Horses at home advice

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bumblelion

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I'm moving house to a place with stables, can't wait to have the horses at home but so much stuff to sort that I never had to worry about when on livery!

Iv got a dilemma with how to dispose of the muck heap. The landlord doesn't want me to burn it and suggested a skip but I think this will work out expensive! Any ideas?

Also the fields haven't been grazed in a year so bit long and weedy! There's nothing I can do til the spring now is there?


Also any tips or advice about keeping them at home would he great!
 
Enjoy it and buy stout pyjamas and a good thick dressing gowm, preferbly in black or brown
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This is so that you can feed while the ketle boils for your first cup of coffee of the day
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Saves any embarassment with the neighbours and reduces draughts. (we have ours at home, bet you can tell) Also increase your stock of power tools as all the maintenance is up to you.
Good luck
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Normally a local farmer will take away a muck heap for a fee.

When we got a place with our own land, the paddocks had'nt been grazed for over a year and were very over grown and weedy - strip grazing sorted this out quite well.

Ditto the above - enjoy dashing out in pj's with a mug of coffee, great feeling of satisfaction, and it seems to entertain the neighbours too.
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I wouldnt worry about the long and weedy too much, ours hadnt been grazed properly in years but soon sorted itself out once they had been on it once. Though I think we probably strip grazed it the first time too
If you want to weedkill you cant till spring as they work when the weeds are active

we have 2 horses, keep the muck in a tidy pile and pay a local farmer £50 to take it away once in the summer. normally 2 or 3 loads.
Lots of people round here bag and sell the muck but too much effort for my likeing!

have to say never been out in the PJs!!
 
i do as the the other state out and feed in pjs. strip graze to start with, get farmer to take muk away i pring/summer just keep it neat and most importantly enjoy it and don't do as i do and add to the heard
 
Good warm pjs a must then! Yeah will have to find out who the local farmers are, didn't think of that! Does it matter what bedding you use?

Flowerlady, I have 2 horses and 6 acres!
 
2 acres and 6 acres will be plenty!!

we have 4 acres and 2, we have it split in to 1/3 and 2/3.

we use the 1/3 for summer grazing and the 2/3 for winter grazing in 3 sections. We take them off the winter end of march, cut hay end of june (hopefully) and then let it grow up long so that there is good grass cover and therefore very little poaching for it to be used in the winter. and also means we can ride on in in winter too without churning it up

We get more than enough hay, this year sold 80 small bales which paid for paying the farmer to small bale it for us. (220 bales total I think and it wasnt as thick as it can be but made the most of the weather!)

I would check with the farmers re bedding, we use straw anyway so has never been an issue.

we dont have big weed issue anymore the only prob we do have is with buttercups on the summer grazing as they do seem to be spreading each year.
 
Blimey, you will need some help in the summer eating it down, or you could take some hay, providing there is no rag wort. A frendly farmer will be neccessary for making hay and harrowing (if you dont have the machinary yourself). Might be worth doing a soil test to see how acid or alkali it is, if it is acidic, (which a lot of horse paddocks are) you need to lime it and this will help grass growth no end.

Walk it for ragwort and dig it out before they go on. Other weeds are not realy a big problem. I graze a section then just spot spray or top the weeds off with my ride on lawn mower or the petrol strimmer nwhen they move off. That will take care of most weeds. If there is a lot of buttercup you may need to spray.

With that much space you can get some good muck heaps going. There are always people wanting well rotted muck, try advertising in local shop, freecycle, parish newsletter and put the word out at local allotments. If you offer it free but to cellect themselves you cut out any extra work. Not so much call for fresh muck. People prefer muck that is mixed with straw or hemp, least popular is wood chip, but then if I had 6 acres and only two horses I wouldnt be stabling at all!

Have you got power and Electric? Sound v exciting, let us know how it goes and what horse you get next, because you will!!!!
 
As above - local farmer removes muck once a year. When you do find your "friendly farmer", check with him that he's happy to take a straw muck heap. Mine was fine but a friend's farmer would only take the biodegradable stuff like Aubiose, shavings, rape straw etc.

Suggest you buy OH warm PJ's so that he can do the horses in the morning and then bring you a cup of tea in bed!!!!!!!
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Good luck - you'll just loooove having them at home.
 
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Good warm pjs a must then! Yeah will have to find out who the local farmers are, didn't think of that! Does it matter what bedding you use?

Flowerlady, I have 2 horses and 6 acres!

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I was going to suggest if you have enough land to have muck heap and get local farmer to remove or ask local allotment holders if they want it free for collection?
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But everyone beat me to it while I was awaiting your answer
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When I had a muck heap to have removed - the farmer wouldn't take it if it had anything other than straw - he mixed it with his cattle muck.

He also charged me - not many farmers will take it for free- they will have to factor in the cost of labour and diesel to remove it.

Remember that straw manure takes a good 18 months to be usable and shavings takes at least 2 years.

Also, I thought that burning muckheaps was now illegal.
 
I have to pay for my Muckheap to be emptied, it's normally done once a year.

As for the field i agree with the others ref strip grazing.

One thing i couldnt live without though is my little old compact tractor. It didnt cost a lot but it does all my field maintenace Horrowing & rolling & fertilizing.
It also moves my muckheap back because i have a bucket on it & it levels my manage.. I couldnt be without Billy Tractor lol.

Keeping horses at home is Brilliant i still love it 10 years on, despite the extra work you have to do. There is always jobs but it is worth it.
 
Thanks a lot for the advice everyone! No doubt I will be posting again for more advice!

I didn't know it took that long to rot down!! Or about it being illegal to burn muckheaps, my yards always at it!

As for another horse, I can see that happening too, especially as got 6 stables!! So lucky! Although the dogs are claiming one for in the day and the rabbit another!!
 
On my old field the owner used to let the farmer take hay off half the field in exchange for cutting the hedges etc.

Maybe you could do something similar. Let them take so many bales in echange for taking the muck and cutting and bailing the hay.
 
I will add the book to my Xmas list, thanku!

Also, never thought about hemp! I suppose it's very Eco friendly and there are some allotments in the village!! Do you have to deep litter hemp? Also I know of hemcore but what other brands are there and is it expensive?
 
yes thats a good book .
i love having my horse at home, you should do what i did and invest in CCTV in the stables and when there is nothing on tv late at night switch on to your horse cam and watch your horse happily munching or dozing.. am i sad lol
and i use Aubiose which is hemp its £10 per bale, you are supposed to deep litter Aubiose, i find it soaks up the wet very very well.
 
Echo the advice about PJs
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I am renting a place to live on my DIY yard now, and it is FAB
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No-one bats an eyelid when I wander out in my coat, wellies, and black spotted PJs
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- of course they might well be in fits of hysterical laughter when I go back inside
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deffo get friendly with your local farmer/s - makes life easier for certain things.

im renting off one and they are really helpful.

i've just set up at home and it is really fab, this time of year is hard and ive not done much riding as been so busy doing fences, putting stables up etc, but it is fab to have them outside the back door. cant wait for summer!

re muck heap im still not sure what to do. going to talk to my farmer in a bit and see if he'll take it. at the mo im bagging up as i muck out, gardeners want it although they prefer well rotted.
I put a post on my local freecycle websites and had probably 20-30 emails in a week of people wanting to come get some.
 
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