stabled or living out...?

like most questions in horses

the answer to are horses best kept stabled or living out?

depends, in no small part, on age, circumstances, personality and level of work...

but it must be acknowledged that in recent years 

there has been a general shift 

towards keeping horses as 'naturally' as possible 

with even some of the world's top dressage horses 

now getting regular turnout in a paddock

- something which would 'never' have happened a few years ago...

using my horse as an example...

he is very high mileage
having been ridden 300+ days per year for all of his competitive life

whilst competing 

he was kept stabled at a 'competition' yard 

which had limited turnout 

and he would sometimes go for days without a session in the paddock

(strangely enough... the owners' horses always got priority on that!)

he was retired from competition at 17 due to injury

but (once this had healed) he has always been kept in regular work

having moved to another yard...

 
around the age of 20

he was typically turned out for around 7 hours every day - but still stable kept

and as you would expect for a Thoroughbred horse of that age and background

he had been put on the 'bute every other day' diet...

as an experiment
- which i firmly expected not to work - 

I moved him in with my other horses who 'live out'
- fully expecting him not to cope with this more rough and ready lifestyle...

to my surprise, he thrived on it....!

within 3 months he was off the bute
and still is at 26...!

he was prone to lymphangitis (filled legs) all his life 

(which always went down during his work sessions)

- but he no longer has this problem

and he's come through the last few years of hard winters 

in better condition than he ever did whilst stabled....

- though sometimes he resembles a ' Michelin man' 

in all his winter rugs ;-} 

so, in his dotage,

living out has been 'the making' of him

does this mean that I believe 

all horses should be living out, rather than stabled?

No...  

because in the 'real world' - in the UK at least -

many yards just do not have sufficient acreage to support 24/7 turnout

and certainly, for reasons of practicality, 

many horses need to spend at least some of their lives in stables...

but I do think that the widely held view that all horses should have a stable

and that it's 'cruel' to expect a horse to be out in all weathers

certainly needs challenging

(providing of course, that the horse is monitored and managed accordingly...)

~>>  feel free to add any comments or views 

via the 'comments' section at the bottom of this post

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