I have my two in 1.5 acres and they have plenty of room to bomb around and act the fool. My dry lot is only 100 x 80, but they can still play in it and honestly in the winter I don’t want them being morons.
My other pastures are 4 acres and 3.5 acres plus a small 3/4 acre area. The grass is too rich and lush for them in those pastures so they can just day dream.
In my mind I break turnout down by field turnout and paddock turnout.
The corral style pens that seem common in California sounds like jail to me and I’m glad I don’t have to use those where I live.
Mine all live out in ‘field turnout’ until 2-4 yrs depending on the horse. When they start to work it’s just not realistic traipsing across acreage to catch your horse to ride when you have many to work in a day.
When in work, not on any breaks of sorts they get ‘paddock turnout’ which varies in sizes up to 60x60 type thing give or take a little.
If they absolutely hate turnout then a plan is formed for those ones and they still get at least an hour a day in a paddock.
I have also had a horse that always lived out 24/7 before I bought them and happened to board at a barn with free choice to come in their stall or be outside in an acre turnout (with grass!)… they hardly ever left their stall and wanted to be inside all the time.
Not sure it is relevant to have a description of “turnout” that anyone would agree on because it’s just not available in some places.
I took lessons at a barn that turned every horse out every day in small paddocks…maybe 50 x 50…some larger, some smaller, and at least one larger 1-2 acre field for a group of rowdy geldings.
I wouldn’t love 50x50 for my horses at home, but it was a busy lesson barn and horses were ridden often; and there were large indoor and outdoor arenas that likely also were used for occasional turnout for horses to run if they wanted.
Ideal? No. But far preferable to many other barns in the area, some of which had small paddocks but just didn’t use them because it was more work to bring them in and out.
At my house, I have a few options; a small dry lot, an acre sacrifice pasture and a larger, 3 acre pasture. It’s enough for my fatties, who really shouldn’t even have that much grass. But I like that they can move around a lot and get an occasional gallop in if they want.
I totally agree with this!
If I had to make a definition it would be any place that the horse can move about under their own control.
My horse is in a dry-lot pen that measures about 50 x 90 feet. It actually is an “L” shape with the short leg being another 20 x 25 feet. She can’t get up to a gallop of course but can w/t/c quite well. Being 1/2 Andalusian, she prefers airs above the ground anyway…leaping and rearing… when she is wound up. 
I actually prefer this set up as I suspect she would have metabolic trouble with 24/7 pasture. She can move at will and at speed if she wants to.
No, I don’t consider her pen ‘turnout’. We do have access to several small grass paddocks but the horse’s owner does the turning out. There is not a schedule for that. This barn is self care except for hay feeding which the barn owners provide. There is also pasture board available in pastures that are 1-5 acres. That I would consider ‘turnout’.
Susan
24x60 is a large stall. So no, I don’t consider just the fact that they can get out from under a roof to be turnout
To me, turnout allows a horse to actually run. 100x200 (I’m looking at my 100x180 arena) allows for some good running even if it’s only 10 strides or so before they have to turn around. I wouldn’t want anything smaller.
I get it that it’s all relative. For areas where pasture is non-existent, “turnout” really can mean access to a 12x24 area attached to their enclosed/roofed stall. That’s just a bigger stall without a roof.
Depends on the horse but usually I consider 1/2 acre+ to be acceptable for turnout, but anything bigger than a 12x12 is better. I actually like to see my horses run, buck and play. I’ve had some very expensive horses of my own and in my care and even still, I want them to play a little. The more they’re turned out, the less wild I find them (under saddle and in the paddock) which contributes way more to reducing injury risk than wrapping them in bubble wrap and crossing your fingers.
60x120 would be what I would consider tolerable. Large enough to run and buck. I still wouldn’t keep my gelding in something that small long term. He uses all of his 12 acre field eight months a year, and if I could fence off more for him I would in a heartbeat. They have a ~3/4 acre dry lot for four horses during the winter. Once again wouldn’t go any smaller.
He’s also a dressage horse who used to be stalled all of the time and would have been categorized as “not liking turnout”. Needless to say he now lives for turnout.
When it comes to horses across the fence, some horses do great out with other horses but when there is a fence between same horses, some display barrier aggression, threatening to kick and making ugly faces.
Not sure we humans are right when we guess at what horses are really thinking.
Not sure horses always know what they want. 
I grew up and boarded in Northern CA and we never had daily turnout. Horses were in stalls or 12X24 stall with attached paddock ( i kept mine in those). We would use arenas or round pens to turn out horses and let them stretch their legs, run , buck etc… but it was done by the owners or the BO when a boarder was MIA for too long.
Living in the Midwest now for 30 years, keeping my horses at home I would consider turnout anything about an acre or more. Doesn’t have to have grass but it allows a horse to run, buck and move freely.
Having experienced both boarding situations and horses at home, “turnout” can mean different things for different people/horses. In my experience, horses that are shown and/or considered expensive (and yes, I appreciate that is also relative) get less turnout. Owners and trainers tend to be more concerned about injury than a horse getting to be just a horse. I think that horses are healthier and happier living in situations where they get to be just horses routinely. Mine, including the diva TB mare, have always been happiest living in a pasture.
It depends on the property and location. Where I live in SoCal, I haven’t yet seen a barn that has what I consider true turnout (minimum half-acre of space where more than one horse can run around and be a goof without hitting something for a few hours). Land is so expensive here that most barns don’t have anything like that. I have seen barns that, according to their website, have turnout of similar to that but I haven’t seen any myself.
The best I’ve seen here is either a couple hours in a sunpen (20’x20’) by themselves or some type of turnout in an arena/roundpen. For the latter, the two barns I was at that did that had several restrictions. The first allowed turnout of multiple horses (most I ever saw was 3) but if someone needed to use the arena or roundpen then you needed to leave. Thankfully people generally didn’t use the arena that much outside of weekend lesson students so that was a pretty good situation. The second place had several designated turnout arenas BUT those are limited to 15 minutes at a time if anyone else needs them and not allowed if someone is riding in the arena right next to it.
I wouldn’t call any of those my ideal turnout by a long shot but it is the best doable unless you want to drive a few hours to a rural area (which is where my youngster is). If I lived in, let’s say Oregon, I would find this type of turnout unacceptable because land is cheaper /and/ there should be some type of grass given all that rain. Arizona? I wouldn’t expect grass in most areas but I would expect a few hours outside in a pasture. It just varies!
There are enough studies done (mostly TB and WB foals, at least that I’ve seen) showing how freedom of movement in real turnout (ie running bucking farting around) has big implications in structural integrity, compared to stalled horses.
Having any idea that you can expect an athlete, especially a high performance athlete, to be as or more sound, mentally and physically, living mostly in a stall or “stall” to prevent injury, than being allowed to be a horse and do horse things, is beyond me
You simply do not have the same hoof quality, muscle quality, bone quality, and to a lesser extent tendon and ligament quality, in a mostly stalled horse, as you do a mostly turned out (real turnout) horse. Physiology dictates that.
And while many horses are fine, or “fine” living in mare motels, why wouldn’t you want better for them? Mutual rooming is mentally healthy. Playing with others is mentally healthy. Just hanging out nose to tail swishing flies is mentally healthy.
I get it if you choose to have a horse where turnout isn’t an option, * as long as * you make sure that horse gets out and gets moving a good hour a day. I boarded for years where turnout was 1-2 hours a day, 4 on really good days, and I made SURE I did everything I could to go ride every day, hand graze after rides as often as I could, hand graze if riding wasn’t an option, there were just very very few days in a year where JB’s day had nothing but stall and 1-2 hours turnout.
But to decide to do that when turnout is available? No.
Horses are far more likely to be injured when turnout is sporadic, or when they don’t get turnout and are asked to work hard.
And I say this despite having had a horse who was severely injured not once, but twice, while in his freedom of turnout LOL He was also injured a few times while doing stupid things in a stall.
In addition to what has been already written here, I also think there’s a mental aspect vs a physical aspect of turnout for a horse. Horses can feel the mental benefits of turnout in a much smaller space than the space needed for all the physical benefits mentioned upthread.
We have about 3.5 acres that our two use for turnout. In the evening when they come in to eat dinner, they have shed row style stalls with a medium size gravel run. They go out on pasture all day every day. My eventer I board out and his turnout is not bad sized but is a dry lot. He is fed his breakfast and lunch out there so is not just standing around with nothing to do all day. Plenty of room for him to buck, fart, and kick if the spirit moves him.
Technically I see anything other than a stall to be “turnout”.
My brain tends to designate more paddock vs. pasture. A paddock is less than a 1/2 acre and a pasture is anything more all the way up to 100s of acres.
I agree it is all relative and where you are located.
In southern NM, “turnout” was the arena when no one was riding in it. If so, they got shooed into large covered pipe “stalls” . In PA, each horse had a pasture mate on about 1/4-1/2 acre. In TX, I tried 24/7 turnout in a ~3 acre pasture with other maes and she HATED it. She loved her stall where she had the best sleep and could be left alone from more aggressive mares (she was raised in the NM situation I described). We moved to a stall and a maybe 20m x 60m paddock without much grass. She was noticeably happier in this set-up. My current gelding was raised in stalls and hates them. He lives out 24/7 in his own ~1 acre pasture with a shared run-in shed. High quality pasture. FOR HIM, this is a perfect set-up. He hates “weather” and will retreat to his run-in in a hurry, but also needs to move, which he can and frequently does in his pasture. He can see the arena and the training horses go during the day, and he’s somehow very invested in seeing them go (he runs up and down the fenceline). He’d be miserable in a “decent turn-out” without a sturdy shelter and a buddy to share the shelter with. That said, he’s not a horse who shares well and he’s had turnout buddy failures.
I really really think it depends on what your options are and what your horse needs.
Yes! You said this perfectly.
In some parts of Australia, the back paddock could be 10,000 acres. What you guys refer to as a paddock, we call a yard, and what you call pasture, we call a paddock. Pasture to us refers more to good quality grazing so we would never call a 1 acre paddock a pasture if it was covered in dirt, mud or just short overgrazed grass, but we might if it had good grazing. The term pasture is probably not used that much except by dairy farmers, or when talking about the quality of the grazing.
I think this is a really good point that might get lost in arguing the semantics of what size pen constitutes turnout.
When I consider what constitutes turnout, I’m looking for two things: increased ability to move as compared to a stall, and the opportunity for a mental “break” from stabled life.
Ideally a turnout situation has both, although there are very valid reasons why some working horses can’t be offered one or the other during certain periods.
I don’t think it is good horsemanship to permanently deny both to your animals. If you can’t offer one or both temporarily due to the circumstances of the horse’s job, you should build in a break or vacation for the horse where they can have some “freedom” to be a horse. I don’t mean tossing a pampered show horse out on the back 40, I mean just take a break from the regular schedule and let them have some time off where they can stretch their legs in a paddock or graze (or eat hay off the ground) with the sun on their back.
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