all you lot with field and no stables etc, how do you manage in the winter?

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little_rou

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as per question really, if your not on a yard, and you dont have yard facilities how do you manage?

I have been looking at some grazing thats for sale, it is accessed only by grass track, so probably wont be able to get a vehicle up there easily when ground is wet, its a good 5 minute walk off of the road, theres currently no yard/storage facilities, plus there is no electricity and no street lights etc, its pretty much in the middle of nowhere!! I would get a couple of mobile shelters, and maybe put in a planning application in future, I can easily connect mains water......am I mad??

Does anyone else have grazing like this? how do you make it work during winter? I work full time so will be in the dark at each end of the day - is this do-able??
 
One solution for lighting we found was to connect a camping fluro-strip type light (designed for a caravan awning I think) to a car battery - this lights up our 12x12 hayshed perfectly... It would do a stable, but you'd have to put the battery in something to stop the horse getting at it..

Could you put a bit of hardcore down to make it more accessable in winter? - you may need to get the vet there...
 
My friends and I have a set up like this, luckily none of us work 8 hour days (I work 8-1, and they work 9-2) so we still have daylight. All our ponies are hardy natives so they will all winter out naked - well maybe not the haflinger! If you are getting a shelter you could hang a camping lantern on a hook? We are getting a shed for feed and basic necessities (my rugs!) as well and putting it on the fence line then fencing it off with electric fencing.
 
My field sounds similar to this. I have access to a barn to store my hay and 'bits' but no stable. The field has trees around all sides which offers quite a bit of shelter but I am looking to get a mobile shelter this winter. I have running water but the pipes often freeze in the winter months. When this happens I have to fill my water containers at home and take them down to the field. This was very hard during the snow earlier this year as we were unable to get the car (a large Jeep Grand Cherokee) out as the snow was that deep! This meant my lovely OH had to carry the containers to the field, a distance of about a third of a mile - doesn't sound far but...... I couldn't have done it without him. I have lights in the barn but not near enough to help in the field so have to use a torch or my car headlights.
 
I have a caravan to store my feed, rugs and a bale or two of hay (the rest is stored at a friend's yard). Don't leave much else in there as I worry about someone breaking in to it - it's not hugely secure!

They have a stream to drink out of so I don't have to worry about hauling water when they're in that field (I have another one which has no water so I have to bring water from home when they're in there) and I don't have to worry about it freezing in winter - or it hasn't the last two, anyway!

For the horses, only one needs rugging, and rugging a lot, the rest are native/part native or arab/arab crosses and so far have wintered out alright. They all have rugs though - one of my youngsters was under the weather last year, I rugged her for a few days and she was fine. Apart from that, they have ad lib hay/haylage, I check on them a lot, and so far they've been fine! I work in and around the area, so check on them 3-4 times a day, whenever I'm near, to get to them as much as I can in daylight, as otherwise it's a torch and a long walk!

My field is on a hill, so I have no hope of schooling there anyway, so if I need to school I box them to one.
 
We had our first stable less winter, we managed better than I thought. I hope the stables will be up this winter so we can keep them in overnight before comps etc. My advice is to get a shed or caravan for essentials (not tack if it is remote) Lanterns and car batteries. Head torches - we got a petzl, bit more exspensive but so much better than the cheap ones. If you get a shed or field shelter put guttering on and get as big a water but or buts as you can find, also get some barrels and take a barrel up the field every time you go up. Consider big bale haylage as you can leave it outside. If you dont want to hardcore a drive way you can get reinforced matting to create tracks.
 
Oh, and one of my dogs is an inuit - a sled type dog - and she happily pulled half a bale of hay for me last year (on a sled) and between us we could haul a whole bale, so that helped a lot!
 
For the horses, plenty of hay to keep their central heating burning, rugs on standby if need be and the ice broken on the water trough if necessary.

I wouldnt be without my head torch, £4.99; Tesco complete with batteries;lasts for ages and keeps hands free to pick out feet, adjust rugs and check for injuries etc.

Ive been known to walk to the field in darkness with a full up feed bucket in each hand, well filled haynet slung over each shoulder, and a rug or two thrown across my arms!!!

It's do-able, and you will have muscles from Brussels by spring! (especially in my case where my horses lived on a steep hill and they were hayed at the top and water was at the bottom!)
 
Where we are we have no electric lol, the fields are on a private road and also behind the field owners head, we have loads of spare rugs in the cabin(old trailer/office type thing) and we keep feed in there aswell. We give them top quality hay and hard feed and all of them are well rugged. My tb will have a couple of rugs on this winter depending on how she goes but I'm not planning on clipping this year maybe a bib clip or something. When it snowed last year we just put any old rugs on them we have plenty.

For lights we have non lol so torches and head lights it is unless we have a car (I don't drive) to light up the field. We have oldies aswell and they do well in the winter as well, aslong as there rugged. The water we use comes from the field owners garden tap with a long hose but the other trof is field by another tap nearer to it.

In terms of schooling we have a field that's got xc jumps in down the road and we also section off a part of a field with electric fencing (not turned on) and use that we put letters up etc. We have amazing hacking area though and a sand school down the road that we can hire. I want to get a field shelter this winter though as they only have trees etc atm, i like them being out though but I do feel guilty when i'm leaving and there still staging there wet haha.
 
An interesting post :D

Ours are about to start living out full time, as LC has to be out. They'll be rugged as per the weather, but it will be strange! I don't think we've had a winter without stabling... The field has water, but there is a good chance the pipes will freeze. I'll get one trough moved up closer to the gate so we can fill it from the car.

Thought it would be easier with them out, but suddenly seems like so much more to think about!
 
little_rou said:
as per question really, if your not on a yard, and you dont have yard facilities how do you manage?

I have been looking at some grazing thats for sale, it is accessed only by grass track, so probably wont be able to get a vehicle up there easily when ground is wet,
Click to expand...
We have moved from a car, to a garden tractor with agri tyres, to a LandRover and this year to a proper tractor to cope with getting up our track
its a good 5 minute walk off of the road, theres currently no yard/storage facilities, plus there is no electricity and no street lights etc, its pretty much in the middle of nowhere!! I would get a couple of mobile shelters, and maybe put in a planning application in future, I can easily connect mains water......am I mad??
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If you're going to have to dig up your track to get water from the road it will cost you a fortune, we have invested in a 250 gallon bowser - which has contributed to our need for a serious vehicle to tow it through the mud.
Does anyone else have grazing like this?
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Yes
how do you make it work during winter? I work full time so will be in the dark at each end of the day - is this do-able??
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I'm aroudn during the day so I try to make sure I'm finished by the time it gets dark. A cunning idea I heard recently though for you. If you put a generator up there it will likely get nicked. If you get a battered old van - say a Transit - and an inverter you can have 240 volt lighting, or a small kettle, or any other electrical appliance within reason. It's not as economical as running a genny but of course you also have storage facilities in the back of the van, somewhere to sit out of the wet, etc. I would suspect you'll need a cheapo solar charger to keep the battery topped up for the starter motor.
 
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I put a mobile field stable up in my field...which is in the middle of no where with no elec, streets lights, water etc.
I got a double one so I have one for my horse to shelter in and a spare one that can store up to 100 bales of hay...as he is on restricted grazing and hay all year round.
I manage fine throughout the year and have learnt along the way on things to make life easier:
Somewhere to store hay rather than under tarp
Use a head torch with good LED lights and always carry spare working batteries for that day when the current ones fail.
I put wood chip bark outside his stable to prevent poaching.
Use rubber mats in his stable so I can have a shavings bed in in case I need to shut him away at night etc.
Water - have 6 and growing water butts all linked up and attached to the down pipe on my stable...gives me water for the majority of the year so I minimise the amount I have to bring round from home.
Mucking out and poo picking easily done with a decent head torch.
Rugs - he wears the same one all winter and as he is always dry underneath I never worry about the amount of rain that falls down...if I needed to change it I would hand the wet one in my spare stable.
Lock on both ends of the field gate with a heavy duty motorbike type chain.

I have managed like this for several years now and use my mobile stable as a proper stable with no problem at all. Even in all that snow it was perfectly manageable.
If you can buy some land I would go for it as prices are rising all the time and it is getting silly just how much people now want for paddocks.
 
Our horses have lived out for 17 years. Not quite the situation you describe as field surrounds our house, but started with nothing except a collapsing barn.

It's more civilised these days, but the barn (now renovated into looseboxes) does not have electricity nor running water, and last winter the latter was a nightmore. Because there was no rain - just snow - there was no water from the roof guttering, and what was in the trough froze solid, as did the little stream in the hedge. We grew arms as long as chimpanzees carrying buckets up the field in five inches of snow. The suggestion in an earlier post of a big bowser is brilliant. It would save you a lot of work.

LED head lights are fine in theory, but our horses are frightened of them ("look, Mummy's a monster with one big eye" syndrome). I use an old fashioned paraffin-fuelled storm lantern instead)

Ours have haylage ad lib, and plenty of hot food. I cook linseed overnight in the Aga and pour boiling water over their hard feed so they get a (not too!) hot breakfast and ditto at teatime. Each horse has 3 rugs (rain, middleweight and heavy duty, the last two with attachable neckcovers). In the 17 years we have never had a health problem relating in any way to their being kep tout, so I think that speaks for itself.

The one thing that is very important though is natural shelter. We're very lucky, in that the field is on two levels, and is sheltered from almost every angle. I don't think the horses would do nearly so well stuck out in a conventional pony paddock - i.e. a flat paddock with just electric fencing and no cosy hedges or tree clumps to tuck under.

And finally, if your potential field is so far from 'civilisation' do make sure you ALWAYS take your mobile in case of an accident. Good luck with the purchase.
 
little_rou said:
as per question really, if your not on a yard, and you dont have yard facilities how do you manage?

I have been looking at some grazing thats for sale, it is accessed only by grass track, so probably wont be able to get a vehicle up there easily when ground is wet, its a good 5 minute walk off of the road, theres currently no yard/storage facilities, plus there is no electricity and no street lights etc, its pretty much in the middle of nowhere!! I would get a couple of mobile shelters, and maybe put in a planning application in future, I can easily connect mains water......am I mad??

Does anyone else have grazing like this? how do you make it work during winter? I work full time so will be in the dark at each end of the day - is this do-able??
Click to expand...

Firstly you buy a Defender and learn how to take it off road!:)
Shelters are good in the summer but a good hedge is better for the winter, it is the driving rain and wind they hate in the winter.
The water can be a pain if it freezes. I have big containers that I use if the troughs freeze for too long and I do buckets if necessary. I have lots of tubtrugs!
I take hay up for the week at weekends and stack it on pallets.
Alaways have spare rugs. Mine have t least two. The rug trashers have three.
I couldnt be without my Defender tbh. She is such a workhorse.
 
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