IMAGINE one horse that could appropriately live out for an additional six months of the year. What might you save?

That’s approximately €9.43 per day, or €1,717 over six months, for just one horse. Across five horses, the theoretical saving becomes €8,585 over six months.

The exercise reveals something useful: labour is often the hidden expense. Twenty minutes doesn’t sound like much until you annualise it. At €12 an hour, 30 minutes every day is worth €1,460 a year per horse.

So the money-saving question isn’t simply “How can I buy cheaper bedding?” It might be: “Which jobs am I paying to do every day that I could safely design out of my system?”

But turnout isn’t free either

Turning a horse out for longer can reduce bedding, muck disposal and daily labour costs, but good turnout has costs of its own. Here is an illustrative six-month budget for one horse:

In our example, keeping the horse stabled for those six months cost approximately €1,717, compared with an estimated €1,059 for turnout.

Potential saving: €658 per horse over six months.Across five horses, that could represent around €3,290.

Of course, these figures are illustrative and will vary enormously according to land, forage requirements, grant access, weather, labour and management system.

Horses living out may also require rugs, supplementary feed or substantially more bought-in forage during poor weather.

What’s useful is not simply to assume that turnout is cheaper. Calculate what each system actually costs on your own yard. Good pasture, secure fencing and appropriate forage are investments, but reducing daily bedding, mucking out and stable labour can potentially produce significant savings without cutting corners on welfare - some, including me, would even argue it could improve welfare with more time in the field.