Does anyone have experience with this? It’s not the living outside part that concerns me but the fact that they don’t have access to grass or if they do it’s only a small amount that won’t last long. She would have hay 24/7 and I give her grain 1x a day.
She has lived outside before but it was a beautiful large grass field that they barn owners alternated them in and out of to preserve the grass.
Looking for thoughts and experiences with this! Thank you!
This is kind of what happens with high desert horse keeping around here. Mine have lots of space and room to roam, but it’s a scrub oak and sagebrush mountainside, so really foraging is for interest’s sake rather than providing much of an element of diet. I’m responsible for pretty much everything nutritional that goes into their mouths for at least 9 months of the year (5 months of that is snow covered anyway.) The upside is that it is easier to keep their weight where it should be, and that they are very unlikely to ever founder… They also walk around a lot up and down their hill so maintain some base level of fitness for a bunch of oldies.
When I lived up North my horses had 1 1/2 -2 acres that was basically a dry lot. It did have some green that they could spend their time nibbling at when not eating hay.
They were happy and personally I prefer this over the ups and downs in their diet/ weight that come with pasture living. I know mine were just as healthy and I could maintain a proper weight much easier. Both came from a larger pasture setting before and have since returned to the large pasture setting.
I long for my dry lot back.
I’m confused, are you boarding your horse in a dry lot? Or asking about keeping a horse in one? Many horses live that way year round and are happy and healthy, if there’s serious winter, there’s no grass 4-5 months a year. Long as the horse is getting adequate hay, it’s not that big a deal.
If you are talking about your own horse, there are many boarding alternatives out there if you aren’t happy where you are. However, there is a cost element to things like properly managed pastures or free choice hay.
@findeight Talking about boarding my horse at a facility where the only outdoor available is in a dirt field
I’d say virtually everyone has experience with this, especially if they’ve boarded. Around here horses are either confined to “dry lots” aka mud lots aka sacrifice paddocks in the spring and fall to protect the grass when it’s wet, before it freezes and gets covered in snow. So basically they would only have grass 2-3 months of the year.
Other barns, due to lack of space, or management have too many horses so all the paddocks slowly turn to mud lots or dry lots where nothing grows, most never return to their original green glory.
If you’re worried about feeding hay 24/7 year round then have it tested and see what you need to supplement.
And another thing… I have found that their feet stay in much better condition on a dry lot that with the fluctuations in both moisture content and grass flushes that they get on pasture.
Just be sure to keep an eye on Vitamin E levels - it can only be found in green forage, so if the horse is on no grass whatsoever, you are all but absolutely going to see deficiencies.
There are different kinds of “dirt fields.”
There are dead pastures that have been overgrazed, and can either have good drainage or turn into mudpits. Some of these can sprout a bit in summer, either grass or inedible weeds.
There are natural terrains in desert or forest regions that just don’t have much grass.
There are “groomed” turnout facilities with gravel or sand or hogfuel bark mulch footing, which can have good drainage or turn into wading pools.
Obviously in all these cases two things apply, which also apply to horses only kept in stalls.
The horse will need to be fed everything it needs, hay and supplements, etc.
The field will need to picked out every day unless it is really huge. A grass field can “absorb” manure over the summer. The horses won’t eat the very new green clumps of grass growing out of fresh manure, but over the winter (when the pasture is resting) the manure will break down and fertilize the next year’s grass.
If there is no grass in the field, the manure will just sit there and become effectively the new footing unless it is picked out. Mud or dry, this can be really really disgusting and is also a high risk factor for breeding worms.
I would look at the overall horse care in choosing a facility.
I would rather be in a well-run boarding barn with good feed and facilities, and groomed turnouts than in a place with marginal pasture and skinny horses.
If however you are looking at a mud pit of a dead field that was trashed by overgrazing in the summer, and if you think that this failure in pasture management is reflective of the level of care and knowledge of the whole facility, that is another matter.
Obviously good healthy well managed pasture is the ideal, but in most of our suburban boarding situations, there simply isn’t room to maintain this.
I owned a qh mare for 27 yrs.For the last 12 yrs of her life she had to live outside due to severe allergies living in a barn. Couldnt eat hay because she was allergic to that too so she ate soaked alfalfa cubes. Most of the day was spent in a dirt paddock but was allowed out to a very small grass field once a day. Grass was a very very small part of her diet. She lived to 30 fat and happy. Her hocks finally gave out so I had to put her down. She did well
You say the horse will have hay 24/7 so that offsets any concern about boredom. In my case, I don’t count on my pastures for nutrition. Far from it since I have two minis, they have to spend most of their time on a dry lot just so they won’t explode. I let them and the two “regular” horses out on the pasture to run around and play games, but really not mainly for eating.
I feel that a horse that has plenty of room to move around, good hay and clean water, and companionship, has a good life. Grass not really required.
They do fine living in a dirt corral as long as they have 24/7 access to hay. If corral is cleaned at least twice a year to remove manure. It should be fine unless it a small space.
My horses have access to grass all year long. Even when snows deep they paw for grass. I also put out hay but if they can get grass ,they’ll choose it over eating hay.
Living in Ontario with ponies means ‘dirt’ paddocks with no grass. I have 2 paddocks (each one an acre or so) for 5 ponies.
We only have grass/ pasture from June to September. Maybe October. And the ponies are muzzled when they go out there for a few hours a day.
So…nope. I have no problem keeping horses on ‘a dirt field’.
Worst thing I ever did was move my mare to a small dry lot (Didn’t really have a choice at the time…barn she was at was closing and the elderly owners were getting out of horses completely). She’s miserable and hates it. She has a shed and hay 24/7 set up in hay bags along the fence and in the shed. She’s bored and chews the fence. She’s not into toys and really isn’t a big hay eater but I set up alot to try and give her something to do. I’m in the process of electrying everything and looking for a new place.
I pick it at least twice a day and its spotless…until it rains and then it’s mud. Did I mention how much my horse hates it? 
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