Turnout banned for TWO MONTHS! WWYD?

I'm another who says to stay and see what happens, it has been an exceptionally wet year and a cold spring, the grass is late. Our horses have been confined to the stable yard and a sacrifice paddock since mid December, unprecedented and I have been there for over a decade.

Farmer put sheep on the fields over winter as they'd got really overgrown and it was so wet he couldn't harvest much hay either.Once he'd moved them he said we could start to put them out when we were ready but that we should bear in mind how wet it's been. So we thought we might stick the horses out for an hour earlier this week, just in that hour, in quite a large space, they caused a lot of damage :( so they're back to their sacrifice paddock until things firm up a bit more.
 
This is my first winter with my own land which has been a baptism of fire, to say the least!:eek::eek:

Whilst mine have been out every day, my 3.5 acres are completely trashed - I've tried to save the 1.5 acres for summer grazing but so far no grass has grown at all and deep poaching/skid marks from 2 hooning large horses in the rest means an expensive rolling/harrowing/fertilising salvage operation - not that we have been able to start that with recent rain and as I look out.... it's raining again :mad::mad::mad:

Perhaps YO's do not want to pay out for the expense of trying to repair fields and who can blame them? It's coming on top of forage/bedding costs for everyone with horses. This is a year to test everyone's commitment :o:o:o
 
If you are thinking of moving, don't do it on the basis of promises by other yards that they don't face the same issues as your current yard, or expect that things won't change at some point there too. After all your current yard was ok until this years weather.

Personally I would stick it out as it is nearly the end of winter, if you want to move, do it before next winter having had a chance to properly research all the local places and talk to a lot of their liveries about the historic grazing offering and what it's likely to be in the future.
 
I am not at livery nor do I have any liveries. I have 50 acres of my own land. In 36 years on the farm I have never seen the land in such a bad state. Half the farm has had nothing on it since November but with the snow and cold wind it is all brown and dead. Where we have turned out even a little, the fields look as though they have been ploughed.

I have harrowed and rolled the whole farm and for the first time in many many years I have had to fertilise the whole farm. We have now had rain and the temperatures are picking up but I have had to make the decision to keep everything in for the next two weeks - this includes in foal mares, weanlings and youngstock as well as the competition horses. Actually they are quite happy in their stables and either a spell on the walker or out in the school for an hour or so. When they were going out they just hung about the gates.

The big risk turning out at the moment is not only that the grass roots do not get a chance to reestablish themselves but in their search for something different to taste, the horses will chew fencing, hedges and anything and trigger off colic attacks etc.

We cannot control the weather and by everyones judgement this has been a very long and difficult winter. There is now a small window of time and weather to put right the winter's damage but if you keep turning out - often for your own benefit rather than that of the horse - then you will pay the price all summer with loss of grazing. The late spring may affect hay crop yields so it could well be prudent to take great care of all your grassland.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone!

I went and looked at another yard today, which to be honest I can't say I liked as much as my current yard. They are turning out, but I am cautious to move just for that.. Who is to say they won't have to keep in for months over summer as turn out is poor then?

It's so difficult. The yard owner I saw today was lovely though, and understood my predicament!

How is everyone else coping with keeping their horses in? I'm trying to take mine out for walks to get some grass and lunging, and he has time to wander around in the school whilst I muck out and make feeds etc.
 
I currently don't even have a school or hard standing to turn mine out in but the vet recommended that I just walk him up and down the yard a couple of times every day to stretch his legs and he seems fine with that. I have fertilized half of my paddocks so far and they are going to get turned out 24/7 in about 4 weeks so I'm hoping the grass will be great by then :o
 
I know you could say its easy for me to be judgemental as I have my own land but I am astonished at how many people feel it is OK to shut a horse in a small box for months with no interaction with other horses and little movement or exercise. I understand this has been an awful year ...I am on flood plain on clay and have had to shut them on the yard and arena for days at a time but when I was on livery we had full turnout on a hill. Keep ringing round and hopefully u will find somewhere that at least offers some turnout' if its further away u may be able to share chores or visit once a day..... I know I will probably get shot down for this but it is the horse who has to live at the yard ... And your horse would choose turnout and company....
 
I'm coming at this as both Poacher AND Gamekeeper: I'm understanding OP's dilemma as my boy was at livery a few years ago and there wasn't very much turnout there, not that it was a huge issue as it was working livery. But I do sympathise with OP's plight with not having any turnout and having huge increase in financial commitment because of it.

But as a YO I know that this year has been the Winter From Hell basically. Even the old farmers around here have never ever seen anything like the wet weather we've had. Its basically been an eighteen-month winter. Most livestock would be out in the fields by now, including horses, but we're all in a very difficult situation.

One has only to read through various whinging threads on here about YO's who HAVE dared to restrict winter grazing, to know that its never a popular move. But unfortunately it is often the only viable solution in order to preserve grass for everyone all year round. It only needs one horse to get the wind under its tail and start hooning around, and then they'll start the others off, and it doesn't take very long at all before they've poached any bit of pasture there was - THEN the YO says OK so no turnout, or restricts it, knowing that there simply won't be any grazing unless this happens, and then everyone moans like merry bvggery about it and the YO is demonised and the witch-hunt on here kicks off!!

There isn't any simple solution or fix - YO's are doing their very best, and farmers quite frankly are under intense pressure at the moment and probably the plight of a few horses isn't, TBH, high on their agenda right now. They have to preserve what grass they can; some have to manure, plough/harrow & seed their land (which normally would have been done last autumn) - AND pay sky-high prices to feed their stock which should be outside at the moment.

So YO's/farmers are in a no-win at the moment.

The other observation I would make is that the grass always looks greener the other side of the fence......... its easy to go to somewhere else and they'll promise the earth - but its the delivery of that which is the important thing. Just a thought.
 
I'd be happy to turn my good doer out on a bald patch of scrub land.

I don't need lovely, lush green stuff that splats their feet and damages their gut ;)

I think the 'terrible' land this season may just save a few horses from lami :o
 
[QUOTE
I think the 'terrible' land this season may just save a few horses from lami :o[/QUOTE]

Don't you think that when the grass does come through it is going to go bananas? My fields are as wet as they have ever been, then they got very dry last week and the little bit of grass that was there got burned off by the cold and it all went brown and dead. It was quite warm (and wet!)yesterday and is 19 degrees today and it is noticeably greener in a few hours.
 
LCH611 said:
[QUOTE
I think the 'terrible' land this season may just save a few horses from lami :o
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Don't you think that when the grass does come through it is going to go bananas? My fields are as wet as they have ever been, then they got very dry last week and the little bit of grass that was there got burned off by the cold and it all went brown and dead. It was quite warm (and wet!)yesterday and is 19 degrees today and it is noticeably greener in a few hours.[/QUOTE]

I am also concerned that being off grass for such a long time will mean they will all need easing back onto it - my lami prone fatty will only be going out for a couple of hours a day at first, if I put him out full time straight away his hooves will drop off!
 
meesha said:
I know you could say its easy for me to be judgemental as I have my own land but I am astonished at how many people feel it is OK to shut a horse in a small box for months with no interaction with other horses and little movement or exercise. I understand this has been an awful year ...I am on flood plain on clay and have had to shut them on the yard and arena for days at a time but when I was on livery we had full turnout on a hill. Keep ringing round and hopefully u will find somewhere that at least offers some turnout' if its further away u may be able to share chores or visit once a day..... I know I will probably get shot down for this but it is the horse who has to live at the yard ... And your horse would choose turnout and company....
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You can be as judgemental as you like but years ago you wouldn't have been.

Where I kept my horses 70/80's there was no turnout from autumn until after the hay was cut and that was pretty normal. Everybody accepted that you didn't put the horses out when they could churn up the ground.
 
Personally I wouldnt have agreed to even the 2 weeks full stabling! Turnout is the most important thing IMO, its a basic need for a horse which so many people seem to forget! Id move immediately.
 
Aarrghimpossiblepony said:
You can be as judgemental as you like but years ago you wouldn't have been.

Where I kept my horses 70/80's there was no turnout from autumn until after the hay was cut and that was pretty normal. Everybody accepted that you didn't put the horses out when they could churn up the ground.
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But then everyone wised up and realised that its a basic need for a horse and is extremely important mentally and physically. Too many people are stuck in the dark ages! Livery yards clearly take on too many horses for the amount of land they have, simple.
 
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I am also astonished that people are having to keep their horses in for 4/6 months this seems incredible to me. I am very lucky that i have my own 12ish acres divided into summer and winter grazing, we also take a hay crop to see me thru the winter but i have had 3 large horses all in work and a pony out 24/7 this winter they have been in probably a total of 6 nights but still out in the day. In the dry period about 6 weeks ago i rolled our hay fields and moved horses to about 3 acres between them , yes the gates are muddy but rest of field is fine. Also all my horsy neighbours who are farming families with about 10 horses/ponies each have had theirs out 24/7 all winter. I do suspect that yards are simply overstocking with horses for the amount of grazing available.
 
I would have started looking for a new yard pretty soon after being told that.

Having had the luxury of keeping my pony at home on a 3 acre field that she only shared with a few sheep, a lot of livery yard grazing makes me shudder with horror. At the yard I have my loan pony at, most of the liveries have their own 20 x 20 (ish) metre pen. Even in the the summer they had to have haynets out there as there wasn't enough grass.

I agree with MagicMelon, a lot of yards have too many horses for the amount of land they have. The place I'm at certainly does. I've found another yard to keep my horse (subject to vetting on Thurs!) at, with grazing being 95% of the reason I decided to find somewhere else.
 
This is why I left livery yards behind and moved to a little farm with just me as my friend and our horses. I was so sick of seeing my horse stood in cos it was too frosty/wet/windy/rainy etc. He was thoroughly miserable and so was I.
 
Aarrghimpossiblepony said:
Where I kept my horses 70/80's there was no turnout from autumn until after the hay was cut and that was pretty normal. Everybody accepted that you didn't put the horses out when they could churn up the ground.
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Around here, almost all livery yards still close the fields Nov - May.

It's rare to find a yard that does winter turnout on more than an ad-hoc basis :(.

Many only offer restricted turnout in summer too.

I see many owners of competition horses who don't believe turnout is necessary for even young horses?!

They chuckle and shake their heads when the young horse freaks out at the end of the lead rope at it's own shadow.....they don't see it as a horrible sign that the horse is seriously stressed out.
 
I am too astonished that people can keep their horses in. I would feel so so guilty if they were kept in.

I have 4 horses living out on 7 acres they can walk in/out of stables.

I then have 3 competition horses that live out at night in summer (april-october) and out during the day in winter (8-4)

I have 2 liveries both individual t/o both have 2 acres and liveries t/o 8-4 could keep out at night if wanted.

I think my liveries get it quite good! I would rather not have a horse than see it kept in! I would find another yard. We are seeding and harrowing but fencing off the area that is seeded, will then alternate in six weeks or so.
 
Leg_end said:
This is not the year to make decisions about moving due to no grazing as everyone is in the same /worse boat.
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No they're not, I'm sorry! Ours are at home and they have been out for some part of every day except the week that we were snowed in. If there isn't enough grass available it's because it's over-grazed/badly managed. I hate individual paddocks and this just shows how unsuitable they are. If the horses were grazing in a herd, they would be using no more than half of the fields. If YOu advertises /takes money for stables and grazing, that is what he should be providing.
 
Aarrghimpossiblepony said:
Where I kept my horses 70/80's there was no turnout from autumn until after the hay was cut and that was pretty normal. Everybody accepted that you didn't put the horses out when they could churn up the ground.
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In those days most 'hobby' horses were hunted, so were stabled and in hard work over the winter. Many ponies lived out 24/7, so it certainlywasn't accepted that they would be stabled all winter. When was your hay cut? It sounds as if your horses were in all year round.

ETA, OP I'd be looking for somewhere to move to, asap
 
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Wow how aweful mine are out over here 24/7 would hate to have to shut them in for that long. It persiting down out there but horses are all warm and our paddocks always bounce back with low maintenance.
 
I would move.

I wouldn't expect 24/7 turn out, but day turnout I think is reasonable.

I do know there are some people who are happy to keep their horses in and ride them, but for me, I would also rather have turnout than a school, IMO it is an absolute must for horses to socialise/wander around etc.

This year has been exceptional and no-one expects lashings of grass, but I think landowner should have been a bit more organised long before now.
 
I assume that most of the people on here think battery hens are awful? Even the new 'enhanced cages' are still cruel?
So what is the difference between no turnout and a battery cage? I have my horses at home, out 24/7, 3 horses on 2 acres, in winter they normally get the hay fields as well but being water meadows they were just too yuck this year. My fields are all fine.
The yard I work at has 14 horses on, I would guess, 8 acres and have had turnout all year, some out 24/7 and the most daytime only. This is all on proper Essex clay as well.
It can be done with good management.
 
I've had my 4 out on 8acres 8am-4pm over the winter & we are on the Lincs Wolds, with very free draining chalky land. I've never seen my fields so dire - half the grass just disappeared under a foot of mud - we never ever usually have mud, as fields are on a slight hill.

BUT... from what the scientists are saying, this winter will become the 'norm'. Extreme weathers in summer (droughts etc) to polar opposite in winter, so Y/o's need to make provisions for turnout, most people would prefer hard standing, or a barn style turnout than cooped up 24/7.

And thank goodness for this bit of rain, we have had none for weeks and weeks, the land was rock hard, but the winter paddocks will recover now with a bit of tlc.

OP I hope your horse is able to go out now.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
No they're not, I'm sorry! Ours are at home and they have been out for some part of every day except the week that we were snowed in. If there isn't enough grass available it's because it's over-grazed/badly managed. I hate individual paddocks and this just shows how unsuitable they are. If the horses were grazing in a herd, they would be using no more than half of the fields. If YOu advertises /takes money for stables and grazing, that is what he should be providing.
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At our yard we had tonnes of grass but we also had thick, deep mud which is why turnout was restricted as its a danger to the horses and the future viability of the land. People will only moan when they have to negotiate ankle breaking hard craters when (if) it ever dries out!

From the amount of posts on here I'd still say people were in the same boat.. Unless they are lucky enough to have their own land to use as they choose.
 
Poor OP - you have my sympathy.

We were reduced to 2 hours a day while fields were very wet and since most of the horses in my boy's field are treated like My Little Ponies and kept out of the wet, cold and wind, the owners are happy with that. Even now most of them bring in after 3 or 4 hours. I hate my new loan horse being so restricted so I lunge, hand graze or use horse walker in the monring, he goes out in the afternoon and I ride in the evening.

Its the fighting that goes on when there is no grass, and we arent allowed to put hay out, that worries me. Before I took my own horse away in January he had been in fights everyday! There were 7 horses in 3 acres of the winter field.

But finding an alternative is so hard here -with 2 big horses and wanting good turn out I have really struggled! But I move next week - hooray!

I think more yards should try and set up a solid based turnout area where hay can be fed, but its down to space and cost of course.
 
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