Least favourite horse related task and Why?

Moving bales of hay in winter. We have a barn in our field and we carry around 10 bales a week down into the hay store in the stable block. When your fingers are freezing and the bail band is digging into them and you are sinking knee deep in mud it's the worst thing ever arrrrh!
 
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Bringing this in every single day in winter.
 
Soaking haynets is the worst job for me especially in winter. I'd like a groom for the days when I come home from hunting and I've got a wet, muddy horse to sort out, filthy tack, trailer to clear out and put away, boots/jacket/jods covered in mud etc.

I pay someone to plait, clip and pull manes. I don't change muddy winter rugs as I leave them on the horse. Luckily I don't need to poo pick.
 
Poo picking and ragwort removal. Ugh even trying to make it fun with a couple of beers doesn't help. Hate it. Also getting my rugs out for winter/straw bales and unearthing all kinds of horrifying godzilla spiders that have been hiding in there all summer.
 
Clipping.

I HATE CLIPPING. Especially hogging. I particularly hate hogging endless polo ponies and clipping their bloody tails rather than pulling them properly. Ugh.

I adore mucking out, and tack cleaning. I would very happily be faced with thirty boxes to muck out rather than clip one.

Ugh.
 
I'm with you dream come true - Lifting and washing down the rubber matting in the stables is heavy and smelly work and a nightmare to fit them all back together the right way x
 
dreamcometrue said:
Lifting and cleaning under rubber matting. A total assault on the senses that leaves me physically exhausted and filthy.
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Bubblewrap said:
I'm with you dream come true - Lifting and washing down the rubber matting in the stables is heavy and smelly work and a nightmare to fit them all back together the right way x
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Why do you do it? Serious question. I can't see the point.
 
I have to say there's nothing that I'm bothered by . Perhaps at the end of a show day when you've had a long day and you unload the car and muck out then you still have to clean out and put the trailer away but that's it for me .
 
I dislike many things, but like the result. Sweeping, poo picking, pulling manes and clipping are the ones I dislike most, but like the end result of the most too!
 
Most certainly poo picking - kills my back, my knees and is the worst in the spring when the grass is longer and they poo refuses to get on the shovel.

One of the reasons I love where i graze my horse - they HARROW !!!! Yipeee


Changing wet muddy rugs is next on the list.
 
dreamcometrue said:
Lifting and cleaning under rubber matting. A total assault on the senses that leaves me physically exhausted and filthy.
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Easy trick - get two 4" G clamps from a DIY shed, flip up edge, screw on, voila 2 handles to drag them with.

My most hated? SIGNING CHEQUES. Poo picking would run close, so i don't do it. Amazingly latest worm count came back totally clear!
 
I love everything apart from specifically winter mucking out. It takes me over half an hour because of the mess he makes. In summer it's fine because he's only in for a few hours in the day and doesn't do anything, but in winter he digs his bed, mixes the poo/wee in with the clean shavings and empties his haynet into it all.
 
Unpicking plaits. Takes longer than putting them in and makes my hands cramp and my arms ache. I always stab myself with the unpicker too... Every time!
 
Sweeping!!! Hate sweeping and rubbish at it too!! Always end up with bits left over. Can't stand brooms where the handle twists loose as you sweep! Shame as love a freshly swept yard!
 
Today I cleaned about a years worth of crud from under my hay pallets which reminded me how much I hate cleaning the crud from under my hay pallets...

Ragworting - especially when bitten by horse flies
Poo-picking when it's muddy in winter, quite like it if I've time and it's a nice evening.
Cleaning out field troughs (why are they not made with a plug at the bottom?)
 
Training youngsters basic manners who have been left to their own devices for two years or even longer. Such a needless activity. I wish more breeders invested a little time in training foals the ABC when they are still running with their mums. They learn quickly and do not forget. Job done without risking the health of everyone involved helping the vet/farrier once the youngsters are strong 2 and 3 year olds.
 
Poo picking in summer and trying to wheel a wheelbarrow up the muck heap when it's been raining solid for a week in winter
 
ycbm said:
Why do you do it? Serious question. I can't see the point.
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We have old listed stone stables with a slightly uneven floor and with a small slope to the drainage, prob 100 plus years old. The horse wee and some shavings get under the matting and I hate the smell, plus the fly factor. Clean out twice a year early summer and late summer. Lift mats hose floor and mats down leave to dry then put back down, each stable take about an hour.
 
Ragwort pulling. It's like playing whack the rat. Every time I clear his paddock, I spot another stalk a couple of days later.

We have the cinnabar moth on NT land which is next to our yard, so no spraying and the NT won't pull any ragwort, so its a constant battle. Never go poo picking without a rag fork in the summer :(
 
C1airey said:
Ragwort pulling. It's like playing whack the rat. Every time I clear his paddock, I spot another stalk a couple of days later.

We have the cinnabar moth on NT land which is next to our yard, so no spraying and the NT won't pull any ragwort, so its a constant battle. Never go poo picking without a rag fork in the summer :(
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I get ragwort blindness. I think I've pulled it all, I spend 2 hours in there, then the next day I see a load that are glaringly just there and I wonder how on earth I missed them.
 
Crazy_cat_lady said:
Having just shifted 3 heavy full wheelbarrows of rained on poo it has confirmed my opinion poo picking is the absolute worst job!

Not only is it heavy often the poo gets caught in the long grass (which they seem to target not the nice short grass which would make life easier) along with the shovel/ fork so then gets flung everywhere as you try to extract the fork then lugging the wheelbarrow back and forth to the muck heap only to go back the next day and there's a new load to shovel away. Mucking out is better as you're in one place!


What is everyone else's least favourite?
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this is my least favourite as well got 3 days worth of it out there so will need to get out there today
:(
 
Filling haynets. I HATE it. Don't even mind the annual lifting of mats and scrubbing stables as it's very satisfying when all done (not quite so much when within a couple of weeks of using said stable again, it's poo splattered again)
 
Plaiting is painful on my hands but rarely do it.
I will have to say clipping when it's breezy......In fact in any weather. I love the look of a clipped horse but i HATE the hair getting i to places it really shouldn't, even with overalls on!
 
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