my daughter lost out on loan pony cause of muddy fields!!

italylyns

italylyns

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Hi,

Just needed to have a little rant!!!

I have been looking for a loan pony for my daughter who is only lead rein/first ridden and having been to visit the same pony several times we thought we had found the perfect one!!

As expected the owner wanted to do a yard visit. I am on a small private yard where there are only a few big horses and another little pony but we are at the bottom of a hill and in the winter our fields are really muddy!

They are only like that for a small amount of the year then they are rolled and lovely ready for spring/summer.

The owner has now said no to us loaning the pony dispite being the perfect family for her as she doesnt want the pony standing in mud.
Surely everyones fields are muddy in the winter unless you keep them in which i dont like to do....its only a bit of mud and they are horses!!!!

So my search for a pony has now started all over again! Maybe i should just wait till the spring when the fields are lovely and everything looks perfect and pretty aarrgghhhh!!

Sorry....rant over!!! :-)
 
to be honest it would put me off if it was deep mud.

and i hate to say it but my ned lives out with 3 others, we have no mud.
 
our fields are muddy round the gate ways, thats what happens to fields, ?? dont it , ours go out every day come rain, sun, snow, what ever the weather they will have 'thier' time to play, eat, run and do what ever they want to do,
good luck in your new search for your perfect pony, dont give up, he/she will be out there, :)
 
I know it is not your fault, but I am sorry I would have said no to loaning our pony if she was going to stand in mud .
If your fields are very wet there is nothing you can do, but have to say I used to have 4 on 1.5 acres and with careful management they were never standing in mud.
I think it would be a good idea to delay your search for a pony for a month or so in the hope the field will have recovered, or you are able to show your spring grazing.
 
Unfortunately she probably has quite a few possible loan homes for a reliable child's pony so she can afford to be picky. My (UK) fields were a bit muddy around gateways and in areas where they had dug them up to roll but the rest of the field were well preserved so I can kind of see her point of view. It does depend on how much land (and what type of land) you have for the number of horses on it though.
 
It would put me off too.
Yes fields get muddy but if they are well looked after even with the mud this wouldnt be a problem.

Is the whole field muddy or just around the gate?

It must look pretty bad to put someone off.
Any horsey person knows about mud but to put someone off they must look really bad.

Its the owners decision, sorry you lost out on the pony.

Hopefully you will find another soon.
 
There's a difference between fields being muddy and the horses standing in mud - I'm afraid the latter would put me off too.
 
Im sorry your upset OP, but the owner does have the right to refuse a loan home for whatever reason.
It's not worth ranting about just move on it obviously wasnt meant to be.
 
italylyns said:
The owner has now said no to us loaning the pony dispite being the perfect family for her as she doesnt want the pony standing in mud.
Surely everyones fields are muddy in the winter unless you keep them in which i dont like to do....its only a bit of mud and they are horses!!!!
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If the owner is that anal about 'a bit of mud' as you describe it, you're probably better off not having the pony. She sounds like she'd be a little over bearing :o.
 
You said yourself you are at the bottom of the hill and muddy - I think if I saw them ankle deep in mud 24/7 I would think my pony would come back with mud fever

I can understand the reaction, especially when you can pick and choose for loans!
 
Sorry your loan fell through but owner should realise the wet weather doesn't last for ever and the fields will recover when it's drier. I'd rather a wet field but a happy pony than otherwise but each to their own.
Our bottom field isn't known as the paddy field for nothing.
Sorry, it's a fact of life that if you're at the bottom of a hill, same as us, then gravity means you get most of the water running down into yours and it will pool in places. Add that to horses that like to play and charge about; they're better than a plough any day and you end up with a right mess; it's unavoidable and anyone with an inkling of sense should see that. You can't also ruin your summer grazing because the land is so wet otherwise you'll have nothing to turn them onto at all. I've just been out to put some hay and the mud is over my ankles at the bottom bit but the top bit is just surface wet until they play and churn it up again. You can't not turn them out like cows who are happy to be in all winter, mine would be coming through the roof and be unsafe to handle if I did that so they have to put up with a bit of mud if they want to be out. At least I know mine can act in any going!
 
I think it depends how bad it is and whether its clay soil that sticks. My gateways get muddy but they're not knee deep in it and its soft soil so falls off them.The land gets wet quickly but also dries quickly and its the type of soil it is. I can understand someone worrying about it especially if the pony has had mud fever.

Reminds me whens someone I knew sold a horse and dropped it off to the new owner, my goodness the yard had more mud then I've ever seen and she was that close to taking the horse home again. It wasn't just the fields but the tracks to the yard, in fact everywhere. We had to hug the fences to keep out of it as best we could as it was at the top of our wellies.

Unbelievable what people can put up with really.
 
Tbh if the field was really bad I would prob say no as well. There's a field never me which is terrible and would not let my horse in it but if it's only gate way that's different
 
Jen_Cots said:
You said yourself you are at the bottom of the hill and muddy - I think if I saw them ankle deep in mud 24/7 I would think my pony would come back with mud fever

Just because a field is muddy it does not mean a pony is going to get mudfever. An unfortunate name given to the condition i feel as it is not actually caused by 'mud' but is due to bacteria in certain soils that some horses react to usually when it is damp and muddy.

Ours are all out in a field and it does get very muddy this time of year around the gateways and areas where they like to stand and hang about. They do have 6 acres of hilly ground though and at the top and across to the water trough it is not excessively muddy. However, they CHOOSE to stand in the muddy bits! It has been very wet recently, i don't see how a field cannot be muddy at this time of year if there are horses on it?

A bit of an over reaction on her part I feel but maybe she has her reasons.
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I guess its hard to judge not having seen the field and not knowing the owners thoughts- perhaps she used that as an excuse but had other reservations, or perhaps the mud was just the final concern that made her say 'no'... of course we don't know. Was the pony living in a muddy field at his current home?

I'm very sorry you missed out on a pony who felt perfect for you... perhaps after a think she will ring back, but in any case I hope you get the right pony for you guys.

Our gateway is shameful, I'm sorry to say, about 100 feet in every direction from the gate looks like we tried to pave the area with dirt and water. Up the hill and Far, Bottom and Top field are all ok (although bottom field has a little area of marshland anyway).
 
I am another that would not let a pony to somewhere as you have described, sorry but its down to the owner and complaining is pointless
 
We recently had to say no to someone who wanted our coloured gelding we have for loan, but in fairness their grazing consisted of a garden (complete with washing line) & an unfenced field...i would have preferred to see a muddy but fenced field to be honest. Really sorry it hasnt worked out, maybe like you say, wait until the spring & you have less mud :)
 
I suppose it is possible that the pony does suffer from bad mud fever and you have not really said how bad the field is? I mean - we have mud around the gate to our field but it is a 4 acre field with 3 horses on it and 90% of the field is still good and grassy...

It must be bad for them to turn their noses up at it - on the other hand it might be just an easy excuse.
 
I guess it is owners discretion, and its not a great time of year to be looking at fields is it? My winter field is a bit muddy these last couple of days - its been fine most of the winter, but there has been quite a bit of rain so the top is slippery, not deep mud, but it doesn;t look great. Different story in november when I started using it and it was knee deep in grass!!
 
Half of my winter paddock is trashed and very muddy- the other half is very tired grass, but dry. The horses choose to stand in the sloppy bit, god knows why:confused:

I was on a livery yard previously where the mud in winter was truly horrendous- I still turned my horses out all day every day....I have never had a horse develop mud-fever......
 
poppymoo said:
Half of my winter paddock is trashed and very muddy- the other half is very tired grass, but dry. The horses choose to stand in the sloppy bit, god knows why:confused:

QUOTE]

Snap! Front half of my field is trashed (even more so after the 2yo hooning around after box rest) the back half has grass and is not muddy yet they choose to stand in mud :rolleyes:
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Mud fever comes from a bug, rather than mud per se :)

The reasonableness or otherwise comes down to just how muddy the field is, whether it's under hoof/over fetlock/up to knees; whether there are drier sections for the horses to stand if they choose; and is hay fed if there is no or too little grass.

To some extent is also depends on the pony in question. For example, Dizzy looks fine, but some secondary damage to her rear suspensory ligaments means that boggy fields are a no-no. I've put the hay out so as she can stand on the firmer ground to eat (the ground is muddy near the gate, which is next to where the hay is stored).

If the pony was right in all respects, are you OP able to find a different livery yard?
 
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