How is your mud?

It's awful! Right by the gate is surfaced so ok, just behind it's more like a swamp, just muddy water, behind that for about 20m knee deep hoof prints in the thick London clay, then the field itself is so slippy it's impossible to walk on as a human. You need waders not wellys.

Even on our lawn and driving fields we don't turn out on human footprints cut it up and it's slippy where there's not standing water.
 
First quarter of an acre either side of gate is a sea of mud - we also have standing water. My 3 girls are out 24/7 5 to 6 days a week and in over the weekend so they can get their legs dry and pig oiled (they also come in if the weather is really bad). They seem happy enough (as long as they have a mound of hay in front of them), although last weekend they seemed so contented inside and tried to plant at gatweay when i took them back out! But rest of the 4 or so acres is sloped so its not actually that bad (I walked it this morning) so optimistic it wont take that long to come good once they are off it in spring (im aiming for a march move to the spring/summer field) and the mud even in the muddy patches doesnt seem as bad as December (when we had persistent rain). I swear i can see some green shoots too in untrodden patches (or is that wishful thinking?!!). Whilst its my first year of having my girls at home, there were 4 horses on my winter field permanently before that up until end of Feb last year (and with the wet summer of 2012 it was completely churned) and it came good with rest, some serious rolling and spraying to get rid of docks/buttercups etc by May/June time so am not panicking yet (we even baled a good two acres in August)!
 
Horrid, I have seen worse mud but this is my mud not livery yard mud so I am more worried by it ! Pony has been out in about 3/4 acres, still a bit of grass but not much and it is pretty much under a layer of water, half the field is totally trashed and pony is spending most of the time on his hard standing from choice.however I have just noticed he is on the wrong side of his electric and is dancing around on his carefully preserved summer grazing trashing that too !! In the last 3 days we have had a tornado and a freak unbelievable hail storm which has killed my guttering which is now pouring today's torrential rain over my yard and flooding it. Lovely.
 
I turned mine out at 9am and when I went out at 10.30 to muck out they were both in my garden !!! The mud isn't too bad (I didn't think) sort of half an inch of very liquid slush over the top of firm ground, they have hay in the field and a shelter but they;ve smashed the gate to bits to get back to the barn and when they;'ve found the doors shut have ballet danced around the 1/4 acre in front of it and in my back garden (stupid me for leaving gate open)
- both of which look ploughed now!

Clearly they've had enough - I've never stopped turnout before but I have to listern to them I guess.

I have spare fields which I've been saying for 3 weeks now as soon as it dries up they can go on those - with the mild weather there is quite a bit of grass - b ut with 25 mls of rain due on Friday it won't be any time soon.

Fed up now.
 
Winter field is truly trashed now, even with them only being on 4 hours turnout since November and generally only half out at a time!

It's at the stage where Doodle is refusing to go into the field, and definitely refusing to roll in the mud, so now she will only roll in her stable on clean shavings, so shavings are everywhere and it's costing me a fortune!
Though it does mean I can be a little smug when I see my mum wrestling with the swamp donkey that is Topaz, she loves the mud, wallowing, rolling, shoving her face in it, hitching her rug up so she can get it all the way to her back, etc, etc, I don't know why we bother with the rug sometimes, she is very talented where mud application is concerned!

Roll on summer and dry fields...

x x
 
as mud goes, mine is spectacular. only this morning I almost fell while leaving a boot behind while carrying a sack of layers pellets out to the paddock which is only fit for poultry and not for the horses. I have sacrificed my front garden (not much of a gardener tbf) which only has 3/4 inches of topsoil so is thankully not deep-albeit trashed. I have built a very temporary 'hardstanding' area of plastic grass reinforcement grid covered by very heavy rubber matting as a hay area. Its stood up brilliantly with the two ponies and they mooch about there and on the garden/drive during the day and are in over night.

I don't actually know what to do about the paddock, not much I can do atm. says something about the winter though when you actively look forward to a cold Northeasterly rather than the pishy Westerlies.
 
Terrible! I normally cope ok in the winter, but I'm hating it so much at the moment. The whole yard is a sea of mud. Normally it gets a bit soggy and a bit of mud in high traffic areas, this is just crazy. Unfortunately the trailer is parked there so YO needs to drive her car in to get it, and also various people driving in to unload. That's not to mention the fields. Ours live out all year (apart from Moo who comes in during the day to eat her haylage). Horses seems to be coping ok, but Saf is really struggling with her feet. She's only had her shoes off about 3 months, and is fine in the field, but any stoney areas and she's quite unhappy.
 
Muddy round edges and gateway and standing water but the boys are always in the muddiest or wettest bits! All in overnight and none of them seem bothered TBH! We're more bothered than they are.
 
Swimming lessons anyone??

waterloggedschool_zpsaed82641.jpg
 
I'd be very wary of admitting to having no mud for fear of half of HHO turning up on my doorstep.

It's pretty terrible round here. I live a fair way up the hill and my garden is practically waterlogged (there are standing puddles in my veg patch, I may start cultivating rice). Low lying fields locally are pretty much underwater but then most of them are on water meadow. Everything else is just very muddy.
 
Grey, thick, sticky & deep :( only really the gateway that is trashed in my field as the 2 in there aren't idiots, but the field with 2 youngsters in is about ruined. Luckily they're just winter paddocks so the horses are out every day, don't think they would recover for grazing in summer x
 
Well it's certainly muddy . . . not to state the bleedin' obvious or anything ;).

I'm having to rest Kal's field because it is trashed . . . the field he has moved to is like a mud wallow by the gate and along much of the fence line - proper welly-sucking, slimy, slide-y black stuff. Both fields we have to go through to get to both his proper field and his temporary one are under water :(. Because he's had mud fever before, I'm now scrupulous about getting on top of any nicks and cuts (he is prone to brushing behind and overreaching in front) - don't want any nasties. I'm not poo picking because I can't get the barrow in and out of the fields - which is making my teeth itch because I hate poo-y fields. All turnout rugs are plastered in mud, he regularly comes in with mud dreads in his (formerly) silky tail and I can't get the ground-in mud off his cheeks for love nor money - not even with washing :(.

The one huge upside is that our school drains beautifully and hasn't flooded once . . . hurrah!

P
 
It makes me want to cry. It's our first winter with the horses at home and we are drowning under a sea of mud. The two ridden horses are lame with mud fever (brood mare fine, typically) and we are all utterly miserable. :(
 
Mine is doing about as well as Wagtail's and we're all equally fed up. The 'boyz' are wondering why on earth I brought them home from the field they were in last week that we moved to because we were flooded out. (Big thanks to the EA for that - use your flood relief scheme properly and stop using my field as holding tank.)
 
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My mud is not too bad, but the waterlogging is just about the worst I have seen since the 70's.

Mud only 'okay' as have only 2 fuzzies these days. Following the winter of heavy snow (86 or 87?) it was knee deep in mud for the smaller ponies in the gateways...
 
The yard is on sandy soil so the mud is not too bad fortunately :)
All the fields are soft but not at all waterlogged - there is bit of mud at the gateways where the horses stand to come in but nothing that would suck your boots off :D When the horses come in, it's just a matter of brushing/washing the mud off hooves - legs stay dry.

I have been on clay based land - never again - I feel for everyone with mud and waterlogged land x
 
Asha said:
its been an exceptionally good year mud output. If there was money to be made in growing mud, id have made a fortune. Made so much more than last year.

Horses hate it, i hate it, dog loves it.

On the unused fields, there is standing water, so no doubt could make more within a day if i needed too.

Had enough, bring on the sunny season.
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Lol :biggrin3: Just love that comment - Mine would make superb ground for Olympic sliding if the fuzzies were allowed to move into a fresh paddock!
 
Really boggy and deep! None of mine are going out though at the moment... can't have them running around in that! They are happier in tbh at the moment. They have been turned out in the school for a little while sometimes though for a roll and a buck.
 
Bask in the glow of my lovely green grass!!
Photo taken yesterday :D
I love my field, it's really pretty good, considering! It's like a swamp at the gate though, despite it being taped off.

P1160265_zps1b9a0d62.jpg
 
Its horrendous.

I'm actually getting a bit depressed with it all now. The field is trashed. Considering closing it but i think the liveries would revolt.

I have no idea if it will recover, it did last year but it was so much drier last year than this.

Horses are not keen on going out. The dog loves it, then loves coming into the house and bringing the field with him, and shaking it up the doors/walls/furtiture. My life revolves around cleaning up after him.

I have to wear my wellies to get to the car and carry my work shoes as its such a mud bath. Though i have been to work in my wellies a few times in the last few months much to my bosses amusement.

Bring on the summer. I hope its a good one :)
 
My paddock normally drains really well, but last year the gateway onto the road was horrendous. Thankfully we put down some hardcore & road planings and it has stood up brilliantly well. I don't have mud in my field as such, but the surface is greasy & slippery as the ground is just sodden. We have stables in a barn, but at the edge of the barn it has got a bit mushy & yukky where the concrete has been swept & everything just brushed off the edge (TBF I cant blame my children as I am equally as guilty of doing that). It wasn't the best year to decide to have free range ducks as they have made it even worse, but they are loving the swampy mud, and as 3 of my ponies were brought up on the west coast of Ireland, they can't really see what everyone is making a fuss about the rain for, as it is perfectly acceptable weather as far as they are concerned!
 
I take consolation from the report yesterday that there are 28,400 acres in Somerset under 65 million ! cubic meters of water!!! (Sorry to anyone in Somerset) For those who need visual not numbers, it's more than 2000 IBC containers of water on every acre, up to a depth of almost the top of a five bar gate!!

Mine have some puddles that come when it rains then go when we get a dry day so the water table is pretty high I think.
 
my mud is no more than ankle deep but very sloppy with lots of standing water. I wear long skirts and short wellies and have a fine tidemark of dirt permanently around my legs!

I have about three quarters of an acre of totally ungrazed land left luckily but the rest is reasonable with only half an acre of really nasty stuff

I'm mighty glad I got rid of my pigs and sold all my 2013 lambs before the bad weather hit though!

I really feel for those that are having an awful time. I'm so sorry :(
 
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??
 
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??
Click to expand...

Plan B is something i need too!
 
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