This board is fabulous. It’s why I have the mare motel, the mirrors, the toys and the TV for the stall walker. It’s solved so many problems mainly because there are so many random and off the wall suggestions that you may never think of.
My horses also get all this, while they are turned out for the day. And yet still, they are waiting at the gate to come into their stalls at night.
Just because horses are stalled doesn’t mean they also dont get pampered in turn out.
Your inability to consider that you are incorrect will prevent you from ever being the horse person you think you already are.
To quote one of my on my fav songs Wayward Son -
And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don’t know
Doing stalls and turn in requires more effort than a horse out 24/7 ever will. Your claims are now just borderline ridiculous.
your Twitter friends aren’t here to defend your ideas I guess
I’m glad it seems to be working out for your horse. What a character! How much work is he getting? Is he spooky being led around the farm? I might have missed it, but it sounds like he isn’t being ridden, yet. Maybe taking him for walks around the farm and on little trails might help him feel comfy in his home. Just a random thought. It helped me with nervous new horses in the past.
LOL ok I’ll be sure to remember how much easier turnout is next time I’m out walking out into the pasture at midnight to blanket horses because the weather changed. I’ll definitely remember how “ridiculous” it was to suggest that 24/7 can be just as much work as being stalled.
Equikelly, I agree about the importance turnout plays for horses. I hate seeing horses locked up in stalls for 24/7. I appreciated your enthusiasm for turnout in your first post. It does seem like people disregard this advice on this board and it can be frustrating
However, it does sound like this person is doing the best she can with the facility she has. Her horse does get a lot of turnout. Some horses just get weird quirks. If he was starved and bullied by others, he might not feel safe to eat unless his food is in a place that other horses can’t intimidate him. Maybe by blocking the view of other horses, she made him feel more secure.
If you think changing blankets in turn out is as much work as keeping as horses stalled then yes, you are being ridiculous. I routinely go out and change all my horses blankets in the day if needed and if I’m home. It takes less than 10 minutes for one person (me) to do 4 horses.
I change blankets everyday once in the morning before turn out and once at night when they come in. So tell me again how your midnight blanket change is so much work. Stalled horses get blanket changes too.
Grasping at straws, and I don’t even want to know why you’re out at midnight changing blankets.
Keep rolling your eyes though.
It should only take 2 minutes if your horses are close but if they’re all the way out at the other end of the pasture it’s not so easy.
And FWIW in my climate the weather changes very rapidly here and there are days when you go to bed when it’s 60 degrees (too warm to blanket) and by the time you wake up it’s negative 6 degrees so that’s why sometimes I need to blanket in the middle of the night if I don’t want to see shivering horses in the morning.
Do you set some type of alarm?
I am confused.
I am a light sleeper who is awake quite a bit during the night but I never get up and check to see what the temperature has done.
Frequently I am quite surprised at the temperature when I get up too.
But then, mine are frequently stuck in some crazy weather when the weather changes while I am at work.
It is nice that you quickly attend to your horse’s every need though.
Having had horses on pasture (or other housing) in Colorado for years, midnight blanket changes are a choice, not a requirement. Temps drop quickly once the sun goes down. No need to wait until the middle of the night.
Dont they come when you call them? Or is it only abused stall horses who come when they’re called?
@moonlitoaksranch he gets ponied 3 days a week on the trails while I ride his turnout buddy. We also play games (tarps, the car wash etc) in hand. He’s not spooky at all. I’ve watched him chase a fox clear across the pasture. During the summer, when I was fiddling/riding with the others while he was in, he would patiently stare at me until I pet him.
Agreed and I do hope that’s all it is and he is feeling better. I know some horses do fine being stalled but when it’s a young horse and they’re already showing stress/ boredom signs it would worry me, personally. I can only speak to what I would do if it were me.
This forum does really frustrate me a lot when it seems like every week there’s a post about how “my horse has ulcers/ my horse is kicking the stall wall/ my horse is constantly colicing/ etc and oh yea he’s stalled for 22 hours a day” and then you mention the crazy idea it’s from not enough turnout and then people go “sorry I can’t do anything about that because I live on an island by myself and this is the only barn within 900 miles of me… so anyway, what should I do?”
You know you struck a nerve with people when they feel the need to be this condescending and rude.
Please show us where there has ever been a single post like this on CoTH. This is an insult to the OP. Do you even read the posts or just carry on with your attitude of knowing everything and being right.
Pot - meet kettle.
We know the answer to this.
Colorado does weird things with the weather. I’ve seen the weather drop like 80 degrees in a 12 hour period so blanketing can be a little difficult, especially for me because I do self care/ share care. I also live the closest to the barn so I’m the default blanketer for my horse and everyone else.
Its definitely not on a regular basis, just here and there when the weather changes obnoxiously fast. If it’s cold enough in the PM during feed time I’ll just blanket then but sometimes it’s really too warm. I probably don’t “HAVE” to do that but it makes them more comfortable not getting blanketed too early/ too late.
I’m ok with a couple hours of them being a bit too warm, at night with no sun and generally low activity, as a way to avoid Just In Time blanketing at 2am, which is probably going to be hit and miss anyway
Weekly? Really? I’m here pretty much every day, I see pretty much every thread in this forum (and Breeding), only rarely pop into other forums. I can’t remember the last time there was a thread that dramatic. Could you point out some of them?
My memory suggests there are maybe a couple of those a year.
It sounds like he’s doing great! Are you planning to compete with him, soon?
He’s only 2. The plan is to start him in April, get 90-120 day on him and trail ride him for the rest of the 2021. If his stifles hold up (they are sticky, we are hoping they tighten up once he fills out But the vet has suggested potentially blistering them in the spring), he will start working in 2022. He’s 16.2 at almost 3 and has a lot of filling in to do. If he competes, he competes. If not, he’s a great babysitter for the horses at home.