turnout in a morning but would not change rugs so horses have to stay in turnout rugs all the time.

Really don't know what to do!
 
The vets at our yard actively encouraged one owner whose horse was diagnosed with artritis to turn out on one of the hillier paddocks as it would encourage him to use his joints and keep them mobile. This field does have flat patches though so not constant hills
 
A lot will depend on where the arhritis is and how bad. My old boy was retired at 12 yrs with ligament problems and arthritis. He spent the next 9 yrs turned out 24/7 on some hilly fields. But he got very stiff and slow. I moved yards and it was going to be his last summer. But the land was flat and he improved. 3 yrs later he is still with us and we review the situation every autumn.
He did learn to slide down the steep bits on his bottom !
 
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In answer to OP, I would leave him on the hill for now, only movehim should it seem he is not coping with it, but, for now, it is probably best.
 
With new, breathable rugs, living in turnouts isn't really a problem - I don't own any stable rugs for my horse. Of course if you're not riding every day you need to take them off and check for rubs etc, but aside from that I can't envisage a situation where I'd buy stable rugs again, especially not for an older horse for whom staying warm, especially round the joints, is important (I wouldn't want to change from nice warm dry rugs to ones which have been sitting about for hours and had the time to get cold and possibly damp). So if that's your main concern about moving is the rug issue I wouldn't worry about it. In fact I'd probably want an oldy on a yard with better TO anyway, if by that you mean able to go out more.
 
My horses all live on the side of hills, with flatter bits at the bottom. They seem to cope fine and it does make them use their joints more and particularly their back ends which in turn keeps them fitter.
 
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