Winter turn out

[Lisswiss]

Trying to learn as much as I can before purchasing; I've been reading through equestrian Facebook pages and have noticed most liveries refuse to turn out horses in winter- why is this? Feel like I'm missing something obvious..

 

[EQUIDAE]

Greed - too many stables and not enough land.

It is possible to keep horses out 24/7 in winter - it is just really expensive to manage the grazing.

Plus if horses are in they can charge extra for hay/bedding/feed and also turn out/bring in etc...

ETA - maybe greed is a strong term but in order to make it pay, grass livery would be very expensive and people wouldn't pay it. Maybe it's part yard owners, part skin flint owners?

 

[Lisswiss]

Sorry for being simple- why would it be expensive to manage grazing? (such a noob)

 

[EQUIDAE]

Sorry for being simple- why would it be expensive to manage grazing? (such a noob)

No you're not simple... Land management is complicated.

I have mine at home and each year I pay £15 and acre to top, £15 an acre to harrow, £15 an acre to roll, £15 an acre to weed spray, £15 an acre to reseed. The weed killer is £68 per 5 acres and last year I paid £400 for grass seed for 16 acres.

All in all it cost me £1500 for the spring stuff as the farmer did everything for a fixed price.

Then come hay making it works out £17 a large round bale of haylage and I took off 48 the year before - should have been about £800 but sadly it was too wet to get a cut at all

I don't want to think how much I spent on repairing fencing

 

[Lisswiss]

Would the cost be similar if you had enough space to let the field rest? Are there any articles or reading material you could point me towards regarding keeping horses at field?

 

[EQUIDAE]

Would the cost be similar if you had enough space to let the field rest? Are there any articles or reading material you could point me towards regarding keeping horses at field?

This is with letting the field rest. I have 5 horses on 16 acres (up until 8 weeks ago, only 4). There is a 13 acre 'winter' field that is rested all summer and used for hay making (and having a blast in) and then there are a further 3, 1 acre summer paddocks that get rotated during the summer and rested during the winter.

 

[Lisswiss]

Okay, thanks for the help equidae

 

[EQUIDAE]

Okay, thanks for the help equidae

You're welcome

You'll find that most livery yards have way less than the recommended 1 and a half acres per horse - hence them needing to keep the horses off the grass. I have them at home as I don't agree with this. Mine come in if the weather is really bad but most of the time they are mud monsters

I have twice the recommended minumum acreage per horse but you still have to manage the land.