Concur
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Oh, another benefit for where I am to keeping them in at night is safety. We have regular bears, and they’re more active dusk to dawn.
Boarding is always such a series of compromises, so I feel your pain trying to find just the right fit there. Even though I think it’s much better for my horses to come into the barn at night now, when I boarded, I usually went with a place where they were out full time. But that meant doing other things, like feeding an extra grain meal (being out there to do it daily, or paying for it), or extra fly gear, or drugs for trimming the one horse because he just wasn’t used to being up at the barn. In boarding, it’s hitting your top couple needs, and figuring out how to fill the gap to your other wants.
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I wish I could leave my horses out 24/7 with a run-in, but both horses are easy keepers and one is insulin resistant with a history of laminitis. I put them in stalls at night to limit the amount they eat and to make sure they’re eating low NSC hay and not yummy rich grass. In general though, unless there is a specific issue that makes confining to a stall necessary I think most horses would prefer to be out, or at least have the option of going out/coming in.
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Thank you Janet. Ours are out days or nights due to biting insects. I csn’t say for sure at night, but I know that during the day they take plenty of breaks from grazing and will sometimes sleep flat out with one standing guard. I was thinking a bit more about soil/root compaction and wear and trear on the paddocks. But I’m glad they aren’t overgrazing if out longer!
My 3 - horse, pony, mini - have access to their stalls 24/7/365.
In all sorts of Midwest weather, the choice is theirs. Even Winter Polar Vortex doesn’t keep them in.
I do a nightly barncheck around 10P & 9 times out of 10 they come in when I turn on lights.
All 3 will often share a single 12X12 stall. Most often horse & mini are together.
Less often horse & pony.
I know horse sometimes comes in to sleep as bedding is pushed to the walls.
Often 1 stall is designated The Men’s Room & I have multiple piles, all sizes to pick from that one 
But usually they spend the nights outside.
Red arrows indicate where two of mine were snoozing this morning while their “aunt” (paternal sister to their mother) kept watch. All of mine take long naps mid-morning almost every day, and they are usually also down and snoozing if I happen to go out in the wee hours of the morning, too. They have in/out access to the barn but usually choose to sleep outdoors unless the weather is terrible.
My herd comes in twice a day to be fed individually, then goes right back out unless there is some reason to keep them up - vet or farrier appointment, a mare close to foaling who needs to be under the camera, or extreme weather like an ice storm or significant hail. They have no trouble adjusting to being stalled when needed for injuries (which rarely happen precisely because they live out), at horse shows, etc.
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Depends on the horse, as others have said.
Generally I prefer night turnout in the summer with horses in under fans during the day (SE summers are no joke). Right now mine are out 24/7 but come in to eat 2x a day. It works pretty well, and the BO sees all but one of mine snoozing outside on the regular.
I have one horse that would rather not come in at all, and another that is happy inside alone with his hay. With boarding though, you usually have to choose between 8-12 hours outside or 24 hours outside - given those options I’ll pick outside 24/7.
Link to similar sounding study at NCSU
My horses come in at night this time of year. It’s HOT. UPPER 90’s. Flies during the day and biting midges (swarms at night). Add in voracious mosquitoes at dusk and they are standing at the gate at nightfall begging to come into their deeply bedded stalls. Each with 2 fans and a full hay net.
Outside they are miserable. In the fall winter and part of the spring 24/7 works. Not so much in sweltering nasty summer. Add in to the usual torrential downpours with hail and lightning … I have zero issue tucking them inside.
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My guy needed to gain weight and stalling him over night allowed us to make sure he got the nutrients/cals he needed. He did gain weight and looks awesome, got ulcers though 
. We are back out 24/7.
Agree with everyone here! I have 20 acres pasture and currently 4 horses as Bob is at horsey “summer camp” with his trainer. My pastures are divided into 4 approximately 5 acre pastures, each with a double run-in shed, and half acre of woods. Horses (all geldings) are turned out 24/7 each with a buddy --so currently I have two pastures unused. I just sprayed the unused pastures with fertilizer and herbicide (broadleaf control). After 7 days, I’ll mow them, then put the pairs into those pastures and tackle the other two. Like others, I will put all horses into the barn with fans when it is beastly hot and buggy. Otherwise, they stay out. Years ago, when I called my vet as the temperature was predicted to go -22, I asked if I should put the horses in. He said no, just give them more hay. My horses are (cough) a bit on the fat side and otherwise healthy (arthritis problems in three). FWIW, I have a friend in Wyo who has 180 horses on her ranch and no barns at all. There are equipment buildings for saddles, etc, but horses never go in. But she has 80,000 acres, too.
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This has been my experience. My horses are out 24/7 and you have not seen a deep sleep until you see four of them LAID out, not even moving an ear! A few times I’ve been compelled to check, nope, they’re just sleeping!
One of the geldings you can hear snoring sometimes.
Everyone has a different situation, often influenced by factors like the size of their barm, the horse’s needs, the climate, etc.
Studies have shown there are no positive benefits to confined stalling on the body (excluding horses on injury layup) - it increases inflammation, increases ulcers, causes loss of muscle condition and overall body fitness — but there are so many positives in other ways, that it is really no one size fits all. Some horses need some alone time for specific food, or to escape the bugs, to get out of unpleasant weather, or needing a routine - so do what works best for your particular situation and herd.
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Not much to add here, but I have a recently retired younger horse, he’s been paired with an old guy for turn out. For a while it was all day here if Fla, but the days have gotten less pleasant and they wanted to come in earlier. Last week they were switched to all night t/o and here is my boy about half an hour after they were brought in:
I guess it was a busy night out there.
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Ditto what @Simkie and @Calvincrowe said. My horse and his mini companion, who has Cushings, have limited turnout in the spring. The horse gets fat on spring pasture, so he is carefully managed. The mini goes out for a few hours with a muzzle. Once the dry, hot weather comes, they can go out longer. Horses that have no need for grazing management can be out 24/7. Things are tricky here in the PNW.
Both have a sand/pea gravel turnout attached to their stalls, so they are never locked in. Both like to hang out in their stalls when it is hot. There is a breeze and shade.
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My guys are out in their herd of 5 on 10 acres
None of them are happy inside for more than an hour or so and they definitely sleep well- evidenced by the amount of times Ive checked to make sure someone was just flat out sleeping lol
If I had someone that needed to come in, I would
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I will add one potential benefit: horses who are comfortable being stalled are much happier when attending a show where they are stalled for a few days. Similar to teaching horses to tie at the trailer, it’s something they need to be at ease with.
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I have one horse that just will not lie down in the stall and sleep. She has an in/out situation with the stall and pasture and now that the bugs are bad she comes in at daybreak and will not leave the stall until it gets dark. I wish she would go out and graze because she is the nastiest stall pig you have ever seen. She needs a slave with a shovel to stand there and shovel her poop immediately all day long before smash, sling and squash.
The other two love to sleep in their own stall in a nest of clean shavings. They do sleep outside sometimes but really prefer sacking out inside. In the winter I make them live outdoors more to cut down on my stall cleaning and they are fine when it is cool. Bug season is a whole 'nuther story. I understand. I was in my front yard today and the biting flies and gnats were eating me up. I could not wait to get indoors.
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A sand pile outside promotes sleeping on it, in a pasture or larger pen, here in their pasture and by the yard fence:
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That or a nice, cushy, aromatic poop-pile.
Just for fun, from some time ago, “Nappies in the Poo” on a cold winter day, and “Scooter and The Stinkers”, from their never released Equi_Rap album.
“Look, here come dat man,
Wid a stiff brush in his han’.
Ain’ he got a curry comb,
Lord he won’ leave me alone.
Gonna be a tail lifter,
Gonna be a nose blister,
Gonna set his eyes to water,
Make him wish he’d picked some other.
Gonna be some Tush-Brushin’,
In a Methane Breeze.”
:-D.
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This horse has lived out 24/7 since she was 5 months old. Here she is at age 4 at the fourth horse show of her entire life:
If they’re good-minded and adaptable by nature, they don’t have to live in a stall at home to be okay in one at a show. I find that most of mine are happier in a stall away from home, where there’s lots of activity to keep them entertained, than at home where they know their buddies are outside without them.
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