There are those with 5-6-7 figure horses that can afford to replace them with a lease or the purchase of another during the six months or longer downtime of a rehab that’s subsidized by insurance.
Some are not in that position so might be more protective since the horse’s downtime may be theirs as well, at least in part.
Of course if the injury is life ending, then the insurance will pay out to replace the horse. More or less.
I have not owned, but worked for 2 GP level show jumpers (one of whom represented the US team on several occasions). The latter trainer sold horses to even bigger names. Horses that pack billionaire amateurs around the 1.40s and have taken kids to win big eq finals.
Horses that came from the best breeders in Europe, could name drop all day, and every single one was turned out in a huge grass field every single day, except Sunday because staff only came to feed and check on them - owners were responsible for getting their horse out that day.
So, yeah. $1k or $1m, I think they deserve equal treatment. Plus, they’re insured at the larger price points.
I can speak to not being in the position of replacing my horse should she be injured. She is turned out every single day, for the majority of the day. Wouldn’t change a thing. She gives me her ALL, so yeah I think she deserves to have a great life.
Not saying don’t turn your horse out bc it might get injured bc, Lord knows, many could manage that in a padded cell. Just that having insurance means it doesn’t matter doesn’t work for everyone.
I could introduce you to one I know quite well. My 27 YO appendix QH. After about 20 minutes she’ll start running the fence line, even if she’s out with another horse whose company she can tolerate, less if she hears a fly buzz past. I think I’ve found about 5 of those over the past 25 years. One year I boarded her at a farm, and after few months, the farm owner got her to settle in with 3 other horses, we started in the fall when the flys were done for the year. She seemed to be doing fine, 4 horses, 2 large round bales, no fighting over food, 2 sheds, heavily blanketed, and she still lost an alarming amount of weight, the other 3 looked like butterballs. I ended up bringing her to the farm where we had our racehorses. She settled in beautifully, gained all the lost weight in no time, content to be back on her less time outside, cozy stall lifestyle. What can I say, she’s speshul. 
ETA I do wish she would spend hours outside. Drives me bonkers that she can’t decide living outside is wonderful like my current riding horse who only comes in for grooming or tacking up. I’m thankful for him being so amiable, since being inside is bad for his allergies.
Right but I think the point people are trying to make here is that turnout should be seen as a basic need like food, water, and shelter and not as a perk.
This isn’t about not turning them out because of a serious injury, this isn’t about not turning them out because of weather, this isn’t about not turning them out because of land access or resources. This is about not turning them out AT ALL because she just doesn’t want to. There’s no reason to defend that practice. If I couldn’t provide for my horse’s basic needs I wouldn’t have horses.
my comment about the insurance was in regards to professionals with high value horses who are running businesses. To me, that’s different than a single owner… especially those for whom riding is their therapy and only outlet.
But my thinking is, I would think that the cheapest way to own a horse is to only have one and keep it sound…and that often turn out can be a component of soundness. And so I would encourage my fellow Californians to do the best they can and get the horses out and with each other as much as possible. To me, it’s worth having the fight or paying someone to take the horse out after hours, etc.
So I don’t care much about the actual subject of the thread know who Dani Goldstein-Waldman is, generally don’t have strong opinions of her, and was fully just going to scroll and read and lurk but then I saw this - I wanted to add to it and point out that I worked part-time as barn security (so, patrolling multiple barns on foot on the backside of a TB track every race day) at a smaller Thoroughbred track in the Midwest a couple years ago and I distinctly recall seeing one horse periodically turned out in a small round pen (not like, tiny small, but it looked portable in that I think it could’ve been folded up and trailered away if that makes sense? I’ve not been actively riding or otherwise directly participating in horses for a few years now and I’m not super-knowledgeable about racing) - round pen would be set up near the barn the horse presumably belonged to and the horse looked to be having a grand time even though he was basically in a dirt lot. So I’ve seen at least one person who’s found a way to give a racehorse turnout at the track, haha! (Again, small, Midwestern track, lot of smaller-time trainers and most of the ones I got to know while I worked there seemed like good people.)
Nope, does not change my opinion, because the dollar figure of the horse does not change what is best for the horse. Horses do better with turn out. I want what is best for my horses.
Horses don’t know what their price tag says. I figure they probably don’t care much either.
But you hit the nail on the head - people are thinking about their wallets, not their horses. The biggest reason I don’t want to pursue a career with horses is that I never want to be in a situation where I have to choose between doing what’s best for the horses and putting food on my table.
There are people who do it and make it work. And I’d say the vast majority of pros try to do right by their animals, but I’d venture a guess that most people can think of a time when they (or someone they know) had to make some questionable decisions for the sake of their business.
Years back, my best friend had a lovely TB mare who she bought young and green.
Annie lived at K’s in a stall with attached grass paddock.
K brought Annie along to discover that she was uber fancy.
Since she had neither the resources nor the bankroll to campaign the mare, K sold her (for enough to put an addition on the house.)
She informed the new owners that the mare absolutely required turnout, and told them about when she was being rehabbed after an injury which required stall rest.
The mare went ape. K called me and asked what to do–our options were to sedate her or do something about the environment.
So we constructed a 12 x 12 paddock attached to the stall, and Annie was happy again.
When the time came to start allowing turnout, it was enlarged slowly until it was safe to give her the entire turnout she had been accustomed to.
The following year, we heard from a friend who had been to Florida for the winter that she had seen Annie, and that the owners had had a paddock attached to her stall specially constructed for her in her winter quarters.
Yup. Here’s a screenshot of the backside at Belmont, zoomed in on a few barns that have round pens of various sizes set up. Now Belmont is pretty green and spacious for being smack in the middle of the city; you certainly can’t accomplish this at every concrete jungle. But the point is even at the racetrack where it is nearly impossible, people still try to get their super fit, valuable, young horses some turnout.
There’s a graded stakes-winning filly right now who hates living in a stall. Her assistant trainer affectionately called her a “pain”. They have a tent & portable corral type setup and that’s where she lives.
I wish I could remember her name so I could link the article.
Agree that the best strategy is to treat them like gold (including their brains, which means at least some time outside) and pray or sacrifice to the deity of your choice. My horse is currently at his breeder’s rehabbing after stepping on a rock (at a premier USEF show no less) and damaging structures in his foot. She has what I consider an ideal set up: horses live out 24/7 in large paddocks with shelters and they can reach out and touch neighbors. She’s in the Santa Rosa Valley so there’s a bit more land. It’s at least a 2.5 hour round trip every time I go out.
My experience is that a lot of professionals don’t insure their horses. Maybe this has changed since they’re so crazy expensive. My trainer mostly doesn’t. There was an article in the Chronicle magazine a number of years ago and quite a few pros said they either didn’t insure or they only insured some. I suppose if you have a lot of horses, you can hope that that the law of averages kicks in and not all of them get injured so that you’re essentially self insuring. Not to mention that insuring all those horses would be super expensive.
That’s what I was coming back here to say. All these folks going on about insurance have definitely been around a different set of professionals than I’ve been. Yes, your average amateur or junior is going to insure their six-figure horse… Horses that are straight-up owned by pros typically aren’t.
“Honestly, we like the horses to have very little time in their stalls. They’re horses. They’ve evolved as herd animals, so they’re used to moving around for most of the day. They’re kind of made for that. At the farm, we try to support that as much as possible in their day-to-day care. We like them to be walking on the walker, or out in the field, or to be ridden during the day. Obviously, our horses are going to spend some time in their stalls, but a lot of their time is also spent outside.” This is a statement from Beezie Madden. If she can turn out her horses theres no excuse for anyone else. But i guess thats what seperates the riders and the horsemen/women
To the point of crashing through a fence:
My horse is as wreckless as they come, and has never once come close to crashing through a fence in turn out. Those are referred to as “freak accidents” for a reason. Yes, she bucks and slips if it’s muddy, and races around for a minute or two.
My horse also will likely never slip on a grass derby field. Or if the footing is a little wet at a show. I see turn out as a HUGE competition advantage to the fancy derby horses who’s only exercise is lunging at home, or to the showjumper who doesn’t know how to place its feet it wet footing.
My horse will run through two trees that are a little too close together, will come back with minor scrapes and bleeding on a leg or her face, and has never once injured herself in turn out, even minor lameness. She’s 10 and I compete and jump year-round.
It would take a hell of a lot for a horse to get seriously injured in a pasture. And even then, my conscious would rather deal with that type of injury, the injury being “on the horse” (meaning it did it purely to itself) than me doing it in the competition ring or on it’s back.
Again, I believe this all boils down to you either care about the horse or your ego. Dani is clearly the latter.
If turnout is okay for these two, some of the most popular/well known (and valuable) horses even outside of the horse world, then turnout is okay for expensive show horses 
I’m glad to see most people here consider turnout a BASIC need that is absolutely essential to a horse’s physical and mental well-being.
Here is more scientific evidence that being stalled all the time(even while in race training and daily time on a walker) is detrimental to bone strength.
“Even while being exercised, it was not enough to make the stalled horses’ bone mass increase,”
Ehhh…
I don’t think that it’s beyond the question that a horse can have a catastrophic injury in a pasture. There are unexpected holes, undulations in footing, mud, rocks (know a very famous person’s horse who fractured her coffin bone bucking in the field and landing on a rock - horse lived outside 24/7, was never sound again), roots from trees, the trees themselves, etc.
I wouldn’t say it would take a “hell of a lot”. It’s most definitely possible with the wilder ones.
EDIT: before we have the bully police rolling through telling me what a piece of crap I am, I’m not saying don’t turn them out. I’m just saying it is definitely possible that they can get injured out there.
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