How much turn out time do you think a horse needs/day and what is your reasoning? Mine are outside approx. 12/day and stalled approx. 12/day. I'll reserve reasoning until after you guys respond .

I basically do the same thing. During the winter my horses are out during the day when it's sunny and warmer, and in at night. I reverse that in the summer. I like for them to be out for at least half of the time, because I think they're happy. : ) I have a young gelding who has a lot of energy, and he seems happier if he can move around more, and burn some of it off. Also, we live near a timber, and they have all kinds of interesting things to loook at when they're outside. I have a couple of reasons for stalling them part of the time. The first thing is that I need to feed them seperately. My younger horse loses weight fast, and the older mare won't let him eat if they're not seperated. The second reason is that we have no shade or wind block in our lot, so the stall is a little cooler for them in the summer, and warmer in the winter. They actually seem to like to come in for awhile to rest, but are always ready to head back out when it's time. My more selfish reason for stalling during the day in the summer, is that because I enjoy showing my horses, they seem to stay cleaner, and don't fade as much. Sometimes I think though, that if I had a run-in shed, I probably wouldn't stall them much.

My horses are out all of the time, though they have a shed they go in to escape the weather or hot sun. I'm not very strict about them--just into horses for fun, rather than showing or competing.

I worked for Becky Merrill, many-time world champion trail winner, in Marshalltown, Iowa, and so I've had some experience with the sleep-in/turn-out routine. Her horses were always blanketed or at least sheeted so they wouldn't fade in the sun or heaven forbid grow an extra hair. It was nice, since the horses looked like equine super-models all year long. It really depended on the weather, but it seemed like her horses were outside or free in the indoor arena about 8 to 10 hours a day. They were always eager to come back to their stalls...I took great pride in cleaning the manure of such high-class, famous horses. And I vowed to never keep my horses in stalls!