To think a lot of horse owners don't deserve their animals?

[Goodnurseorgremlin]

I keep my horse on a DIY livery yard. We have access to daily turnout with no time restrictions throughout the entire winter.

For the last three months the vast majority of the horses on the yard have had little to no turnout. Some literally stand in their stables for days/weeks at a time, with the owners mucking out around them. I could count on one hand the horses that are regularly turned out aside from my own

It just makes me so so sad. These poor animals being imprisoned for months at a time for no good reason. The owners basically can't be arsed to turn out and bring in because they don't want to walk to the fields or get themselves/their horses muddy.

AIBU to think these people don't deserve the privilege of caring for these amazing animals if they can't even be arsed to meet their basic need for freedom?

For the last three months the vast majority of the horses on the yard have had little to no turnout.
Bloody hell.
I did contemplate getting a horse a few years back, but the main thing that stopped me was wondering how the hell I was going to fit in getting to the yard 2x/day, especially in the winter.
I was assuming daily turnout - I couldn't keep a horse cooped up in a stable for a week, never mind a month (medical care aside).

There are tethered horses round here who live for weeks on end on their tether, they might get off once a month for a trott.

They get moved once a week to a different muddy circle.

I makes me sick just thinking about it.

@elastamum I didn't say you were cruel, I said 5 hours of turnout in a 24 hour period is pitiful, and I stand by that. Rain and mud isn't a reason to keep horses cooped up indoors for 19 hours a day.

Prefacing this with, I’m not a horsey person (as in I don’t ride or have interest in them), but I think you are 100% correct. They’re living creatures, they should be able to live the best life they can and if people don’t want or can’t give them what they need, they shouldn’t have the privilege of owning them. Such a shame, it can’t be a happy life for them stuck indoors all the time.

I used to get so much stick and judgement from others when I was on livery, as mine would be out in all weathers, early as possible and brought in as late as I could. I didn't rug, I didn't feed them loads... Basically told I wasn't caring for mine properly. A few of these people has a horse who the vet labelled morbidly obese, and who had laminitis in the middle of winter despite not having been turned out onto grass for two months prior. Now I have them at home, and they are unrugged and living out 24/7, I still get people judging me for that, but luckily I don't have to interact with them on a daily basis. Mine are happy and healthy, a little underweight because it's winter, but they are never fat the rest of the year... I'm cruel apparently.

Sounds like the perfect life to me! I help care for a 30 year old gelding who is out 24/7 with access to shelter. Never had a single health issue and you'd never know his age to see him in the field.

No you aren't being unreasonable it's a really sad trend. They don't melt in the rain 😔

I kept my old horse in a variety of places, from 6 weeks 'off the fields' completely to a different rule every day to 24/7.
He was at his happiest, most relaxed and easiest to deal with when he lived out 24/7 and was unrugged even in the worst weather, though it took a couple of years of downgrading rugs so his coat grew thick enough to withstand it.

He had a field shelter, company, ad lib hay, water and was a completely different horse.
He only went in the shelter when I put new hay out to eat, the other one would stand in there in wet weather but he'd stand just outside or stick his arse in the hedge.

He developed cushings and laminitis off the back of that and needed restricted grazing certain times, I spent hours rigging fencing to keep him out but also restricted. Unfortunately the silly old sod was an escape artist and I spent a lot of time retrieving him and rebuilding fencing. He was miserable separated from the herd so I took that decision two years ago when the recurring laminitis meant restrictions that made him miserable, either paddock or stable, or regular pain from the laminitis that was getting more frequent.
Restricting or stabling for the majority of his life left to keep him alive just wasn't fair. I wish I'd been able to give him the life living out and just being a horse sooner, he went out as much as possible through his life but the last 5 were to my mind, the ideal.
Though perception is different and it was hinted at my cruelty because he lived out, unrugged in all weathers. He was a horse, that's what his body systems were designed to do.

I used to work with horses and worked in lots of different yards.

The worst one was a riding school, that specialised in selling their horses to the clients. Then keeping them there on full livery. They lived in 24hrs a day all year round and would be ridden twice a week (in a paid for lesson obviously)

I had to stop teaching there because it upset me so much.

We have year round turnout, it's pretty muddy and horrendous and a couple of the horses have mud fever, but with care we can keep turning them out all winter. I have a very stressy thoroughbred who hates being in, he weaves and freaks out, so even if he's knee deep in mud he's happier out. In summer we switch to night time turnout and keep in during the day as we have 5 grays.

That is the most shocking bit!
Who one goes green earth only visits a stabled horse once a day?!

Yanbu.
I am in Germany and often see that horses are kept in stables the entire year. Instead of riding the horses, I often see owners taking their horses for a walk, meaning the owner walks next to their horse. I find this strange but a former colleague and horse owner once told me that this was supposedly good for bonding with the horse.

Totally agree OP. The place I was on livery at for the longest (over 10 years) didn't allow 24 hour turnout, they had to come in at night. But there was never a time when they weren't allowed daily turnout. Mine went out more than most, usually from 6.30am til 6.30pm (before and after work) longer in the summer. I'd ride after work too (floodlit arena for winter) they went out daily, without fail. Rugged if necessary.

I moved from there to rent land of 14 acres and they all lived out 24/7 with field shelters. The old one was much better for it too.

With the clipping/hugging, I do kind of get it. Mine were clipped and rugged, perhaps more than necessary. But if I wanted to ride, I needed thdm to be 'relatively' clean. Between working full time, and mucking out, poo picking etc, I'd rather clip and rug and ride, than spend an hour scraping mud off.

I have mine at home.
Their stable doors are opened first thing and they have access to the field until I shut them in between 6 and 8pm.
They may wander out for about 20 minutes but they choose to spend the majority of the day in 🤷🏻‍♀️
There are a couple of hay boxes out in the field to encourage them out to no avail.
I am on the Pennines, it is pretty much always wet under foot and the wind is brutal.

They do both seem content with their lives though 😊

I walk two of mine in hand. They can't be ridden. One is because of injury from a field accident as a baby, the other is because he was treated like a machine and discarded when he was no longer useful and too damaged. They aren't stabled (which he wasn't used to at all, he'd been kept in a much as possible and not allowed to mix with others - too valuable), but they still get walkies for a change of scenery and some extra milage
Edited for spelling!

Ours too. We take turns every day turning them loose into the school to shake off the zoomies. Otherwise they're rotated in and out of the hard standing areas so they're not stuck in a stable and taken out for hand grazing along the trails.

They get worked daily though, all of them hack out and school outdoors.

Summer they're out 24/7 but November to February it's just too muddy, the field is basically a slip n slide. They'd break their silly legs. Especially the younger ones who go careening about like lunatics.

To be honest I think keeping horses to ride is pretty indefensible anyway. No other pets are used in quite the same way by owners. And disposed of or sold on when no longer of use such as a child outgrowing them. For all others 'a pet is for life' is the mantra.

i find this mind boggling too, our field mates on livery often don’t turn out which means our horse can’t go out as she hates being alone. So then they are in all day. Roll on summer!!

That is a indeed great thing to do.

Having a choice and choosing to be in is very different to being shut in, though.

Our three are out 24/7, they have a field shelter, but hardly use it. At a previous yard they had to be stabled at night, our TB would get stressed and weave!
they are much happier now, rugged as and when the weather dictates and in work, and if our patchytwat isn’t rugged and gets wet the stupid thing gets the chills but he is a bit special 🫣

At my yard, one horse hadn’t been turned out for years, because the owner was worried it would be hurt. Her other horse had been pts after an accident in the field, but them’s the risks when you own horses. Does your yard have loads of land? Even ours, on a reasonably steep hill, was a shocker in winter. I don’t know how you have no restrictions, think ours was 5pm catch in the whole time I was there. I remember losing my wellies catching in at another yard in winter.

Just come back from a weekend away and the ground was totally saturated (west Mids) everywhere.

Her horses weren't there for your benefit though, why not bring them in to a warm stable at night You decide for toureself yourself what to do.

It depends how muddy the field are. Lots of horses will just stand at the gate looking depressed and longing to come in if they're knee deep in mud and cold.

It's not ideal to spend so much time stabled, but, going on the walker (if there is one) twice a day for 15/20 mins plus being schooled/loose schooled or hacked out daily is a must.

Which I assume these owners do neither of?!