Would you send your horse on 'holiday'

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littlen

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Just wondering really.

As some of you might know I am really struggling with my horse. He has lost so much weight as we have little or no grazing. I am spending a fortune on feed/haylage and am not seeing results.

A lady roughly 10 miles away has offered my a field with her 3 ponies on 15 acres where he can live out for 2-4 weeks on very good grazing. He wouldnt be ridden just checked daily.

Would you send your horse away from its yard for a period of time?
How quickly would a horse settle into its new routine and would it e hard for it trying to settle back home? Would it forget its first home or am I just being silly about it?
He is a very stressy horse and it took him months to settle last time.

Is 4 weeks long enough to see a noticeable improvement? Would the horse not deteriorate once it came back?
 
My horses are going on 'holiday' this year!! My mare is going to Yorkshire to stay with a friend who lost her horse, so that she can ride with her kids over the Summer holidays (I can't ride much whilst the kids are off school). My pony is going out on loan on 2nd August, so I can't have the 3 year old on his own, so he is going on grass livery at the same place as the pony for the summer too!!!

I will still be looking after him but he won't be at 'home'....

I think it is worth a try.....I am sure you will soon know if he is going to settle or not.....
 
Presumably the vet has checked him over and you're happy that there's nothing particularly wrong with him. I also presume that you have checked the standard of the grazing and fences etc and are happy for him to be turned out on the new field.

In which case I would send him on holiday. Check him as often as you think necessary to satisfy yourself that he's settled, integrated and eating well and see what happens. You can always bring him back if it doesn't work out.
 
I sent my horse to my riding instructors yard for two weeks whilst I went on holiday. I was abroad for the first week, and then came back to ride him the second week. Its a much smaller yard than he is used to, and he was ridden daily, but he settled immediately. I was thrilled at how well he behaved.

However, now he is back on his larger/busier/more manic yard he is much more unsettled and unhappy...

I am now looking to move full time to a smaller yard as he's obviously not happy.

So its worth considering that he might settle in fine at the new place but not so well when he comes back!

Good luck!
 
Pardon me for asking Blythwind, I'm curious about your username. I used to have a horse from the Blythwind Stud and wondered if you had any connection. She was my horse of a lifetime, I never got the chance to tell her previous owner how well she did.
 
15 acres of good grass, 24/7 turn out, no work and three pony friend? - I suspect he might not want to come home!

My boys are on 'holiday' in a friends field down the road (as lawn mowers) and as happy as larry. however they do have each other - it will take a while for your boy to settle if the ponies aren't welcoming.
 
Blythwind said:
I sent my horse to my riding instructors yard for two weeks whilst I went on holiday. I was abroad for the first week, and then came back to ride him the second week. Its a much smaller yard than he is used to, and he was ridden daily, but he settled immediately. I was thrilled at how well he behaved.

However, now he is back on his larger/busier/more manic yard he is much more unsettled and unhappy...

I am now looking to move full time to a smaller yard as he's obviously not happy.

So its worth considering that he might settle in fine at the new place but not so well when he comes back!

Good luck!
Click to expand...

I was just thinking the same thing when reading the OP, thats what id be more worried about i think?
 
Mine went on holiday this year, only for about 10 days though, because I was away with work. My YO has more land a few miles away from the yard so he went there to live with her horses and was happy as larry. I think he really enjoyed his time off and he has definitely come back home and into work in a far better mood than he went away in!

Settled straight away, but then he was with horses he mostly already knows anyway.
 
My pony used to go on hols for 1 month after pony club camp every year. The yard we were at had very very limited grazing, so he went to live out for a month----- he never really wanted to come home!!
 
Yes, I would send my horse away for a period if I believed this would help a situation.

(For very different reasons, but I'm considering moving mine for 3 months to a busier yard with better facilities, for schooling and desensitisation purposes)
 
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