Anyone else really struggling?

If I don't keep the pony moving she's going to lose muscle and her stifles will start slipping again and a lot of time and work and minimum £800 worth of drugs will be wasted and we will have to start over

This has been a horrible little mantra in the back of my brain since October that saps a little bit of joy from every day and I can't even ignore it because it's true
 
Sanversera said:
Rain rain and more rajn forecast. Today i gave up. Unrugged the horse and chucked him out. Havent ridden in weeks. No point in trying until sprjng proper and the mud dries up. I give up.
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Change of heart in the afternoon,rainztopped briefly,went back to yard,unbelivably hodse hadnt rolled so i tacked him up and went for a hack. He behaved well too.
 
We’ve had 2 fog free days which were great but today it’s back with the rain 😢 I’m giving in and going back to full livery as soon as I can, I can’t do another winter like this, it’s sucked all the joy out of it for me, it’s relentless and has affected my mental health as I’m working full time, have dogs and a family and have finally admitted that I can’t do it all 😢 I’ll have to make lifestyle choices to afford full livery but it will be worth it.
 
Of course on Sunday when we were out xc schooling (first year working with a horse who is ready for eventing prep since I moved and I keep pinching myself that we’re in reach of Somerford and their incredible all weather cross country), then Monday when she needed a day off, we had lovely clear days.

Today when I want to go for a hack, we had a wall of fog. Barely 20m visibility, I daren't go out on the roads like that so back in the school we were. She does much better with more hacking and less schooling so we’re both fed up but equally she gets fat and silly if she doesn’t work and needs to get in shape for the season so can’t say sod it for a few weeks until this (finally!) blows over.

BUT I didn’t get on until 16:50 and it was still fairly light.
 
smolmaus said:
If I don't keep the pony moving she's going to lose muscle and her stifles will start slipping again and a lot of time and work and minimum £800 worth of drugs will be wasted and we will have to start over

This has been a horrible little mantra in the back of my brain since October that saps a little bit of joy from every day and I can't even ignore it because it's true
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I share your pain Im in the same boat & having to exercise pony everyday with hill work & raised pole to keep the muscle around the stifles - the pressure is ghastly with the weather!
 
bubsqueaks said:
I share your pain Im in the same boat & having to exercise pony everyday with hill work & raised pole to keep the muscle around the stifles - the pressure is ghastly with the weather!
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Its brutal. And pony doesn't give a monkeys about her stifles either. We did bare minimum last night in the rain and a flooded arena and the "go f- yourself" vibes are coming off her like laser beams.
 
Massive sympathies for those of you that have to work ponies in these horrid conditions, it’s raining here again in shropshire, well misly now but forecast to be heavier this afternoon just as I finish work at 2!! I’m heading up to ponies at 3 but not convinced I’ll ride after mucking out, poo picking paddock and barn, stuffing nets, bringing in and feeding. My get up and go has got up and gone!
 
smolmaus said:
Its brutal. And pony doesn't give a monkeys about her stifles either. We did bare minimum last night in the rain and a flooded arena and the "go f- yourself" vibes are coming off her like laser beams.
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We dont have an arena so there have been a couple of days when Ive resorted to working her in the stable with stretches, backing up, turning in a circle. We do have a big hill in our bottom field so Ive been doing lots of hillwork - really slow steps downhill as recommended by physio then marching uphill & using clicker training as positive reinforcement because its alongside a footpath so we often get freaked out by passers by jogging, squeaking dog toys etc - but as you say we have no choice having done past 6 months to build up stifle muscles! I will be thinking of you when Im out later in the rain!!!
 
bubsqueaks said:
We dont have an arena so there have been a couple of days when Ive resorted to working her in the stable with stretches, backing up, turning in a circle. We do have a big hill in our bottom field so Ive been doing lots of hillwork - really slow steps downhill as recommended by physio then marching uphill & using clicker training as positive reinforcement because its alongside a footpath so we often get freaked out by passers by jogging, squeaking dog toys etc - but as you say we have no choice having done past 6 months to build up stifle muscles! I will be thinking of you when Im out later in the rain!!!
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Yes positive reinforcement a GODSEND for keeping mine even a little bit on side. On a nice day she will do all her physio stuff at liberty with a smile on her face but on days like these a handful of grassnuts is not adequate compensation and she has to be on a rope 🙃

Soggy Stifles Club 😂💕
 
Wondering if I can jack it all in here to be honest. 3 non ridden due to various physical reasons (theirs), aged 6 -19. I know the future wouldn't be kind to them if they were moved on, someone would try drugging them up and selling them as ridden and that would end badly, which is how they've ended up with me in the first place. The lane they use to get from paddock to mut mat yard is horrendous. Each time I use the tractor to give them another bale on the yard it makes the lane worse, but I can't avoid it. Trying to heal post elbow break a few months back but it's not going well because I have to pull a barrow load of poop off the yard through tractor churned mud to the muck heap. One constantly get abscesses at the moment, I'm constantly digging and flushing out feet, only for them to put it down and it's muddy again. I am not enjoying horses anymore
 
I must confess that this morning I woke up feeling like I'd had an amazing sleep, half an hour earlier than usual. This would have given me time to ride before work. Instead, I got my fresh coffee and sat in bed cuddling the cat.

No regrets. At all. When I did get to the yard, it was in your face drizzle. Balls to that.
 
I just stopped and cried last night while stood out in a pitch black field with a headtorch, in the rain, trying to wrestle with haylage. I'm dreading every day having to go up there after work. What would usually take 30-40 minutes is taking nearly 2 hours because of the mud and just how soft the ground is, it's making it impossible to walk on let alone pull a wheelbarrow.

Both ponies are in their own sections of a field and a shelter with rubber matting each. I debated giving up poo picking during the week but then by the weekend, their shelters would be absolutely full to the brim and felt it was counterproductive putting hay in the shelter to get them out of the wet to only replace it with standing in sh!t all week. Not only that, it would mean doing several trips on the weekend to and from the muck heap to clear it which I just physically can't do. It's killing my back and legs trying to get through it as it is.

My mare's shelter is furthest away as it's on the other side of the field. I do have a hay box right near the gateway which has rubber mats down but the issue with that is that those mats are just flooding with water the moment she steps on them because it's squeezing it up from the sides and I can't have her feet covered in water for hours on end. I'm constantly scraping the mud off them too. This area is right next to the muck heap too which means I wouldn't even need to barrow the poo anywhere so it would help me but it's just too wet for her to be on. I just don't know what I can do to make things easier.
 
GrassChop said:
I just stopped and cried last night while stood out in a pitch black field with a headtorch, in the rain, trying to wrestle with haylage. I'm dreading every day having to go up there after work. What would usually take 30-40 minutes is taking nearly 2 hours because of the mud and just how soft the ground is, it's making it impossible to walk on let alone pull a wheelbarrow.

Both ponies are in their own sections of a field and a shelter with rubber matting each. I debated giving up poo picking during the week but then by the weekend, their shelters would be absolutely full to the brim and felt it was counterproductive putting hay in the shelter to get them out of the wet to only replace it with standing in sh!t all week. Not only that, it would mean doing several trips on the weekend to and from the muck heap to clear it which I just physically can't do. It's killing my back and legs trying to get through it as it is.

My mare's shelter is furthest away as it's on the other side of the field. I do have a hay box right near the gateway which has rubber mats down but the issue with that is that those mats are just flooding with water the moment she steps on them because it's squeezing it up from the sides and I can't have her feet covered in water for hours on end. I'm constantly scraping the mud off them too. This area is right next to the muck heap too which means I wouldn't even need to barrow the poo anywhere so it would help me but it's just too wet for her to be on. I just don't know what I can do to make things easier.
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I really feel for you. It's just soul destroying in this kind of situation. We're similar except it's our shelter and entrance that is a quagmire I can't seem to keep drained. One of them, mucky devil, keeps pooing in the middle of the wettest bit of his side. It's murder trying to keep it even remotely clean, some working days I just can't manage it all so sending hours on it off days just clearing up.
 
GrassChop said:
I just stopped and cried last night while stood out in a pitch black field with a headtorch, in the rain, trying to wrestle with haylage. I'm dreading every day having to go up there after work. What would usually take 30-40 minutes is taking nearly 2 hours because of the mud and just how soft the ground is, it's making it impossible to walk on let alone pull a wheelbarrow.

Both ponies are in their own sections of a field and a shelter with rubber matting each. I debated giving up poo picking during the week but then by the weekend, their shelters would be absolutely full to the brim and felt it was counterproductive putting hay in the shelter to get them out of the wet to only replace it with standing in sh!t all week. Not only that, it would mean doing several trips on the weekend to and from the muck heap to clear it which I just physically can't do. It's killing my back and legs trying to get through it as it is.

My mare's shelter is furthest away as it's on the other side of the field. I do have a hay box right near the gateway which has rubber mats down but the issue with that is that those mats are just flooding with water the moment she steps on them because it's squeezing it up from the sides and I can't have her feet covered in water for hours on end. I'm constantly scraping the mud off them too. This area is right next to the muck heap too which means I wouldn't even need to barrow the poo anywhere so it would help me but it's just too wet for her to be on. I just don't know what I can do to make things easier.
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I really wish i could help

Tears to let it out, the sheer physical effort is mind blowing, get through this and try and think hiw to make it easier in future

Hoping things improve in the next few weeks
 
This month I have bought two new fly rugs Can't imagine ever using them right now!

Mr P has screewed my life up on the straw front. I like short straw and he had given me a hige bale of the longest tangliest straw I've ever known. I've gone from doing them into one big barrow together very quickly to 3 barrows a day each and its taking me forever. Its just impossible to muck out and going to last forever. The who yard lookes trashed as its everywhere.
I'd moan about mud too but my horses don't really go out so I'm oblivious.

Anyhow, just off to try and scrape mud off the crazy mare and give her a quick hack in the gale force winds.....
 
GrassChop said:
I just stopped and cried last night while stood out in a pitch black field with a headtorch, in the rain, trying to wrestle with haylage. I'm dreading every day having to go up there after work. What would usually take 30-40 minutes is taking nearly 2 hours because of the mud and just how soft the ground is, it's making it impossible to walk on let alone pull a wheelbarrow.

Both ponies are in their own sections of a field and a shelter with rubber matting each. I debated giving up poo picking during the week but then by the weekend, their shelters would be absolutely full to the brim and felt it was counterproductive putting hay in the shelter to get them out of the wet to only replace it with standing in sh!t all week. Not only that, it would mean doing several trips on the weekend to and from the muck heap to clear it which I just physically can't do. It's killing my back and legs trying to get through it as it is.

My mare's shelter is furthest away as it's on the other side of the field. I do have a hay box right near the gateway which has rubber mats down but the issue with that is that those mats are just flooding with water the moment she steps on them because it's squeezing it up from the sides and I can't have her feet covered in water for hours on end. I'm constantly scraping the mud off them too. This area is right next to the muck heap too which means I wouldn't even need to barrow the poo anywhere so it would help me but it's just too wet for her to be on. I just don't know what I can do to make things easier.
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Where abouts are you GrassChop? Roughly.
 
I am defo sick of the rain and wind, BUT I cant complain about the mud. We are so so so lucky to have big pea gravel turnout pens where my ladies go in with the other livery horses from 6.30am(I do them before I go to office) until 5pm when I get home and we go hacking.
Arena is fairly flooded so my biggest issue is not getting to school them during the week and them being a little unrulily at competitions :P

My older horse is out in 20 acres with his 2 friends and by god its muddy but all 3 OAP's seem very very content and fat :D
 
The good bit is being 2 OAP's we can at least take our time and do it all in daylight. Worst bit is feeling old, cold, worn out joints - ours, not ponies 🙈 🤣 AND I AM SO FED UP OF HAVING WET FEET despite lining wellies with plastic bags. As for fields, they are just lakes and deep mud with soggy grass poking out - still ponies seem quite happy digging up last year's acorns.
 
@GrassChop can you put planks of wood down in the field to run the wheelbarrow over? We’ve done this before albeit we didn’t have to go too far.
I would muck out the shelters but ditch poop scooping the field. There’s no way I’d manage to do mine in winter on a good year, never mind this one.

We’ve had sun today! And the roads are dry and it’s so odd. It is cold but it just feels so good to have no rain!
 
GrassChop said:
I just stopped and cried last night while stood out in a pitch black field with a headtorch, in the rain, trying to wrestle with haylage. I'm dreading every day having to go up there after work. What would usually take 30-40 minutes is taking nearly 2 hours because of the mud and just how soft the ground is, it's making it impossible to walk on let alone pull a wheelbarrow.

Both ponies are in their own sections of a field and a shelter with rubber matting each. I debated giving up poo picking during the week but then by the weekend, their shelters would be absolutely full to the brim and felt it was counterproductive putting hay in the shelter to get them out of the wet to only replace it with standing in sh!t all week. Not only that, it would mean doing several trips on the weekend to and from the muck heap to clear it which I just physically can't do. It's killing my back and legs trying to get through it as it is.

My mare's shelter is furthest away as it's on the other side of the field. I do have a hay box right near the gateway which has rubber mats down but the issue with that is that those mats are just flooding with water the moment she steps on them because it's squeezing it up from the sides and I can't have her feet covered in water for hours on end. I'm constantly scraping the mud off them too. This area is right next to the muck heap too which means I wouldn't even need to barrow the poo anywhere so it would help me but it's just too wet for her to be on. I just don't know what I can do to make things easier.
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I have a teenager who poo picks at the weekend and a freelancer who comes twice a week. It seems like it has rained every day for weeks now and the ground is just mud with little grass. One of mine is on box rest and needs hand walking twice a day as well as mucking out twice. It does cost a lot, especially on top of £70 a bale for hay but I have a medical issue and really don't know how I would manage without the help, just walking through the mud is exhausting let alone with a wheelbarrow.

It's an exceptionally bad year, if you can afford it and can get someone to help even if it's just one day a week that's what I'd do. Hopefully we are coming out of the other side soon.
 
AutumnDays said:
Wondering if I can jack it all in here to be honest. 3 non ridden due to various physical reasons (theirs), aged 6 -19. I know the future wouldn't be kind to them if they were moved on, someone would try drugging them up and selling them as ridden and that would end badly, which is how they've ended up with me in the first place. The lane they use to get from paddock to mut mat yard is horrendous. Each time I use the tractor to give them another bale on the yard it makes the lane worse, but I can't avoid it. Trying to heal post elbow break a few months back but it's not going well because I have to pull a barrow load of poop off the yard through tractor churned mud to the muck heap. One constantly get abscesses at the moment, I'm constantly digging and flushing out feet, only for them to put it down and it's muddy again. I am not enjoying horses anymore
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That sounds absolutely awful. Could you get some hoofboots for the one with abscesses perhaps? Or is the mud too deep for boots? I have found Equine Fusion boots stay on in practically everything. Could the tractor use a scraper to get rid of some of the mud? Could you go down to two horses, perhaps? You say the horses are non-ridden due to physical issues - I know it's an awful thing to consider but could one be PTS? Is there someone you could pay to come and help you? I expect you've been through all of these options already.
 
I thought I was doing okay but February has really hit me hard! I had a really frightening incident on the weekend just to make things worse.

Out solo hacking, I have to get off and un-do one of those gates that has a weight on the back of it, so it swings back on you if you don’t hold it. I’ve done this and got back on 100 times before, but this day he wouldn’t stand to let me on. He gets upset, rears vertical, reins get snatched out my hands and he takes off. He gallops over a mile back home, through the village and down a 60mph road - how he didn’t get hit by a car is beyond me. Thankfully YO rushed down in her car and caught him but he’d basically got back home. He seems none the worse, thank god.

Unrelated, I had a nice system with another livery where we’d turn each others horse out on a weekend day, so one of us had a lie in. My horse has gone and ruined things by being a total handful in the mornings and scaring her, so that’s put an end to that! I’m so tired and balancing a corporate job with doing the horse either side and all the mud/rain/trying not to smell like wet horse in the office is such a slog.

To top it off, this morning clearly I was late in his books (I wasn’t) and he’s flung everything within reach outside his stable onto the concrete, including my riding hat which will now need to be replaced. I’m so over it!
 
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