Hows everyone’s field holding up

[tda]

Pretty crap here, bottom paddock has 2 yearlings, a foal and a nanny so it's trashed as they are always on the move.
Top paddock resting for a while, mares away at My brothers field, he's having it ploughed up in the spring so I'm hoping they can stay there for as long as possible as it won't matter if it gets trashed

 

[The Bouncing Bog Trotter]

Horrific! Can no longer be accessed unless on foot and the lanes leading to it are looking like they are about to flood. Need to move the sheep and put up new electric fence which means lugging all the posts etc about 500m across waterlogged ground.

 

[meleeka]

my field this morning (ponies are refusing to move from the hardstanding)

 

[Red-1]

Our fields look pristine... because we aren't on them!

They are clay.

Baby horse was on grass until mid-November and on arena turnout (6.30am to 1.30pm) and daily riding since.

Rigs managed extra grass time, into mid-December, his field is the best for drainage and it didn't come to harm, as December came in dry. He doesn't run round, just eats! He has the full patio (probs 40m X 10m if you straightened it out) and is sometimes ridden, or put on the arena for a few hours most days, for a change of scene. He has the patio 24/7 unless it is so wild that the freezer curtains at his stable entrance are blowing too hard.

They have individual turnout as Rigsby isn't friendly or gentle with the 4yo.

Hopefully back on the fields in April?

 

[ihatework]

Pretty lucky here, our winter fields drain pretty well. Grass is never great so we have to top up quite a bit with haylage, but it’s brilliant to be able to have babies out 24/7

 

[Surbie]

Ours are in at night. The field is lovely and large but sodden and the grass is now a lot shorter. It does recover really well thankfully.

YO let me put my mud slabs in our gateway and that has saved it. Tho my horse waits respectfully at the back of the herd so I still have to schlep through mud to get him, rather than keep clean wellies like the other liveries I share with!

 

[Highmileagecob]

Same here, winter field looks like a mud bath but the summer pasture is shut off.
We made an attempt at a DIY pathway to avoid the worst of the mud. One of our nice ladies has a partner who lays industrial door mats for supermarkets and stores etc. and gave us a trailer load of offcuts. We laid old carpet pile side down as a base and dropped mats on top. So far so good - it is holding up well, but needs scraping regularly as the horses parade up and down it too. Not sure if old rubber mats would work, but can't see why they wouldn't. Just make sure that the piece of carpet is wider than the mat, and it doesn't appear to sink.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Same.

Every year I look at it and think 'this will never recover' but every year it does as long as we roll and harrow.

Our YO does a good job on our fields, rolls, harrows, feeds, seeds etc he’s a good guy. He puts his sheep on them as well so good worm control as well ?

 

[Xmasha]

We have some areas that are muddy but the issue is mainly surface water . I can see several ponds forming again. Stacks of rain again last night , so have just moved the horses to last rested field . They where all happy this morning and not in as much as a hurry to come In for a break from it .

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Thank goodness for mud control mats is all I can say. This last week has left the field looking like a rice paddy. It was holding upreally well until then.

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

Mine were out 24/7 until about the 6th December when it started to get very wet so came in at night. Usually they’re in by end October latest but being mostly mild and dry I was able to keep them out. We then had a fair dry spell until Christmas Eve and the fields are pretty sodden do I’ve been haying in the field since then. I’ll be moving mine onto their second winter paddock over the next few days which has decent grass and they’ll be there until their summer paddocks are ready although I expect to be feeding hay again by end feb.

 

[Landcruiser]

We are on deep clay. I'm having to use my summer paddock for turnout, it wasn't over grazed in summer and it did have a rest of a few weeks in Autumn, it's also my dryest (relatively speaking) field. I have 3, on the yard/hardstanding at night, allowed up to the field most days, unless it's really raining. Winter trash field is impractical because new youngster means I now have 3, and have to access the winter field via a short stretch of road, it's the other side of our house with no off road route. I can't manage all 3 at once, and there is hysteria if I try to split them and do in stages, and OH not always available to help. So summer paddock it is, but I have another acre untouched and pristine they can have while it recovers in spring.

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

Ours were doing well until a few days before Xmas. Non stop rain has annihilated them ? Not that the horses seem to care. They are out 24/7 with field shelters they never use ??

 

[J&S]

My field drains well and the wind is doing a great job today in drying it off. They are out 7.30 am - 6pm, a few shoots to graze and hay in tile boxes on the yard so no hardship here!

 

[Steerpike]

My fields are ok at the moment it's just getting to them which is turning into a bog, it's our first winter here so at least we know what we have to do do next winter to make it less muddy hopefully!

 

[Not_so_brave_anymore]

Tale of two halves here - the half that used to be the mini track, and the half that wasn't!

 

[chaps89]

Mine is ok, could walk across it in trainers bar the track and the gateway where you most definitley want wellies!
I’ve no idea when my shelters were built they were put at the bottom of a hill and near the gateway, but it’s grim around them. I am so so glad I bought mud control mats, I frequently find the ponies standing on them under the overhang.
Poo picking this morning I’m definitley going to have to take the muzzle off now I think, it’s pretty bare out there now.
Saving it for Friday when I’m hoping the novelty of no muzzle and some hay will distract from any fireworks.
Luckily still got lots of grass for Mr skinny.

 

[exracehorse]

Not as bad as this time last year. Was absolutely fine until past three weeks. But it’s very wet. And thick mud by gateways. Clay ground.

 

[TheMule]

It's wet and a bit muddy by the gate, but luckily all my grazing is on a hill, I have tonnes of grass to strip graze them onto and a good sized area of hard standing where they spend half a day eating haylage during the wettest weather

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

It went from lovely to completely trashed on Christmas eve, I've never seen my fields so bad they're saturated and standing water in places. More rain forecast and I am feeling very down, Spring feels a lifetime away

Sounds similar to mine. It was doing so well and now its all saturated from just one night of rain. Just want it to dry out a bit as it will all be poached.

 

[spotty_pony]

This is mine today after all the rain. It’s a bit muddy around the gateway but that’s it. It’s the driest of all of my fields and has a fair amount of grass for them to munch on under the older stuff. I do put a bit of hay out too.