Turnout(24 hrs a day)

[tatesmom]

I was reading a thread of 24 hr turnout, and decided to mention my feelings. Both of my girls are slaughter rescues, one 25 and hot lips(ginger) who maybe is 22. The vet seem to think Ginger spent alot of time stalled or in a limited area due to the swelling in both back legs. She is now a free horse, along with Tate,(former broodmare) These are 2 happy horses, they have a 3/4 acre pasture at night with their open run in shed. Ginger is thrilled to be able to munch on everything all night. My point I guess, in my younger days, I thought stalls and limited turn out was best, but, now, I also realize letting them be a free Horse is great.

[Toodles]

Before I started REALLY working with horses, I would have thought the same. We have a herd of mares who are happy as can be. Out together year round. They all go in a big covered arena in winter to be under lights and fed grain. I LOVE to watch how they live as that is what horses have been doing for eons.

[qhbuddy]

Horses on 24 hour turnout can be fun - and sometimes, I suppose necessary.
However, this system works best when they have hundreds (or more) acres to roam and be free like what used to be natural for them. Before stalls, and trailers, and sadlles, hay, wormers, etc.
Now days, many farms have too many horses on too little land - resulting in real land use and environmental problems.

Sorry, I hear this argument a lot.

[trillium]

I thnk a horse should be able to be out as much as possilble. In the winter when they may damage the pasture I run a temporary fence and cut their pasture in half to protect it.
I have two mares who were stalled almost all of their lives by their previous owners. They both have bad habits associated with boredom. One weaves and the other cribs. That is one of the bad things about being stalled most of the time. They develope bad behavior that is caused from boredom. And they need to move about as much as possible to burn off the energy they have.

[sbhr]

I came from the standard type of 'horse care' world most older people come from. Shoe them.....stall them, feed them what they can consume in one hour 2x a day.

I have had to learn new ways as the old ones were not working for me or my horses anymore. Now, we only barefoot trim (no more shoes) regardless of the workload our horses have (they are always started slowly and built up and their feet do very well) and we have had to learn to let the horses be horses and they also have 24 hour turn out. Also, they have free choice hay to eat (or not) at will.

I can't believe the difference in our horses! WoW!! Even though we don't have a lot of space, our horses are still free to move about when the mood strikes them. They will wander all over the pasture...all night long! It is good to see. And here I thought they slept all night! NOT.

They are mentally healthier....and physically healthier.

I now don't care much about what the 'experts' say. I look outside and I can see the benefits of the changes we have made. My horses are the experts, and since they are liking it, and are healthier - that works for me!!


kim

[lildunhorse]

I have noticed a HUGE difference in my horses' collective attitude since I added an extra two acres. You wouldn't think that two extra acres would make much difference, but this is two acres of ravine, scrub, small stands of trees and brushy areas. It isn't so much the grazing that interests them, but just the change from the usual flat, open, grassy area. This is their playground. I notice that my Fjord, especially, loves to climb. (When I saw her for the very first time ever, she was standing on top of a lumber pile!) So, being the humvee that she is, she's up and down the little hills just for fun.
The neighbor who loaned it to me for the winter didn't think it was good for anything, let alone horses. But they are having a ball out there and only come in at hay time and for horsey margueritas. (Water and the salt block!) We do bring them back to the main pasture at night. (We have bears!)

[diamondindykin]

I am usually a very easy going person but I get weird about locking my horses in their stalls....I have a HUGE fear of a barn fire and that they wouldn't be able to get out. I have a 4 stall barn with paddocks and an attached pasture. They are free to come and go as they please and they are very happy that way. In the summer they have a large & lush pasture to graze on all day and they are brought back at night. In the winter they have no pasture so they are fed three to four times a day so they have fresh hay in front of them at all times to ward off boredom. My vet recommended switching to local hay instead of Alfalfa or Timothy so they can eat 24 hours a day (and they do)!!! They seem much happier getting to eat all day and night, which is how their bodies are designed to function.

[turn out]

I'll put my 2 cents into this topic. My horses are PMU rescues and they are out 24/7. I think this is best for horses and natural for horses. As long as they have shelter from the wind and rain horses are happier being out. My weanling filly does stay in a stall at night only because she had surgery a little over two months ago and I like her to be in to rest and get warm and dry at night. I worked with hunters and jumpers and with race horses on the east coast for years and our horses were all stabled with limited turn out. The horses were not happy and you spent more time lunging them then riding them. Horses kept inside get bored, pick up bad habits and are more prone to colic then horses that are out at least half days. With horses poor digestive systems, I think horses colic less when they are able to graze and move about 24/7.
Since I moved to Washington I have seen the hardy healthy horses that have probably never seen a barn. The first horse I bought out here had never been in a barn and when I borded him where he had a stall and small run, he would stay outside and not go in the stall except to drag his hay out in his run. I ended up moving to a farm with a run in shed and he was happy, hardly ever using the run in shed.
My 2 year old PMU filly will occasionally go in the loafing shed but prefers to be out. She takes a bite of hay then goes out to eat it. Horses feel safer out in the open where they can see around them. I swore that if I ever had my own place, I would have enough pasture that my horses would be on pasture not locked up in a cage. I know we all think of a nice warm stall bedded nice and deep with shavings being the best for our horses, but if given the choice, most horses prefer being outside or in a situation where they can come and go. Turn out rugs work great to keep the light horses warm and dry. I even use them on my big hairy girls when temps drop down around zero along with hot mashes. Probably don't need the rugs, but I feel better when I use them. My girls are very healthy and very happy.

[fototropic]

What about sectioning it off into smaller sections, or at least one smaller section for her and limiting her time out in it? I have a pony that has to take thyroid meds and is probably insulin resistant. My vet says just to limit his time out if the grass is good to less than an hour a day. Luckily, or not, our grass really isn't that good but he does love to play and roll.

My horses are out 24/7 with 2 run-ins (for when they're not feeling sociable). They look absolutely great. I remember as a child, my grandmother used to put her horses in in the fall and not let them out until spring, the same as for the cows. Her riding horse, Renmar, ended up with a terrible case of heaves by the time he was in his late teens. My horses were out during the day and in at night. And none of my horses ever developed heaves. It is true that it is next to impossible to keep grass in the small area, about 1/2 to 2/3 of an acre, where I leave them out all the time, but I think the freedom and exercise is worth it. I have another area that is about a acre that I use for their grazing and limit their time in so they can't destroy it. I don't count on the grass as feed cause our land really isn't that good. I feed them free choice hay and grain year round.

My gelding was a rescue and had spent over a year shut in a small barn. He's claustrophobic now and even gets nervous in the run-in if he thinks his escape route is blocked. I can't imagine him stalled. He'd be miserable.
Pam

[cardicorgi]

FI - you might try a grazing muzzle. My instructor's horses all live out 24 hours/day - when the grass starts coming in at springtime (horse crack, I like to call it), she puts grazing muzzles on all of them - they come off at feeding time twice a day for an hour or so, then go back on. She gradually reduces the time they wear the grazing muzzles over two months or so. None of them, including the easy keepers, have ever foundered.

[myhorsefaith]

Like a lot of you, i too originally thought my horse needed a stall to have a completely pampered, safe life.

But that changed. You all are right- they don't like small areas, their views obstructed by walls.

That doesn't mean we can't train the horse to accept it- sometimes it is necessary they be in a tight spot (for a vet, trailer, etc). but every day living condition, my horses are outside, with access to a shelter.

They are not hard to catch, they are totally mellow and enjoy humans going out to pasture with them. they each have their role in the herd, and it is amazing to watch.

Recently I've been looking for a new boarding situation for Zanaella until she's adopted. Her foster barn is moving even farther away- she's welcome to move with them, it just makes my life a commuting nightmare.

So i thought i'd look around...and WOW boarding prices! 350 bucks a month for a 12 x 12 stall, limited turn out. Zany would go crazy.

I liken it to sticking myself in my bathroom all day or night. How would i feel? Not to mention having to eat and poop there.

I can't do that to Zany- she needs space. I'd move her with my horses if I were allowed, but I can't.

Something will pop up, right? Right??

-Ally

[schwung]

I think horses do just fine on 24/7 turnout with in/out access to shelter (I prefer that), but also do fine being stalled at night (and some of my horses truly love their stalls). However, when I boarded my horses I shunned the fancy dressage barns for the run-down multi-discipline barn with huge pastures the horses went out in all day every day. I figure, unless I am committed to showing up every single day to work my horse, it is not acceptable to keep them stalled. And even if I was exercising them every day, I still wouldn't like it.

[kdunham]

You don't need 10 acres to make your horse happy, just make diligent best use of the space you have. What I have found works to make the horses happy and keep the pasture as healthy as possible is to not have the horses out on it 24-7. First of all most horses don't need to be stuffing themselfs round the clock especially in the spring when the grass is lush and life is easy (horses get too fat). My horses all have a stall with a pretty good sized turnout attached so they can go in and out as they please. I can stretch out the life of the pasture for quite a while if I put the horses out in the am and bring them in at night. When the pasture stops growing and gets really wet then that's it until April. This year it was the beginning of December when I stopped putting them out and even before then as it gets wetter I limit their time from half a day to just a few hours to stretch their legs. If they have a turnout they are happy. There is no need for them to tear up a pasture all winter and cause the grass to not come in as well in the spring. There are two big pastures where I board. The one that I have 3-4 horses on had nice grass on it for months longer than the other that only had two horses on it but the owner just left them out there all the time, it just turned into mud.

[lessonlearned]

FI, Fisher "the mower" has a grazing muzzle for when he goes on visits to grass pastures (we are getting our own grass this year -- yay!) and other than becoming a "helmet head" (ears pinned, etc) when anyone he thinks might care to remove said muzzle happens by, he is fine with it.

The horses at our barn are out 24-7 unless there is very bad weather. They prefer it and in a barn full of OTTB's most of the riders prefer it too. They are fine and happy.

[twhgal]

Glad to read all these posts. I almost drove myself crazy designing and building "Equine Villas" at our new place - each stall with a window, two windows for Cinnamon (She has never liked a stall.) Got them all completed, moved the horses in - Cinnamon kept kicking the doors and walls (Yes, that's how she hurt her leg last month!) until she put a scrape on her other hind leg and Bubba wouldn't go in at all. Now all the doors are open and they all come and go as they please and seem very happy. We live in a very wild area with bears and cougars, but it was pretty obvious that the stalls weren't protecting Cinnamon as I envisioned so...
The other horses have accepted that Cinnamon gets special grain every night, so everything has turned out fine.