summer living

The herds at Charlie's barn finally switched to their summer turnout schedule last week.

herd members seem to like to all drink at the same time

During the winter, horses are out during the day and in over night during the coldest hours. In the summer this switches so that horses are outside overnight and inside during the daytime when the bugs and heat are the worst.

charlie takes it a little farther than everyone else tho lol

Additional advantages to this situation include more time spent outside overall, something I feel is preferable to any alternative.

cain is actually similarly sized to charlie - normally he makes all the other horses look like ponies

Isabel actually lived outside pretty close to 24/7, only coming in to her stall for meals and in the event of extreme weather, or instances of illness or injury. And she was quite happy with this arrangement, thankyouverymuch lol.

it's kinda funny tho how much time charlie spends wandering the stream

Charlie, on the other hand, is much more comfortable spending time stalled than Isabel ever was. I'm sure much of his racing career was spent stalled, so he is already accustomed to that lifestyle. Plus especially when I was struggling to put weight on him through that first year after the track, it was useful for him to have solo time in the stall with just him and his hay.

he's gotta sip from every spot

I think Charlie really appreciates his time out, tho. He was on the same nighttime schedule for all the months he lived at the last h/j place, and had a medium sized herd of buddies out in his field. So he's kinda had a similar schedule for much of the past two years.

places with the most rapid currents seem to be his favorite

At this farm tho, Charlie legitimately seems much happier. And it's not really clear why. The last farm had good care and was run by thoughtful, experienced horse people. But in comparing Charlie's overall demeanor now compared to then, it's pretty clear he was unhappy there.

like when the water gurgles over shallow rocks

For instance, Charlie could be very grouchy and threatening in his stall at the last place. Staff put a sign on his stall warning any workers to watch their back whenever they had to go into his stall, and they always pulled him out on cross ties for blanket changes.

I personally never had the same degree of problems - but then again, nobody else can really be expected to take the same risks or be in a position where they need to be disciplining the horse.

i could probably watch for hours, tbh

When I moved him to the new farm, I made it a point to let everybody know about Charlie's aggressive streak. Esp the woman who helped me with my blankets this past year - I made sure to tell her that she might need to tie him, and that if she felt uncomfortable bc of his behavior and didn't want to deal with him, that I wouldn't take it personally.

plus it's nice to not worry about charlie knocking his legs around a normal water trough, something he's been known to do

Imagine my surprise, tho, when Charlie proved me completely wrong in the months that followed. He's been easy, kind, relaxed and gentle for everybody who has to handle him. And everybody who works there now is like, 'Yea I remember you saying that stuff about him but I really don't know what you're talking about!'

Which, like, fine by me! Again tho, I'm really not sure what's different about the new place. But for whatever reason, Charlie just seems much happier here. I think maybe bc he just spends a lot of his time being a normal horse? Especially his herd situation seems to really suit him - he's out with a large herd (~10 geldings) and while sometimes they play hard and he's been dinged up out there, he seems really happy.

charlie's life philosophy, basically. from falseknees

Plus the fields are all really large and there's enough of them where barn management can move the herds around so that pastures and grass get adequate rest.

I especially love that Charlie's summer field has a natural stream and wooded section running through it. Charlie seems to like it too - wading through all the little pools looking for the freshest, tastiest spots.

bc sometimes it's nice to just kick back and relax!

And with the horses back on nighttime turnout, I'm now usually turning Charlie out after my rides instead of putting him back in his stall. Something I enjoy doing bc I really like hangin out at the gate watching the horses interact out there.

I've never worked at either of Charlie's barns so sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on an important part of his life by not being able to routinely observe the herd dynamics. So it's nice to watch sometimes lol.

Mostly tho it's just reassuring to me whenever I can see instances of Charlie looking relaxed and happy in his day to day life. The amount of time he spends with me being ridden is just a fraction of his overall lifestyle, so it's important that the lifestyle suits him.

Do you like to watch your horse in turnout? Is your turnout situation similar or very different? I know different geographic areas tend to have different setups (like west coast pipe corrals, for instance) or some barns that prefer individual turnout to groups. Have you likewise seen your horse do better or worse in different situations? Or do you have any personal preferences or "must haves" when it comes to turnout?