WELCOME HOME BOYS!!!

[TN Belle]

Okay, now my boys are home at last after six years of being boarded somewhere else.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!!!!

They came home Christmas day. They had been kept on a grassy area that had been stripped and trampled by them and has since had no grass but those tiny baby shoots. So, I have a nice area to turn them out in, but there is grass on it, not alot and not that lush either. I turned them out on it for about four hours each day over the weekend to slowly get them introduced to it. They have been drinking, eating, and pooping good and their feet feel fine, no heat. All the other time, they are kept in 12x12 stalls so they have plenty of room to move around. I have no dry lot or any other areas to keep them right now.

Here they are in their new stalls: Twix & Amos

My question is, would it be better to leave them in all day (while I am at work from 7am - 6pm) and maybe one hour of grass when I get home until it's too dark (we don't have lights out there)? OR To leave them out on the grass all day while we are gone and come in at night? We need to wean them on the grass so they won't get sick, but it seems like it will be all or nothing and I don't want to hurt them.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

 

[wcr]

I am sure they would love to be out on the grass all day but... the grass has hardly any nutritional value at this time of year and if your area is small and you don't have dry lot, they can ruin what little pasture you have for them. My one good pasture with grass is not used during the winter so in the spring there is grass that I usually put mares and babies on when foaling starts.

 

[Marty]

Hey Misty, why does it look so dry over there?

I've got a muddy mess here in my fields. With the gallons of rain we've been having almost daily, my pastures are water logged bad. All my fields are on a hilly slant except two. The water is gushing like a river through them every day. The two level fields are just standing water and I can't see putting them out there to churn up the ground and make it worse; I'll never have grass any where if this keeps up. Boy I am sick of this! I have no intention of fighting rainrot or thrush come spring so needless to say mine haven't been out much at all except to run in the barnyard. I've been washing tails and putting them up in a bag (kids tube socks) all weekend to keep them out of the mud. What a pain.

I think if you only have that one turn out area, they might just trash it before the week is over if you leave them out there on it all day. So I'd ration it. You have nice nice nice big stalls for them so I'd be giving them plenty of hay to keep them busy during the day, turn the radio on to 92.3 and turn them out when you get home.

Crossing my fingers and don't want to jinx it but I think the sun is actually trying to come out today!

That would be a switch.

 

[TN Belle]

Please excuse the roundness of them, as I haven't been able to visit them much the past year, that's why they are home!! Amos is really fat, but he came that way too, but they both have some major hay bellies right now.

I was concerend about too much grass causing laminitis or founder since they aren't used to it. That's why I included the pictures so you can see how much or how little grass there is.

Yep, it's pretty muddy, and hilly too, and really not that fertile even though we have planted twice but that's all I got for now.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

If you do not mind a bit of a mess I would just leave them out, it is easier all round and there does not look to be any grass to speak of on the paddock....roughly how big is it???

Love the stall, BTW, very nice!!

 

[Joanne]

One possibility would be to feed them their hay in the morning early and then let them out during the day for exercise and then a return in the evening with their evening meal.

It is hard to keep them stalled 8 plus hours a day without exercise. Boys need to kick up their heels !!