I've recently moved house and have now found a lovely new yard for my boy to move to. I love the yard he's at now and I've been very happy there but it's now an 85 mile round trip to see him so I have to move him. Both Yards are busy riding schools and both have lots of hacking but the new yard has mostly off road hacking on lovely sandy tracks.At the moment I'm hacking him out 4 or 5 times a week and switching one of those hacks for a lesson when possible. He is on a straw bed now but will be on a shavings bed at the new yard. The main difference is going to be that on his current yard he only has one hour turnout in an all weather arena. In his new yard he'll be getting turnout every day with lots of lovely grass. In summer he was turned out in a large herd of geldings at his current yard, and it will be the same at the new yard. He is generally lower in the pecking order, despite his size.My major concern is colic and switching him over to grass. I was planning on gently increasing the turnout time; start with an hour, then two the next day, then three the day after. Am I overthinking it? His food will also be slowly switched from what he has now at the current yard, to the supplier used by the new yard (full livery) and I'll speak to feed hotlines about the balancer.I'd also like to think about removing his back shoes; he had to have them put on when he got footsore at his current yard on the rocky paths. Any advice about what to ask the farrier when I start looking into this?Do you have any other advice for what to expect. I realise it'll take him a few weeks to settle in so there might be some naughty behaviour at first. He's generally a very chilled out character but has been a little annoying when his summer turnout ended so I'm looking forward to seeing him happily back being a horse in a field. Sorry for the essay, leftover Christmas choccies to anyone making it this far.
01-02-2018, 08:55 PM
Moving Yards - any advice?
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