I'm Flummoxed! Any Ideas?

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southerncomfort

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I have 2 mares on a track around the perimeter of a 3 acre field. They were hacked out on Sunday but haven't left the field since.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I noticed black scorch marks in the grass. They look like human footprints and start approximately two thirds of the way up the field. I assumed that they were made by the OH who had checked the girls for me the night before (he's away until tonight so can't double check with him yet). Luckily there were no black marks inside the track so while concerning I wasn't immediately worried for the girls as the likelihood is that OH didn't even walk inside the track as he was just checking they were alive and upright.

This morning the girls track is covered, and I mean COVERED in scorched black hoof prints. Absolutely everywhere. I can see everywhere they've walked. I've cleaned their feet and moved them to a different part of the field but I'm absolutely flummoxed.

Assuming they'd walked through something while out hacking, surely the grass would have started dying before today? And wouldn't their be hoofprints leading from the gate to their track? And why did the human footprints begin two thirds of the way up the field and not at the gate?

I've searched the whole field and I can't find anything inside the field that could be the cause, and I've walked round the outside the field and their is no sign of any kind of weed killing activities or anything.

Can anyone with a more logical brain than mine offer any theories? I've given myself a headache trying to work out how this has happened!
 
It's probably the frost - check how low your temps have got overnight. When they trodden on the frosted grass they've damaged it. You see it more at this time of the year because it's going grass shoots & they're more susceptible to damage.

I left some cracking footprints across a new lawn once. Grew in a different colour all summer!
 
God...I didn't even think of frost. There was frost on the lawn this morning but it was gone by the time I'd reached the field so it didn't even enter my head!

So not something from the Twilight Zone after all then!? ;)
 
Well I was imagining men in balaclavas parachuting in and painting a strange substance on the horses feet, but now I think about it, aliens sound much more likely.

Might camp out tonight to see what they're up to!
 
We used to get told of by my gardening mad Mum when we were little if we went on the lawn in the frost. Still tiptoe on my lawn even though Im a grown up now!
 
Bubblewrap said:
We used to get told of by my gardening mad Mum when we were little if we went on the lawn in the frost. Still tiptoe on my lawn even though Im a grown up now!
Click to expand...

It was my dad's lawn I damaged by walking across it in the frost. All summer those footprints grew back a darker green, so all summer I got grief! I still tiptoe across frosty grass to this day too!
 
I saw some of these black scorched marks in my horses field at weekend or beginning of the week, can't remember which. I thought it was very odd and I was puzzled because it looked exactly has been described already. Black and scorched. I then forgot about it but this thread has explained it. Thank you HHOers
 
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