Night turnout.

[ayrabz]

Well, its my first time here at the little farmette that I’ve done summer and night turnout.
What I realized (but always having boarded before never thought about) is that the turnout time is so many more hours. For daytime turnout, I usually turned out around 10 am and brought in by 6 pm. Ok. Eight hours.

Now? I turn out around 6 - 7 pm, and bring in about 8 am…and EGADS…that’s 13 or 14 hours.

What do you guys do? Please note: I’m asking people who have limited turnouts and have to be careful with how to keep them in grass. I don’t have acres and acres, and I’m wondering? if this is too many hours for the fields, as well as if this is too much grass for the ponies!

thanks !

[One_Two_Three]

Of course every horse is different so I can’t speak for whether this is too much grass for your horses, but my guy is boarded at a farm with stalls for 18 horses (only have 15 right now). There are 8 paddocks. 2 horses are turned loose on the property (BO’s horses) and three are turned out in the grass arena. That leaves 10 horses and 8 paddocks. All but two horses go out in pairs. Right now we have two empty paddocks, finally, to allow some rest and growing.

So to answer your question, it’s been very stressful on the grass where I am at for the amount of horses vs the land available to graze. It’s always best to make sure you can leave one or two paddocks open for resting so you can then rotate. I throw hay to my guy because though the grass blooms often when the rain hits, it gets shortened down quickly and I find him nibbling at more sand than grass right now.

(they go out from roughly 6pm to 6am)

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

I’m up to 4 hours a day now. Any more for the donkeys and they (particularly the mini) explode. He has a blackbelt in ninja-grazing-muzzle-escape.

Even my not-that-easy-keeping warmblood mare is starting to get a bit porky.

How tall is your grass? Are you mowing? Do you have it divided? We are in a drought, so I’m not turning the mare out as much as I did last year. Are you tracking body weight?

I only have a couple acres fenced, but my grass is probably 8+ inches right now. The drought is taking a toll.

[WSS2012]

We have 2 dry lots (about 100x100 feet) and 3 grass fields that are about 1-2 acres each. Our horses are out 24/7 unless its predicted bad weather or the bugs are eating them bloody then we bring them in. we are not on grass yet as it just turned green this weekend and the daffodils just popped today :eek: once the grass is established a bit more and the fields dry a bit more we will gradual bring them up to about 12-24 hours of grass a day depending on how the grass is growing and weather. I also have 1 hard keeper and 2 medium hard keepers.

[ElementFarm]

We have 4 horses (all average keepers) and about 8-10 fenced acres of grass, split into one large field, 1 medium field, and 3 decent sized paddocks.

We put all four in the two bigger fields, and if using the paddocks, split the horses into groups of two. We rotate every 3-5 days, depending on how the weather is and how fast the horses are eating the grass down.

Right now the horses can barely keep up with the grass, and poor DH is mowing the outside fencelines, yard, and around the ring practically every other day.
Horses are currently on day turnout (9 am to 8 pm) but will swich to nights in the next week or so, as it’s getting quite warm out during the day.

Rotation is the key to keeping decent grass, but also having a sacrifice area where you can put them while you’re letting the grassy areas recover, or during wet/post-rain so they don’t tear up the grass, goes a long way to keeping your grass healthy and pretty.

[GoForAGallop]

Mine eat grass all day, and then come into the sacrifice area at night.

I like them out 24/7, but they are all more or less easy keepers and could NOT be on good grass 24/7.

[Manni01]

If you worry about the limited grass, I would recommend giving them hay outside when you turn them out. It will make them less hungry and they will eat less grass during the night.
IMO it will also help the horses who should not eat so much grass. My horses always eat the Hay first and then start to eat grass. So they will eat less grass.
I do night turn out as well and my horses and me love it. So much less mucking stalls

[Ambitious_Kate]

So what about their sleep cycles? I know for me I can’t be awake all night. So that’s me, a human, not a horse, but I know horses need their full sleep, too. I personally would want my horse in at night, sleeping, where he feels safe, so his sleep is good, and out during the day. I personally feel a horse out at night is wary and watchful and not sleeping fully. Its just my personall feeling. Dunno what other’s think.

[jawa]

I think in a prior post you mentioned that you had a dry lot. If you are worried about stress to your fields and or stress to your horses waistlines, I would turn out in the dry lot at 6pm and then do a night check as late as you can stand (9 or 10 PM) and turn out onto the pasture. You can then bring them in a little earlier in the am. Right now the temps are not to hot and the bugs aren’t too bad, but once SUMMER gets here, I bet your guys will be ready to come in earlier.

Using the dry lot instead of stalls will save on shavings and work to muck stalls (cleaning a dry lot is SOOOO much easier). You could feed hay in the dry lot to fill them up a bit prior to going out on the succulent grass, but that may not work. I found that mine don’t eat much hay even when in their stalls for 6 hours because they are either so full from all the grass, or dreaming of being back out on the grass.

I brought my 2 in to eat at 8:30 this am. I left to run some errands and was back at the barn by 1. I rode one of my horses for about an hour and turned them out around 3. This has been the routine for 2 weeks. I put 4 flakes of hay in their stall 3 weeks ago and they still haven’t finished it. (Hay rake, small hole hay net and some on the floor).

I want to take a moment and THANK my old pony gelding for training my new horse. When they see me drive up, they both pee and poop before coming into the barn. That’s one less pile and scoop I have to make!!!

[asterix]

The herd at the farm I board at lives out 24-7 in a 70 acre field. I don’t know what they do at night but in the mornings you will often find them flat out napping for chunks of time. they don’t seem sleep deprived.

[Phaxxton]

[QUOTE=Ambitious Kate;8138315]
So what about their sleep cycles? I know for me I can’t be awake all night. So that’s me, a human, not a horse, but I know horses need their full sleep, too. I personally would want my horse in at night, sleeping, where he feels safe, so his sleep is good, and out during the day. I personally feel a horse out at night is wary and watchful and not sleeping fully. Its just my personall feeling. Dunno what other’s think.[/QUOTE]

An adult horse only sleeps for about three hours every 24 hours, and they don’t necessarily sleep for 3 hours straight. They rest and sleep in short spurts throughout the day.

My horses will sleep inside or outside, and they sleep a lot more during the day than at night regardless of their turnout schedule.

My horses will lay down outside as often as they will lay down in their stalls. In the winter, on day turnout, my horses all lay flat out in the grass for a good half hour to forty-five minutes at the same time of day, in broad daylight.

[brody]

Doesn’t matter where they are a healthy middle aged horse sleeps about 20 min at a time.

[Flash44]

My fatties go out on pasture for 2 - 3 hours in the early morning (six or seven am) and then come into the barn around 9. They go into the drylot when I’m done riding, around 5, and go back onto the pasture from 6 - 8 pm. Then into the drylot for the night.

Once the warm season grasses come in, they can be on the pasture all night. But it’s too lush right now.

[js]

My horses have 24/7 turnout so they self regulate when they come and go but to answer your question, they spend an hour or two in the early morning out, then come in their stalls around 8 a.m. to be fed, from then till early evening they usually choose to stand around in their stalls. They will go out in the late afternoon before I feed for an hour. After their dinner meal they spend most of the night outside. They will do this regardless of the season. They will rest in their stalls but prefer to laydown outside in the pasture.

So if you have the option, maybe turn them out for an hour early, then in for the day, out for an hour in the afternoon, then back out at night.

[S1969]

[QUOTE=Manni01;8138275]
If you worry about the limited grass, I would recommend giving them hay outside when you turn them out. It will make them less hungry and they will eat less grass during the night.
IMO it will also help the horses who should not eat so much grass. [/QUOTE]

Maybe at the end of the pasture season mine might eat the hay instead of grass, but no way would they do it now. It would just be a waste of hay.

I’m getting ready to put them on pasture, and I start in the early a.m. at first - 1), lower in sugar, and 2) it will get too hot out there by 9 or 10am, and they will want to come in on their own. When I finally switch to overnight turnout I try to put them out at 8 and bring them in at 6. If it’s warm, they will generally already be in their stalls by the time I wake up (they have access to the barn once I open the pasture gate).

I try to feed “dinner” with sundown, so in winter it’s between 5 and 6, and in summer as late as 8-8:30…so it makes it easier to turn them out immediately afterwards.

[fordtraktor]

I have hay in my run-ins year round. I haven’t replaced the bales for a few weeks now, the horses in the fields are just eating grass.

Unfortunately, of the 7 horses on my place, only TWO can be on grass 24/7. I have way too much grass…I try to rotate those horses around to maximize their eating capabilities but the grass is still winning.

[bdj]

[QUOTE=ayrabz;8137998]
For daytime turnout, I usually turned out around 10 am and brought in by 6 pm. Ok. Eight hours.

Now? I turn out around 6 - 7 pm, and bring in about 8 am…and EGADS…that’s 13 or 14 hours.

What do you guys do? [/QUOTE]

Right now, 8 hours is too much for my pony, so she’s getting about 4 hours max (muzzled) on grass - out when I get home from work at 5:30ish, and back in between 9:30 and 10pm. When/if I can switch her over to night turnout, it’ll only be about 8.5 hours - 10pm to 6:30am. The rest of the time she’s in the “Jenny Craig” pen with hay.

She barely puts a dent in the grass, and so I rotate and mow the pastures when the grass is growing.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

While I admit I don’t watch them all night long, mine seem to get their deeper sleep on the grass during the day. This is their lay-down sleep. They mainly sleep standing up at night (when they do sleep). I wonder if it is easier to spot predators during the day, so they feel safer laying down then? Usually one stand guard while the others sleep. Or it could be the warm sun just feels better for a full nap.

This is true when they are just on dry-lot and run-in too. They sleep laying down during the day vs. the night.

When she has a stall, like traveling or at a show, she will sleep laying down day or night, basically when she is in and tired. She sleeps hard with her mouth open. Looks like a dead animal. Goofball.

[knightrider]

I transitioned my horses off a dry lot to night turnout. I now turnout at dark most nights which is like 8-830. If i have somewhere I need to go, they go out earlier. But when it gets warmer they don’t like the bugs so they prefer to be in. Most of the time, this schedule works anyway because I get home at 5 and ride or do farm chores. By the time i’m done with riding / working both its usually around 8 or so anyway… when it gets really hot, i wait to turn out until 9pm. That way they are out for about 10 hours a night most nights. I bring them in around 6 am.

[ayrabz]

thanks so much for all your input, guys!
Yes, there is a small ‘sacrifice’ area…but I’m already finding I will need to split/separate this into ‘two’ before winter. As, the mini will chase the gelding off, and consume every bit of hay…so I’ll need two sectioned areas.

this area is not ‘footed’ as we have total sandy loamy soil. But…the nubs of little grass sprouts are still there and they will eat this constantly vs. any hay.

Even in my ‘grass’ turnout areas, I have found I cannot use them in winter or bad soil condition times, because they will ONLY eat the sad grass until its gone before eating one bite of hay.

Anyway, yes, I’m mowing. (my turnouts/grass areas are small) and at this time of the year, that helps strengthen the root as well as ‘evens up’ the ‘I want to eat here, but not here’ issues. I can’t let it get to 8 inches because then, what I mow will lay on the grass underneath and smother it in the hot months.

I so appreciate everyone commenting and sharing what they find works. I’m going to review all of this in detail! I just know in my situation it has to be in at night in the summer and out in day in the winter, and I need to figure out how to do that well for both the horses and the property.

thanks you guys!!