Oh the mud !!

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Groom Mum

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Is everyone else just sinking in the mud? !!
I am almost shin deep in thick sticky soggy wet mud, and I really have had enough. My new fields are like nothing I have ever encountered before, I'm sure there is a river running underneath.

Because my horses live out 24/7 my horses feet are constantly covered in thick sticky mud. I'm so worried they will develop mud fever. But I cannot hose them down as I'm only on grass and I will literally flood the field more if I turn on a hose pipe.

I try to pick their feet ever day. But that's a balancing act. I am just managing to stay upright, I cannot believe I haven't gone down on my bum yet. I have actually pulled my boots off my just taking a step.

Has anyone else got a "mud" problem?
Any advice on how to deal with it?
As soon as it dries up a bit I'm getting the builders in to gravel my stable fronts and gateway.
I'm also looking to rubber mat my stables to try to get the horses in for a length of time just to clean their feet and give them some respite. Even they are sinking in the mud.
I hate it so much. Roll on the spring and summer..
 
Honestly no help/ ideas for you, just posting to say- dear God I feel your pain! It is so awful to be constantly dealing with mud & wet rugs, I can't remember the last time I saw my horses white socks :( and its rained at some point every day for the last 6 weeks. I'm fortunate our yard manager is a saint& as my horse has dust allergies he's agreed to let me rent a 2nd paddock plus frankly many yard round here have point blank refused turn out, which I can't entertain due to his health. Oh dear, roll on summer.......
 
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I've had the worst day so far today since getting my ponies :(((
I just wanted to sit in the soggy wet stable and cry :((((

The mud in front of the entrance of the stables and the shelter is unbelievable, its clay and its shin deep and I can hardly walk upright on it. I have almost gone down on my backside a few times.
There is 2 inches of water in my newly erected stables that I haven't had time and because of access been able to rubber mat, now its too wet to do it. the water isn't running from anywhere its actually coming up from the ground underneath. I have no where to give my ponies some respite from the mud. Their feet and half their legs are just thick mud. I cant put a hose on them as it will flood my field even more :(((
To finish it all off today my baby was really lame and could hardly weight bare on his hind leg so i called the vet who said he has an infection in his fetlock. I just wanted to cry. He is on antibiotics, had to have two antibiotic jabs and he has to be on bute and powder antibiotics for two weeks. I cannot put him on box rest as he wont stay in there and my other one panics outside without him. Even if I could put him in the stable its still under some water so he would be stood in that. So what i have done is opened up the field to the full size so they can get to some longer grass and maybe stay away from the stable front where its very muddy. They can still get in their shelter as they spend quite a bit of time in there. The vet says if i see him cantering around the field I have to make a small pen for them both so he cannot do that as he really needs rest. Today i watched my other one cantering around but my baby just couldn't do it so he stood and watched, so that's a blessing i suppose.

My guy who tends to my fencing is coming tomorrow ( weather permitting) to build a temporary ply wood sturdy floor in their shelter with some non slip material just so they can have a dry area. It will rot in a few months if it stays this wet but we are going to screw it down so we can get it up easy too. I just don't know what else we can do. I wish i had a concrete area. But this has made my mind up that come spring when the ground is dry I'm getting the whole of the front of my stables fenced off and gravelled. I'm not going through next winter with no dry area for these ponies. It's been the worst nightmare ever. Has anyone else got same problem? in that they have no area that isn't under water?
 
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No help I'm afraid but I can sympathise! Am keeping my boys in for a few days just so I can have a few days of them being relatively mud free and to allow their feet to dry out and for me to remove as much of the mud as possible!
 
I wish I could keep my boys in overnight. But they are happy enough for an hour with a Haynet. Then they wanna get out and get all stressy. I just want to dry their feet out long enough to clean them up a bit.
 
Ahhh the struggle that equestians go through, the horses at my riding school are all stabled but all the fields, even the paths are muddy, tried to groom my usual riding horse after them being in the field for 3 hours and i ended up with mud everywhere! I dont really have any advice.
 
And now next week we are getting snow. oh Lord. Will this affect what little grass we have left? also im really worried that the sludge i have around my stable doors and shelter will freeze and end up like a skating rink.
 
Mine is out 24/7 currently and I too am hoping his feet/heels will be ok. Im bringing him in twice per week to slather barrier cream on, but I'm not washing them off first (I don't want to make them cold and wet) and I don't have enough time to properly wash and dry them off.
He hasn't got white feet so at least his skin wont be too sensitive but i do worry about it.

I am in wiltshire too, it hasn't been too bad here compared to everywhere else so I dread to think what its been like further north.
Id rather it was freezing cold and ankle deep in snow than this...
 
I think you may get your wish next week. Snow is forecasted. But I wonder how that will affect the 8 inches of sloppy sludgy mud I have now outside their shelter.
 
Hi! This may not help much but I have found that putting old carpet down in gateways helps a bit. Not much, but at this stage anything is worth a go! We're on clay too, and today I have given in like you and opened up the field so they can get away from the mud. My friend scrapes up the stones that get washed down the hill onto the lane and painstakingly makes herself little walkways with them. It's taken her years!!

Try to keep your chin up - we're over halfway through winter now (surely?). Hope your baby recovers quickly.
 
Thank you. This is really tested my stamina and resilience ! Because he's on bute and antibiotics twice a day I went down tonight to give him his second dose. I parked the car with headlights across field as my solar lights are crappy. I traipsed across the floods and sludge. The ponies were after me as I was carrying the small feed I mix it with. So I was trying to keep them off me and stay on my feet and I forgot my muck heap us in my field on the edge and walked through it and fell right in it !!! At least I had a soft landing. I just laughed otherwise I'd cry. I then dragged my wheelbarrow full of hay over to the gate so that when I go there before work tomorrow at 6.30'again in pitch dark I can just throw the hay over to them. Oh and today I tried to build a damn to divert some water flooding my field that worked a bit. Every single day is a challenge. The thing that keeps me going is that it can only get better. Can't it ????
 
In Scotland we are pretty much under water in places, & snow hit some parts yesterday with more hitting today at some point. We are lucky we have so many fields, but they are in their winter ones now and some are so much worse than others. Nothing to be done apart from try to keep the horses as comfy as possible.
 
My 3 normally live out 24/7 on a clay field, which gets very very clarty, I might bring them in overnight to dry their legs, but on Boxing day, the stream burst its banks flooding the field and the run off from upper arable fields was the final straw, horses now in my open barn, being walked out daily for grazing, they are warm, dry and can move around freely and more to the point, still content to be in, field has drained slightly but still has standing water on it, so the barn it is for now
 
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