Room To Play

A winter without turnout is a bleak prospect for many. Emily Donoho asks top riders how they manage to turn out their horses whatever the weather and why meticulous field maintenance is key

- Emily Donoho

THOSE winter nights are drawing in, it’s been raining for weeks, and the fields have transformed into welly-sucking bogs. What do you do with your horse? Do you leave him in his stable and try to entertain him enough not to go stir-crazy, or do you turn him out into knee-deep mud?

Where once keeping a horse in a stable was seen as a safer option for valuable animals, now many upper-level competitors are espousing the benefits of turnout and finding ways to keep horses outside as much as possible.

Six-time Badminton winner and world champion Lucinda Green turns her horses out “24/7, 52/52, as we feel it is way more healthy for them to be moving around, and Horseware Rambo rugs are so good”.

“The fields at home are big enough and on chalk soil, so they don’t get trashed,” she adds. “But where the horses live when not on winter holidays at home is way more diffcult because they are smaller paddocks and, although also on chalk, they can become a bit dug up.”

Lucinda accepts that this is an inevitable part of winter: “We await the spring and harrowing and rolling with great excitement.”

WILL FURLONG, who took the 2017 under-25 Bramham CCI3* title and was crowned the Saracen Young Rider of the Year at this year’s Horse & Hound Awards, is also an advocate of regular turnout.

“All my horses are turned out every day,come rain or shine,” he says. “I think it’s really important and I’d like to think it’s one of the contributory factors in my success thus far — it’s all about keeping the horses happy both physically and mentally. It’s not only far better for their muscles to keep moving, but also better for their digestive system, especially if your horse is ‘stressy’ or prone to ulcers.”