How do your paddocks look at the moment?

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gem2buc

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My fields are still wet and muddy and the forecast this week is making be depressed! They started to dry a few weeks back when there was no rain; but in the last week they are back to how they were before. It is predominatly clay based soil; so doesn't easily drain. On the up side it is looking a teeny bit greener! This winter does seem to have gone on forever!
 
Front (summer) paddocks are green and starting to grow again - but boys been off them since October. Back field is uneven and the gate muddy - thankfully it is a very large field so the boys can stay out of the mud and have plenty to eat as it comes through... just could do without the weather thats forecast - they will have to stay out overnight now! :(
Winter will be gone soon - just the last couple of weeks dragging their heels!
 
Our field looks horrendous! (others on the yard aren't too bad) it was fertilised Friday and harrowed yesterday...of course it does help if there is actually grass in the ground to fertilise... we are actually getting quite worried about ours and wanted to fence some of it off to rest but Y/O won't allow...
 
Ours are dry at the moment.Fertiliser goes on next week so will have restricted turnout for 2 weeks. The grass has just started to come through and my mare is actually grazing.
 
Ours is horrendours for about the first fifty meters away from the gate and then after that its fine. Grass is definitely starting to come through now, the field looks really green.
 
Mainly dry, like this:
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but with one corner like this:
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and with one gateway like this: :(

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No green anywhere yet of course, but with temps forecast to zoom up to 21C next week the grass should be thinking about waking up shortly.
 
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Ours were looking good. We had harrowed rolled and fertilised, a couple of nights of fine rain and we thought spring was on the way - then we had two days of torrential rain and sharp showers, which has left standing water in the gateways again.

I hope the seed we have sown doesn't rot. I should have turned mine out for the summer at least two weeks ago. I am still mucking out.
 
Not looking bad at all, actually. They were rolled and harrowed the other week, are looking green and healthy and recovering well after such a wet winter.
 
I know how you feel !!!! - Our paddocks are all clay based and we have to manage them sooo carefully - the slight bit of rain and the horses are off - in that small dry patch we had we literally had a 24hr window to roll as the next day it had gone too hard and the roller bounced over the top ! we haven't put any fert on yet as it is still too wet and to be honest we can't get the tractor etc on it as would make a right mess, so we have to close our ears to what the rest of the 'normal' world preparing their paddocks and manage our as the ground allows. Saying that the fields do have a nice green hue coming across them so spring in on it's way !!
 
I looked at the weather forecast for next two weeks did not see 21 degs anywhere ! I wish. Must have been another Country. The forecast for the Midlands is sleet showers over Easter and low temps with a bit of sporadic sun. Grass is growing very very slowly Spring please hurry up .
 
Wet and muddy, the two summer fields havent started growing yet and snow showers forecast this week so no improvement expected short term.
 
I'm in Essex and my fields just started to dry out a couple of weeks ago so we fenced a dry area off and turned out the first time since october then it rained and the water just laid on top. Yesterday it was dry enough but rain over night hasnt helped.
The grass does seem to be trying to grow but what with the dry summer & continual rain this winter its struggling but no doubt in a few weeks we will have all forgotten and be saying its too hot!
 
Were looking really good, but even our well draining paddocks have given up with the last few days of rain and the mud has returned with a vengance. The horses that were turned out 24/7 since the beginning of March may have to come back in for a few nights if the forecast is to be trusted!! I hate this time of year as what the weather gives with one hand, it takes back with the other, and find it so depressing to see all the lovely new shoots of grass being trashed,
and will have to re-do all the harrowing and rolling when we get some drier weather.
Was hoping to go 'fun riding' at the weekend but will be suprised if they go ahead now......
 
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my own yard is well drained, the gateways are a little poached but away from them its not bad at all. The winter paddock I have on my friends yard has had to be shut down and the 'outies' are now living out in my own bottom sheltered field which is a bit worse than my other winter paddocks. At work the fields are rotated every 4 to 5 weeks and although a bit muddy in places we have managed to keep mud to a minimum...the worse place in work is our sand menage, which has a lake in the bottom corner...funnily the kids put a jump in it and call it the water jump!
 
They look like the Somme. Horrible. A couple of weeks ago they'd dried up lovely but one night of rain (and many more since) and they are hideous again. Mine all live out 24/7 and every field is just as bad as the others so no point rotating. The horses don't seem bothered but I hate slipping and sliding round as I put their haylage out for them - it makes everything such hard work. My mare is due to foal in a couple of weeks so it better dry up soon as she'll be foaling in the field shelter which is dry inside but muddy at the entrance. She'll be giving birth to a hippo rather than a horse!
 
'winter trash pads' exactly that - muddy and horrid but they have access to barn at all times and interestingly i washed them off for the farrier yesterday morning and when i got up there at tea time all 3 were still clean and dry - so general consensus was obviously that we would NOT be going out in that mud today! Still clean and dry tis morning too! My mare will obviously roll the moment the weather dries up enough to make riding possible!

Summer meadows starting to green up but so wet there is no way they'll be going on to them for some time.

I am sooo fed up of this mud now. It seems to have gone on for ever this year.
 
ours are covered in snow only 2 weeks after thawing following 2 months of unbroken snow cover.....:-OOOO

hopefully shortlived!
Underneath the grass was starting to come through. Theyre sloping and sandy soil so very well drained, just one slightly mushed bit by one gateway. But no grass yet, only snowwwwwwww!
 
The back field where the horses are at now is not too bad. As the weather has been so bad, the horses have been in for quite a bit so the field itself doesn't really resemble a mud pit.

The front field is still recovering from the winter and it's been resting for quite a while now but it looks terrible. Grass is starting to grow slowly so hopefully it'll be ready for summer if we have one!
 
thank god for sandy soil....a damp area inside each gateway but no mud.
my TB and his shetland chum (who is tightly muzzled!) are on to their summer paddock now, which is bright green with soft lush grass.i felt the Tb was comming in a bit hungry so swapped them over maybe a week earlier than normal, i think its usually easter when i do the paddock swaps.

other two fatties have been left (to starve according to them!) on their winter paddock for a bit longer but its going from yellow to green a bit more daily and really will have caught up with the summer paddocks in a couple more weeks.being ex-dairy pasture it grows like stink as soon as we have a sunny day after rain, which is a blessing and a curse-fabulous in winter as we always have enough grass, but in the spring and autumn its a nightmare to keep on top of as only my horse can eat un-restricted, the other 3 are muzzled and dad ends up mowing 2/3 of the field off every couple of weeks or else its head height like a wild meadow!!!!
 
Like a paddy field!

They had dried out to the point we thought we might get them rolled, but then more rain and snow, so swimming again. Only 1 more month then they can move to the 'Summer Parks' - they havent been grazed since Oct last year.

Winter fields will get works to help them recover.
 
This weather is getting rather stupid now, it nearly dries up and it goes and chucks it down, the for coming weather forecast doesnt look all that great, ive seen upto bank holiday monday and they say its raining everyday up till then.
Hardly done any paddock work yet, dont think it would help matters me going in there with a 6-7 tonne tractor trying to grass harrow and making big messy deep ruts!!!!
 
tchamberlain said:
Front (summer) paddocks are green and starting to grow again - but boys been off them since October. Back field is uneven and the gate muddy - thankfully it is a very large field so the boys can stay out of the mud and have plenty to eat as it comes through... just could do without the weather thats forecast - they will have to stay out overnight now! :(
Winter will be gone soon - just the last couple of weeks dragging their heels!
Click to expand...

Don't bank on it - I have a feeling we are in for a dreadful wet summer...
 
Ours had dried up enough after the snow to turn out. But now we are back in again.... They have standing water on them and if the grass ever decides to grow again, we have to look after them.

Definately agree about this being the last fling of winter though. Won't be long now.
 
i'm very very lucky.... here's the muddyest park of my my paddock after my mare has lived out 24/7 365 in it... it's on the edge of the highlands, nearly 3 acres and on a nice big hill so very free draining... the mud on her hoofs is from the natural sping that runs in the field so she always gets muddy feet having a drink - but the good news is it flowed even in -16 this year! perfect paddock eh??

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idiot horse!!! but shows the grass growing
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The fields on my yard look great, but that's because the yard owner won't let us turnout in the winter. Grrr.

Annoyingly it was dry enough for them to go out a few weeks ago but YO said that we would have to wait for the fields to 'green up' first. Now the rain has started, so the grass is amazing, but the fields are wet so we can't put them out. It is getting ridiculous now.
 
mine are pretty bare...the grass was starting to come up until this last week
now they are all waterlogged again and i havent turned anything out this week and wont til it dries up, as i would like some grass cover over the summer!
my turnout is rubbish though so i have to be quite careful with it.
 
I have lakes with ducks living on them! There's only one or two patches of the field that aren't muddy. Luckily they have the hardstanding and stables to come on to as they live out 24/7. The grass is growing and their poos are green but they are still begging for hay and their dinner. I'm watching them very carefully as I only have 2 and a bit acres I don't want to restrict them while it's this wet as they'll just kill all of the grass. :( As soon as it starts to dry up I'll be having an electric fencing fest! Although when it does dry up it will have that many 'dust' patches they should be able to have more field to run about in!
 
my winter field can't even be classed as a field anymore more like a dirt park t is a total mess. my summer field has not had a horse on it since the end of october and is still quite poor looking. was suppose to get harrowed and fertilised last week then more rain and snow so we are now hoping weather permitted it will get done next week. at thius rate horses won't be going out for the summer first week in may
 
Apparently the particularly bad winter, all the snow etc has made the nitrogen leach out of the soil.

Everyone will need plenty of fertilizer this spring!
 
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