Mine goes day during winter, overnight during summer, and just about 24/7 (outside of feedings) right now, when highs are in the 60s/70s and bugs aren’t bad and with a sheet when overnight lows are in the 40s (but not until 3/4am). When it starts getting into the 40s earlier in the night, I’ll switch to day turnout, usually sometime in October.
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Sure. Of course. I just find it amusing that more than half the comments don’t even try to answer the question and just state a preference for a different type of schedule.
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Yes, I still blanketed, but much less aggressively than your average training barn. My bread and butter were older, unclipped, semi-retired types, the majority of whom didn’t want or need clothes (unless it was wet) until the lows were in the 30s. The delicate flowers, and the odd clipped horse, wore more clothes earlier. I was definitely the last farm on my road switching to days in the fall, and one of the first to switch back to nights in the spring.
I’m in the northern Al and we will be staying on night turn out until the bugs, heat and dew reduces. Right now we could do day turnout but the morning dew would wreck the horses feet. At least according to every farrier I’ve spoken to.
Plus on the financial side, night turnout (8-10 hours in and 14-16 hours out) is advantageous for a boarding facility. Less labor spent on stall cleaning, less hay eaten in stall and on round bakes, less labor dealing with the manure and more time to do other things around the farm that can’t happen over the winter because it takes far longer to do the basics.
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I switch when I take my fans down. Limits (a bit) time in the lusher fall grass. I’m in southern PA.
Not sure where you are in VA, I am in the tippy top NE corner of TN so I can be in VA in under 10 min. I keep mine up from 12 to 7 when it is over 80 out with fans and then next week when it will be cooler I leave them out all day with the pony only in pasture every other day, senior can go out in pasture, drylot, stall as he wants lol. At night always separated with stall access. I bring in to feed in am around 530/6, then pop them back out all day till 7 or 8pm and they are separated with dry lot n stall access overnight. I do not switch technically to out all day and in at night stalled until it is around high 30s at night or cold n raining all evening n night, I usually bring them in around 8pm then so yes 10hrs up but then 14 out n about. If you could do something where they are only up at night when it is bad bad weather would it make it easier on you op?
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I’m in VA and do night turnout year round. The only time we’'l bring them in is if the weather looks like it is going to be really bad. During the winter they are out and mostly blanketed. If we see there are going to be extremely cold temps or very low wind chills, then we might bring them at night. Although if we do either of those things I get them out for several hours first thing in the morning.
The other time they might be in at night is the time of year when the hunt is going out at 8 am.
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Interesting. This makes me do one of those - things are so different in different places.
Here I am wanting to come off night turn out so my horse is not out in the dew that has the grass wet for a good chunk of the night (and half way thru the day).
Does the dew dry earlier where you are? If I waited until the grass was dry to do day turn out I would have to wait until almost noon most days. (And I have a job that is not working from home so that would not work.)
I’m in MD and our barn usually switches to day turnout sometime in mid to late October. They usually wait until lows are forecast to be consistently in the 40’s. That usually also coincides with the bugs during the day being significantly reduced. The horses that run a bit colder or that have already had their first clip will get a sheet for the occasional colder night before we switch over completely.
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Depending on the amount of rain we’ve had recently and if the spot is in the shade or the sun can determine how long it takes the dew to dry off. Somedays it’s pretty much gone by 9 am, other days It takes until about noon for it to be mostly gone.
I’m down on the coast between Mobile and Pensacola. It’s been so soggy this year if I tried to keep my horses off wet grass they’d have to live in stalls 24/7. I think Mobile is like 20 inches above average rainfall so far this year. Soggy I tell you!
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I’m in NoVa, where the weather forecast be like:
https://images.app.goo.gl/zJ8y4njwZFBipKY59
I’ve concluded it is simply going to be different every year. Usually, I wait until after the chances of random 85F days are mostly gone. (Then again, there was that year with the random Halloween ice storm. 
) My philosophy is that most horses are better off a little too cold than a little too hot. The daytime temps can vary so dramatically here. And I can’t tell you how many horses I’ve seen over the years out sweating their a$$es off in heavyweight Rambos in 70F temps because it was 37F when their owners turned them out at 6am before leaving for work. While I’m now a nighttime year round person, I stay with nighttime turn out as long as possible when my schedule & individual horses dictate switching seasonally.
Imo, the physical characteristics of individual barns make a big difference. With some barns I’ve had, it was colder in than out. Keeping individual buckets from freezing overnight was nearly impossible; horses with arthritis were a stiff, stocked up mess by morning. In those barns, I kept everyone on night turnout year round.
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Why not just leave them on night turnout? I do that, regardless of temperature. If it’s cold at night it’s better for them to move and stay warm.
I like having them in during the day. Easier to access them for quick brushing, appointments, riding, etc. This way too, I can hack my field if I want.
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I am not sure why (I clearly did not pay enough attention in Earth Science), but to me it seems like all the really bad blizzards and ice storms happen over night. And the temps drop like crazy during the night. I like to know that all of mine have access to hay when it is crazy cold, so separated into their own spaces there is no risk of the dominant horse chasing the less dominant horses off the hay.
Clearly if you live in a climate where lots of snow and ice do not happen you might not care about these things.
I ended up switching mine to day turn out this past weekend. The reason is funny. It was downpouring when it was time to turn them back out and no one wanted to go out. They just stood there looking at me from their dry stalls, while I stood in the rain at their gates. So they stayed in all night and I turned them out in the morning. Poof, day turn out again has started.
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No, the dew doesn’t dry earlier as it’s still wet a good chunk of the morning and may dry out between 9-12 am. I’m also in Northern AL and really the night turnout is just to keep the horses in during the day because of the heat and humidity. They’re in under the fans during the day.
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