winter turnout at your yard

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kez1001

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i had to move to a new yard at start of summer this year as moved in with OH and for several reasons had to move close to his family so we are in a fairly built up area and land is sparse. At my previous yard we had TO all year round 24 hours in summer and when YO felt grazing was becoming poor we went onto winter pasture and in at night. They all got out most days, usually from around 8am to 3/4pm when usually they wanted to come in as the nights drew in and the grazing became poorer and grass stopped growing.

New yard has limited TO even in the summer, they are out from 9-3 monday to friday, weekends you can put them out when you want but not allowed out overnight. this is far from ideal but i graze horse in hand after he is ridden and at the moment they are still out.

My problem is that they come in at the end of october and dont get out again til end of april!!!! there is a rough paddock that is approx 10mx15m with some grazing but it wont last long with all the horses in the yard getting in it every day! I just dont think this is enough. I was thinking of going up first thing and putting him out for an hour (probably cant be any longer due to others wanting to use paddock) and then back at lunch time to do another hour then ride then graze in hand but really i think i may have to just look further away for liviery. Seen a lovely yard advertised 22 miles away but think this is too far. Current yard less than 2 miles from house but i just cant deal with no TO for that long. Going to speak to YO about possibilty of using different paddock as many of the liveries would like TO. We do have indoor and outdoor schools though indoor gets dusty and outdoor gets deep when heavy rain. We also have a horse walker however with a 4yo TB the last thing i want is him too fit to be ridden? what to do??

So for those who made it this far :rolleyes: how much TO do you have at your yard? if its restricted how do you manage it? how do your horses cope?

bacon butties for everyone :D
 
I have no restrictions on turnout at my yard all year round. I can not imagine it any other way, I think horses need fresh air and the exercise of being out grazing for at least the day time. Its a tough one, 22miles is a very long way. Is there nothing else at all any nearer?
 
mine goes out everyday all day in winter. (im well aware we are very lucky)....

but theres no way on this planet would i be keeping my horse in and on restricted - id move before then....

what about grass livery? or another yard close - 22 miles is a long way!!..
 
it is a real tuff one. i have a few ideas - a yard close to work but still 12miles from home, though 2 miles from work, dont know much about the place though will pop up this week. all the other yards near us are in the same situation i really am looking at a ten mile plus trek i think, we are just so close to the city! :( really not what i want.
 
I have my horses at home, and have tons of turnout, however the two bigger horses get really bad mudrash, to the extent that they get lymphangitis very quickly, and our land is very poor draining clay soil. So we end up turning out in a small winter paddock that is 15x35m, as it has hardcore underneath. They get one to two hours in this, and can at least have a kick around. They usually also get ridden four times a week, but may not this year as I'm injured. At weekends they get turnout boots and get to go in the big field for a mad run round! The mudrash can cope with one day in the field without too many flare ups. Its not ideal, but they do ok on it. One of them was four when we started this system.

A couple of yards near me don't have turnout, and they turn them out in the school daily, or ride, or lunge. The stables are mostly indoor too, which sounds a ver un natural existance to me, however most seem to do very well there.. Some people spoke to local farmers and renta winter turnout paddock nearby. Could you do that?
 
I have no restrictions at all on turnout. I can leave him out 24/7 in winter If i want, but I don't. Even in the snow I'm left to decide myself. Could not cope with mine in 24/7 during winter. I don't think it does them any good standing in for that length of time.
 
I am a yard owner and we turn out all year round, even in deep snow and pouring rain. Ours are all still out 24/7 although the owners can bring them inif they want. i am happy for 24/7 until we move into winter grazing - normally November time. However if the weather gets really foul we will bring in at night. then they are in at about 5 and go back out about 8.00am. I occasionaly leave my old horse in because he does hate the cold and wet. But otherwise everything is out whatever the weather.
 
I am lucky as I rent 2 seperate acres with my stable. I have one summer and aone winter field so I pretty much can do what I want.

Even in the worst weather, Wal goes out for at least 6 - 7 hours a day.
 
Couldn't cope with turnout that limited. All mine go out every day - unless they refuse to! They are out 24/7 for about 6 months then most are in at night over winter. I don't have tons of grazing but it can be managed if you're careful. I'd be talking to the YO to see if they can't come up with a better plan, or move. Good luck.
 
We are very lucky as we rent a private yard and our horses can be out 24/7 365 days a year. They have free access to their stables but tend to be out in the worst of the weather, it's the sun which makes them come in for some shade.

Previously we've always been at yards where 24/7 turnout in summer and turnout every day in winter but in at night.

They wintered out for the first time last year and now although they do get shut in for the odd day or night if the weather is really bad, they are dead keen to get back out as soon as possible. So your limited turnout would be a real no no for us, although of course I appreciate it is difficult at many yards because of inadequate grazing.

My inclination would be to keep looking for somewhere else and in the meantime your plan of grazing your horse in hand when you can sounds like a good one. Good luck in finding somewhere which suits you both.
 
I am very lucky in the fact that we have our own land - three have 24/7 turn out all year round, and two of them (only have 2 stables ;) ) come in at night from November - March. They get turned out every day without fail though, regardless of weather prob for 9-12 hours.

I don't get why people have horse walkers but no turnout (well, because of space I woudl imagine) but I don't need a horse walker, my horse can do that all by himself in the field! :D

But again, we are lucky in that our field has shelter (natural and artificial) and is on a hill, so there is always drier ground for them to stand on :)
 
We allow the liveries to have 24/7 turnout in the summer. In the winter we try to get the horses out everyday as that way they stay sane, turnout is normally 8.30 - 3.30. There are odd days when we don't turnout like tomorrow when the hunt will be around, and when there is snow we don't either. I think last winter there was probably 10 days when we didn't turnout at all.

However, it does annoy me when people don't listen to their horses. We had one livery who just paced all day everyday in the winter because she didn't want to be out. In the end I had to have a word and then she only went out for an hour a day and was happy as larry. My own horses (2 that are in full work) are in 24/7 in the winter because they do NOT want to be out. There are also a few liveries who are the same and stay in. And I don't blame them, they are domestic animals not wild.

BTW the walker shouldn't make your horse fit, after all it only stretches their legs but don't put him on for over 30 mins a day, it is so bad for them if they're on there for longer.
 
That doesn't sound ideal for a young Thoroughbred. At my current yard, we have turnout 24/7 from April-October and turnout (weather permitting) during the day and stabled at night from October-April. My boys haven't been out all weekend because of the weather and the fields being too wet. I'm not too happy about having limited turnout and as this is my first winter at this yard, I'm not sure how my horses will cope with it so will just have to see how it goes. Last winter they were turned out everyday for a few hours regardless of weather although there were a couple of days when the ground was so bad that I kept them in.
 
Turnout is pretty much up to us, but gets v wet and boggy in worst weather and not good for hooves so the more delicate ones stay in. Two of mine in at mo (one 'cause slips in field when wet and injures herself (fields on serious hill lol), and one 'cause her grass-free paddock is currently a grass-free bog!), and they go on walker during day for an hour, then ridden in evening and are fine with that. When I see the chance to, they go out in the school for a potter around too.
 
Poor you.....what an awful dilemma to be in, if it were me I would look for somewhere else for the winter where he could be out all day at least as a young 4 year old shouldn't be cooped up that much, and I agree with MillionDollar about the horsewalker 15 mins a day is enough for a youngster. I would rather travel a long way and know that he is out with company well rugged up, access to shelter and a large pile of hay than cooped up in a box possibly getting very stressed and starting stable vices.

Sure, there are some competition horses in full work that don't like being out too much (my best friend has one) but they are few and far between.

Best of luck.
 
I have my own yard with use of a friends land as well. I turn my smaller ponies out 24/7 all year round as long as the grazing can cope with them. This year we have extra grazing as my friends mare is a lami so can't go on it at the moment.

My two veterans are back on my yard and the one has stabling issues so one is in at night and theother has the run of my yard so she is happy, I also leave the gate to our riding paddock open so she can go out if she wants.

I don't like keeping my horses in 24/7 for any time of year so I personally would try and move somewhere more suitable. Saying that it depends on the area and it may not be any different else where.
 
thanks guys i dont think it is looking likely that YO will provide winter TO so i think i am going to have to definately look elsewhere, there are quite a few farms not too far away that one of my friends know, he does contract work driving machinary so knows lots of farmers, so might see if anyone could help me out with hiring a paddock. Its soo hard to find somewhere in this area might start another thread about livery in nearby area to see if anyone can help me out. My boy is such a sweetheart and he looked bored in his box tonight its nice and dry out and he just wanted to stay out and munch :(

thanks again off to start another thread
 
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