How's everyone coping?

Dizzleton

Dizzleton

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Just wondering how everyone is coping with the rain, floods and gales at the moment?

We currently have a 20x30 lake in our unused field, a few trees down but otherwise (touchwood) unscaved.

Hope you're all ok!
 
My fields are wet but not chopped up at the moment because mine only go out in the morning. On the days when it's been really windy they have stayed in, my mare hates the wind and will not settle in the field and would rather be on the yard. The two ponies are more than happy to go along with this. Riding wise, I have been riding on non windy days as much as possible, but have taken the fitness back a few knotches as if we get snow or ice then I will be unable to ride as the lane to my yard gets frozen. I don't want a fit horse without any work to do!! Spring is not too far away, or so I keep telling myself!!
 
We have escaped the worst - no damage but lakes in one field, other field is ok as it has gripes. horses in on bad days and in at night anyway. Just fed up of mud and wet, wet horses, wet rugs, wet dog, wet towels, wet clothes, wet me!

Beautiful here today now though - just need the ground to dry as muck removal man wont come (understandably) until bit drier as cant get trailer on his fields to tip !! Not much more stamping down I can do !
 
so far so good.

very lucky to have sandy soil so dont get proper mud, damp soil in small patches but its gritty and quickly dries back to hard earth rather than sticky mud. Plus 3 out of 4 are barefoot so dont cut it up at all and there is SO much grass on the winter field, you are struggling to locate the actual earth anyway, its like a thick carpet of laid over long grass which i think really helps, tough old pasture will stand up much better than new young shoots.

half way up a hill so no direct flood risk (although it took me 30mins to go 3.5 miles to work this AM!)

no trees down so far, and elec fence seems to be standing up to the wind ok, even the super tall 5'5 posts are keeping tension ok.

feel so so sorry for all of you who have flooding problems on your yards, nightmare.
 
Yard is on a hill, thankfully clear of the flooding, so pony is unaffected. He was in during the storms to be safe in case of falling trees. Our own house is likewise on high ground. Local park is not too bad - no trees down yet, and the river is avoidable. So dogs are happy.

My side of the family are mostly coastal, and very bad at staying in contact. Haven't heard anything from them since xmas. Husband's side are mostly fine. His brother has flooding near him, pretty bad too. He has been okay thankfully.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle;12246580]so far so good.

very lucky to have sandy soil so dont get proper mud, damp soil in small patches but its gritty and quickly dries back to hard earth rather than sticky mud. Plus 3 out of 4 are barefoot so dont cut it up at all and there is SO much grass on the winter field, you are struggling to locate the actual earth anyway, its like a thick carpet of laid over long grass which i think really helps, tough old pasture will stand up much better than new young shoots.
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This sounds exactly like my place! No mud, just sandy dirt by the gate which dries quickly. The 4 horses on the yard are split into pairs with 5 acres per pair; so lots of grass still.
 
not too much damage at my stables and field but the water on the surface is pretty bad - not real flooding but enough to make everything very muddy

I have plenty of grass still but where there is grass there is no shelter so the pony that lives out 24/7 is having to wear a lightweight rug

I have a 3ft strip of concrete outside my stables and someone gave me the most wonderful stuff on a roll to put down on the ground beyond that so at least when doing yard chores I have a nice 7ft wide firm area to walk on
 
Winter field is now beginning to ook poached so have reduced turnout to three hours max the horses are all in work so that's ok.
Northumberland has had it lightly this time although the storm surge flooded the village where my parents live but the flood only got to their garden gate .
Just got a huge haylage delivery just in case .
 
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This was a picture I took of Ramsey on Friday.

ramseyconnor__________wi640he480moletterboxbgwhite.jpg
 
:( flooded- luckily field has sloped areas, with some grass left. but it is clay and next to a river which is now the height of the fields- in places it is now flowing through the fields :( we really need this rain to stop. also the fencing in the third field has rotten and along the river bed so we can't let them into it- normally we open it up january for some more grass. but it is impossible for the fencer to get through the mud of the 1st and 2nd filed to fix it :(
my nice hacking route around the farm is flooded, and so has the flat field i ride in, so only have the common, but the high winds are 10x worse up there so managed a few days ago but my normally calm boy was loopy!
 
Blimey, looks like Guy Martin's efforts on his bike modified for riding on water will stand him in good stead for the TT!
 
Me i'm flooded but neighbour kindly leant me her beautiful land that's ungrazed and only used as a pretty view. So i'm stress free and nags are delightly stuffing themselves.
 
I've just put my poor horses out for a leg stretch, to be fair they are having a brilliant time splashing in the puddles :)
Much of the land round my village/yard is totally under water but * touch wood* mines not as horrific as last year... Yet!
 
Very wet! Luckily it could be much much worse. Higher than the little 'stream' than runs past - it floods out onto the neighbouring land. Field the horses are in is about 10 acres and there are dry places, and plenty of grass cover in parts. Other parts, resemble fishing lake-strips! (previous effort to drain?) The gateways are totally trashed, which to be honest never really recovered from 2012 wet summer. Didn't help that we didn't manage to finish proper fencing some of the fields and had some what free range cattle who loved to congregate in the gateways! They've been in now some 6 good weeks, but its done the damage.
Meanwhile, at home my garage roof has given up, and is giving a few things in there a few showers!!
 
Wet here but nowhere near as bad as some places. The field is very wet and boggy - nothing new here though its like that every winter!
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
so far so good.

very lucky to have sandy soil so dont get proper mud, damp soil in small patches but its gritty and quickly dries back to hard earth rather than sticky mud. Plus 3 out of 4 are barefoot so dont cut it up at all and there is SO much grass on the winter field, you are struggling to locate the actual earth anyway, its like a thick carpet of laid over long grass which i think really helps, tough old pasture will stand up much better than new young shoots.

half way up a hill so no direct flood risk (although it took me 30mins to go 3.5 miles to work this AM!)

no trees down so far, and elec fence seems to be standing up to the wind ok, even the super tall 5'5 posts are keeping tension ok.

feel so so sorry for all of you who have flooding problems on your yards, nightmare.
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Very jealous!

My yard has thick clay mud, the yard doesn't maintain the land particularly well for the number of horses grazed on it, so not much grass and very boggy gateways and wet fields. We aren't flooded though, the fields are on a slope so not too bad at the top. It could be much worse. We are on high land, so don't flood thankfully,
 
Nothing too bad here, except for mud! Our lovely 5 acre field is on a bit of a hill, with the river skirting the bottom of it. Periodically the river comes up and into the lower parts of the field, the horses simply don't go down there if that happens, plenty of room for them to get out of the way. The water table is quite high so we often have big puddles where the land flattens out. As an aside, what's the best way of getting rid of the mud in the gateway. It's a livery yard so I'm loathe to spend much money there. Was tempted to get a couple of bales of straw to try to soak it up, but will this just make it worse when it rots?
 
We are in our first winter at home with our horses and the clay field (about 4 and a half acres) is very wet and boggy. The field slopes down after half an acre or so both sides of the gate and the land down the slope drains quite well so some grass still there but they tend to stay on the flat patches and they are just one big bog (gateway is horrendous and my old mare now refuses to come to it for feeding - so i have to get to her!). Hard standing is top of the to do list next year! We have another field which is unpoached but its so wet they would trash it in days (and seems to be much slippier than our other field on the slopey bit). We can at least bring them in to let them dry out as we have stables but they much prefer being out 24/7 and the last time i brought them in they seemed to pick at their hay only in protest. Its pretty depressing at the minute but spring is on its way!!
 
We were doing ok-ish until this morning. The road outside was flooded. I think water pipes under the road have burst as there's now about 5 mini water fountains up through the tarmac. Although most of the water was running off down the road there was a lot flowing down into the yard. Think Beaver! I thought so attempted to make a mini dam.
The field is partly ridge and furrow so it's wet/dry/wet/dry and there's a mini lake that for some reason attracts the little ponies who graze in it, noses submerged!
 
i am trying to cope with wet and muddy field,but do not know how to keep my ponies clean and mud free as they live out all year round.there legs and feet are the worse.dose any one have any ideas for me thanks
 
We are lucky in that we haven't had flooding, but the field is like a wet sponge, squelchy and wet. Even though it is sloping even the top part is just as wet as the bottom. I did have it split into 4 paddocks, but have taken down all the electric fencing and let the four of them have the run of the 7 acres. At least I won't get muddy gateways etc that way. We haven't got stables, so they are all looking like mud monsters at the moment. I am fed up.
 
My fields at home seem to be coping well they are really well drained and apart from the obvious ie. the gateways it seems to be holding up it has my retired horse and a pony in it 24/7
The yard where my other two are at currently, not so good multiple trees down lakes in the fields so they are stabled all the time at the moment.
 
we had an enormous tree down which narrowly missed my mum's car and then another one in our paddock, luckily no horses where in it at the time. It's far too bouncy to axe up and our chainsaw is out of action so it's just in the way at the moment, and of course all the horses think it's deadly so it's a struggle gettint them in! Other than that just very very muddy in all the gate ways, and some flooding where a river burst through one of our unused fields. Just fed up of all the wet everywhere! Give me a crisp frosty morning any day..
 
Not too much damage at the moment here *touches wood* but fields are very boggy and trashed (we are on clay here) so it's much to dangerous to turn out in them at the minute. Mine like to gallop around and play roughly so I would be asking for an injury by putting them out at the moment! They are quite happily in, get out everyday either being ridden, for a leg stretch in-hand or turned out in the school for a run around and a roll.
 
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