01/05/2025
*** WHY I, PERSONALLY, PREFER INDIVIDUAL TURNOUT FOR MY SHOD HORSES ***
I am aware that this will be an extremely controversial post, and I am aware that we are all entitled to our own opinions, as long as this does not affect horse welfare. The following is my own opinion, based on my own experiences.
In my lifetime of owning horses, I have had two with fractured legs due to being kicked by another horse in the field, and two with severe knee injuries that I thought would end their careers before they began.
Horse one. Tommy. A stunning and talented 16.2hh coloured Irish Sports Horse. Turned out with Harry when they were both 5/6yrs old. They never fought, but liked to play by galloping alongside each other (in a huge field) and bucking. I found Tommy one morning with his hock in pieces. Clearly, one of Harry’s fly bucks (with hind shoes on) had caught him at the wrong point. Immediate euthanasia. But god knows if he had been like it all night.
Since that point, my horses were pretty much all kept individually, unless they were bare foot behind. Until I decided to turn Mabel out with George when she was a baby. They loved each other and I’ve never seen George raise a hind leg to anyone.
Horse two. Mabel. My stunning home bred filly. Kicked in the knee by George, somehow. Non weight bearing lame. Xrayed her in the pitch black in a field, expecting the worst. No fracture. Recovered well.
Horse three. Alfred. My naughty little homebred c**t (as he was then). At 2 years old I thought he could happily go out in the field with the huge, solid, quiet cob. Alfred annoyed the cob by trying to jump on him. Cob kicked Alfred’s knee. Enormous swelling of the carpal sheath (“capped” knee) that persisted for over a month, and looked at one point that it would end any jumping career before it started. The cob is barefoot. Had the cob had shoes on, that would have been another euthanasia.
Horse four. Mabel. Again. This time, turned out in a perfect 6 acre field with her barefoot 19yr old mother, Molly. They had been turned out together for two years and never ever fought. Mabel has complete respect for Molly. I went to check them one evening to find a huge boney lump just below Mabel’s hock. Xrays have shown that this was indeed a small cannon bone fracture. A couple of cm higher, and that would have been into the hock and been the end. If Molly had had hind shoes on, that would have been a catastrophic cannon bone fracture, and resulted in euthanasia.
In an ideal world, all horses would be out with a friend or two, and never kick each other. It’s not an ideal world. Some people are ok with risking fractured legs to allow their horses to go out with other fully shod horses. I’m not. That’s not to say that I am right, or the person who is ok with risking broken legs is right. It’s how we have each chosen to keep our respective horses.
I do strongly believe all horses should have some daily turnout, but I don’t believe they need to be in the same field as other horses, especially when shod. Mine can neck/talk over fences, and they do. My own horses are actually all happier/quieter since I switched them all to individual turn out, as they aren’t constantly watching out for the bossy/bully horse. Some horses may not be happier on their own. From my experiences over the years, I just don’t feel able to risk any more fractured legs or big knees. All bar one of my bad incidents have been between horses that I had never seen fight or argue.
You cannot compare this to horses in the wild. For a start, they aren’t shod. They also have thousands of acres to roam. Being a horse in the wild isn’t some idyllic paradise of a life that we are preventing our domesticated horses from experiencing; it’s a life of a constant battle to survive. My horses sleep flat out in their individual paddocks because they have no fear of a lion coming to eat them; they feel completely safe.
Everyone has their reasons for keeping their horses as they do. These are my reasons for keeping my horses in individual paddocks.
Photo of Mabel having a nap in her individual paddock a couple of months ago!
