Do you check your resting and in use fields regularly

ILuvCowparsely

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I normally check my resting fields just prior to use. Yesterday I was going round my resting field de pooing as a returning livery pony was in the bottom half on the intro week we do before mixing in the herd. I just got to the top fence line and got out my car ( tractor out of action ) as there was a dropping and as I was raking it up, I happen to glance through the fence and saw what i thought was a fox or badger hole. I went up to the gate and through and walked over to the corner, and there I could hardly believe was a sink hole. Wasn't there a few days ago, but def sink hope as there was no earth above ground. Hole goes in about a foot to a foot and a half when I put a stick in to see it.

We have been here 28 years and never had this before, so I think all this rain has washed the limestone and ground beneath. Be carefull in your fields and check them as often as you can as this is def a leg breaker. I thank god this happened while the horses were in the adjacent field.
 

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Blimey - glad you found it before anything happened!

We're quite lucky that we only have about an acre so the nightly dog walk takes care of our field checks :) I do like seeing the golf carts that people in other countries with lots of available land use! I see them on TikTok sometimes and think 'that's the life' 😂
 
That happened to a friend. The sinkhole was enormous, could have lost a horse in it. Not sure what they did about it but managed to sort it eventually. I check fields regularly.
 
I tend to do land drain checks in unused fields as well as boundary fence checks at least every couple of weeks. Not that our land drains have started to run yet as everything is still too dry.
 
When we were still on the farm we had one ridge and furrow field that had land drains down the furrows. Very old system and I frequently found collapsed drains. Nightmare as I often had the ponies out there.
 
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