We live on 5 acres, and are up to 5 horses plus one on the way for 2020, so we’re probably moving to 26 acres soon.

Mine are all in stalls at night, and turned out during the day. Fed twice a day, handled twice a day.....etc.

The new property has no barn. It would probably be a year before we could build one. It has a Creek so the horses could literally just be self sufficient. I’ll have to hang buckets on the fence to feed them....

What can I do to transition them to such a different (but better) way of life?

Are they on a dry lot or a pasture during the day? 

I am no expert but when I moved to Oklahoma for the first time, my gelding was in a stall and a 2x's a day feed schedule for the first 4 years of his life. It was during the winter that we moved him and the place I went to had pasture boarding and fed free form hay as there was nothing growing at the time, then during the spring/summer they pulled the hay and the horses more than survived on the grass. 

I literally just stuck him in there with 4 other horses and he did great. Horses are natural grazers so turning them out on a pasture (IMO) is much healthier for them anyway. It's not like your pouring out a bag of grain in front of them and worry about gorging themselves, their systems are specifically designed to have some sort of forage in their system at all times. You just really want to monitor them daily to make sure they are adjusting well/that they are drinking, ect. so if they do have problems you can address it. You'll want to keep an eye out for ticks and also parasites due to having a creek. Depending on what type of grass you may want to keep an eye out for sugar intact, as some grasses may hold more sugar than others. 

Hope this helps. 

They’ll have no problem. It’s probably going to be harder for you than it is for them :).

    The only time you would really need to slowly introduce them to this lifestyle is a horse that has not been out on pasture grass and has a higher risk for metabolic type founder- these types you would slowly get them out 24/7. 

    Since yours are already used to being out during the day I bet you won’t have any issues. Feeding time may take a little bit of finesse to figure out- when I had my horses in a similar situation I would tie them all during feeding time to prevent fights/stealing of each other’s feed. 

i would ask about ur psture is lush and green with a lot of water? might make them a bit runny but pasture is so much better in my

thoughts    if they big pastures can they see the fence? we had  pastures 15 to 40 a 3 differents  kinds with high tensile fence we put  survey tape so the could see it

congrats on the farm

Yes, they’re on grass here now and they stay out overnight once a week (when stall cleaners have the day off ??).

New place does have fencing. Cows are on it right now. I think it’s pretty visible. 

I never thought about parasites in the creek! 

It definitely won’t be hard for me. I wish they could be out 24/7 but I don’t have enough land here. We do a lot to keep good grass and keeping them up at night isbwhat works here. One horse has respiratory issues so I can’t wait for him to be out!!!

Tying to the fence to feed is a great idea - I’ll do that instead of the panels I imagined in my head to separate them. Tying is so easy (I feel stupid that I didn’t think of that!). 

Just turn them out and shut the gate.  They will be just fine

That's what I thought also.  My 3 had been on the same pasture for 9 years when we moved here.  My mare coliced and had to be put down this year and I was told it was because of the grass and I didn't think my pasture was all that lush.

My husband and I have 27 acres and a lot of horses to deal with (11). We do have some cross fencing and a couple small pens we feed one in. But we also built a row of fence that is all pipe. We took some powder river panels and connected them to the pipe fence and put a few in a row. The little feeding stalls are small but they let us easily separate everyone for half an hour or so and then we just turn them all back out to pasture when they are done. We have a metabolic horse and she stays up all night off pasture. The horses are used to the routine and know which is their pen/stall area and go there automatically.

Make sure they are vaccinated for rabies and lepto. They should be just fine! The topical fly stuff workes great at keeping ticks off. I have a DIY spot on if you want the recipe. Its simple and cheap. Works just as well as store bought. :)

Hmm, well maybe I am set in my old cowboys way, or just have dumb luck.  But I've never had a problem transitioning.   

I did ask my vet, and she said that since my horses are on grass for longer than 8 hours every day, I can just turn them out (provided they have some sort of shelter). 

Thank you for all of the responses - I will definitely follow these suggestions!

Oh, they will love it!

If the grass is green, make sure they are full of hay, it is early in the day, no t-storms forecast for that day/night and let em go!  

Going the other way is what I can never do.  My horses all think stalls are a bad ideas . . . especially my studs.  I've never owned a stud that didn't HATE stalls.  I have more hoof prints up high on my stall walls from my otherwise well behaved studs . . . haha!