How is your mud?

horsehappy said:
this is also our first year on our on yard and every time i look at the fields i want to cry but i just dont want to keep them in, they seem happy enough out as there is still grass but there is a fair amount of surface water. we have 1 field of 7/8 acres with 7 on it which is rather wet and soggy- i cringe when they gallop over at bringing in time with the water/mud splashing everywhere! we are planning on splitting this into 2 and having 4 one side and 3 the other in the hope is will help?? 1 field of 4 acres with 2 in which is holding out great, and an acre paddock with 2 on which is rather churned up but still green.

we are grazing all our land as an experiment as my worry was that if we made small winter paddocks they would be a foot of mud within a month and unusable/need reseeding etc. do people find this? im praying that by spreading them out over a larger surface area will mean that it can all recover if we ever get some dry weather and sunshine!

if it doesnt go to plan will have to rethink for next winter?? anyone have any ideas on a plan b??
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It will recover, it always does. I have learnt this after 20 years with all of mine turned out 24/7. Spring is on the way. Its always heartening when it starts to warm up and the hay seeds germinate turning the mud back to green.
 
This is the first year for about a decade that mine's been in overnight since Christmas. I do have a bit of green left, but there's standing water and it's poached in a few areas.

It's made worse by the two labs hooning around and rolling each other over at full tilt, they are caked in mud every morning and need hosing down.

I passed a tiny field the other day with two poor cobs in, it was literally knee deep mud soup everywhere, with nowhere to stand out of it. They looked totally miserable poor things. :(
 
Horrible! But considering its only a couple of acres with 5 ponies right at the bottom of a valley and has had a river flowing through the fields twice so far this year .. Its amazing! Alot of people have far worse than us in much better conditions so shouldn't complain really. Even the schools been pretty good, just the odd puddle :)
 
Disgustingly awful! Everytime my horse goes out he does something to himself. Out yesterday and a pulled pectoral muscle (physio out this am) and another cut to side of his fetlock. Pulled shoulder muscle the other week. He's staying in now - I'm having to move yards to so I can have access to loose school and horse walker. Everywhere is stopping turnout near me :(
 
Mine have been repatriated. Two in stables because they were shivery, and two in the school - which hasn't been used in 20 years, but is an excellent dry turnout facility! I put dry rugs on all of them, and took a hosepipe to the ones they had been wearing!

Alf couldn't BELIEVE that he had to stay out, while Lola and Spike got the good deal!
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I have my two retired horses in a 13 acre field and although there is still quite good patches around the field that seem to be holding up quite well but the bits that are poached are seriously pached and its hard to walk through the gate and a good portion back from the gate without your boots nearly getting sooked from your foot!

I have been bringing them in at night now to give them a break even though the have a field shelter i feel guilty! I can't be dealing with anymore rain i'm seriously not enjoying my horses in this weather!
 
What mud we have a little lying water but no mud, Patches that look like the tide has gone out where there is no grass cover but our fields are sandy and free draining The girls even rode on the field today without marking it
 
The field itself isn't too bad - the gate's very wet watery loose mud but there's a decent base of hardcore underneath it so it's only an inch or two deep and it doesn't cling or suck you in. Within 20 yards of the gate it's ok. Not masses of grass but not muddy either. It has a nice slope to it so drains pretty well - into the hay fields down below where they go for the summer when it's dry (and when the hay's been cut obviously!)

The walkway from the yard to the gate however looks like they swamp bit from Total Wipeout. I keep expecting a mechanical fist to punch out at me from the fence as I make my way past
 
The mud is awful. Half the roads are under water ad it just keeps on raining. Horses go out 7.30/8am but to say the fields are waterlogged is a massive understatement. One of them is more than knee deep around the fence line (and about 5m in from it) and gateway in what can only be described mud soup. Mine is just soaked and with v little grass. The tracks and gateways are sodden, it is a job just to even walk up the track to the field because it is so poached, and apparently yesterday the bottom field flooded altogether because the stream overflowed. Horses quite regularly come in covered in thick, liquid mud from head to foot. I have given up brushing off the mud because he only gets caked in it again the following day.

They came in overnight in mid-Oct and usually go out again in April but can't see that happening unless we have some serious dry weather! The water has nowhere to go, drains are all backed up hence the flooded fields and roads. We are on heavy clay so it really is pretty awful. On a nice, dry and sunny day the horses will stay out happily til about 4pm but when it's horizontal driving rain and blowing a gale, they are bored by midday and begging to come in. Put them out on Sun in it and they all just stood around with their rugs up by their ears, getting soaked and looking miserable. You could argue we could hay the fields, but then they just stand on the same muddy patch, churning it up and getting wet. So they go out for a few hours then come in to dry stables, plenty of hay, and work.
 
Not too bad compared to some, gate ways and fence lines not great. New baby neddy seems to think digging is quite fun in the soft soil so I also have craters in my field.
 
I'm probably not the best person to ask how the mud is right now!! :p

This was me an hour ago after my horse decided that being told off for jogging out of the field was not acceptable and that I should in turn mud ski and then face plant in said mud as punishment for telling him off!

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I drove home in wet pants, boots and a high viz jacket. Thank god I didn't get stopped! :o
 
I keep 2 on a sloping paddock,there is still loads of grass,but the paddock is getting poached,with standing water in the hoof prints.Last year I split it in two,but the highest part was so trashed by April,that there was no grass at all,just a sea of mud.I remember despairing when the snow came,as I knew how bad it would be when it finally melted,but it did recover with no rolling or re seeding.

This year,I have fenced off a section at the highest point as an emergency paddock,just in case things get really bad,and they have the run of the rest of it .Knobberpony will not be stabled,so if her field mate comes in,she stays out and they fret,so both are out at the minute.I might try her under a cattle shed for a few hours tomorrow and see if she'll cope with that,it is next to the stable so she'll be able to see her mate still.

I think we've been really lucky,a lot of the very bad weather has circled around us and touch wood,we've missed it.Roll on spring though.Both mine are greys and love to roll.
 
My mud has gone! At least I can't see it anymore due to the fact that is now under a couple of feet of water! Ponies are all developing webbed feed and and rubber rings I bought in the summer are a great help especially for the younger ponies who are having difficulty learning to swim. I am investing in large surfboards as I think my Sect D would enjoy a spot of surfing and have searched on the internet for wet suits for them all but having not found any I may patent my own. Any one interested??
 
Truly a boot sucker, even with welly liners to pad them out!

Thankfully only on lower bits and gateways, most of the field (4 on 12 acres) is pretty good. I curse it for being too hilly to properly school, but in winter it comes into its own.
 
Gateway and about a quarter of the way in is very muddy, as proven when my friend got stuck in the field and it sucked a welly right off her foot :D Bottom of the field is surprisingly firm ground still though so there horses tend to stay down there all day
 
Over the horses fetlocks. Now takes 20 minutes to turn out or bring in because you slide the same distance sideways as forwards. Having to bribe the horse to go out now. She hates it! Paddocks have lakes of standing water. Keeping a close eye out for mud fever. She has 4 white stockings but the skin on the back legs is pink rather than black so particularly suceptable.
 
Thank goodness i stoped using half the field at end oct, at least half is looking ok, the rest is hiddeous! Even the foot deep of compacted stone in the gate way has turned to liquid mud !!! The grounda so wet under the stone tracks they are churned up and my driveway in has gone soft too, despite having tonnes of new stone put down before christmas, the horses wont stop in, they trash the stables /beds so have been going out for a few hours most days to keepthem sane, just hope it eventually dries out - really feel for anyone caught up in the floods, 6-8" of mud (deeper in places) is bad enough - hopeing for some dry weather soon!!!!!
 
Oh I feel for all of you I really do. I have done my time with waterlogged clay fields, so depressing. British dampness drove me out and I am so glad, because the year you have all had would have had me getting out of horses completely.

Ant, sorry, but LMAO. I face planted the other day too, only fortunately it was into a snow bank.

I have no mud, I never get any to speak of (sandy soil) all I have is vast quantities of drifting snow and w/chill taking it down to -28C (in the day, and that is warm compared to the Prairies) I am considering emigrating (again) somewhere warm this time.
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Another with sandy soil. We are very sensible with our fields and the horses have stayed in a lot more than they would normally but the result is that they are getting out nearly every day and are happy out from 7.30am until 4pm. The worst bit is the track down to the field which is more slippery than anything.

I moved to this yard from another 2 miles down the road and they are hock deep in clay mud now and have been most of the winter.
 
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Compared to last years horrendous winter (those who said this year is worse must be in the west?) I only have mud in the walkways but I've been lucky I strip graze and have been able to shift a large chunk every day so they are always standing on fresh ground. Been able to stay out 7am til 5 every day. Sadly tomorrow I have to move onto my winter field which is the wettest and smallest, so back to small strips, sucking mud in the furrows and ski towing in on a mud slick in afternoon. Think positive, soon we'll be complaining the ground is too hard!
 
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