Turning out on frozen ground?

S

skye123

Well-Known Member
Joined
5 December 2006
Messages
3,273
Location
Leicestershire/Devon
Visit site
Are you keeping your horses in at the mo with the ground? My mare is out at the moment during the day but went to get her in tonight and field was horrible.
crazy.gif

We`ve had a couple of new horses come so they have churned up the field and now its frozen completly solid. Brother nearly twisted his ankle while geting the horses in tonight plus the fact that there is pretty much no grass put in the field and we arent allowed to put hay out either
mad.gif
i`m begining to wonder if she would be better of in her stable until the ground thaws out
Trouble is i dont go down in the mornings on a tuesday a friend turns out for me and probably the most she will have time for is to put hay and water in for her and maybe skip out if she has time meaning that horse would be in all night and day until i got down yard about 5 o`clock tomorrow night (although friend would give her more hay and check her water about 3.45). School would probably be badly frozen as well so i would just have to walk her inhand to stretch her legs. Not sure what to do so what do you do in this weather?
smile.gif
 
Mine are out during the day for few hours, regardless of weather/ground conditions, but I do put out haylage. If you are not allowed to put hay on the ground maybe you could put a haynet up somewhere on the fence or a tree?
 
mine is a tough welshie and much prefers to be out regardless of ground/grass etc and luckily yard allows so she hasn't been in one day so far this winter!
 
Mine have been out every day until today - field was snow covered and there's not much grass anyway so decided to keep them in, they seemed more than happy after a 15 minute wander in paddock to come right back in and ram haylage down their throats.
 
mine are natives and are turned out, one lives out full time....they are pretty sensible and just doodle around eating hay, i think alot depends on the horse.
 
Every horse in our yard is currently stuck where it is either in or out, it rained at about midnight last night, and guess what happened to the rain......

All froze is like an icerink, had to crawl on all fours to get out of my back gate, it completely covers the whole yard. Most are trapped in, one poor sod is trapped out.

If I could turn out I would, but only for the day.

global warming!!!
 
Mine in today cos it was so slippery but usually out for 4/5 hrs. yard owner has allowed hay in field for first time this year and the horses are much more settled, less likely to hoon about and injure themselves.
 
Mine have been out 24/7 rugged, plenty hay, 2 bucket feeds and trough thawing--they look very relaxed and have not been silly on rutted ground
Driveway and yard an ice rink
 

My two today- so yes, they go out when it's frozen! In fact they still aren't coming in at night...and the unclipped one isn't rugged... yes I know I'm mean
laugh.gif


Jan09020.jpg


Jan09025.jpg
 
hi my horses go out in the field for a bout 4 hours a day but then back in the stable after that but when they go out they have got plenty of grazing! so i personally dont think there is a problem putting them out on this sort of ground just for a couple of hours a day!
 
Ours are all in, its awful as they usually get out what ever the weather but the fields are really bad. We kept them in when the freeze first started thinking that it would be gone in a couple of days but now it just wouldnt be safe to put them out as they would go mad.
 
Mine went out in the snow today but if it's frozen solid tomorrow she'll probably stay in, she can't be trusted not to bomb round her field
frown.gif
 
Ours were out yesterday but will be staying in today. Far too dangerous to walk them over the ice rink AKA our yard and along a very slippy track. The horses won't mind a bit, they will just stuff themselves with haylage all day. It's me that will be whittling about them being in 24/7!
 
All ours stayed in yesterday - it snowed intermittently all day.
Walked my mare out in hand and she only had one little 'moment' when the wind got up her tail! Managed to find some grass for her to nibble.
YM says they'll all go out today - tho he often changes his mind - so hopefully they won't gallop about too much. My mare is pretty sensible thankfully, but I'd be worried about something that was a bit mad in the field!
Moving yards on Fri, thankfully, to somewhere that the arena doesn't freeze as soon as the temperature drops!
 
Mine's out but only because I can put hay out, otherwise he would be in. It was dry and cold this morning, no ice just everything frozen solid. I would keep in if it was icy. He's got a massive pile of hay and will do little other than stand there munching it all day.
 
Mine have been in as they are far happier. They have a half hour leg stretch while I muck out and even then they stand by the gate waiting to come in. They then spend the day stuffing hay. These sports horse types are wimpy.
 
My TB is out every day from 8am till about 3pm. Have stopped putting hay down because he wanders off and leaves it and then the sheep steal it from under his nose! Luckily he has his own field, shared with the sheep, the natives that he shares the yard with are in the next door field and they are all very settled, no running around so he tends to mingle with the sheep and stays very chilled. I haven't ridden for about a month now, the flu and now the ground is either too slippy or too rutty so I'm hoping that by keeping him turned out as much as possible he won't boil over when we start hacking out again. He has two feeds a day and ad lib hay at night and so far, seems to be holding condition well. I find it easier to cope with this weather than constant rain and knee deep mud!!
 
Mine have had to stay in today as cannot get them out of their boxes as yard is a skating rink! Plus to get to field have to go down quite steet slope from the yard which is just impacted snow and ice! Grey mare couldnt give a toss - just stands and eats like a machine but poor old Gem box walking round and round!

Even the coarse mix was frozen this morning - it was -0 at 8.0am!!
 
We have clay soil, so this weather is so much easier to deal with than wet weather! They come in clean with empty feet! They are out in the day with hay, as Toffee is prone to colic if she eats frozen grass.
 
Mine were complete hooligans yesterday.

I think one has the after effects of peas fed too late for competition and was being a complete nutcase and running around taking my pride and joy with him

Pride and joy promptly fell over and has a graze and a big fetlock. Hooligan has a big knee from galloping.

They also decided to eat my mothers saplings, which was not a popular move on their behalf!

Back out today and quietly eating hay as there is no wind. I probably should have put boots on, but with horses I don't think its possible to prevent accidents.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top