12/27/2021
Thank you Lee McLean.
TURNED OUT VS. TURNOUT… It’s a world of difference!
It's -38C this morning. Yes. I'm back in for my coffee, sat down in the snug house, watching the horse herd run the quarter mile down from the big hill to the corrals, to water. Many of them are in their twenties. A few are thirty plus. In this group of playful horses, there are no stragglers.
From April until October, our horses and ponies are kept by, worked regularly and really monitored on their grass intake. Their lives are interwoven with our own... and they are never, if we can possibly help it, allowed to get too terribly fat.
When November winds hit and the grass turns brown, the youngsters in training are kept close by and worked throughout the winter. The 'broke' (schooled) horses and ponies are dewormed if necessary, their shoes are pulled, their teeth are done and until next spring, they are bid a fond farewell. They will have water and salt and fairly regular surveillance... some homegrown hay as necessary... but that is all.
They will run, buck, play stallion games, grow hard and yes, even a little snorty. On the dry, native grass that has been carefully saved for the season, they will become truly themselves once again. They are no longer living to please us.
This benign neglect, I believe, is the reason so many of them continue to be seemingly ageless and in good health. We do provide shelter from uncompromising wind and weather and a few of my oldtimers are rugged up and given supplemental feed when their age begins to demand it.
Compare this to what we know is true for most modern horses…
They live in a fifty foot turnout pen and they probably come in at night. They can roll and pace and turn and do the same thing over again, but that’s about it. They live on manmade feed and are lovingly given chemical additives. They wear manmade clothing and often, even their legs are protected or wrapped. They might see other horses but they stand alone. True, they become easier to handle and are far more convenient. In never having a holiday from our agendas, they are expected to cope and adapt.
I’m not going to get in a debate over whether your horse is too valuable to risk turning out – which, if you’ve been paying attention – is a far cry from turnout. Nor will I suggest that my horse doesn’t like a chance to get warm and dry and enjoy an indoor feed. But I am going to say that our modern need to make horses and ponies live like people is not without a price… in breathing disorders, digestive issues, injuries and mental snafus.
So, what’s the answer? For most of today's horses, change will be sadly impossible in order for them to have a real break. Not everyone lives where there is room to turn the horses away, even though we know that horses kept at pasture will contentedly move from twenty to fifty miles each day.
What can we do to allow our horses to 'let down', to relax fully, to grow fit by walking, stretching downward and grazing, as nature intended? What can we actually do?
As a compromise, I’d like to see more horse people do what they can, to give their horses some time off in a real, live herd, no matter the group size or the setting, at some point within the coming year. For the smaller horses and ponies, the easy keepers, running out in winter is the only time that they can do so without fear of founder.
We have clients who bring their usually-boarded horses to us for a month or two each winter, just to get the chance to again know nature. We're so worried about our own connection with our horses, that we have left little room or consideration for their need to connect with each other, in nature, as a group.
Many of us will scoff, knowing that our horses are too valuable, too out of touch with nature to survive this, let alone thrive while living rough. Perhaps we are so tied to competition that we cannot afford to give our horses the time off? Perhaps we are too pressed after a work day, to face taking a long walk out with a halter, rather than opening a stall door?
This, perhaps, is the first clue that our modern horse management is sitting cockeyed? I don't know… and it's certainly not my place to point out which way is right, or which way is wrong. No matter our beliefs, I do know that most of us want only to do what is best for our horses.
Turned out vs. turnout? It's another thing to ponder.