What to do

leah_x

leah_x

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I am thinking of moving my horse, he is currently kept on a livery yard/riding school with an indoor school, an outdoor school and a bit of hacking. They go out for about 5 hours a day and get one Haynet in the evening. I pay £50 a week for this.

I am thinking of moving him onto grass livery, 2 acres for £50 a month. No schooling area but they are in the process of getting one built, but loads of hacking! The field doesn't have a shelter either.

I just wondered if anyone else has a TB out 24/7 without a field shelter, I know it sounds silly and that any horse can live out but my horse was in a racing environment for 14 years until I got him, so has always been in a stable, I don't know how he would be if I bunged him out in all weather with no shelter.
Also what do people do about schooling? It will be strange for me not to have a school!

Your thoughts on this would be so helpful :) thanks!
 
Alot of people on here have exracers out on grass livery and ours. Who raced over nine years, is out 24/7 from the first of May till the first of nov and he copes fine.......as for school get some cones label the with th menage letters and set it out in a feild if the owners will let you.
X
 
How is he keeping his weight on in the winter? My two tb's would be incredibly grumpy if I left them out in all weathers. What about his feet, is he prone to mud fever?
 
You can normally hire a school for between 10 to 20 an hour so see if this is an option, he should be able to live out fine, just devide you field up well now and only use a third of it until october /november when the grass stops growing so you will have an acre and and a third to use through winter. Find out about hay prices too, a roundbale is normally economical and you can have it delivered straight into the field. With two horse on a similar set up I was using a bale of haylage a day in the winter so work out just how much hay you will need to see if it is cheaper good luck!
 
I know two ex-racers that have lived out happily all year.

Rugged and ad lib haylage and a daily feed (something like sugarbeet).

As to shelter. What does the field offer by way of natural shelter? If not adequate, can you buy one? It could be used as a temporary stable.
 
I would give it a try, if he is not happy once winter arrives you can find somewhere else for him, he will be far happier over the summer 5 hours t/o and 1 net of hay is poor for any horse in my view and I would be looking to move to a more horse friendly yard.
 
I had my tb Out last winter with no shelter and she coped just find! 2 feeds a day and hayed 3 times a day and just rugged adequately and was fine
 
I would try riding your TB on grass first to see if he can cope ok. I moved my horses home where I don't have an arena, one is fine working on grass but my TB struggles with the uneven ground so I have to stick to hacking of hiring an arena until we can get ours built.
My TB is 21 and lived in all her life until this year but she has positively thrived living out through the winter and has only used the shelter to get out of the sun not using it at all in the wort of the rain.
 
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