Day turnout vs. night turnout

[cocohooves]

Bit of a no brainer here, but I’ve gotten conflicting information about when to put horses out on lusher pasture. My horses are “turned out” 24/7, but are put on approx. 2.5-3 acres of sparse, dry pasture 12 hours a day. I turn them out in the approx. 6/7 acre pasture at around 8 pm every night, and bring them in at 8 am. Weather has been hot for where we are (mid nineties) and the grass we have in the large pasture is patchily distributed ryegrass (which they don’t seem to bother much). Horses are thrifty, and one has gotten f-a-t in just the couple days of turnout. Buuuut that’s another topic for another day.

I’ve done some googling to reaffirm that night turnout is better. I’ve read papers, studies, all that, and am given support for night turnout. Finally, I get on the AQHA’s site and they say night turnout yields higher sugar content in the grass. They state that mornings yield lowest sugar, but many studies I’ve read said the opposite. Yikes?

Should I keep doing what I’m doing or switch to day turnout? What is going on?

[S1969]

Early morning grass is lower in sugar; I’d be curious to see the studies that say it is not.

That said, grass always has sugar in it; if you are going to turn your horses out on grass for 12 hours, it might not really matter what time of day they are on it…they are going to be consuming a lot of grass/calories/sugar.

If your horses are fat, then less turnout or grazing muzzles might be the most effective strategy. If they are having issues like laminitis, your solution might be different. If they aren’t having any problems, I wouldn’t change anything.

Mine are turned out at night because it is cooler and there are fewer bugs. They have access to a small pasture / dry lot during the day, but usually choose to stand in their open stalls in front of fans.

In cooler weather I switch this so that they are in the drylot with access to their stalls at night when it is coldest and they need more wind/rain protection; out during the day in the sun. In full winter they have the run of all the areas if there is snow on the ground.

[ShotenStar]

Grass sugar content depends on the weather, plant stress, forage species, species maturity, time of day, and time of year.

Any time forage species are photosynthesizing (producing energy from sunlight), the plants are producing sugars.

When plant growth is limited from temperatures lower than 40 degrees or from drought, sugars normally used for growth will begin to accumulate in plants, and become dangerous for grazing by Insulin Resistant horses.

In the spring, turn horses out during early morning hours before heat from sunlight has a chance to increase grass’ carbohydrate content; the sugar content of pasture grass is at its highest peak from about noon to 6 p.m in the spring.

Specifically, graze between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m., on cloudy days, and during periods when the night temperatures are above 40 degrees (Spring and Summer schedule)

In fall, it is the opposite: Pasture grass has its highest carbohydrate content in the morning. Horses should graze in the afternoon, from 12 noon to 6 PM. (Fall and Winter schedule)

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[S1969]

@ShotenStar

Specifically, graze between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m., on cloudy days, and during periods when the night temperatures are above 40 degrees (Spring and Summer schedule)

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I draw the line at setting an alarm for 3am turnout. My horses are spoiled but not that spoiled.

[JB]

12 hours on/off grass means the highest/lowest sugar times are almost irrelevant. Things are lowest from about 3-10am, all else equal. That’s not a matter of opinion, that’s a matter of the functions of how grasses store and use sugars. Store/generate when the sun is up, use when the sun goes down for the purpose of growth/health. Therefore, the longer it’s been daylight, the more sugar there is, and the longer it’s been night, the less.

If they are on grass from 8pm-8am, they are starting their time with sugars the highest, going to the lowest.
If they are on 8am-8pm, they’re starting from lowest (almost) to highest

Most horses will graze less at night than during the day, BUT, if it’s hot during the day and they are in a dry/drier lot, they may do more snoozing, and then do more grazing at night on the better pasture.

Put a muzzle on fatty, or reduce his time on the lusher pasture.

[cocohooves]

Ah, okay. This is making more sense. Thank you for all the info! I’m excited to use it!

I’ll have to put a muzzle on fatty. If she had better manners, maybe I’d feel bad about it

As for the mornings thing - I must have interpreted wrong. I had the idea that the bright morning sunlight triggered high sugars, especially if the grass was recovering from a cold night (which we have a lot of in MT). It’s a relief to know I was wrong, haha!

[ShotenStar]

Lots of people don’t understand the grass growing / sugar cycle, which is why there is confusion about ‘day vs night’ grazing. While I don’t get up at 3 AM to turn mine out, I do watch the weather / time of year and adjust my hours of grazing accordingly.

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[Hermein]

Katy Watts, owner/advocate of safergrass.org, says 3:30 am is safest from an IR point of view.

Here, the heat has been in triple digits for nearly a month, which means the horses are in their stalls during the daytime and turned out at night–from about 9pm, and brought in around 8am. It changes in the winter (if we have a winter this year) to out in the daytime with grazing muzzles if they’re IR.

RE: getting up at 3:30 am, Ms. Watts also once suggested that you could put the pasture gate on an electric opener that would let the horses out to graze when it’s safest.

[cocohooves]

That electric gate opener sounds like a GREAT idea right now :lol: Thanks again for all the help!

Two of the three have definitely gained a dangerous amount of weight in the literal four days they’ve been on pasture. I’m amazed that they went from ribs rippling as they walked to “where are your ribs”. I’m already paranoid, so I grudgingly bought two grazing muzzles and am keeping turnout until 10. Will probably limit them to two hour daily turnout at this point. Loving this “horse ownership” thing. Oy vey.

(Hopefully the fat two anxiously pacing the fence helped them drop a couple pounds eyeroll Both of them have an arthritic knee, so I can’t chase them in a circle or get them to work otherwise. Oy vey x2.)