Okay to leave a horse in a indoor arena?

Question

We are going on holiday soon and my auntie is going to look after my 3 horses.

They are stabled at night and in separate paddocks in the day.

My auntie doesn't have time to clean stables/paddocks/stable them at night then put them into the paddocks during the day.

We have a quite large sand arena which has a roof and i was wondering if it would be fine to leave them in there for a week so my auntie would only have to clean the arena, feed, rug and give them a check over.

Having no grass for a week, would this be bad for them in anyway?

They all get along with each other so i highly doubt they would end up fighting

http://www.beallspringfarm.com/assets/images/indoor_arena.jpg

it is very similar to that, just minus the sides

(they are just wooden fencing)

They are being checked in twice a day, my Auntie has horses of her own so doesn't have time to do everything for ours as well.

I would leave them in there paddocks but not knowing how the weather will be and one of the geldings is a very good escape artist.

Answer 1

yes it is fine as long as you give them more hay than you would normally feed since they won't get to graze.

Answer 2

If they are in separate paddocks during the day, they aren't used to having access to each other.  Combine that with suddenly being off of pasture, and competing for hay in the arena, I would think problems could come of it.

Also, if they are used to grass every day and it is suddenly stopped, it could cause digestive upset.  Is there any way you could have the arena open to the outside so they could be out or in as they choose?

The other thing I thought of was that if they are used to grazing, they may ingest sand, since horses will "graze" on it if that's all there is.

I don't mean to be so negative, but I would be concerned with these things if it were my situation.

Answer 3

You never said that the horses were going to be fed in the arent... If they aren't that is deffinately not good for them... and also, they may get a bit bored if they can't graze, they'll probably end up destroying the arena out of boredom. Is  there anyway that they could just stay  out in the paddok? I think that would be a much better alternative.

Answer 4

Is there any way of asking a friend who lives close to come help your auntie for the week? The horses may take in sand if their used to grazing. Also what about feed and there's a chance that they will bite and kick each other and may get hurt. Especially since they can't get away from each other.

Charlotte x