Mud mud & more mud!!!!

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ClippityClop

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Hi, i just would like to know how muddy are your fields?? Its my first year not in a livery yard! And im so depressed ive actualy thought about giving up horses which i know is only because of everything!! I have 4 living out, and they are just soo muddy! It just hasnt stopped raining here! ive got one summer field which i want to keep for the summer which at the moment is just as wet, so there is no point in using my summer field for them to wreck that too! Theyve got plenty off food and water and shelter, there just hock deeep in mud!! They seem happy enough but it doesnt help that ive got somebody in my ear telling me its not fair on them. But i havnt got a load of fields like they have were they can hammer it all and then move onto the next! ive got one big one which is split in2 a quater which i kept for them to hammer in winter and then three quaters for summer! Are your fields really really muddy?? or am i the only one?? and when do u move into your summer fields??? Im sorry its so long! im just so down about it!! :( :(
 
Is the whole of the field muddy, or just the gateways/water trough etc?
As long as they seem happy, and they aren't getting any problems from it, like mud fever, then try not to worry. Spring is on its way, yay!
 
Sorry to hear about the mud :(

Am v lucky (or not, depending on how you see it) in that mine are on more sandy paddocks, so a light coating of slippy stuff in gateways, and tho its 'squelching' when you walk across the grass, there isn't much mud at all.

There would be bogged down if they were still in the paddock I keep for snow/ice as its clay - great when frozen solid - and fine in the summer, but a ruddy nightmare if very wet & can turn to trash over night!

Sandy paddock means that once it ever gets over grazed, its a nightmare to keep the grass as it becomes bare quickly & doesn't re-grow easily unless rested well. Upside is that it drains well
 
We have had non stop rain for the last week, and we get all the running water from the mountain! Half the field is water mud and then the rest is dry mud uno the usual wear and tear mud, but they stand in the wet?? WHY?? They have a big bale of haylage in everyweek so theyre not going without food!! The gateway is suprisingly okay lol
 
ive got one horse on a 2 acre field and its 8-9 inches deep with really heavy clay mud, bloody stuff sticks to everything. its just at her shelter entrance and gate so not the whole field, but unfortunatly the rest of the field is really wet just not muddy due to an underground stream :( i dont have anywhere to shift her to so i just have to ride it out. no mud fever as of yet so fingers crossed it doesnt get any worse. roll on spring with light evenings and DRY weather lol ,
 
Mine gets an hour a day at the moment. Field is very muddy but it gets him out for a leg stretch... And, a roll in the muddiest patch :rolleyes:
He copes fine with it. Roll on spring!

I'm fed up of dirty boots, dirty car, dirty rugs and my horse seems to love covering himself in mud everyday!
 
My field isn't too bad - just a bit muddy around the gateways but we are resting part of it ready for the Spring and if bits get too muddy, then we fence that area off to allow it to dry out. :)
 
Yes my paddock is really very muddy right now, I tried to divide it on two and let the bottom half rest but she is trashing the top half now what with all the rain :confused:

Spring is on the way, chin up hun, we are getting away from the worst of winter now
 
Yup we've got a mud bath too... Can't wait for a few dry days to help out but as we live close to a river, it's very squelchy. Luckily sand based soil so when it does dry up it dries up very quickly!

BnBX
 
My fiield is really muddy. Feel the same as you. Its really depressing. I also have stables on it but the mud is soo deep outside the stables I cant really use them. If I had seen the field in the winter I dont think I would have taken it on. Cant remeber when the mud went last year hopefully its soon.
 
Main gateway is very muddy and so is the unadopted lane down to the field. I'm getting really fed up of it now and they are forecasting lots of rain for next week here. Poo.
 
Thanks for all your replies everyone!! :)

When do you guys put yours on the summer fields? and when does the grass start growing enough that even though your horses are on it still keeps growing?? x
 
Same here :( :( mud mud mud, we're on clay so it takes an age to dry up, had just stopped squelching last week then it started to rain again, dammit!

I'm so sick of it, so sick of being caked in mud. It just gets over everything, the horses, the car (inside and out) tack, my clothes etc etc, I've given up washing my overtrousers now they're pretty much a solid block of mud.

Please, powers that be, can we have spring now please... Pretty please!!I want to bath my pony!!
 
i have recently moved from a foot of mud to a couple of inches around gate and field shelter and thats it it's great. i know how it feel last winter (before i moved) was so depressing!!!! i have 1.5 aces at the moment (1acre split into 2 then half acre around the corner seperate) i am currently rotating him between to 1acre split into 2. have saved half acre then when i have finished this lot of hay (mid-march) there ill be grass there and the sring grass coming through for him (save on the hay bill!!!)
 
Our fields are very very muddy. They get bad mud fever, so have to stay in a lot. For the past two years, thankfully, spring has come quite early, so they have gone onto the summer fields in April. If I was you, with 3/4 saved for summer, I would put them into a quarter of the summer field now. Its amazing how winter fields come back if you roll, harrow and rest them.

Could you get a few loads of hardcore tipped in a corner next year, and put the haylage on that, so they have to stand on that out of the mud to eat it. It gives you somewhere that you could fence them out of the mud if you ever needed to as well.

Totally sympathise with you. Am desperate for summer! Nearly died this morning when I saw snow on the hilltops after a mild, springlike week!
 
1.7 acres of heavy spring ridden clay :( am so depressed I am moving them to my neighbours summer paddock tomorrow as feel so bad for T having to live out a just weaning her foal so foal and NF pony in the nice dry corral at night and T stuck with her pile of haylage she uses as a raft in the mud :(

I just pray for some dry weather than I can get mine harrowed reseeded and fertilized as hubby threatening divorce as I have trashed his beautiful green paddock to a mud bath :(

Debating wether to plough and totally reseed with tougher deep routing grass to see if it can survive better next year as it is virtually bare at the moment anyway and it may help soil drainage and quality to give it a damn good turn over and start again - what do you think guys - anyone done this?

Wish I could go back to livery but sadly can't afford it for 3 on top of what I pay Dad back for buying the paddock! Hindsight would have been useful ;)
 
I am really really beyond fed up, had to chase the yearlings out through the gateway this morning its so wet and muddy there they dont like crossing it. the whole bottom half of the winter paddock is trashed so I've opened the gate to let them into the hay meadow as at least they have grass in there. The weather forecast is awful for this week, heavy rain on most days or nights. its just awful.
 
very muddy although i can bring in at night and a few dry days and its ok again . i am exactly the same as you every winter i cant bear it but come spring and summer it always recovers amazingly .one of mine is on paddock rest stable size and that is just mud but not deep mud .any chance of a mobile field shelter for next winter and hardcore the entrance. we hard cored the path from field to stables last year and it made a huge difference. i put mine on summer fields about may.
 
I'm on D.I.Y the horses are only allowed out every other day mares and geldings alternate. There's 6 horses on average on each winter paddock on their "out" days. Theres 3 paddocks, each roughly half an acre and consistently a foot deep of clay sloppy and sticky mud all over, no hard stand or dry areas for them to get out of it. The "much heap" field is worst, below the muck heap with all wee and nasties in it in big waterlogged pools! Yard owner puts a few literally handfuls of hay out for them but not until she can be bothered about 11am earliest - most are out by 8am, so they have nothing to do bar fight over small piles for 5 mins til its gone. Nearly all horses are full of mud fever and lose shoes easily being sucked off in the mud!!!! Makes me wonder why I bother, they all look upset going out. BHS yard eh? Makes me laugh!!!
 
Ours is pretty gross around the gateway, but not too bad other than that, I mean half the field has pools of surface water but still grass covered.

I curse our field for being hilly as its not good for schooling (good for fittening though!) but the top of the hill is dry (well as dry as it can be atm!) so I'm glad of the hill in winter :)
 
I hate hate hate the mud! I'd rather have a little snow back tbh, atleast my horse won't be able to roll and lie in the muddiest puddle he can find. ;)
My boots always get sucked off aswell and i end with just sock covered feet sucked into the mud, lovely.
Wish we could have a few days of dryness :L
 
me too:(

i have my horse and a sec A on a small paddock of no more that 1/3 acre and a field of about 2 acres. I roate between the 2 as when the weather is hideous i like them in the paddock as there is more shelter and i have better access to water etc when its freezing. This year they are both in the worst state they have ever been tbh :( Roll on spring! I the summer I have too much grass!!
 
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