milo
Grand Prix Poster
milo, lily, bob,henry and monty
Posts: 2,704
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Post by milo on Dec 12, 2010 18:42:41 GMT 1
???i saw a friend today who lives in sussex and she said on her livery yard the horses have no turn out from november until may!! it seems unbelievable, apparently the horses get to go in the outdoor school for 1 hour a day while stables are being done. i think its un natural to have them in for so long, what do others think?
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spring
Olympic Poster
My lovely Spring
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Post by spring on Dec 12, 2010 18:58:58 GMT 1
I think it's awful. Poor horses Having horses in for the best part of a fortnight has been bad enough - the mental effect on them and their owners has been quite apparent. I guess the only situation where it would not be as bad is if they were in daily hard work and had a horse walker to use. For normal, leisure horses like most of us have I think its unacceptable.
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Post by lauranash on Dec 12, 2010 19:04:02 GMT 1
Obviously unnatural, but I have heard of places like this before. One of the mares on the yard was at a livery yard like this before her owner loaned her to the lady that now owns her. She went through years 1-3 on this yard with no winter turnout, obviously doing no work either due to her age. Amazingly she has no behaviour issues, but she has had problems with her hocks and feet and now has sidebone age 6, all of which I personally suspect is related to the lack of exercise as a youngster.
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Post by Yann on Dec 12, 2010 19:07:50 GMT 1
It's sadly more common than you might think
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Post by wabuska on Dec 12, 2010 19:12:29 GMT 1
The old style was once they were in for the winter, they were in.
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Post by gordo on Dec 12, 2010 19:30:22 GMT 1
Its dreadful. I wonder how many horses are on said yard and, if they are given an hour each in school, we have around 8 hours of daylight so thats 8 neds out and thats not including selfish riders who actually want to USE school!! Sounds crazy!!
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Post by gordo on Dec 12, 2010 19:30:58 GMT 1
Might add I was being sarcastic about 'selfish riders using school'!!
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steve
Grand Prix Poster
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Post by steve on Dec 12, 2010 19:41:32 GMT 1
Mine would be uncontrollable and probably nut jobs in more ways than one!
I dont see how it is managable, as surely that also renders the outdoor school unusuable for half or most of the day, or do they put all the horses in the school at the same time? Hope it's a small yard then!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2010 19:41:55 GMT 1
I live in Sussex and I'm not at all surprised. I've had awful trouble finding a yard for my horse where the YO will guarantee he can go out all day every day. As a result I'm paying £45 a week for DIY and this is the 4th yard my horse has been at in a year. I'm currently growing roots because I have 2 fields of my own to do as I please with and have a gorgeous companion arriving soon! I think the simple truth is that the price of land and rent on yards round here is astronomical so in order to make a business pay YO's have to squash lots of horses into not enough land and then they can't turn them out in winter without trashing it completely. To rent a yard of 10+ boxes in reasonable (and I mean reasonable, not good!) condition with a school YO's have to pay about £30 per stable per week. And they then have to pay for all maintenance on top. MTA: 1-2hrs turnout each day in either the school or a sacrificial paddock is common, as is each horse getting to go out for a whole day but only two or three times a week and being stuck in the rest of the time. why do you think they can't go out in the dark? I think most would keep turning out until the grooms stop work and they don't finish at dusk. At yards where they go out in groups in the field they get put out in pairs or threes in the school. Also, IME a lot of these yards are full of people who own a horse just to say they own one so don't actually ride very often anyway.
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lc
Olympic Poster
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Post by lc on Dec 12, 2010 19:48:15 GMT 1
It's common practice in Bexley Kent too, when I was stabled there years ago as soon as it rained horses were kept in. The area is highly populated by horses and there isn't sufficient grazing for the volume of horses in the area, practically every yard is over-horsed. I moved out of Bexley years ago thankfully!
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Post by gordo on Dec 12, 2010 19:53:32 GMT 1
For horses on part livery, in my experience, once bedtime routine starts no horses are gonna be turned out dark or not as time is precious!
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Post by bertie666 on Dec 12, 2010 19:57:06 GMT 1
holy poo thats horrendous. Id rather mine was out in 3 ft of snow (like she has been ;D)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2010 19:57:34 GMT 1
well I suppose it depends on the routine, I've seen them booted out in the dark onto the walker so their stable can be mucked out without them in it so I expect if the school is on the yard then that'd be used too Like someone said above, it depends how many horses each ayrd has plus whether they turn out in pairs etc.
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Post by Yann on Dec 12, 2010 20:15:56 GMT 1
There are several yards round here where there is little or no winter turnout, so it's not just a southern thing. The riding school where I had my first share worked that way, and it's one of the main reasons I would never contemplate keeping a horse that way now.
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Post by Mellymoo on Dec 12, 2010 20:24:07 GMT 1
A yard near me has no winter turnout either. A few of the horses ended up so stiff they could hardly move sometimes. There was no opportunity for any exercise other than being ridden or lunged. How sad :-( It's not as if this yard had no grazing either - there was about 20 acres!!
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