Winter turnout - How much/how long does your horse get?

Our yard use small fields for summer & huge fields for winter so the horse have enough grass for the whole winter & they don't trash it because it's so large.. We are very very lucky. Horses can go out as early as you like to as late as you like as long as they are stabled at night. However the full livery horse are brought in at around 3 & then they all want to come in,
 
Ours are all out for 12 hours - the natives still on their fatty paddocks which are fairly muddy but not awful as we're on sandy soil. My mare has now been released into her winter fields and so has plenty of room to charge around in, just a shame she doesn't eat any of the grass in it..!
 
Mine live out 24/7 and will continue to do so.

This

At our yard nearly all the horses live out nearly 24/7 all winter - young and old (and very old - in 30s), ponies, warmbloods and TBs (about 8 TBs) clipped (rugged) and unclipped and some naked. All look well and none of them hang round gate as they don't have the expectation of being brought in. Lucky that we have very good grazing and that it bears up well to the winter. Also have thick hedges for shelter. They do come in for a few hours in day for hay and food. My mare hates being in and isn't even eating her feed when in at the moment as they still have loads of grass.
 
Ours live out 24/7 and will do for the whole of winter.

Lucky to have lots of land on sandy soil which never ever gets muddy. Horses happy and always have plenty to eat, we only put hay down if there is a thick covering of snow.
 
24/7 too. Fields are looking great. I don't expect the fields to deteriorate until feb or later. I keep my stocking levels very low though for this very reason.

When my horses were living in they would get minimum 10 hrs turnout in winter. Every day regardless of weather
 
Top