Anyone else really struggling?

Carrottom said:
It is certainly rare for us to have rain with an easterly wind. This makes the rain feel so cold. Also, we try to organise the shelter against the prevailing southwest wind and rain.
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dorsetladette said:
OH has a day off today. He's doing the animals this morning I just can't face it.
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I had a couple of days like that earlier in the week, when after long days at school, I bribed my teen daughter to go up and do the horses!
 
Here it’s the worse wet we have had .
We have had three weeks of weather coming straight off the eat coast and that is very unusual
It’s miserable, I am looking forward to livery when I leave here .
 
I'm really struggling. My mare came down with laminitis early December and I'm lucky she has access from her stable to a large corral, which up until recently has never really been muddy, but after the constant rain, it's mostly sludge and I feel really sorry for her, she is depressed. Juggling horses, dogs and full time job is a battle at the moment, just glad I don't have children too!
 
Just heard that in the south west we've had rain every day this year, which definitely feels right!

Took a day off work and thought I'd get a ride in, but gave up trying to get into the field as the mud is at that wellie stealing consistency so I didn't want to walk through it to catch the cob, and the cob didn't want to walk through it to get to me. We both just stared at each other across the slop 😆🙈

Feel like I need a big kick up the a*se to get going again
 
Crackerz said:
i just feel sorry for their feet, out in the wet. i mean, i'm on clay, it's wet wet, not damp.

Is there anything we could be doing to help their poor feet from getting too soft?
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I'd be interested in this too. I do have shelters with rubber matting but no guarantee how long they stand in there once they're bored eating the hay. Tried putting straw down to help dry them off more, not doing that again, it was absolutely disgusting!
 
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Catbird said:
Just heard that in the south west we've had rain every day this year, which definitely feels right!

Took a day off work and thought I'd get a ride in, but gave up trying to get into the field as the mud is at that wellie stealing consistency so I didn't want to walk through it to catch the cob, and the cob didn't want to walk through it to get to me. We both just stared at each other across the slop 😆🙈

Feel like I need a big kick up the a*se to get going again
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I can probably count the number of days on one hand that we haven't had rain this year where I am. And I wonder if that's why I am now feeling very "homey" and not even wanting to venture out to the gym let alone the yard these days...
 
It’s just horrific here in the north west. Rain has been coming down since yesterday and the ground was already soaked. I recently moved yards and thankful to have indoor stables. Turnout isn’t the best but everyone’s in the same boat, horses are fed and happy and that’s what matters. But my goodness this winter has been very very difficult, I’m lucky that I share the yard duties with a friend so we each get a couple of days off a week. I feel for you on sole use, I’ve just left
Mine as the winter finished me off. I’m very thankful to be on a livery yard at the moment.
 
Honey08 said:
Just to add insult to injury I just remembered that I left the hosepipe to the field trough switched on at 8am, so I’ve watered the field for 4.5 hours on top of the rain! 🙁😱
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Oh god, I hate it when that happens….done that so many times….. but not that our land could get any wetter, just that we have a limited water supply…we’d sometimes literally empty a whole 1000ltr IBC tank….and you bet it would happen during a drought when horses and crop plants in just 1 day would literally need 1000ltrs. It takes 24hrs for it to re-fill. So we have an extra IBC tank to drive with Landy and trailer to local public tap in case that happens at the worst times. …which it always bloody does!
 
If you can get them out of the mud to pick their feet out a liberal dressing of clay from horse leads or red horse products would be a good idea. You can pack it in has antibacterial properties properties. A friend of mine in the wet used to powder her horses feet with diatomaceous earth. They would need to be kept out of the mud d for a while for it to do any drying. I can’t bear winter!
 
Honey08 said:
Just to add insult to injury I just remembered that I left the hosepipe to the field trough switched on at 8am, so I’ve watered the field for 4.5 hours on top of the rain! 🙁😱
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To be honest.. my fields are sooo water logged , a running hose pipe would’nt make much difference! Bet you were cross though.
 
asmp said:
I thought “pony” was little until I saw the last pic with you 😂
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pistolpete said:
@Boulty he’s got really big! At least he’s happy! Proper bog pony!
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He’s about 14.1… I think (don’t own a measuring stick!) He looks bigger from a distance than he does close up (he also looks bigger when launching himself a few feet in the air!)

Definitely still a scrawny baby pony in real life! (Not the wild stallion he thinks he is in his head!)
 
I'm not struggling, but I'm sending some light to you who are.
I am fed up with being soggy. The east wind yesterday was vile & despite all my good clothes, I had to get friend to open a supplement tub as my hands were not feeling the edge!
 
I actually felt sorry for Dex turning him out this morning, none of the fields on our yard have any shelter as we are in a valley on open land and it wasn't hammering it down but lightly raining which is has been for seemingly the last hundred years so he'll be completely fine but it was dank and grey and just miserable. He didn't seem to mind though, and thankfully apart from the gateways we still have green and not too much mud as on sloped sandy soil. I just wish he'd stop p!ssing about and creating mud slides.
 
Our field is mostly ok, it's the shelter I have trouble with. It has a bare earth floor and the roof is leaking like you wouldn't believe so the worst of the mud is 'indoors'. Even so when it's as wet as it is the horses are choosing mud over sideways rain. It's a real struggle mucking out though as they keep pooping in the bad bits
 
Mud, mud, lakes of muddy water, no make that lagoons🤣🙈 of muddy water, drowned earthworms and migrating geese - and what are the greedy Foresters doing? Digging up last years acorns and chasing each other around drowned fields. And I have invested in a biblical type "staff' to avoid any further muddy wet dunking.
 
lynz88 said:
I will honestly take the -32° back home right now.....(yes you read that right and js not a typo)

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I agree in a way. Damp air with wind blowing feels so bitterly cold and gets into the bones. But when it freezes hard in this damp boggy valley, all the dampness is frozen, the air feels clear and clean and I can be outside happily working without feeling that ‘damp cold bones’ feeling.
It rarely stays frozen completely for long, but I have noticed my tolerance for cold increases once everything is frozen hard. Damp cold is just debilitating.
 
PurBee said:
I agree in a way. Damp air with wind blowing feels so bitterly cold and gets into the bones. But when it freezes hard in this damp boggy valley, all the dampness is frozen, the air feels clear and clean and I can be outside happily working without feeling that ‘damp cold bones’ feeling.
It rarely stays frozen completely for long, but I have noticed my tolerance for cold increases once everything is frozen hard. Damp cold is just debilitating.
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I went home during the first covid lockdown so was still very wintry and -10° temps back home. My coat that I brought felt perfectly fine in -10° but does not feel warm enough here at 3-5° here

Talking to my mom just now and she has said the last few weeks have been cloudy and bitterly cold. Was saying how I am really struggling with getting off the sofa which is not like me at all and she was saying the same thing. While the temps are very different, the common theme is lack of sun.
 
The 2022/23 winter was far wetter than this one and it started in October with Storm Babette 2022 and did not start to dry up until May 23. I remember my husband trying to harrow and roll on May 11th and the tractor made a mess. Finally got it done and I advised an owner who was with me at the time that the field was closed. That instruction was ignored and a horse was turned out who promptly churned it up. That was the nearest to a divorce I've been !

In the current conditions I do think a ridden horse is better inside and worked. The retired, youngstock or unrideable are far more difficult to look after but even so it can't be good management to have anything out up to its hocks in mud for hours on end.
 
Gloi said:
If you have Hoof Armour then use it every couple of weeks and it really helps.
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Durasole is also amazing. Have had more luck with Durasole than hoof armour and is not as finicky. Also Keratex hoof gel can be used everywhere I believe (havent used it in a while so do correct me if I am wrong. Keratex hoof hardener - a different product - cannot be used on the frogs) to help with waterproofing
 
Crackerz said:
i just feel sorry for their feet, out in the wet. i mean, i'm on clay, it's wet wet, not damp.

Is there anything we could be doing to help their poor feet from getting too soft?
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No vet or farrier recommends hooves and legs permanently in the wet, especially not soggy mud.
Under cover and into deep, dry bedding for at least a few hours in 24, nappies on their feet if needs be.
Some years back, a local family laid several bales of straw in their carport, and tied the pony up there all afternoon, daughter rode straight after school (it was prone to abscess, vet thoroughly endorsed the plan, and seemed to work).
 
Exasperated said:
No vet or farrier recommends hooves and legs permanently in the wet, especially not soggy mud.
Under cover and into deep, dry bedding for at least a few hours in 24, nappies on their feet if needs be.
Some years back, a local family laid several bales of straw in their carport, and tied the pony up there all afternoon, daughter rode straight after school (it was prone to abscess, vet thoroughly endorsed the plan, and seemed to work).
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Ps, pony lived out all night and mornings, this was just to give it a break during a very wet period.
 
AdorableAlice said:
The 2022/23 winter was far wetter than this one and it started in October with Storm Babette 2022 and did not start to dry up until May 23. I remember my husband trying to harrow and roll on May 11th and the tractor made a mess. Finally got it done and I advised an owner who was with me at the time that the field was closed. That instruction was ignored and a horse was turned out who promptly churned it up. That was the nearest to a divorce I've been !

In the current conditions I do think a ridden horse is better inside and worked. The retired, youngstock or unrideable are far more difficult to look after but even so it can't be good management to have anything out up to its hocks in mud for hours on end.
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100% agree for ridden horses, much better for their fitness and mental health, and fewer stereotypies in active horses.
However, it seems increasingly common for people with riding horses to focus on ‘turnout’ (too often sub-par, marginal circumstances which create other issues and ill health) almost to excuse their not regularly riding the animal - ‘he’s got turnout’. Oh, great, a manky playpen, what a lovely, interesting life.
Even some of the non-rideables might benefit from owner putting their running shoes on, 12’ lead rope, and getting out for a change of scene.
My husband might have executed her, or topped himself, 22/3 was enough to drive anyone to it.
 
If it helps, my trimmer says she hasn't seen any feet that have been particularly affected by the wet, muddy conditions so far, other than the odd bit of mild thrush.
 
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