Mild winter?

My dear mum used to say that if we had a 'kind' winter, we'd then have a rubbish summer. So I just wish winter would hurry up and get on with it. Couple of years ago we had snow early March and a heatwave late March. If I remember rightly, the Beast from the East was late Feb. So hang on to your hats, winter is probably just around the corner.
In fact I've just Googled and we had the mini Beast from the East on 17th March.
 
Starting to get a little concerned that my pony won't lose any weight unless she's muzzled in the early Spring (even with restricted grazing). They live out, but I don't remember a time when between two (one horse, one pony) I've only given one slice of hay PER DAY between them and that's only to entice them to the shelter for checks/grooming/tacking up and so on. I've gone through one bag of feed over the whole winter. I'm feeding less now than in July! Again between two. Still, it's been great in terms of mud (or lack of it) and less feed means less cost, which is a massive win.
 
I think the odd thing about this winter is usually if it is mild it is also very wet if cold and I mean bone deep cold it is dry and frosty so being frosty at night and still and mild in the day feels very odd
 
I'm actually a bit worried about it (possibly the only one!) the dry has been fab but its gone up to 13 degrees here and mine has EMS and just had her stifle medicated. I dont have a bare paddock but my field has a good grass covering rather than short stuff, even thou she is still muzzled and i dont actually think it will come off at all. In fact she is still only on half of her acre paddock and no idea if i will open up the rest.
Its when the temps raise to these high temps that really worries me with lami more that the cold snaps. I'm not hoping for rain but definitely a drop to colder temps.
 
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its been horribly mild but also dry, which I struggle to criticise-the field they are currently on is usually unusable this time of year. I generally rely on Jan-March to get the weight off them but that isnt happening atm. I've only had one period of 4 days whereby the outside tap was frozen. Its true that when we've recently had cold winters we've had better summers (last spring was very dry but we had three very decent cold snaps) but something like the Beast from the East is forecastable and known about weeks in advance-afaik there is nothing lurking in the background that might cause one.

So we are back to unsettled weather and storms, which will include some cold winds and winter showers just to make life difficult for lambing in March-April. I really hope we dont go back to the wet summers we had up until a couple of years ago, no decent weather after June and rubbish harvests.
 
This time last year my route to the yard was flooded for five weeks and then, when the floods subsided, frozen solid so that the road still couldn't be opened! So I am very happy with this winter so far, although a decent cold spell might get rid of some of the flies which won't be long emerging...
 
It's been mild here too and although we've had rain it's been nothing like the past couple of years.

I do fear that we haven't had "winter" at all yet and we've still got a bought coming
 
Very mild up here, hardly any frost. However we've just had our 3rd storm with crazy winds instead which is strange. Been very dry here too. We dont get too enthused though at this point as we've had serious snow going into the beginning of April so we're not out the other end yet. But generally I have noticed a big change in much milder winters here than years ago. I think of winter as a long autumn these days...
 
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This time last year we had a few weeks of deep frost and snow from the end of January to the third week of February and by the end of February we were back to ankle-deep mud. I’ve just looked at the forecast for the next couple of weeks and there’s virtually no change in temperature from day to night - lows of 9-10 and highs of 12-14…

I’m worried that fatty has barely lost any weight and it doesn’t look like he will now as they move into their spring field at the end of the month
 
MagicMelon said:
Very mild up here, hardly any frost. However we've just had our 3rd storm with crazy winds instead which is strange. Been very dry here too. We dont get too enthused though at this point as we've had serious snow going into the beginning of April so we're not out the other end yet. But generally I have noticed a big change in much milder winters here than years ago. I think of winter as a long autumn these days...
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I know things have changed since I lived n Elgin but we had snow on the 10th of June one year. So although I now live in the Lincolnshire wolds I am always wary of saying winter is over. I am pretty sure we will get wet at some point. Mind you since last April I have only got soaked a handful of times
 
Muddywellies said:
My dear mum used to say that if we had a 'kind' winter, we'd then have a rubbish summer. So I just wish winter would hurry up and get on with it. Couple of years ago we had snow early March and a heatwave late March. If I remember rightly, the Beast from the East was late Feb. So hang on to your hats, winter is probably just around the corner.
In fact I've just Googled and we had the mini Beast from the East on 17th March.
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A faire Candlemas, a fowle Lent
 
Turned horse out without his rug yesterday and today.

Yes, it has been mild, there have been some frosts but I haven't had to defrost the tap at all yet. When it is a really bad frost it can take almost all day to get water to the yards of cattle.

I was just thinking this morning that my horse hasn't lost any weight this winter, he is usually reasonably lean in the spring, but he really looks too fat at the moment.
 
Muddywellies said:
My dear mum used to say that if we had a 'kind' winter, we'd then have a rubbish summer. So I just wish winter would hurry up and get on with it. Couple of years ago we had snow early March and a heatwave late March. If I remember rightly, the Beast from the East was late Feb. So hang on to your hats, winter is probably just around the corner.
In fact I've just Googled and we had the mini Beast from the East on 17th March.
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The Beast from the East was Feb 28th/ March 1st as it ruined all our St Davids Day activities in work. We've had snow on St Davids Day several times. It snowed on my 21st birthday (23 years ago :eek:) in April - and that's in S.Wales pretty much on the coast where it hardly ever snows.
 
Facebook memories come in useful sometimes.... this day in 2019 we had a lot of snow (for this area in the SE) and also on this day in 2009 too, that lot was v deep. There also was a dump load on 3rd Feb 2012 here. Also a load one April morning last year too.
Having got a February birthday, I'm used to any planned events getting weathered off ? by snow, rain etc..... and with a daughters birthday at the end of March, anything for that was weather proofed too!
 
We went hand walking poor Vinnie this time last year and it was mild, then snowed, then freezing ice, then thawed then mild and relatively warm all in the space of those 5wks.
 
MagicMelon said:
Very mild up here, hardly any frost. However we've just had our 3rd storm with crazy winds instead which is strange. Been very dry here too. We dont get too enthused though at this point as we've had serious snow going into the beginning of April so we're not out the other end yet. But generally I have noticed a big change in much milder winters here than years ago. I think of winter as a long autumn these days...
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You are possibly in the same region as me. Those winds have been terrible! Only one tree down in my paddock, which was surprising considering it’s a woodland ?. Farmer spotted a few others leaning in other paddocks, plus his old site office got rolled!
 
Annagain said:
The Beast from the East was Feb 28th/ March 1st as it ruined all our St Davids Day activities in work. We've had snow on St Davids Day several times. It snowed on my 21st birthday (23 years ago :eek:) in April - and that's in S.Wales pretty much on the coast where it hardly ever snows.
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Then we had the mini beast from the East a few weeks later, before we'd thawed out from the first one.
 
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