HELP! Muck picking!

S

smellsofhorse

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This is a bit of a rant but i need advice too!

Ive have been at my current yard for 5 years, i was one of the first few people there as it was being built. We went through tough times but now the yard is complete and we are just maturing.

As one of only a handfull of people ( and horses!) We had the pick of fields and never had to muck pick. The fields were good sizes and we were lucky enough to not have to do it.

The horse stay out 24hours in the summer and go out most days in winter usually just having to stay in if it very wet.

As i said we are now full. There are 19 horses at our part of the yard split into geldings and mares.

There are 10 geldings in one field. luckily they get on well! Because of the large amount they have taken down a fence and left a gate open so they have th run of 3 fields.

The nine 9 mares have a large field too.




The problem we are having is muck picking!

Some of the owners refuse point blank to do it!

We have asked for a conpromise, just 4 wheel barrows a week spread out or on one day a week per horse ( some owners have more than one horse, including me!) but still its not happening!

Its just not fair on the few or us that are doing it, we try our best but just cant keep it under control without everyones help.




What i want to try to get across is it has to be done!

1,
Yes we were lucky enough to not have to do it but now there are too many horses in the field to ignore it.

2,
We are lucky to be able to turn our horses out 24 hours, if we couldnt then we would have to muck out every day instead, surely 4 wheel barrows a week is easier than that?

3,
It helps keep the worm count down ( we have a yard worming programe but muck picking helps)

4,
The fields just wont last all summer with that amount of horse and no muck picking

5,
The grass will turn sour and the grass will be ruind for next year!


Sorry for the rant, I just need help to get this across to all the owners.
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What does the YO say? I wouldn't be turning my horses out anywhere that didn't poo-pick
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Are you the YO or YM or the person in charge? I am assuming it's a DIY yard.

Suggest you will have to get tough with the recalcitrants, whether by asking them to leave, or other means to get them to do it. The alternative would be splitting the paddocks so those who do pick up have a nice clean field and the others don't.
Poo picking is such a nightmare of a political hot potato!
(I do poo pick by the way)
 
One of the yards where I kept my horse gave a discount (of £2 per wheelbarrow) if I poo picked. Obviously this was originally added to the livery price so say £33 a week if no poo picking, but £25 per week if 4 barrows done. And there was a checklist where you could put in lines for each wheelie you did.
The YO then paid someone to poo pick for the owners who didn't.
I suggest, with inflation, somewhere like £3 a wheelie would be a good deterrent.
S
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I used to do alot for the yard, had liveries etc but gave it up because the YO wouldnt let me do it properly.

We are having a meeting this week to sort it out and i though the same split them up to muck picked fields and non muck picked fields, then see how long those fields last!

Its difficlut as it is a farm and horses are away of making easy money, they want as little to do with us as possible!

But they need to get invoved on this debate.

They do make comments that we need to do it but just stay out of our horsey arguments.

But this will benifit them so we will insure they get involed in this debate!
 
We dont poo pick farmer that owns the yard doent believe in it, we rotate fields and chain harrow every month instead works really well.
Think the biggest cause of arguements on yards is probably caused by poo picking, at my last yard we divided the field into areas using cones and you were responsible for your area YO checked it on a saturday morning and if you hadnt done your bit you had to pay and she did it. We then moved an area to the left ( to make sure no one got stuck with the really pooey bit!)
 
im quite lucky in the fact that our yard is sectioned off and you have your own field, so its up to you to poo pick or not. i poo pick as the filed isnt that big but some others dont. it was a nightmare when he was in a field with 7 others. got so fed up of poo picking for other people!! one yard i knew, (a riding school!) doesnt even poo pick at all!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Thankfully, my mare currently has her own patch (which I poo pick). Most of the fields have only the one owners horses in, so get poo picked no problem. The only field which is a problem is the geldings field, which has 6 horses in it and 5 different owners, so live out 24/7 some come in for the day, that field is a constant battle ground. They do occasional try to get together to clear it with a tractor, but there is always one or two owners who have a reason why they can't do that day (thank god I have a mare)!!!
 
You are in a difficult position as you are not the YO or YM. Can you not get the point across that poo-picking is the only way to keep worms down. You need to poo-pick at least every week to break the worm cycle. If you don't poo-pick and turn horses out on fields full of droppings, they just get re-infected immediately. Horses should all be wormed at the same time and fields poo-picked. Chain harrowing is not nearly as effective as we do not have the climate that is hot enough to kill the worms when droppings are spread about with the harrows.
Can the fields not be split so that all horse owners have their own separate bits and then it is up to them whether they have worm-ridden horses or not!
 
The only time we poo pick fields is when there is a single horse turned out in one of the smaller paddocks. It's just not realistic (in my view) to muck out larger fields with several horses in.

Our horses rotate regularly - and every time they move the field is harrowed.
 
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That's fine if you have feilds to rotate to!!!

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Well it sounds as if you may have. You say the geldings are running between three fields????

Bottom line though I suppose is that if your yard owner - or manager - will not manage the yard effectively then there's not much you can do other than move I'm afraid.
 
Not me!!! My mare is elsewhere in a patch on her own, but the group of gelding at my yard have the same issue, one large field, which can't be split as 6 in there and no field to move too. To be fair if everyone did their share poo picking wouldn't take long and there would be plenty of grass for all!!
 
I have a great solution to poo picking.
Pay a cash-strapped, horse mad teenager to do it for you every weekend
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