Do you hose down your yard?

meleeka

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I’ve just had my card concreted. It’s been a long time coming and I’m thrilled. It’s looking a little marked in places and I wondered if it would be a little extreme to wash it? Obviously Im sweeping up every day.
 

HappyHollyDays

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Yes it gets powerwashed and at the moment as the rain is biblical it’s getting a very good wash. I’ve just had to don full waterproofs and go and unblock the drain outlet on the hill field because the yard was starting to flood. Nothing like a free hose down ?
 

Auslander

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Yep. I am neurotic about it, as it's fairly new.
I also have palpitations about poo scabs on the yard, and about people doing a half arsed job of washing down bits where their horse has pooed! There is a power washer in the feedroom, and everyone knows how to use it!
 

meleeka

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What a waste of water! As above, empty water buckets and scrub away!
Good point, but it’s only a little yard and a pressure washer uses less than a hose I think.

I’m also not on mains drainage either, so I expect i’ll learn to live with the dirt or just give it a clean when it’s really bad. At the moment it looks awful as there’s still pristinely clean bits.
 

ILuvCowparsely

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I’ve just had my card concreted. It’s been a long time coming and I’m thrilled. It’s looking a little marked in places and I wondered if it would be a little extreme to wash it? Obviously Im sweeping up every day.
No I don't wash the courtyard bit which was concrete in 2011. I do wash the gang way bit if the gully is congealed, i tend to leaf blow. Also on a water meter so no I wont do most of it
 
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No never. My yard is mostly gravel though and the strip outside the stables gets washed in the rain. I do sometimes hose out the stables when the beds are up though as the drainage isn't great.
 

paddy555

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I sweep in summer when it is dry but in winter I hose it down just about daily. I also pressure wash it about 3/4 times a year. Hosing does a much better job than sweeping. I wouldn't have enough water buckets to make much difference and no way am I scrubbing with a sweeping brush when there is a perfectly good hosepipe and pressure washer. .
My horses poo on the concrete overnight rather than in their stables so it would be a right mess if I didn't hose it.

The only time I don't in winter is if it may be icey in which case it is salted and cleaned when the temp. rises.
I am not however on mains metered water.
 

wiglet

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Generally speaking no, we don’t, it’s a waste of water - the exceptions being, if your horse pees on the yard, slosh it down with a bucket of water, sloppy poo stains also get sloshed but only if it’s dry and no rain expected. My horse gashed her leg a few weeks ago and created a pool of blood on the yard - this was hosed away.
 

ihatework

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Complete and utter waste of water.
The occasional power wash or a quick swill with left over water buckets, fine!
Proper washing every day would never be on my agenda.

I actually left a yard once due to a completely neurotic yard owner, who insisted you wash down the concrete immediately after your horse shat. Literally even if you were on board about to ride, you had to get off and friggin wash the yard. It was the most non-relaxing experience of my life!
 

meleeka

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Complete and utter waste of water.
The occasional power wash or a quick swill with left over water buckets, fine!
Proper washing every day would never be on my agenda.

I actually left a yard once due to a completely neurotic yard owner, who insisted you wash down the concrete immediately after your horse shat. Literally even if you were on board about to ride, you had to get off and friggin wash the yard. It was the most non-relaxing experience of my life!

Goodness me that sounds awful. I’d have left pronto too.
I was thinking more about every so often when it gets muddy, certainly not daily or even weekly!
 

Auslander

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I actually left a yard once due to a completely neurotic yard owner, who insisted you wash down the concrete immediately after your horse shat. Literally even if you were on board about to ride, you had to get off and friggin wash the yard. It was the most non-relaxing experience of my life!

Even I think that's excessive, and I am unashamedly pernickety about poo stains on the concrete! If someone is on a horse and it poos on the yard, I just crack on and sort out the mess myself, while they are out enjoying themselves! My tap/tie ups/ mounting block are round the corner on road planings, so the yard stays clean most of the time.

I did have a bit of a moment when a horse was tied up outside his stable before going hunting, and I came up to the yard to find a load of liquid poo all over the hay store. That was a bit too much!
 

QuantockHills

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don't wash down as such very often, but I do have to use the chemical stuff that gets rid of the green slimy stuff that builds up now and again as it gets very slippy... and a bit of Jeyes fluid now and again.
 

PinkvSantaboots

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Complete and utter waste of water.
The occasional power wash or a quick swill with left over water buckets, fine!
Proper washing every day would never be on my agenda.

I actually left a yard once due to a completely neurotic yard owner, who insisted you wash down the concrete immediately after your horse shat. Literally even if you were on board about to ride, you had to get off and friggin wash the yard. It was the most non-relaxing experience of my life!

I was on a yard that was owned by a very neurotic guy he would use a leaf blower on the yards every morning then he would use an outdoor hoover over them, then all liveries went on a rota to sweep one of the yards every evening!

We all shared a communal tack room and we all had a cupboard to store stuff and you wasn't allowed to keep you numnah on your saddle while it was on the saddle rack.

You had to put it in the cupboard

That yard was probably cleaner than most people's houses.
 
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