Who still isnt turning out?

[Flowerofthefen]

I've been very lucky in that my horses have been out most mornings all winter, except for when it's been absolutely piddling down. This last week or so my totally bay horse with not a speck of white has had mudfever, we then found a corn. His soles are sooo soft due to this wet weather. Horse now in until fields have dried or I'm asking for trouble with feet and legs. Just as we are supposed to be get-out and about more in spring!! Mud fever is now resolved , and farrier has sorted corn as much as possible so at least I can ride. Its just looking like along time before he can go out in the field again. Are many of you still keeping your horses in?

 

[Petmurf]

I’m keeping mine in a couple of times a week to dry his feet and feathers out, touch wood we’ve avoided mud fever.

 

[Bellalily]

Feet adjust to all weathers very well. This is a great read. https://hoofgeek.com/weatherproof-hoof/

 

[humblepie]

Am lucky mine has been able to go out all winter. Occasionally a short day if weather horrid as he isn’t a fan of horizontal rain.

 

[SEL]

My own fields so I trash at my cost, but the livery yards nearby are on restricted turnout - everything is sodden and next week's weather won't help.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Still very wet here.

I got the vet out to the senior PPID mare as she had gone footsore, and I feared laminitic rotation and the end. She has thin soles anyway.

X rays were clear, vet said that a lot of horses are suffering with soft soles due to the wet, and recommended Keratex hoof hardener. A month in and she is much more comfortable again.

Worth a try? Apply daily to dry feet for a week then twice a week thereafter. Mare lives out bar a couple of hours in chilling after breakfast.

 

[Gloi]

Still on sand paddock turnout
Two years ago this week were out on fields .

 

[little_critter]

Ours aren’t going out yet. Luckily we have hard standing turnout areas they can mooch in, and they are allowed to let off steam in the school.

 

[Needtoretire]

I allow trash patches for my livery horses, but my own horses are in and worked daily. I have plenty of fresh unused grazing which will need to dry out considerably before I even think about allowing horses on it.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Still very wet here.

I got the vet out to the senior PPID mare as she had gone footsore, and I feared laminitic rotation and the end. She has thin soles anyway.

X rays were clear, vet said that a lot of horses are suffering with soft soles due to the wet, and recommended Keratex hoof hardener. A month in and she is much more comfortable again.

Worth a try? Apply daily to dry feet for a week then twice a week thereafter. Mare lives out bar a couple of hours in chilling after breakfast.

Thank you. Farrier suggested keratex so I started it a few days ago. Glad to hear it's working for you.

 

[Bobthecob15]

Ours are out today…they’ve only been out 3 days this week. Most weeks it’s the same as we are on clay and it’s so boggy…

We have a horsewalker, turnout pen and the arena so they all go out twice a day on either the walker, arena loose or pen. Am and Pm. Days like today they can be in the field all day and it’s lovely. It’s a compromise where we are but the horses are happy enough they have as lib hay in stables and they all get ridden most days too.

I’ve stopped feeling guilty about it, no mud fever, horses are happy and once it finally dries up they will be out overnight and in during the day for summer-autumn x

 

[meleeka]

One of mine is still on a hardstanding pen as she’s been on box rest and the field is just too muddy for her to be safe. It has dried out loads today, so if we could just have a bit more of this it would be wonderful. I tell her every day it’s only for another week

 

[Orangina]

Some of mine are out 24/7 other than when the weather is really horrible overnight then they come in. We have a loan pony that the owners want in at nights so he comes in every night along with a companion.
I am in Scotland though so this level of rain is normal for us! Bottom of field is very muddy and we are on clay but top of field is totally fine. I do have some hardstanding tracks and areas around gates and also a field shelter with concrete floor but they don't really tend to use them.

 

[Esmae]

Mine are still in at night. Just waiting for a weather window to turn out for the summer. I like them in at night through the winter so that they can dry their feet and generally have a rest.

 

[Jambarissa]

Mine are in massive hilly fields which we allow to get trashed in the hope they won't have so much grass over summer. It may have gone to far this year though!

A couple who have their own turnout paddocks haven't put them out yet but most have at least given them an hour or two on dry days.

 

[spotty_pony2]

Mine are out for nine hours a day now, can count on one hand how many days they haven’t been turned out this winter but I realise I am lucky because they are at home. Fields have held up well it’s just the gateways but I’d rather they get out if they can than stay in.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Mine are out for nine hours a day now, can count on one hand how many days they haven’t been turned out this winter but I realise I am lucky because they are at home. Fields have held up well it’s just the gateways but I’d rather they get out if they can than stay in.

I would rather mine out but with the problems I've had these last few weeks and the fact I would be turning them back out into a swap , I think I will keep in for at least another week. We have rain forecast all week though so not sure what the fields will be like after that!

 

[poiuytrewq]

Mine are out for nine hours a day now, can count on one hand how many days they haven’t been turned out this winter but I realise I am lucky because they are at home. Fields have held up well it’s just the gateways but I’d rather they get out if they can than stay in.

Same. My gateway is actually fine. I can go through it in trainers. My problem weirdly is half way down the field (triangle on a hill) it gets suddenly wet. I think there’s bit of a spring.
So mine are and have been out pretty much every night still except for one week when it was torrential rain over night and I switched them round to in over night and out in the day.
I have reached the point where I’m getting a bit worried about how it’s going to come back
There’s just nothing out there but then again my horses don’t need much so that’s not the very end of the world I guess.

 

[Fluffypiglet]

No turn out in sight for me. (Heavy clay) fields are soup and puddles with very little grass showing. Dreadful winter and then it’s probably going to go hot and dry which will still mean no real grass. I hate it.

 

[Bobthecob15]

No turn out in sight for me. (Heavy clay) fields are soup and puddles with very little grass showing. Dreadful winter and then it’s probably going to go hot and dry which will still mean no real grass. I hate it.

Hang in there, it will get better!!!

Amazing how variable the turnout situation is depending on where you live and how much land you have

 

[catembi]

Mine are still on the hardstanding, which is about the area of a 40 x 40 arena, but a much more interesting shape. I have sloping clay fields and have a walk up them now & then to see how they're doing. Unfortunately the ground is still squishing as I walk, with the water coming up. It sounds really cruel to keep them off it, but if I turned them out, they would do an irreparable amount of damage in a few hours. I am despairing of ever being able to turn out! It's improving very slightly, but now we're predicted a week of rain.

 

[DabDab]

Feet adjust to all weathers very well. This is a great read. https://hoofgeek.com/weatherproof-hoof/

That is just an opinion piece with no real scientific content . Of course diet and hormonal changes play a part in the quality of hoof and there absolutely might be seasonal variations in those factors that account for spring sensitivity etc. However, the variation in mechanical properties of various parts of the equine hoof as a result of changes in moisture content, plus the impact of environmental conditions on the hoof's prevailing moisture content (particularly in the hoof sole) are both relatively well known and researched phenomena.

Also the 'design flaw' argument, really? Horses were not designed, they evolved, and even putting aside how much humans have messed with that evolution without a great deal of consideration for hoof health, I doubt that they would ever have evolved to be optimised for standing ankle deep in mud for 3 months at a time.

 

[Bobthecob15]

Mine are still on the hardstanding, which is about the area of a 40 x 40 arena, but a much more interesting shape. I have sloping clay fields and have a walk up them now & then to see how they're doing. Unfortunately the ground is still squishing as I walk, with the water coming up. It sounds really cruel to keep them off it, but if I turned them out, they would do an irreparable amount of damage in a few hours. I am despairing of ever being able to turn out! It's improving very slightly, but now we're predicted a week of rain.

Honestly don’t beat yourself up over it, you are doing your best to protect your horses and your fields… these conditions are unprecedented. The horses will be fine and return to fields when safe to do so. I think there is a lot of negative attitudes towards keeping horses off the fields but in some instances we just have to.

Certainly feel there is going to need to be a shift in how we manage turnout in the future with climate change etc x

 

[sport horse]

Walked across two of my turnout fields on Friday. They have not had a horse on them since October and from a distance look like lovely green frassy fields. However, in reality they are paddy fields and if anything was turned out they would be mud heaps. A dry week and they will be perfect so we wait on. We are on top of a massive hill but a clay topped hill - even the adjacent arable field is under water. Luckily (or planned over many years) we have a walker, three sand turnout areas and everything is ridden daily.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Then as it starts to dry out we get the tendon sucking mud!! I remember one year, when my horse wouldn't go out for even 10 mins, he didn't actually get out in the field until May it was that wet. This year has been worse though.

 

[catembi]

That's what my fields are like, Sport Horse! They look lovely and green but are in fact paddy fields! They would be trashed if *I* ran about on them, let alone my herd!

 

[sport horse]

Then as it starts to dry out we get the tendon sucking mud!! I remember one year, when my horse wouldn't go out for even 10 mins, he didn't actually get out in the field until May it was that wet. This year has been worse though.

That's what my fields are like, Sport Horse! They look lovely and green but are in fact paddy fields! They would be trashed if *I* ran about on them, let alone my herd!

Flowerofthefen, that is why catembi & I do not turn out - at least we do not have to wait to dry deep mud out and then harrow & roll in the 15 minute window of it being dry enough and not too dry!

 

[sport horse]

That's what my fields are like, Sport Horse! They look lovely and green but are in fact paddy fields! They would be trashed if *I* ran about on them, let alone my herd!

Even my great dane left foot marks!!

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I turn out every day apart from Xmas day, we have a winter field for 3 months and rotate every 3 months.

I am a firm believer horses need to be out unless injury, I would rather have a trashed field than confined horses. Horses need to be out even for 2 hours. I know yards where they have got to be in 6 weeks + in the winter. I have 8 animals on less than that acres, yet mine still all go out. I think it is wrong to confine them, we put MOT type one in the gate ways and that is hard, also add we wont do 24 hr turnout ever, so all go out 7.30am - 4pm. .

Then again obviously if my fields were on clay or such I would do something different but they would still go out even just an hour.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I turn out every day apart from Xmas day, we have a winter field for 3 months and rotate every 3 months.

I am a firm believer horses need to be out unless injury, I would rather have a trashed field than confined horses. Horses need to be out even for 2 hours. I know yards where they have got to be in 6 weeks + in the winter. I have 8 animals on less than that acres, yet mine still all go out. I think it is wrong to confine them, we put MOT type one in the gate ways and that is hard, also add we wont do 24 hr turnout ever, so all go out 7.30am - 4pm. .

Then again obviously if my fields were on clay or such I would do something different but they would still go out even just an hour.

I agree, it's best they are out but sometimes it just isn't possible. If I had a dryish level field I wouldn't hesitate to turn out. He will have to wait until its dry. He is ridden and hand walked for grass and also stretches his legs in the school so hopefully that will be just enough for now.