Horrendous weather and location

pistolpete

pistolpete

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 July 2009
Messages
6,068
Visit site
Just interested where roughly everyone is as we have really bad water logged fields here on the south coast but expect it’s much worse further north. Is the East coast holding up any better?
 
Waterlogged in Scotland but that’s not really much different from any other winter. We do seem to have an increase in heavy rainfall though, roads and everything else are paying for it. England is getting its worst share of the floods though.
 
Scotland and having some dry days after some seriously heavy and prolonged rain.

The fields are doing reasonably well. Water pools (think decent sized ponds!) but then are gone pretty quickly. So far no roads are blocked. Some decent puddles stretching across a number of them. I drive a 4x4 so am happy going through, then again have seen a lot of 'normal' cars just belting along with little regard. I guess it's what people get used to dealing with.
 
W. Yorks doesn't seem too bad, compared with some of the descriptions on here and the photos on TV but it's raining again here today and the land is very wet. Horses confined to about 1/2 acre to stop everything being churned up. We did keep them in, except for a leg-stretch, on the wettest days to try to save the land but decided to abandon that policy for the sake of their wellbeing.
We did have a few nice days/ 1/2 days earlier this week, which felt quite spring-like.
 
Gloucestershire - and it's been wet here since the start of Sept. There seems to be a pattern of freakishly heavy rain, flooding road closures then a few dry days - but not enough to actually dry properly.
Can't wait for spring!
 
Fields are water logged at the minute but we have a couple of dry days forecast so hopefully they will be useable again for a short while at least. Horses currently turned out on hard standing and a bit of time in the arena each day.

I'm just on the edge of the glens of Antrim and would have usually been snowed in at least once by now but so far this winter we've only had a few flurries

We will wait and see what the new year brings
 
Essex wet but still below average rainfall, fields wet but expected as on clay, grass still growing so still need to be careful of laminitus
 
Well I'm in the WET-Country, sorry Westcountry, East Devon/Exe Valley to be precise, and its bleddi awful down 'ere!

Went to the local carols evening at the church Thursday night (in yard gear, had to sit alone as was aware I stank like a polecat but hey I got there!), and it was raining when everyone arrived; and by the time everyone came out again there were reports of lots of roads under water and impassable!! I drive a 4X4 and was OK, but wouldn't have liked to have waited any more time before returning home TBH.

Where I am, I'm high up on sloping ground, thank god, but have to go through low-lying villages and roads if I'm going anywhere, and all of these have little streams and tributaries of the bigger rivers in this area, which are all under flood at the moment.

Also, being Devon and it being a naturally hilly county you get quirky little places in a hollow where you wouldn't have expected a huge puddle!! If I get my youngster out (and I say IF as I've lost all motivation right now) she's gonna have to overcome her puddle-phobia, end of!

My fields are all on the Devon (pink) clay; all the run-off from fields is bright pink like pink champagne! Tis a nightmare, everyone's horses are miserable as sin and grumpy with it.

The farmers aren't faring very well either, they haven't been able to get onto their land this autumn to do anything, so they'll be all behind with everything, and they have my intense sympathies right now, we're all in this together. Even my chooks are miserable on their wet platz and there's nothing I can do about it!

Dogs are hating it too; my little man is rather precious about himself and just refuses to go out anywhere in it, he's just using the horses stables to poo and do all that's necessary, and I can't blame him at all. The cats are OK, one comes into the house and the others are feral and outside, where they have the haystack to cuddle into so I don't worry about them.

But, but...... as from here on in, at least the days start to get longer....... that is the ONLY consolation available right now and the only thing that's remotely positive in this hellish winter TBH.

Was intending to chuck some horrid whiffy numnah's in the wash this morning; sun was shining ten minutes ago, clouding over now. Apparently we are getting more rain this evening and tonight. Fantastic. The problem is with getting clothes to dry in time for the next time you wear them! Ditto rugs. PITA.

Meanwhile, Australia frys. It don't make sense.
 
Last edited:
East Sussex, we are on clay and low lying so waterlogged but the horses are still out every day. My crisis is ....will we get to Olympia this afternoon when Southern Rail was severely disrupted yesterday ? ?
 
Cheshire: we're on well draining land and most of the turnout is a big gentle hill. Or it would be if the ground wasn't waterlogged. We only need 2 dry days and it'll be good again for a while, but it's been torrential overnight, overnight. (bright and sunny during the day, not warm, but bright)
 
NW Surrey, v v wet, 3 rivers have burst banks locally and some roads flooded.
Have helped with one rescue last night, but to be fair, the idiot owners should have moved them 24 hrs before when they got the warning about levels rising.

Yes, its v wet, last time my fields were like this was 6 or 7 years ago, the worst was in 05 or 06 tho and before that in 78 and 87 according to my old yard notebook.
I'm fortunate that I'm on sand, it will dry v quickly, my fuzzies are able to splosh up to higher ground to graze in daytime.

How quickly we forget after having had the last 2 winters v dry in this area.
 
I live on the edge of the fens, on clay. Every where is drained but the drains are the fullest I have seen for three years. Our man made pond which gets run off from the house and garden has been almost dry the last two years due to lack of rain, its now almost full.
 
West Sussex here, just north of Brighton. My field is very wet but not too muddy, but a lot of roads were flooded yesterday due to the river Adur bursting its banks spectacularly (it does this on a regular basis but never seen it anywhere near to coming over the road before). I have to cross it twice to get to the yard and I can't get over at either point at the moment, so had an interesting (and long!) detour to get there this morning. YO is bringing in later thankfully!
 
Ox / Bucks border and the fields are saturated. We are the floodplain for the Thames so to protect London and posh riverside houses the Environment agency shut the sluice gates and flood the farm land round here. Haven't seen it this bad since 2013. A lot of roads are impassable
 
Northamptonshire, very wet so been in 3 days. Doing a lot of riding as got 2 horses in work. Is treacherous getting to field so avoiding injury to both me & the horses
 
Gloucestershire. Very very wet, I'm reasonably lucky as our yard is at the top of a big hill so the water drains down the slope. Fields are waterlogged, we've had a couple of days in and out today with haylage as there is nothing to eat. Gateways are particularly bad and all the off road hacking is saturated. It's frustrating because if we had about 5 dry days it would really improve things but there is just no let up. On the train to London and I've gone past so many fields totally under water.
 
West Berkshire and on the top of a hill, but the fields are still waterlogged and have puddles in them. Thankfully not too muddy at the moment though other than the gateways. The biggest of my four has been in the school for a month now during the day time and he's pretty chilled about it. He's the one that seems to make the worst mess with his clodhopper feet, so I've been much happier about the state of the fields since he has been in there. I would still rather this than the horrendous situation in Australia.
 
West ireland, boggy as usual, been that way since july! Horses here learn to aqua-plane!
By may itll be safe for them to use the flat fields. Fields on a slight slope are precious round ‘ere..
 
North Oxfordshire, clay fields are very very wet, gateways ankle deep in mud but a few windy days and it will be like concrete again. All the bridleways muddy which means we will be doing a lot of roadwork for the foreseeable future. Haven’t been up to the arena for a week so no idea what it’s like at the moment.
 
SW Wales Everything is set up for easy use and maintenance
let 3 fields go to foggage after a June cut of hay. Horses out 24/7 with access to hard standng area with 75ft by 25ft pole barn against an American barn . Horses can come and go as they please.No mud will move into the second field of foggage at the end of the year.
Horses come in at 8am for a small token feed back out at 11am ad lib hay in the pole barn Land super well drained and sloping slightly so no trouble with flooding. I have a really bad cold so glad it's easy to do!
Glad we took time and effort to set it up this way!
Feel so sodry for people struggling with flooding and for Iceland and Australia.
 
Last edited:
west gloucesteshire checking in.. the field girls have standing water but their field does drain pretty well and it's old pasture so recovers easily, not too worried about them but it's a bit bloody soggy.

the horses on the yard are in most of the time over winter anyway, their fields are on a hill so while they only go out for a few hours it's not toooooo muddy. There are gulleys and drains all over the place to carry the water away so it's as good as I could hope for really. The arena is particularly good at the moment, all the rain really squishes the sand down. it's just too dark!
 
West coast Wales and sacrificed one field which is waterlogged though draining well into the bottom brook. Really miss my winter turnout area I had in Surrey so that will be next year's project :rolleyes:
 
I haven't found it to be too bad. My fields are a mess as usual but thats what you get when they lined with a burn. Its been strange in that instead of days of continuous rain/drizzle we are getting short burts (a few hours) of really heavy rain then we get dry for a few days. Then a downpour then dry. I have only had to dig the Farmer Gummies out couple of times so far!

Maybe I see winter differently to everyone else given that I work outside in it in regardless of what the weather is actually doing.

There is no such thing as bad weather - only innapropraite clothing!
 
Essex-Herts border. Flash flooding on the roads yesterday but looking a lot better today.

Field is muddy round the gateway and fence line where I was feeding hay. Now hay moved down and back onto better ground. Rest of the field is solid and green. It's chalky clay but has a good slope on it - all 3 fields slope well and therefore drain off into the ditch.

80837919_722477250427_2296932262039519232_n.jpg


Ford was up to midget's ribcage yesterday. It's not dark, it's just under trees and the phone camera's a bit rubbish.
 
Just a tad damp where you are then justafestivetrollinadungeon!
Crikey!:eek:

Midgets ears say it all...”er...we’re surely not, are we?” :D
 
South Worcs. The flood gates have been closed for the best part of a month with the occasional day or two of being open, one of the main roads to the town is closed again and it just keeps raining! My fields are on heavy grey clay so there is standing water, fortunately the grass in two paddocks is quite long, the one nearest the house which is my emergency paddock in the winter is trashed! Rose hates this weather and clearly blames Fatty for it, so is just vile to him. I took her to my trainers today where she will stay over Christmas as I have a houseful over Christmas followed by MIL's funeral on the 30th, with another houseful of relatives. She will be much happier and will get ridden with enough turnout to keep her happy and more to look at when in. I am heartily sick of this weather now and with extra dogs staying for the next couple of weeks, I am just glad I have solid floors everywhere that the dogs are allowed. Roll on 2020 and some dry weather!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top