THIS!
[QUOTE=jazzrider;5331043]
Ok Kat, you’ve just made me nervous. We’ve done this with both sets of driveway gates so that if we get bigs snows, we can just lift them off rather than having to shovel to open them, then plow. We have gates all over the place, connecting four pastures and assorted paddocks. Now I’ll be out there tonight making sure that only interier gates are done that way – so if our boys suddenly got the urge to lift a gate (they’ve never shown any interest) they’ll still be contained.
Not that they’d go very far. Neighbor has 12 unfenced acres of beautiful grass. :D[/QUOTE]
Yeah I had only the two QHs and donkey at the time. And that gate was one of two gates to the only pasture we had at the time. They hit the gate lottery. I imagine Jake pawed at it for supper, hung his leg just enough to lift it, and there it went. It’s a typical 12’ metal pipe gate, it wasn’t bent in any way. Asshats 
They definately can be. I’m leaving work in 10 minutes. I’ll be out looking at my gates in about an hour. Because now you’ve jinxed me. The dreaded COTH jinx – read it one day, and it happens to you the next. :rolleyes:
We routinely have 30-40 head here, and two breeding stallions. Except for bad weather, usually in the winter or early spring, our are out 24/7.
I have always worked off the farm, so had my husband (who’s not horsey). the two stallions live out 24/7 with their own run-ins with my young stallion in with geldings.
We’ve never had a problem. In my experience, horses typically get out during the night, not during the day when they have their food from the AM feeding but after they have possibly finished their PM hay and it’s 3 AM.
Ours just stick around b/c their friends are here. Yes, I have had my stallions get out but again they’ve never been an issue as in going through fences for mares etc. It’s only happened 2 times and I have been home. They see me coming and know “oh dang, mom’s here” and come right to me.
We don’t have any of the horse halters on either. All of them know that if I whistle it means food (we do it at every feeding time) so if someone does get out, I just whistle, even if I don’t have grain.
We’ve had it this way for years.
I’m home all of the day now, but I used to routinely keep my horses at home alone when we worked during the day. I never had any problems. If there was a sick horse or something to be concerned about, I lived close enough from work where I could get back to the farm during my lunch hour. I never had any problems, and I would do it again.
I work at home and my office window overlooks the paddock and shed. 
Which is great. But I don’t hesitate at all to leave for the day if needed, or longer. We go away for 2-3 days at a time sometimes. Our awesome horse-savvy neighbor feeds twice a day and checks water, and we have contact info posted–contact info for ourselves, our vet, and two backup people who know our horses and could jump in in an emergency situation if needed.
There have been times I’ve been glad I was home–just the other day my gelding started showing some mild colicky signs, so I brought him in and gave him Banamine and he was fine. But as others have said, they tend to get in more trouble at night anyway. My goofball gelding likes to hop out of the paddock at night in the spring so he can eat the fresh grass growing on the neighbors’ lawn. As far as we can tell, he eats for awhile and then wanders around the barn to get to where the gate is, at which time his buddy starts hollering and wakes us up. We always run out there in our jammies to find him standing at the gate waiting to be let back in. He has never ONCE jumped out in the daytime. Dork.
I’ve found it’s really crucial to have a setup that’s really easy for someone else, even a non-horse person, to come in and do chores for you in a pinch. When I had my baby, we had round bales and a huge water trough so when I went to the hospital my mom could just throw grain twice a day. Or even if she hadn’t done that, they would have been fine.
I guess what I’m saying is, “What they said.” Plenty of hay (if not grass), plenty of water, good fences, and good neighbors, and you’ll be all set.
I’m another one with 24/7 turnout. They have a run-in with built in stalls that they can come and go as they please. I will lock them in at night, unless they’re calling for storms - then I like to let them have some space. I also kept turnout halters with i.d. on for the first few weeks, until I knew they were settled and knew the boundaries. Now the halters only go on during storms, or when the farrier is coming. I’ve never had any problems and my mother in law lives a few houses away. In the few instances where severe storms cooked up during the day, she was able to check in on them afterwards.
We have our horses in the “backyard” and leave them unattended for at the most 12 hrs.I have only had horse "get out twice.Once years ago when we had electric fence and the weanlings were testing the wire and found a place to get out.That time my neighbor was cutting his hay and he lead them back in and hooked up the fence for me.Another time after we got 3 board oak fence a mare slipped on the ice and crashed throughthe fence .Luckily the boy who cleans stalls showed up right after they got out and they let him catch them.
Now we have “no climb” horse fence with a board on top.No one escapes from that!!!.
If your fence is safe and the horses have a run-in situation they are pretty happy.If you don’t have a run-in than I would only turn them out at night when you are home to hear them.
I’ve got 40 acres, 4 horses, and I don’t even live there. I drive out there (20 minutes) twice a day. I worry more about them hurt in a stall overnight for 10-12 hours while I’m sleeping (even if I lived there!) than I worry about them turned out un-attended for a few hours straight during the day.
Both times myy horses got loose I was home and didn’t realize it because I was asleep, one time I found out when I got up and went to feed in the morning and 2 were gone and the board fence was wrecked this ws during deer season and we had packs of dogs running all over the place, I found the horses in a field down the road eating grass and the other time I found out when my neighbor called to tell me my horse got hit by a car and was lying in the road. That phone sent me running out the door and the horse was standing in the yard eating grass with a scrape along her side from where she slid, I don’t think she was actually hit by a car, I think she fell and slid on the road. There was a car involved and the driver thought she had hit the horse since the horse ran out along the side of the road and went down but since there was no damage to the car or horse I doubt the horse was actually hit. In that instance a back gate that never gets used except to get in the pasture to mow was open this happened in the early spring and that gate hadn’t been used in 6 months, that same night a neighbors horses got out with an open gate, another neighbor had tools stolen out of a truck and a car was stolen down the road. I suspect vandalism. I have 11 dogs none of them woke me up yet they will bark at a rabbit like hyenas.
Since both istances I have changed my set up, I now have 2 strands of electric inside my board fence and have padlocks on all gates that are not routinely used and changed the latches on the ones I do use. I have 2 sacrifice paddocks that are attahced to the barn so they have shelter in them and a pasture, when there is no one home now and at night, I put them in the paddocks that now have electric and board fence, or during hunting season when dogs are loose. I leave the gsd mix dog in the barn when I leave the place and close the access door to the barn, if someone breaks in to the barn to mess with the horses, they will meet him.
I do worry about leaving them long periods of time but it’s not more than 12 hours at a time a few times a month.
I was also lucky enough to design my small farmette to accomodate 24/7 turnout for horses who were alone for 12-14hrs. a day. I work shift work and due to the nature of what I do sometimes get called in early or forced to stay late against my will. Two years ago when I brought them home I would panic if I couldn’t leave after my 8 hour shift. You can imagine what was going through my mind… do they still have food, did they get their doors open, did someone tear down a fence, was my gelding tying up (horrible experience… he did this until we determined it was PSSM).
I have two very mellow TWH geldings and a mini donkey at home now. I placed the gelding with PSSM and no longer had to worry about the tying up issue. The barn allows the three to have access to two 12 x 12 stalls and their sacrafice paddock all the time. Heated water, freedom feeder, and Nibble nets keep them with hay almost constantly. I have four strands of VERY hot Horsegaurd tape. My interior doors have extra locks. My gates are pipe with wire mesh and they are installed with one hook down and one up so it is IMPOSSIBLE to rip them off (I hope!)
They got out twice… both were my fault. Both times I was home. I am a stickler for checking gates and doors before I leave the house. Emergency numbers are in the tackroom, all halters hanging in plain view, and horse friends who drive my road back and forth from work that can see the boys in their paddock. Finger crossed… so far so good.
The only time (knock on wood) I have had colics or other emergencies I have been home, getting home, or horsey fiance was home. Hope to keep this track record going.
Bottomline… you can wrap 'em in bubble wrap and they will still manage to pop it! We are very careful, but at the end of the day they are horses and we can’t prevent everything whether we are home or not.
Does anyone leave their horse alone for a couple days at a time?
I’m currently looking for property to build on, but was wondering if anyone has left their horses in a small pasture (1-3 acres) for a couple days at a time?
I was thinking to put a large round hay bail and of course plenty of water and a shelter.
Ideally, I’d like to put a couple horses on the property since it’s only 1block away from my house (also I work from home). I have horse friends in the area but not right next door.
I sometimes have to leave for 2-3 days at a time for business–so I guess my question is if you’ve made a safe fenced area with food and water for the horses, how often should someone check in on them?
I’ve always boarded but I see my horses nearly everyday and have also taken them camping, so I feel like I know them pretty well. What’s everyone’s opinion on this?
IMO, it’s routinely done everywhere. I can’t imagine that even the biggest/most fancy boarding barns have people on site available all the time and within sight of all the horses.
GET A WIRELESS CAMERA SYSTEM SO YOU CAN CHECK ON THINGS WHILE YOU ARE GONE…HAVE SUPER DUPER FENCING…GATED ENTRANCE…POST SECURITY SYSTEM SIGNS AND BEWARE OF DOG SIGNS…JUST USE GOOD HORSE SENSE AND MAKE IT ALL AS SAFE AND STRONG AS YOU CAN FOR THE HORSES…THEN LEAVE IT TO GOD BUT CHECK ON THINGS FROM YOUR PHONE
Good gracious, do you go to bed and sleep for 8 hours…because that’s when more sh*t happens than during the day…If you feel the need to stand there and stare at them for 24 hours. Maybe real horses aren t the right fit…Yhey do stupid stuff if you are there or not…I live and work from my farm, and I have to go to horse shows, shopping, the vet etc…you do the best you can and make sure fences are intact, water troughs full, hay put out and shut the driveway gate when you leave…Worst thing ever happened my mare foaled 4 weeks early while we were out to dinner…With no bag or sign of impending delivery and yes she had 1 cover so we had dates correct…Most of the time they do stupid stuff right under your nose…
I work full time (and sometimes more). I check on them before I leave for work and when I get home. They have hay 24/7 in slow feeders and water always available. i lock them in their stall/paddocks at night but they are also free to roam around turn out area during the day. So far so good.
The first summer we had Hizzhonor the Not Spoiled Arabian at home I worried about him in a thunderstorm…he liked to stand right on the hill in the pasture. Alone. Looking like a prime lightning ground… In the pouring rain and lightning. That nice shelter we built him? A pasture ornament good for only storing hay.
Since I worked 10 minutes from home, when a thunderstorm was coming I would run home and chuck him in the stall. If I timed it right he would meet me at the gate, and all was well for the nervous owner.
if I cut it too close…if he knew there was rain coming or it was already raining…forget it. He was the original wild arabian stallion…and running me around in the rain was a sick game he really enjoyed.
Eventually I learned what he already knew…he was made for living outside.
And liked the rain
Thread is from 2011, bumped up by a new question.
1alicious1, I would not feel comfortable leaving my group alone for several days with no supervision. My horses strongly believe that horses should work at the killing themselves thing. When I go away (rarely) I have someone checking them morning and evening.
IMO, being home is often a false security. Unless you are actively checking or are physically very close to the horses, you may not know of a problem anyway. I lost my horse when he colicked during overnight turnout. I board and the BO was in the house not far from the field, but heard nothing until she found him sick in the morning. Stuff happens. Personally I would want somebody checking within 24 hours, but everyones risk tolerance may vary - as do the circumstances that may require more supervision.
Knock on wood, but I’ve never had a horse get out since I switched to electric. They totally respect the fence and will not touch it. I have a top board in case we lose power. But never a board down since I electrified everything. We’ve gone away for a weekend and left them all outside, and paid a local farm sitter to stop by and check on them. Sometimes I’m home all day, sometimes not. As long as your facility is in good repair and they have hay/grass, water and a shed, they will be fine.
