Hi everyone,
I just wanted to open this topic - and hopefully there is not another one of these yet - to discuss our stable management, especially how you arrange your horse's paddock and stable time, and how you make your stable more horse-friendly.
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What a great topic! I'm sure it will be an interesting debate this one :-)
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My horses are in a 6 acre field (3 horses) which I section off from Spring to end of Summer as there is too much food for them. Over winter (when I've finished hay cutting) I have sheep; this also helps with worm balance as horse worm larvae in the grass is harmless to sheep so cuts the use of chemical horse wormer down. They have a river at the bottom of the field and access to the yard and two large stables on the yard if they want it. The choice is theirs.
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If they have to be kept in for any reason (illness/hay cutting etc,) they have rubber matting on stable floor with fairly thick layer of straw and soaked hay in nets kept very low to the ground. I used to put the hay on the floor but they inevitably pee on it :-0
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If they are not kept in they get no other food except the grass they are on, except my little Shetland who can go through phases of weight loss in which case he will get high oil/protein/low carb top up feed once a day for a couple of weeks.
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They never have rugs, are all barefoot, get the occasional apple but never hand fed.
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I work hard at keeping them as natural as possible with minimal confinement.
Vicci I think if I had horses I would keep them the same way as you.
The horse I am leasing at the moment is reverse stabled, ie in his stable in the day and paddock at night. He is also rugged all the time. Apparently it's against the flies (I live in Australia and we have soooo many flies and they can bite the horses)and the dust. Still, I'm not sure how much the horse actually needs the rug, and I feel like he'd be much happier out anyway...
It's a shame the horse is rugged all the time, have the owners tried fly repellents? I find Rosemary works as a good repellent, but we don't get too many flies out in the fields near us.
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We have just over 2 acres of field with 6 ponies on, the field is divided in to 5 sections; a carrel for night time where they're still free to move around as a herd with a roundel of hay, this turns to mud most of the time, hard and dry in the summer, soggy wet in the winter. A large pen area suitable for 2 -3 ponies where our escapee shetland has to go at night and we switch around the others so he always has company, at the moment Raisin our filly keeps escaping so she's in there with Barney most of the time now. The other 3 sections are for daytime grazing and are rotated a week at a time so each sections gets about 2 weeks rest. Not ideal, but works.
I've 1 field shelter which I can close off into a stable if needed for emergencies, otherwise they're out 24/7. Winter rugs come off end of March and stay off till the winter cold hits again :D
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Horses are definitely happier outside, it's not natural for them to be 'imprisoned' in a small box room with bars. The horse being a live in the now creature realise they have no choice when placed in a stable so accept the circumstances. Give them a choice and leave the door open they wouldn't choose to go in there often unless seeking shade from adverse weather. Having said that if you give them a choice of a tree/bush or a shelter, they'll choose what nature has provided ;)
Mel
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Here is an interesting video about feeding horses in a manger and explaining the seeking emotion, there will be a live webinar on 24th Apr
http://illis.se/en/seeking/
Hi Alizee,
I just viewed the video, this is really interesting!
Noticing that it contains an item about "clicker training", please read the Q&A of Nov./Dec.2012 about clickertraining and horses by Monty.
Search at the Q&A tab above. There is a great difference between prey animals and preditores (like dogs) in their benefit from it!
Enjoy,
Miriam
Hi guys! We're in the process of setting up our new property based on an "equicentral" system http://www.equiculture.com.au so we have 2 horses on just over 2 acres which we have split into 4 paddocks, all linking up to a laneway that leads back to a central covered feeding/water area (which has free access grass hay in a slow-feeder - it is working really well so far. I have a baby so I needed something that made life easy, and so the central point for feeding right next to the feed shed means I don't have to cart hay or hard feeds around! We are just using electric tape fences at the moment until we are 100% happy with the placement of everything.
All very interesting thank you! I have signed up for the webinar and ordered the book on managing horse property!
Great :-)