your thoughts please

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catherine22

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I am moving my 26 year old mare from her field where she has been for the last 10 or so years to my yard so she can be brought in at night and generally pampered as last winter she lost a lot of weight being out 24/7 even tho she was rugged to the eyeballs, fed rediculous (sp) amounts of feed and hay!
bearing in mind she has been out 24/7 for her entire life how would you go about introducing her to life in a stable?
 
Hello.Maybe bring her in to have her tea/breakfast/haynet in her stable and slowly increase the time she spends in untill she is quite happy to stay in over night.Will she have company when she is in her stable??.
 
All you can do is introduce slowly,maybe start feeding her in there and slowly increase time she is left,and c her reaction!!!Buy some stable licks etc to keep her occupied!without knowing her temperament would be hard to comment properly!Make it as pleasdant an experience as possible!!She may surprise you and decide(because she is getting on abit)that a cosy stable with a huge straw bed to sleep on is far nicer than either solid cold ground or a muddy mess to sleep in,lol!!Not much help am afraid,but they are the obvious things to do first!
 
shes a very chilled out calm mare (which she should be!) shes NF x TB but cna still be a bit spooky. have got her ad lib haylage - yummy! and licks etc so will start like you said by feeding her etc in there and she how she responds.
She'll have company when in the field then her 'friends' form the field will be in the stables next to her
like you said im hoping she'll decide a cosy stable is a much nicer option!!
 
Sounds like you have it all covered!!I am sure she will be fine,once they realise the routine they soon settle down,and if food involved usually goes down real well,lol!!good luck,sure she will be fine and settle well!!
 
yep food normally works well for her!!
I figured once it starts to get dark and cold and all her friends are cosy and warm i think she'll soon appreciate coming in!!

gave me and excuse to buy new stable rugs as well!! (couldnt possibly use her turnouts indoors!!!!)
grin.gif
 
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