WWYD if you found out your horse wasnt having the turnout it

In Britain mud is inevitable. We all get a lot of rain, some more than others, so mud is just something we all have to put up with. However, if a field is overly muddy then the horse should have access to hay.

OP you need to have a good chat with your YO - it is not acceptable if he is not getting turnout so you need to find a solution with them. If it is the case that he hasn't been turned out then you need to make it very clear that you should have been consulted.
 
I agree with the poster who suggested turning out without a rug on. If as you say the fence is well electrified then you should find he is a lot more respectful of it without a rug, and if he is heading towards chubby as you say then going rugless for a while may help stop the weight gain.

Hope the chat with your YO went well anyway. :)
 
Well there are two options... The HHO "oh my god I would be so mad if be shouting and screaming at YO in fact I think I would actually kill her then move yards",

Or the normal way, just ask them if he's been turned out, and if not what was the reason for it. Getting mad wont get you anyway, being polite will.
 
FrankieCob said:
But he has previously been in a similar ish situation and has never gone through electric before, except for once when the energiser had been stolen and so the electric was obviously off. The only thing thats changed is hes rugged now, so he may have chanced his arm...
where for him to be turned out as all the winter fields are fenced on at least one side with electric!
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You need to get this sorted. If they are reluctant to turn him out again then suggest that you buy electric fencing and build him a paddock within the paddock or next to the paddock and put a good battery on it or maybe reinforce the current fencing with another strip of wire or something?

If the power WAS off then it would explain things. If the power wasn't off then you might need to 'scare him' a bit by deliberately putting a bit of fence on his nose so he gets shocked the once and this may be enough to put him off (you have to be cruel to be kind, I'd rather mine was shocked like this a couple of times then he couldn't go out at all). I used to 'frighten' my horse whenever the battery was down by disconnecting it and then touching the fence and going 'ouch' and pulling my hand back. His eyes would go really wide with suprise and horror and he would jerk back and then look at me quite sympathetically and all sorry for me thinking i had been zapped! But he wouldn't be willing to risk the same happening to him and would stay well away from it!


I am really glad that he is fine with electric fencing now and respects it again as when I moved to the yard he went out without there being electric on and got wise to this and like you say, rug on didn't feel it. Even in the summer a little shock to a 17hh horse is quite acceptable if there is an area next door to the paddock with plentiful grass on it!
 
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wench said:
Well there are two options... The HHO "oh my god I would be so mad if be shouting and screaming at YO in fact I think I would actually kill her then move yards",

Or the normal way, just ask them if he's been turned out, and if not what was the reason for it. Getting mad wont get you anyway, being polite will.
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Like this ,
I makes me laugh when I read all I would hit / scream at / generally behave in a completely out of control two year old type answer .
It confirms to that a high percentage of people at livery yards have problems controlling themselves and there's no suprise therefore livery yards seem ( based what you read here ) not very happy places.
 
Personally I would move the fact I wasn't told would annoy me too much. What else do they fail to tell.
As for going through electric fencers horses are horses and you can not expect them to stay on the rubbish grass side of a piece of tape. Either take the rug off and let the horse have a proper shock or move somewhere with proper fencing. My mare is the ultimate Houdini. I have seen her jump fences, pull posts out of the ground by her mouth or just walk over it. If she knows she can get to better food she will. I have sewed electric tape to her rugs and at my yard we have just increased the voltage. My yo on the other hand understands and insists on horses being turned out 8-4 without fail she also laughs at naughty pony when she finds a new way to get in to the summer grass :) but I also know she is saving up to post and rail those bits, bonus of Being on a private yard not a business.
As for mud this is the great British isles deal with it ;)
 
Its so so hard to find other livery yards, especially at this time of year - trust me i know ! - and you do have to wonder if yards are good then its rare they have spaces. Must admit after my recent experiances it will be DIY for me for quite a while !
 
What was the agreement when you moved to the yard?
Maybe 30 mins is normal.

I'd check what I'd happening with the manager.

I would not keep my horse on a yard with such bad turnout.
 
i was at a livery yard with big indoor arena, nice boxes etc and yo said before i moved my horse in, that she could have daily turnout..luckily i am diy so could turn out myself BUT yo changed which field she could be in and she wouldnt settle on her own as the field was so far away from the yard and nothing else was out....i moved to a yard with no manege but had a stable and grazing 24/7 in summer and daily in winter so a no brainer for me, my horses quality of life is most important... OP MOVE!!!!!
 
I'd be more annoyed that the YO had not mentioned to me that there was a problem with turning him out so that we could work out the best way to deal with it rather than them just doing what they want to without informing you.
 
just to clarify, the **** was me calling him a bug ger! Not IMHO an offensive word for a fatcob who I adore beyond words who quite often gets called WAY worse than that face to face :D The yard did try and mention it to me. The yard hand was a bit surly about his bad behaviour and then the YM said has MissX caught up with you, and I said yes not really understanding what they meant. Hindsight is a brilliant thing! I missed the YM today but will hopefully catch her tomorrow. They are really hot on horse care and have employed the YM as their clientele is predominantly first time owners, so I'm a bit of an anomaly!

For people banging on about not having a horse without suitable turnout etc, I will just point out that until 3 months ago I lived in the North Easy and rented 13 acres of sheltered old grass grazing for my horses to live out on, and I didnt really have a riding horse, I ran on quality youngsters for other people to buy. I've since moved 200+ miles to the South and things are different here! I tried renting a small parks trust paddock, but sadly due to having my spine smashed to smitherines helping a so called friend with her horse I just cannot manage the poo picking every day :( Mucking out is easy compared to poo picking every day, and TBH my horse was bloody miserable turned out on a small acreage with a companion he didnt get on with :( In an ideal world he would live out on a decent acreage, and in my fantasy world that acreage would come with facilites. But thats not an option!

I dont think that means I shouldnt have a horse! I do everything I can to meet his needs, and as people have pointed out, I dont actually know the reality of it just yet. There are horses stabled 24/7 all over the place, stuffed full of cereals and ridden intermittently. I wont allow mine to be stabled 24/7, its just not an option! But there is no way, even if my worst fears are true, that I can truck up there tomorrow, scream the odds at a livery yard that has treated me really well, and their only fault is not sharing my interest in turnout, then move my boy to another yard that allows unlimited turnout in an area of the country where that just doesnt happen!

As an aside, if anyone knows of grass livery or a decent livery with post and rail within decent commutable distance of pretty much central Milton Keynes, then shout up now!
 
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