I know so many people prefer their horses out 24/7 with a run in and a nice herd. Any down side to that as far as the horse? Does anyone feel there are benefits to the horses by having them out all day, but stalled overnight?
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I would guess any benefits would be specific, to a specific horse. But if we are talking generalities, no, no benefit to stalling at night.
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Quality sleep with an anxious horse or one turned out alone that doesnât rest well. Off the nightly dew if there are issues with the feet or scratches. Inside during peak gnat times for horses with sweet itch.
Do whatâs best for the individual. In a perfect world mine would love 8 hours inside at night during the winter and during the day in the summer but is stuck out 24/7 more often than not.
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I stall my horses at night, although âstallingâ in my case is bringing them in to a stall with a large run attached, so theyâre not stuck in a box stall.
Benefits are that I can target their nutrition in specific waysâthey each get different hay at nightâand they can take as long as they want to finish their grain. Two also just really prefer a stall to lie down and sleep.
I donât have enough pasture to have them out full time, so another benefit here is preserving that for them.
Having a routine where theyâre handled is also helpful in keeping horses that otherwise donât have much of one from going feral.
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Simkie I absolutely 10,000% agree with you. Thatâs my own philosophy. Itâs also how my own mare is kept. Sheâs got a stall with plenty of bedding and hay and a big run. In the day she goes on pasture with at least one other horse for company.
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Stalls ensure each horse has unfettered access to shelter.
While many horses cozily share run in shelters, many donât. I stall my horses when the weather is bad to make sure nobody is stuck out in the elements.
Stalls prevent horses from running blind during fireworks. I have had two horses do harm to themselves running scared during fireworks. So I stall for that.
Stalls allow for individual feeding regimens, so I stall for that as needed.
If I had a horse that only slept laying down reliably in a stall, Iâd accommodate that.
I keep my horses at home so I have the ability to modify the barn itself and also the turnout / turn in schedule to suit myself and my horses. In a boarding situation, one tends to have to compromise more. For example, in none of the board barns that Iâve worked or boarded at had overnight stalling been only 8 hours. Theyâd have to turn in at 10pm and turnout at 6am. Thatâs an unrealistic schedule for a lot of board barns. So if I wanted to board my horse with overnight stalling, Iâd likely have to compromise on how long heâd be in that stall overnight. Day turn in tends to be easier to find in the 8 hour range, but not all barns offer that schedule.
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Stalls are fantastic for managing a herd of horses with different dietary needs, bug issues, monitoring for any heath issues, and providing a safe, comfortable sleep area.
My horses sleep much better in a deeply bedded stall than outside.
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Iâll add one other consideration. Depending on how much land can be devoted to pasture and the quality of the soils, the turnout areas may not be able to sustain 24/7 grazing. It can really make a difference to âgive the grass a breakâ.
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Depends on the horses, and the situation they live in.
I have a couple of stalls here, donât use them much. I have a couple of stalls with attached paddocks, I have a few times in the year when I use them, if I need to. Otherwise, horses are outdoors. But it is semi arid here, and we donât have much of a problem with mud, or constant rain.
Itâs sure easier care when you donât have to have horses in stalls. Keeping paddocks clean is easy and quick. Harrowing winter pasture is easy, and grows grass. Individual paddocks for horses means issues with getting cast (used to have that happen often), so nice to not have to worry about that any more. I decided that I didnât like fences much. The fewer fences involved, the better. No bedding needed any more either. All manure (what there is that needs to be picked up) is used on the farm. Itâs valuable. We used to PAY to have it trucked away. And the cost and availability of sawdust has changed substantially here. We used to get a load of sawdust delivered for $50. Not any more LOL!!!
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This is the main reason I âstallâ my guys overnight, and even then, they have access to the attached runs unless the weather is very bad, i.e. full-tilt blizzard conditions/deep, deep snow.
Our stalls all have decent-sized runs, that open on a large dry-lot. Beyond that, they get some turnout nearly every day in one of three pastures, but this is rotational, and limited to at most a few hours at a time.
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Donât have to be stalls, just some hours of individual peace, where a bossy horse doesnât has to be bossing and a meek one is not needing to be alert to someone elseâs demands 24 hours a day.
A friend horse trainer for decades turns horses out in the evenings and every morning early horses are in the big lot waiting for him to let them back into their own little space, an overhang to the barn and runs.
Horses know which is their run and line up to be let in in order of who is boss.
New horses learn quickly the routine and wait patiently their turn, installing good horse manners.
The overhang part of the pen is out of the weather, has already fed what each horse needs and is 14â x 14â and the run in front of it is 14â x 60â.
He rides what needs riding or used that day, when he needs to, the others just chill out.
His horses, all ages, some oldsters retired, thrive under that management.
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Thanks everyone! A lot of these environments are perfect! But very hard to find in a boarding situation. Those who have horses out 24/7âŠare you sure they each are able to lay down and sleep? Maybe in that situation they sleep more during the day ???
Some studies have shown that horses on limited turnout tend to graze longer times, rest less, horses out 24/7 tend to graze in shorter stretches and rest more.
Still, all end up with similar hours grazing and resting, just when they do each adjusted to their different management.
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That arrangement is usually because there is limited turnout and they need to rotate the horses. If an owner/facility has enough space for everyone to have 24/7, I could imagine benefits like keeping an anxious horse from staying awake all night and becoming sleep deprived because wildlife is scaring them, or maybe they have a feeding schedule that is easier to accommodate if theyâre in a stall for half the day. Maybe they are low ranking and get chased away from the hay and good grass.
My horse is extremely sensitive to fly bites and bee stings, so being out at night and in during the day is preferable in hot, humid weather. Some people keep the horses in during the day to avoid sun bleaching.
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My horses are out more than in. Iâve stalled for thunderstorms and meals only all spring.
My dry lot area has a large, deep sand area. The horses sleep laying down every night. Occasionally they choose to sleep in the grass instead, but more often the sand. They will both sleep laying down in the stalls when I have cause to stall them that long.
When I go out in the evening or late at night I see them lying down. I notice them taking turns, which is what horses do.
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Definitely lots of reasons why it is beneficial to individual horses and farm situations. Here in the âwetâ PNW, most non-boarded horses are kept on small acreage, where 24/7 turnout is not feasible-- not enough land to adequately graze for nutrition. The ground is WET for months of the year, leading to mud and poor grass growth (read: WEEDS). My own situation is two pastures, two sacrifice paddocks (mud-free), a barn overhang and two stalls. Horses are âoutâ in the paddocks 24/7 with stall access at night. Grass pastures are limited to preserve the grazing.
Additionally, I have an IR/Cushings and a Cushings only gelding-- so muzzles and limited turnout on grass most of the year. I see horses out on spring/fall grass here in the PNW who are FAT and I always think-- when will laminitis take them? How often have they suffered? In the winter, these pastured horses are knee deep in mud and skinny. Not sure thatâs what 24/7 turnout means.
My aged gelding sleeps in his stall nightly, safely separated from his not-so-nice buddy who picks on him. I think stalling or at least offering separation leads to better food uptake, the ability to monitor both drinking and eating, lets humans handle horses and put eyes on them.
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This is a common misapprehension.
Many years ago the M.A.R.E Center (Middleburg Agricutural Research and Extension Center, part of Virginia Tech, which focuses on equine research) did a study (which I can no longer find on line) that showed that the decreasing the amout of turnout time did not decrease the amout of grass horses ate unless you decreased the grazing time to less tha 4 hours per day. If you keep the horses off the pasture overnight, they are still going to eat the same amount, they are just going to spend more of their time eating than if they were out 24 hours.
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Yes. I often see them sleeping. And even when I donât see them, they often come in with manure stains on their sides or head, because thay have slept in a pile of manure.
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Not many. If a horse is on a special diet (e.g.an Insulin Resistant horse with low sugar hay) and needs more than a few minutes to eat it, it is usful to leave the horse in the stall until it has finished, which might be overnight.
In the winter, as long as the run in is big enough for all the horses, and the herd dynamics allow them all to stay in their peacefully when the weather is bad, I donât see any particular advantage to keeping the in a stall.
During a bad mud season it makes sense to keep them out of the pasture, but a dry lot works just as well as stalls for that.
Dring the SUMMER, there can be an advantage to keeping them in dring the DAY with fans. It is hard to put fans in a run in, but easy to put them in stalls. As well as having a cooling effect, the fans make it difficult for flies, mosquitos, etc. to fly, so keeps them away.
In my case, my horses have free access to their stalls all the time, so they can choose whether to go into the stall and stand in front of the fan, or stay out and graze
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