Reading the thread in H/J got me thinking about how varied turnout situations are in different places. For example, it’s common in my area for horses to live in outdoor pens with sheds. I’ve seen some as small as 24 x 24 but most are larger, think 24 x 60. Would you consider a horse that lives in a 24 x 60 pen with a shed to have 24/7 turnout? If not, how large does the area have to be for you to consider it “turnout”?
1 Like
That’s an interesting question.
I don’t think I’ve ever connected a specific number of square feet with the word “turnout,” but, off the top of my head, I’d probably say half an acre or so? Maybe? Certainly more than 24’ x 60’.
6 Likes
24’X60’ is certainly better than a 12’x12’ stall, but no I wouldn’t consider it “turnout.”
I’d say a minimum 60’x60’ area, or other equivalent if needed for larger horses, an area they can comfortably trot and canter without having to stop to turn.
In theory, anyway. I have two 60’x120’ individual paddocks behind my barn, and looking at them thinking of them cut in half, well… I might say minimum 60’x100’, in practice.
Ideally, 1+ acre paddock.
8 Likes
Those enclosures don’t sound much bigger than a super-sized stall.
To me, turnout is a pasture. At least an acre. Where the horse can buck, zoom around - be a horse.
13 Likes
I love this thread. Just recently, a local barn posted about a stall available, with every other day “turnout” in an attached run that looked 20’x20’.
Turnout in my mind is enough space that the horse can walk, trot and canter freely, and even gallop if they want. Thinking about the spaces I have here, an acre is probably MY minimum.
Getting them out into a paddock is better than keeping them in, but I don’t really feel like my sacrifice area really counts as"turnout."
4 Likes
IMO if the area is too small to comfortably ride in, it’s not a turn out. 60x120 minimum imo.
7 Likes
I’ll preface by saying that a 24 x 60 is certainly better than a 12 x 12 stall and allows the horse to move more, so if that’s what you have available good for you for utilizing it.
Turnout should be at least big enough that a horse can w/t/c without a whole lot of starting and stopping to make it work. 1/3 acre?
I have a 100 x 150 dry lot attached to my barn that I use when my pastures are too muddy in the winter. They’re not usually confined to it for more than a few days at a time, but it’s still enough that they occasionally trot and canter around if the mood strikes. I do have two friendly geldings in there together, so individual may be able to be a tad smaller, but not cut in half.
I still consider them on 24/7 turnout when that’s all that they’re allowed. However, they look longingly at the pastures beyond and wonder why I’m torturing them with hay/water/shelter/safe footing. 
3 Likes
Big enough that the horse can run (the buck-fart kind not a pleasant controlled canter) and doesn’t have to turn/corner/slide to a stop in such a way that I wince and worry about the torque on his legs!
10 Likes
At least an acre.
1 Like
The sizes of open space described by the OP and considered “turnout” are prison cells, IMHO.
My paddock, attached to the barn and coming in from the main pastures is 100’ x 24’ and I think that’s too small. It works for the horse with the run-stall who comes in every night.
Turnout is pasture where they can run and not get in each other’s way. My main pasture is 19 acres. The small pasture for the metabolic horse with the fractured sacrum is ~6 acres.
When I had four horses and everyone was healthy, they ran together on the entire 25 acres all day long until when ever dusk settled in. They all came in at night. My two remaining horses both still come in at night, out all day.
The smallest space my horses ever had was about an acre when we lived in SoCal. I was not happy with that tiny space for them but those particular three were lifelong buds. They could buck up and did have room to get out of each other’s way, given they didn’t push each other around to begin with.
So no, “turnout” does not equal a 24 x 24 space ——
2 Likes
That seems like a good rule of thumb!
1 Like
Every horse has such different management needs, it is hard to determine what horses may need on just one item like turnout and not find some that doesn’t work for.
One example, our now 23 year old Cushing’s horse is on drylot forever.
He will founder on grass, so is in one 80’ x 400’ lot and has access to other pens, at times the old adjacent arena also, that is 126’ x 307’.
This picture is the drylot long pen, he can canter just fine there.
From the last pipe post behind the horse to the panels in the distance is 307’.
Then there is a 60’ x 80’ pen and in front of the shed a 48’ x 40’ pen.
On the left there is a 70’ x 108’ pen and under the overhang he has 28’ x 40’.
He has been in that setup for some years now, on Prascend and a thyroid supplement, alfalfa hay and happy and healthy.
He gets fed twice a day, three times in the coldest spells, has 6’ automatic troughs where he plays in the water and has friends across the fence.
He gets groomed in the morning feeding and hand grazed for a bit here and there, ridden mostly at the walk at times just for entertainment and occasionally ponied from another horse for a short ride in the pasture.
Our vets say he is in excellent shape, to keep doing what we are doing.
By the way, this is the first time in decades we had a horse in permanent dry lot, all others were always out to pasture.
He has been contented, never fretted about where others were, he likes it by himself:
7 Likes
To put this in perspective, this space alone is nearly an acre.
80 x 400 is about 3/4 acre.
I don’t think anyone would disagree that he’s got plenty of turnout space to stretch his legs 
2 Likes
The barn I am currently at has something similar, a shed in a paddock, there are a couple of these right outside the main barn, and they call It outdoor board, as opposed to indoor board, which is a stall with a small attached paddock. It is not considered turnout, they still get turned out from this into a larger pasture, weather permitting.
I would call it living outside, but not really turnout.
2 Likes
Yes, that is what we measured with Draftlogic area calculator:
https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm
We are in the semi-desert, so not much grass to worry with on small acreage, unlike in other places, where you could not turn horses out in that area if they had special management needs, as they may have way too much good grazing and they would get too fat or sick if they had metabolic problems.
That was my point, numbers alone of pen sizes are depending on more than the space itself to decide how much is enough or not enough and why.
4 Likes
I don’t consider what is essentially an outdoor stall to be turnout. Agree the horse should be able to WTC, buck, stretch, roll, and play in turnout.
Coming from urban Southern California.
Turnout means big enough that they can canter and buck, so at least as big as a small dressage ring, 20mx40m.
Some places call them play pens if they’re about that size or smaller. Sun pens are smaller yet, maybe even not much more than double a stall.
Areas vaster than turnouts are called big turnouts or pastures.
Growing up in California I never heard the term dry lot bc that is the norm. Pastures with grass as denoted as grass pastures. Kind of like the meaning of what is normal ice tea or regular coffee differs by region.
I refer to my layup horse as being turned out, so I guess he’s in a turnout. It’s kind of irregularly shaped. but maybe equivalent to 60m x 60m. And it’s dry lot, but with some sort of mulch-type stuff than keeps it from being muddy. Driving out to see him is a minimum of 2.5 hours of driving roundtrip.
Editing to add, after reflection while walking home, that turnout in these parts doesn’t usually refer to an area where the horse normally lives. People will refer to their horses being turned out 24/7 as I described my rehab horse, but the area they’re living is not called a turnout. Turnout is something that happens or the area that is used when they’re in an area that is larger their regular abode.
4 Likes
I’m in suburban/somewhat rural PA. I’ve lived here my entire life, so this is my idea of turnout:
I took this about a week ago. My horse is in the middle. He’s in a group of 8-9 and is on 15 acres. There is a small sacrifice area (maybe 2-3 acres?) where they spend late fall/winter/early spring to protect the pasture.
True turnout (to me) is where there is enough space to run around and give me gray hair while playing with his friends. An individual little lot or run attached to a stall is better than nothing, but I don’t really consider that turnout.
12 Likes
