Argggg! Winter is killing me!!!

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shadowboy

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So I got to the yard tonight to read "FIELDS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE" the final straw.... I don't mind keeping in when it's hammering down or bringing in earlier before dark and they start pacing at the gateway. But I hate yards where they have no winter turnout, mucking out both ends of the days means no riding; it means spending £16 a week on shavings and £10 a week on hay on top of usual bills. It also means more risk of stomach ulcers for my boy due to the fact he puts weight on easily I have to restrict his diet and the fact he's not working means even less hay. The thought of less riding and more poo duty is just horrid! Sorry for my rant I needed to vent!!! :(
 
I haven't had grazing at my 'all year round grazing' yard since the 19th December so count yourself lucky compared to me. This time next month it will be spring and hopefully the ground will have started to dry out.
 
I think this is an exceptional winter for waterlogged fields. I know yards that have NEVER restricted grazing before who are closing their fields.
It is crap & you do have my sympathy BUT it's, hopefully, going to be about 4 weeks. I'm sure it's a decision your YO didn't take lightly.
The extra cost & work is a total ball ache but it's better than those who have lost belongings & farmers who's livelihoods are hanging in the balance due to flooding.
There is a HHO'er who's yard has been completely flooded at least 3 times. They have lost feed, hay & bedding. Currently I believe they are relying on temporary accommodation for their horses just to keep them safe :(
 
We do have an outdoor but no turnout in it- 20 horses on yard each usually have individual turnout so would be risky to turnout with others and not enough hours in the day. I was told yard had all year turnout too. What doesn't make sense is there are 260 acres, they make and sell forage so I guess us lot keeping in = more profit as we have to buy from them. Also I suppose they can hay the fields 3x a year if they don't have to wait for the grass to regrow.
 
I don't deny it's an exceptional year but iffy husband is right (works for environment agency) there is more to come...... It also doesn't help that I have a pony I'm highly concerned will develop stomach ulcers or even worse - vices. Turnout a couple of times a week would be enough to at least take the pain of staining at concrete walls away....
 
My friends had to admit defeat as her fields now are water logged and becoming more and more with each lot of rain. She now restricting turnout for her two (horses at home) best she can. I think a lot people are in the same boat. This winter has been exceptional for rain. Will it ever end
 
shadowboy said:
I don't deny it's an exceptional year but iffy husband is right (works for environment agency) there is more to come...... It also doesn't help that I have a pony I'm highly concerned will develop stomach ulcers or even worse - vices. Turnout a couple of times a week would be enough to at least take the pain of staining at concrete walls away....
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I am sorry, but I think you need to get real. People are losing everything they have, and you are worried about not being able to turn your horse out. You must be able to work around this somehow, even if it means taking him out for walks a couple of times a day. As I see it you have three choices:

1 - move to another livery yard.
2 - buy your own place and then you can manage them how you like (although admittedly this is not a short term fix).
3 - make the best of what you have.
 
I am only turning mine out twice a week at the moment to try and save some ground. I do feel really bad as mine aren't ridden either at the moment but I have no choice if I want any sort of land left for the summer.
 
Would they let you graze in hand somewhere? Could you use annual leave from work to free up some time over the coming weeks to get horse out of his stable more?

Several years ago I moved to a yard with all year turn out who didn't offer anything of the sort. They shut the fields in October & you were only allowed to turn out in the arena if the horse was supervised.
I did have the option of nights at work & often my 'supervision' involved being wrapped up in horse rugs & sleeping in my horse's stable :)
I hand grazed my boy for an hour a day. I used to sit on a upturned bucket reading a book whilst he grazed around me on a lunge line!
 
I do sympathise and have a youngster that is going slightly stircrazy at the min. Although my older one would rather stay in anyway, she's also prone to get fat on fresh air and ulcers are a worry for me too, so far am keeping on top of her weight by soaking all her hay - pain in the meal to do but rather that than ulcers or laminitis. Hopefully it won't be for much longer :-)
 
I don't understand why having to keep him in means no riding, surely because he is in means he should get more, not less, exercise, it cannot take that long to skip out in the evenings that it prevents you from riding him, without going out there will be no mud to brush off a major saving in time.
 
i'm a big advocate of turnout - and i rented my own place so that I could make sure that I could keep mine according to my wishes - but I've stopped using my fields at the moment. Admittedly, I have a school, which two of them are living in 24/7, and the other two are stabled at night, out in the school during the day - so i am luckier than some. I can absolutely sympathise with landowners closing turnout. It's not ideal, and its not fair on the horses, but sometimes you just have to accept that in extreme conditions, you have to just suck it up.

There are plenty of ways to keep a steady supply of forage going on - double netting, soaking - or my current arrangement for Fat Alfred - mixing his hay in with straw from his bed, so that he has to pick through it to get the good stuff. He has one heston section a night, well mixed with straw, and always has a bit left in the morning
 
In response to the replies:

I am getting real. There is always someone worse off and better off. I am having a rant about where my situation is. If you must know the house I bought in the summer is leaking and 4 places- badly- structurally- with intense costs - yet my huge mortgage is prohibiting me from fixing this. I have no central heating as my boiler died on New Year's Day- it will cost over £3000 to fix....so sorry that I felt this was the last straw that is making this winter hell.

Regarding taking leave from work- I am a teacher so I can't take term time off.

Regarding the work load - this time of year has a lot of parents evenings and open days as well as support evenings for students struggling (I only teach exam students) so I often do not get home until 8pm and seeing as I have to leave in the morning by 8am with the dark nights/morning riding is restricted to 3 days a week for me hence why I'm worried about his weight.

Regarding the hay nets- I already triple net or use a trickle net and soak his hay f
 
*for 8-12 hours.

Sorry I just needed to vent about how manky and unpleasant this winter has been. Urg it's just been so unpleasant and I have no one else to vent to as parents live abroad so had so vent to the big wide online world!
 
shadowboy said:
*for 8-12 hours.

Sorry I just needed to vent about how manky and unpleasant this winter has been. Urg it's just been so unpleasant and I have no one else to vent to as parents live abroad so had so vent to the big wide online world!
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It is a horrible winter you are right, it is making last years snow and ice seem almost pleasant. Keep going we are half way through Feb nearly, soon be half term week and with luck the weather might improve with change of month in March!
 
Calm down. We all have lives to lead and jobs to do. The weather has been extraordinarily difficult to deal with. I do know as I am in the far west of Cornwall.
FWIW I do sympathise with your house situation, as when the first big storm hit I was in the middle of renovations, having lived with a leaking (think waterfalls down the wall, and slugs, the stripey sort) kitchen for years, and had no roof, just tarpaulins at the time.
Yes, it's a total bitch, but your horse will survive, just like mine has, with only a few hours turnout every week, if he is lucky.
Every cloud has a silver lining....his mudfever cleared up :D
 
shadowboy said:
*for 8-12 hours.

Sorry I just needed to vent about how manky and unpleasant this winter has been. Urg it's just been so unpleasant and I have no one else to vent to as parents live abroad so had so vent to the big wide online world!
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Hugs op (((((((()))))))))))
You have my sympathy x
 
Just hearing on the news that the UK has had it's wettest January for three centuries!

What I want to know is who was measuring the rain fall 300 years ago!
 
nikicb said:
I am sorry, but I think you need to get real. People are losing everything they have, and you are worried about not being able to turn your horse out. You must be able to work around this somehow, even if it means taking him out for walks a couple of times a day. As I see it you have three choices:

1 - move to another livery yard.
2 - buy your own place and then you can manage them how you like (although admittedly this is not a short term fix).
3 - make the best of what you have.
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Too damn right! I have never restricted my fields in 12 years, but this winter they are having to come in at night, out from 6am to 5pm so liveries should count themselves lucky..................do they?!
 
NZJenny said:
Just hearing on the news that the UK has had it's wettest January for three centuries!

What I want to know is who was measuring the rain fall 300 years ago!
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Me too???

This year makes last years month of ice and snow seem like almost an easy winter. I believe horses need turnout, but accept this is not always possible/practical. Over an ideal winter we turnout 8am - 4pm whatever the weather. This year by October we were keeping in on wet days, December they started coming in earlier as well. The field includes a steep hillside and a flat top, flat top doing ok the hillside which we lead up to get to grazing is completely trashed. We have a lovely yard owner who as asked us to be as considerate as we can.

On Friday I gave in, new arrangement they will go out in a small muddy sacrifice area on alternate days and I think we are lucky, rather this than total ban. Roll on a break in this relentless rain.
 
You know, sometimes all someone wants to do is be listened to. they don't want solutions. They don't want someone saying "Try this or that." They are just having a ****ty time (and YES, they know there are people worse off than themselves, but does that make any of us feel better when we are going through bad times?). Sometimes all we want is a hug (or a virtual hug) and someone to say "I know, it's ****, but it will pass." Just to listen, just to HEAR, just to validate.

So, OP, and everyone else who is struggling (no turnout for weeks on my yard, so I count myself too) - Yes. It's bloody awful. It's unremittingly revoltingly vile, and regardless of the difficulties of anyone else it's still vile for lots of us horse owners and our horses with no turnout. Some time it will get better, so lets hang on in there and support each other and listen to each other. Solutions when they are asked for, but sometimes just a big virtual sympathetic hug. xx
 
I hear what you are saying about some people just wanting to be listened to & that's what we are doing but sometimes a suggestion could be something that they previously haven't considered.

OP it will pass, I promise it will .
 
It's not great, is it :(

I'm very pro-turnout but I've had to accept that my retired mare is not going to see a field for the foreseeable future, unfortunately. I've just moved to a new area - anywhere that still has turnout is full, with a long waiting list. I just have to tell myself that it will be spring soon, and make sure my mare gets out of her stable as often as possible!
 
Thanks all. It's just a relief sometimes just to say to someone isn't everything poop at the moment?! It was just one thing a after another and was grinding me down. I've heard we are in for a few more weeks if rain at least - this is the longest period of cyclonic weather we have seen!
 
I honestly feel so sorry for everyone without any turn out, it's not fun on horses or humans. We ended up having the ponies living in and then having turn out in the school last year for weeks on end when the fields turned to mud, but this year - after mole ploughing all the fields in the summer and digging new drainage ditches, we've been ok so far ( famous last words...) and we've managed to keep them out. The drainage wasn't cheap but it's been worth every penny to be able to keep the ponies out in the field.
 
Landcruiser said:
You know, sometimes all someone wants to do is be listened to. they don't want solutions. They don't want someone saying "Try this or that." They are just having a ****ty time (and YES, they know there are people worse off than themselves, but does that make any of us feel better when we are going through bad times?). Sometimes all we want is a hug (or a virtual hug) and someone to say "I know, it's ****, but it will pass." Just to listen, just to HEAR, just to validate.

So, OP, and everyone else who is struggling (no turnout for weeks on my yard, so I count myself too) - Yes. It's bloody awful. It's unremittingly revoltingly vile, and regardless of the difficulties of anyone else it's still vile for lots of us horse owners and our horses with no turnout. Some time it will get better, so lets hang on in there and support each other and listen to each other. Solutions when they are asked for, but sometimes just a big virtual sympathetic hug. xx
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Good post, OP i feel sorry for you,and you go right ahead and vent if it makes you feel better, and as has been said there will always be someone worse off than any of us on here, but it doesnt mean we need to sit in silence and seeth !
The whole situation is awful, but a bit of compassion for everyone suffering, be it in a big or small way doesnt hurt.
 
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