Living out 24/7

The Grey lived out 24/7 until she was 19 months old. From then until September this year she has been at least partly stabled and at times, when injured, fully stabled. It is not particularly common for riding horses to be out 24/7 these days and especially so in the area where we are.

So naturally when starting this Paddock Paradise experiment I was concerned about how she would cope. Would she be miserable, get thin or ragged looking?

This picture shows her this morning. We have had several days of below freezing temperatures, and they were preceded by 10 days of horrendous rain. As an added concern she is at the bottom of the heap, social dominance wise, so always gets the rough end of the stick when it comes to hay, grass or shelter.

She is rather unfit, and as always a bit muddy, but I don't think she is fading away just yet. I keep taking photos so I can mull over them and compare/contrast them with pictures from previous days/weeks and even years.

I am particularly relieved to find that she is actually looking better than she ever did at this time of year when she was at full livery.