Field shelter?

[Mrscouldron]

Hi. I have 2 cobs. This will be the first winter with them at home with me. They have natural shelter from the trees - I think I’ve uploaded a picture. One of them has never had a field shelter as she loves to roll and was constantly getting cast (her previous owner told me this). Do I need some sort of shelter for winter or do they have enough natural shelter? Many thanks ❤️

Mine are hardy Highlands, but they love their stables/shelters in the heat and bad weather too.

They don’t need a field shelter but if you provide one then you’ll know that they have the option to get out of really filthy weather. But be prepared for them to ignore it completely and never use it 🤷‍♀️

😆 yes I’m prepared for it to be ignored.

Ours doesn’t have a field shelter- just high stone wall and hedging. They live out 24/7 all year round. It’s amazing how much shelter they provide from extreme weather. Those and decent rugs and they are nice and warm and happy.

It’s useful to have one even if it’s somewhere to tack up in the rain or stand for the vet/ farrier in bad weather .

Trees without leaves don't give a great deal of shelter. Thick hedges do. Those along with properly waterproof (but not thick) rugs are a good compromise.

If you can I would get a field shelter. It gives you the option to shut them in, if they are ill or injured, and gives them somewhere to escape the weather. At least then if they are in the middle of the field, looking miserable in a storm, you know that is because they want to be!

It's a good thing to have, but not necessarily essential. I've been fortunate enough to have had my fields for 14 years now, funds finally allowed me to put in a field shelter in Autumn 2023 (just before the wettest winter I've ever known) the simple £3k ish cost of the field shelter escalated into something much more expensive as whilst the field shelter did its job fantastically and I was so glad they had somewhere to get out of the worst of the weather, the ground outside it turned into an absolute quagmire. I had some old EVA mats I was able to put inside so the ground could stay dry and level inside but I had to buy 2 pallets of mud control mats to lay on to the mud outside. Then the following year I got the outside MC mats laid properly on a base and had guttering and a drainage pipe laid to take way the roof water. It's been worth every penny, works perfectly and looks fabulous now but obviously at a cost. I'm on sandy gravel and the field holds up well every winter, so this was not expected. I dread to think what it would have been like on clay!
The point of this post is to make you aware it might end up turning into a bigger project than you think...
prior to the field shelter, they had to use the trees and hedges for shelter and I might put a rug on them.

I hd a Fell mare that was supposed to live out being a hardy native, but when we built a shelter she loved it and would often be found sound asleep in there.
I think they're invaluable in case you need to confine them for whatever reason if you don't have stabling. The last thing you nd in an emergency is trying to organise stabling.
I'd go for as large as possible if you've one prone to getting cast though, and use bedding with banks.

Invaluable

Ours don’t tend to use the shelter in winter, at least not specifically in cold weather. They do use it in summer to escape sun and flies

When we got our field I put in a hardstanding yard with a double field shelter and a triple stable block with shelter in the middle (bought second hand for £400 and £500 respectively - we use one stable as a tack room and the other for hay storage) in an L shape, the horses have free access to this yard which is very sheltered against most of the prevailing winds but they prefer to stand under the hedge most of the time!

However, we do feed all of their hay in the shelters (in gigantic rectangular 6ft wide haynets) so that if they want to eat it, they have to come and stand in out of the mud. The shelter is also set up with a swinging partition and gates so can be converted into two stables if the need arises, although we've never had to it's great that we've got the option.