I am mildly amused by this thread, as I’ve been dealing with 2 of mine who prefer the shed in their dry lot to the acres of available grazing at present (and would happily hang out inside the barn if I didn’t evict them in the morning.)
Granted, the flies are horrid right now.
Right, our horses have a whole mile long pasture they come and go to at will.
Some love to do just that, others say, no thank you, I will go out some and graze for a bit, then go to my sand pile by the house to nap away, stand around the water trough, snooze in a corner of the shed and wait for our twice a day alfalfa flakes and a bit of grain if led into the barn for grooming, riding or any other.
Each horse picks what they want to do and that shows us, day after day, horses, like humans, find a way to adapt that fits them, best they can with what is available and not all choose the same.
Other than outright abuse, that is already illegal and punishable, I think we should not demand any one management or make another illegal.
Each horse owner should decide what they think is best and not be mandated to do what others choose for all.
Remember when animal rights extremists read a study as saying horses had to live in a minimum 12 1/2’ x 12 1/2’ stalls and wanted to pass a law in California to mandate that?
Remember, standard stalls are 12’ x 12’.
Yes, that was one more way to make keeping horses hard, now mandate everyone remodel their stalls or be fined and their horses taken away. 
By the way, our stalls are 12’ x 16’, runs off the stalls are 16’ x 68’, horse traps several acres each, pastures a mile long.
Each place has their own facilities, according to their resources and needs and most make it work fine for what they do with their horses so the horses are doing well and that may not be the same all the time for all horses.
Managing horses is an ongoing task, horses, like humans have their individual preferences and those may change from hour to hour and we accommodate them all along best we can.
Or maintain pastures with “interesting vegetation” so to not bore our horses, when the reality is that there’s hardly enough fresh water left to drink.
This is an interesting article about a feed for the working horses of medieval times, which did not, I imagine, get much turnout. Just an interesting aside.
It’s funny how perceptions of normal are based entirely upon what we’re used to. What people in SoCal are describing sounds unthinkable to me.
Standard boarding barn “full day turnout” where I live is about 6 hours / day individual turnout or in pairs in large grassy paddocks. Yet I just saw a Facebook post from someone who had just moved barns and was appalled that the horses were only out for 6 hours/ day. Where she came from 12 hour turnout was the norm.
I do agree that just because horses can adapt to only leaving their stalls to be ridden or hand grazed, it doesn’t mean it’s good for them. You could feed your kids nothing but McDonald’s cheeseburgers for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They wouldn’t starve, but it wouldn’t be good for them.
This may be a tangent on the thread (or another tangent on the thread) but does anyone else feel that partial day turnout (so let’s say from 8am - 1pm) makes horses more anxious?
I feel that whenever this has been the norm, the horses will start to pace or worry, or if one horse has to come in to be ridden, everyone wants to come in. Eventually the horses come in earlier and earlier due to running or pacing until eventually they just go out for a couple of hours.
If they’re out all day solid until around 3pm/4pm and then fed dinner, I don’t see the same thing happen.
Just me? Anyone else?
I agree. Timing turn-in to be just before a meal makes more sense.
Yes especially in situations where it’s like a morning TO and an afternoon TO so half horses out in each shift.
Where was that study? I’d be interested to read it.
This article talks about how legislation changed the way the Swiss keep horses: https://equusmagazine.com/horse-care/rethinking-the-box-stall/
"In response to research … the Swiss government in 2008 enacted equine protection laws that mandated minimum sizes for box stalls and established requirements for access to or opportunities for social interaction among horses. In the years since, many Swiss equine operations have remodeled their barns so that the horses kept within them can have contact with their neighbors. "
More on the Swiss legislation:
I attended a Jan Brink clinic many years ago and he talked a fair bit about how has barn was designed to allow even the stallions to touch each other in the stalls. Think he’s Swedish not Swiss though
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