Horse in question is 6 years old and has been on 24/7 turnout for his entire life. If I were to purchase said horse, the barn I am currently boarding at offers (unfortunately) limited turnout. Horses are out for, at best, 5 hours a day and in for the rest of the day.
Has anyone had a similar experience? Do horses adjust? Or is this a recipe for disaster?
It really depends on the horse. Some I know have been fine, others developed stall vices and ulcers. I would have a back plan in case the horse doesn’t adjust.
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5 hours in turnout and 19 hours in a stall? My 6 yr old mare would be unrideable and dangerous to handle - she was when I tried it! Hold out for a better life for your horse.
Do horses adjust? Yeah, some do learn to tolerate it. Most people don’t correlate the issues that result with the lack of a species appropriate lifestyle, sadly…
Should they live like that for the rest of their lives? Not in my opinion.
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I had a wonderful Paint gelding I had to put down last year at age 28. I bought him in 2001, off a trailer from Iowa that arrived at the dealer barn where we were shopping. He was 7, registered, and I suspect was turned out 24/7 since he was foaled. He was fine in a stall overnight in our younger years when we were headed for a show the next day. After we quit the show ring, he never saw the inside of a stall beyond a few hours. When he was 26 the BO kept him in one night with a cut I was already treating successfully. He lost his mind. Screaming, kicking the door and walls. I took him to the indoor in the a.m. and he flew around, literally. Every once in a while a leg hit the ground. He could be heard for miles. She kept him in one more night. When I opened the door the next a.m. I felt a breeze. A blurr went by. Repeat performance. No more stall. I started looking for new barn just before Covid hit.
I had to move after 20 years.(sordid story involving poor care and the BO). We retired to wonderful barn with 12x12’ stalls. BO was as close to a perfect BO as you will ever find. There was an opening in the grill to the aisleway, and a back door to an attached runout. It was open 100% except during thunderstorms. He went nuts the first few days. He was halfway down the aisleway screaming and his head hung out the entire time. I think he forgot about the back door. We had a choice of permanent stalls a few days later. I picked the best (of course, what else?) that had an oversized runout and overlooked the parking lot. He was overly pampered, had lots of visitors, and lived out his days in blissful elegance. He still had all day turnout until the last few months because his deteriorating knee was getting so bad.
So, it does depend on the horse. I found even here in southern Maine it is getting difficult to find 24/7 turnout. I’m not sure why. If you don’t have any other choice that is what you have to do. Look around, you might trip over something that will work.
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How do you feel about living with a cribber, wood chewer, or weaver? Or anxiety, ulcers, or inflammatory airway disease?
Stalls are for the owner’s convenience. Have you ever known a horse with 24/7 turnout plus access to an open stall to choose spending 19 hours just standing inside the stall?
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I sold a 12 year old horse I bred and raised who had never even been stalled. He went to being stalled all but 8 hours a day and to my surprise he adjusted fine.
My first horse went from life in a pasture to being stalled 24/7 ( no turnout apart from riding and putting him in the arena if empty) I think he was 5/6 ( it was decades ago) . It was move related and not my choice but he never had an issue. I did ride and get him out faithfully 6 days a week.
As others mentioned you never know how they will do until you are in that situation. I personally will never stall another of my horses if I can help it. Can you find a more suitable boarding barn??
My homebred was raised outside.
When we had to board for a few years, it was tricky. If he could have had a stall with a runout and then grass turnout during the day plus unlimited forage in his stall I think he would have been totally fine.
I couldn’t find that ideal. He wasn’t totally fine. I bought another farm.
I understand many horses adjust to a variety of living situations so YMMV
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I couldn’t put a horse in a box for 19 hours a day, even if the horse seemed “fine” with the situation. Even if they seem that way, there will be consequences to putting a 1,000-pound animal that is designed to move freely about and graze throughout the day and night into a small box, for the majority of its life. Along with vices such as wood-chewing, cribbing, weaving, stall-walking, pawing/digging, there is the internal stress and anxiety causing ulcers, the airway irritants from dusty bedding and hay, and the musculoskeletal stiffness and soreness from being penned up in a small space and unable to move as much as nature intended.
Plenty of horses live in stalls for extended lengths of time (some even 24/7). Personally, unless the confinement was due to something medical that required stall rest, I wouldn’t be able to subject a horse to that. And I’d have to think long and hard about any extended stall rest for my guy. He’ll use a stall when given a choice, and I can shut him up in one now and then if I need to, but he is definitely not a candidate for living any significant portion of his life in a stall. His mind, gut, and joints all fall to pieces if kept inside for any portion of the day regularly.
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I’ll provide a slightly different perspective.
I bought my Irish Draught mare several years ago. At that point, she had spent the previous year and a half living in an enormous field with a couple of other horses and little regular contact with her owners. They did ride her occasionally, and they provided hay in the winter, there was a large run-in, etc. So she was not in any way neglected and she was turned out 24/7. When she was younger they had sent her for 4 months training to a barn, and I assume that she was stalled there for some portion of the day.
Anyway, I bought her an brought her to a boarding barn where she is out 10 hours (in the summer sometimes longer) per day and otherwise in the barn. She loves it. When there’s a cold rain she’s the first to want to come in. She hasn’t developed any stall vices and she seems quite happy with the arrangement.
So there’s a lot of variability among horses.
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My 2 do well on 8-9 hours pasture turnout but in every night. Night turnout is not their thing. So 24/7 is not a must but 8-10 is good.
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Totally depends on the horse. Yes, more turnout is always good, but it’s not like you can’t try it and see if it’s a fit for your horse. If you decide to do it, add some alfalfa pellets to his diet as an ulcer preventive in case he is stressed out and try to keep him in consistent work. It never hurts to line up a backup plan (barn) in case it turns out to be a bad fit.
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We’ve had many come here from living out 24/7 to less turn out 5-8 hours a day….sometimes a bit longer, sometimes a bit shorter. They’ve always transitioned fine. However, we do get them out every day if humanly possible. Our pastures are big w good grass and we let them go out even if it’s wet. They don’t run and wreck them because they do get out. We don’t turn out in inclement weather in the summer and never on ice in the winter. In the summer we sometimes have to dodge T- storms. In the winter w bitter wind chills, they ask to come in. We feed a lot of hay, too. Good luck w your new horse!
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My mare was out in pasture until she was a late 3 yo then into a large (50ft x 90ft-ish) dry lot pen until November of 2021 (her age = 19). I moved her to a barn with a stall and 12 x 30 ft run out. There is turnout but all dry lot. I am lucky if she even meanders around the pen (they are 1/2- 1 acre in size) then stand by the gate.
Not only that but the owners when I moved her in shut them in the stalls when we had heavy precipitation. That happened like 5 days after I moved her. I figured inside of a couple days, I would be peeling her out for the rafters. Nope…she looked at me like where has this been all my life. Is it ideal? No but she seems to tolerate it just fine and appears to actually like it. At this point in her life, I would be very leery to turn her out on grass so I have no problem with the dry lots. She gets her hay in a slow feed net and usually has hay most of the day and a good part of the night. The barn has new owners and they have no intention of locking anyone in and are resurfacing the pens with sand before winter hits.
Boarding, especially decent boarding around here is getting more and more difficult to find. I have to have something that doesn’t take me an hour or more drive time (round trip). Mare is 21 this year. If I have to move her, most likely, I will look for retirement board because it will be too far out for me to be able to ride (after driving there). We will see.
Susan
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It’s not ideal - and I have one of the horses who would “be fine”, except I know him well enough that I know he’s not. Keeping him sound and comfortable is VERY expensive if he’s in a stall for extended periods daily. He’s generally FAT and shiny, and very cooperative to handle, but I start having to inject things or do rounds of ulcer meds, or whatever.
If I HAD to do it again, with any horse, the deal breaker would be if the horses had ACTUAL 24/7 hay. Not “free choice” or “as much as they’ll clean up” and then you look and every horse is standing in a hayless stall. I don’t mind providing hay nets or stuffing them, and I don’t mind providing extra hay if the base price is right and there’s a place to store it. But if board is $$$$ already, and my horse is actually going to get 2 flakes a day, that’s a non-starter. I’d rather have to provide grain than fight The Hay Fight.
My horse is more sound, less expensive to maintain, and wayyy happier outside on Deluxe Pasture Board - he has a stall for feeding time and ice or really bad heat. This is also almost impossible to find these days. Whatever you do, learning to chill in a stall is a good skill for a horse to have - see how they settle in. But forage availability becomes CRUCIAL.
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I think it depends on the horse. Some will handle a few hours per day no problem, where others might come unhinged with it.
I have always done indoor board with daily turnout. I have found that after a few hours, the horses are at the gate or running the fence to come in. The barn that I boarded at for years got lazy with turnout-- the same horses would always go out, there was a lack of paddocks, and my horse would be in for days at a time…that pissed me off and I pulled him out of there. My horse now goes out with one other horse for 6+ hours per day and he’s quite happy with that. He also gets hay 24/7.
I don’t believe in no turnout either. Coming from the western show word, I know show barns are notorious for keeping horses cooped up, but I don’t agree with this at all.
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While every vice you mention is a possibility, none are guaranteed as a result of stalling a horse.
My TB was OTT, but never raced.
He worked as a Pony for the trainer after failing his 2yo Speed Test
They had him until he was 6, I boarded him for the next 17yrs at barns with T/O that varied from 4h/day to 8.
So he was often stalled more than out.
I brought him (& my other horse) home at 22 & they immediately had 24/7 T/O with free access to stalls.
I’d often find them sharing a single 12X12 stall, even in nice weather.
They did choose Out over In most of the time.
Today my 3 - 16h TWH, 13h Hackney Pony & 34" mini do the same.
Perfectly nice day, grass in pastures & all 3 are in a single stall 
The other large stall has been used as The Men’s Room - as evidenced by multiple piles of varying sizes
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Can you do it? Yes, lots of places have young horses that grow up out in fields and then transition to stall life as they go into training. Would I do it? Nope, maximum turnout is a hill I’m willing to die on for my horses
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What do they do for turnout in the summer? Is it overnight turnout?
Around here it’s not uncommon for horses to get only 6ish hours of turnout a day in the wintertime. But then in the summer they are turned out for 12-14 hours overnight.
I couldn’t imagine not turning horses out for a longer period in the summer. You’re just making messy stalls for yourself and driving up your feed bill.
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I appreciate all of these responses and generally agree that more turnout = better. Unfortunately turnout is the same year round, even in the summer. Out around 8, in around noon.
That seems to be the norm for the show oriented barns in this area. I do not currently own a horse (I lease) but it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that if I want the horse I ultimately end up buying to have good turnout (which is a priority for me, because if I get busy with work and kids I want to at least know that my horse is able to get outside and move around) I am going to have to leave this barn
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Same. My daughter’s horse lives at home in summer with 24/7 access to a paddock and a couple hours in a grassy field every day. During the school year she lives at college, which is a large East Coast college Equestrian Center. Half day turnout, weather permitting. But the stall fronts and sides are bars, and there are 40-ish horses and lots of students, workers, etc around from 5am - 8pm and this seems to amuse little mare enough. She also gets daily time with my daughter, whether it’s just grooming and a hand graze or arena work or a trail ride. I don’t love the turnout situation there but I think the little horse is relatively adjustable and content.
