I'll try to cut a long story short but some advice would be great... Up until recently I kept my horse on livery at a local DIY yard. I moved there with a friend, there aren't any facilities other than a stable but we went there (last spring) after being told by the owner that they could have 24/7 turnout all year round. This was important due to us both doing shift work and the fact that my friend's horse is a bit arthritic and doesn't do well when stabled. The owner has a lot of land, most of it empty, our horses were happy out in a field of about 6 acres with several others over the summer.
I know it's been wet this winter, obviously the field got a bit churned up, therefore the owner told us he would sort out another paddock for the horses to go into. So he fenced us off a 1 acre paddock, at the bottom of a fairly steep valley, bordering on a stream - for 4 horses. Obviously this land isn't suitable for horses at all and was totally waterlogged therefore we started bringing them in overnight to save the field a bit, it was still trashed after a couple of weeks. All of the horses lost several shoes due to the boggy field, one has pulled a muscle and is still off work. We asked if they could go in any of the other fields but were told no, that was it until April/may and they'd have to stay in the stables otherwise.
So we left, all 4 of us together, and have found a farm type livery where the owner is far more realistic about what happens to fields over winter, there is adequate grazing and they are all very happy.
The old livery filled the stables immediately so hasn't actually lost out on anything. However he is now pestering us for money as our horses have "trashed his field", despite it being one acre for 4 horses on bog land. Would you pay??