Our paddock is a quagmire :-(

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billylula

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I don't think I've ever seen our pony look so miserable. It's nearly 2 acres but all of it is boggy and horrible. If it's like this with one pony what will it be like with 2? And if the ground wasn't bad enough, the badgers have decided to make the floor of the field shelter their loo and have dug it up :-( Pony hates the field shelter anyway as its corrugated iron and sounds loud when its raining. Feel like a very second rate pony owner today!
 
I had a stream running down mine today :(

Luckily I have mats in my field shelter and they love being in there so gave them a few large haynets today to try and keep them happy

I keep telling myself it will recover :o
 
wondered whether making the shelter more attractive with some bedding might help. at the moment it is (very dry) earth with lots of lovely hardcore chucked around by the badgers :mad:
 
We have a 2 acre padock and it sounds similar to yours, we have dikes eithers side of it so drainage isnt to bad so no lakes as of yet just very boggy. What we did was make a 'wrecking area' many members on here advised it so she ruines only the top end. W3e then put straw around her field shelter and the really boggy bits which seems to be holding very well ! Not an answer in the long run but helps short term. Our mare didnt like her field shelter till we bedded it out and put haynets in therer aswell as her food so she has to use it. But maybe start cornering bits off so that the whole thing isnt like a marsh :)
 
Aww mine isn't too bad as it had a rest between horses earlier in the year but I do feel bad that all the leaves have fallen off the trees and now pony is sopping, plus she thinks her rug is a straightjacket so can't wear it or she won't move all day! Was trying to devise some wacky tree + tarpaulin combo field shelter in my mind, I reckon it could work!!
 
My gateways are looking a bit manky too - it's very wet today. Got the ponies in, not because its cold but to prevent the foot deep muddy:)
 
Mine too is looking like several paddling pools dotted around.

I did feel incrediby guilty that theyre out, but its not cold like someone else pointed out, and they have some natural shelter & winter coats like polar bears, just hope they can swim ;)
 
Joyous70 said:
Mine too is looking like several paddling pools dotted around.

I did feel incrediby guilty that theyre out, but its not cold like someone else pointed out, and they have some natural shelter & winter coats like polar bears, just hope they can swim ;)
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Bung some arm bands on them ;)
 
Everything here the same. All neds are confined to barracks for all but an hour, by royal decree of YO. Hardly ideal but nobody seems to "do" substantial winter turnout around here.
 
Mine are awful, we have a high rock level and there just been so much rain this year it has never got the chance to drain :( it looks green but when you actually get close it's all moss now and the water is just sat on top :( think the horses are going to be in all week this week :/
 
billylula said:
wondered whether making the shelter more attractive with some bedding might help. at the moment it is (very dry) earth with lots of lovely hardcore chucked around by the badgers :mad:
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If I remember correctly horses don't like badgers and will avoid them, so possibly until the badgers leave the horses wont use the field shelter....
 
Mine are all out naked but they have about 8 acres. It's squelchy and very muddy in one gateway but they will come back in about 4 to haynets and big beds.
What can you do, weather is the one thing we can't change so I guess it's try and make the best of it. It's certainly ruining a lot of people's grazing though and there's a lot of winter to go yet. Yuk yuk yuk
 
As long as they match, thats the main thing;)

I gave up and fenced mine into the trash-paddock with hay this morning. If/when it dries out thay can go back into the main one...otherwise they'll be in there until spring. Its either that....or nor grass next year....:(
 
Hippona said:
As long as they match, thats the main thing;)

I gave up and fenced mine into the trash-paddock with hay this morning. If/when it dries out thay can go back into the main one...otherwise they'll be in there until spring. Its either that....or nor grass next year....:(
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:D I thought that i could buy 4 sets, and they could have diagonal matching sets :p

I fenced my paddock off at the weekend, and shut mine in the back, im just hoping the brook that runs behind doesn't decide to rise up into the field :eek: i have only just thought of this while sitting here typing away! mind in three years ive not known it to happen, so fingers crossed, otherwise they'll need those armbands on express delivery :(
 
I think this is the wettest I have ever known it. I am lucky to have dedicated sand turnout, but even that is totally waterlogged. It usually drains really well. Normally we have a dry enough spell or two during the winter to use the paddocks, but not a chance of that this year.
 
Its on days like this when having a very hilly field is an advantage - gates are a mess, and bottom of field is pretty squelchy, but the top is ok. The horses like sheltering in the gorse on top of the hill if its windy :)

I'll need to put some thick socks on tonight though, I've been at grave danger of losing my wellies the last few nights! :D
 
Had to sandbag in front of my stables this morning as there was a river running down my field.
Opened the poly tunnel this am and a torrent of water poured out too!

Considering erecting a temporary scaffolding and tarp over all of our land
 
Absolutely tipping it down here in Leicestershire. We got the shelters sorted on Monday and got the lot moved so they can access them. This morning they are actually using them.:) The rest of the field is totally saturated with no hope of it ever drying at this rate. Bridle paths also a write off now. :(:(
 
Me too, we're on clay and the gateways and front ends of our fields are disgusting. Bottom of both my paddocks are ok and as that is where the best grass is both ponies spend most of the day down the far end. Ive got standing water though and we do have a stream straight through the middle which any minute now will burst its banks and then the whole of the front paddock will become a lake. Fortunately the edges stay just passable as thats the way in and out of the stables!!
 
Luckily my two are out in YO's 14 acre field which is wet and squelchy in places but quite good futher on down the field. Hopefully they will stay in this field over winter and I dont have to worry about it being trashed as its being ploughed up in spring! If we were using our normal paddock then they would have to be stabled as that gets very wet and very muddy.

Oh and getting to the yard this morning was a nightmare - floods everywhere! And I discovered that all my boots leak :(
 
So is ours anyone have any ideas how to reduce it??? Had all ditches dug out and cleared but after today's rain it's horrendous do mats work???
 
I can't decide whether to move mine in to the next paddock and wreck that or leave that til later in the winter to trash:rolleyes:

I am going to scrape the mud out the gateway with the tractor and put down hardcore just as soon as I can afford a lorry load.
 
We are lucky this year in that we have the only two horses left on the farm. Three years ago there were seven and the place was wrecked so restricted grazing was put in place. Now we are surviving after having fenced off the really boggy bits by the ponds.
 
I thank my lucky stars our field is the old ridge and furrow! The water, although forming in some 'Lake Windermere's'....just runs down the furrows and the horses has nice grass to stand on, on the ridges.

We get sticky places near the gate's etc but it's never been a quagmire, the soil is also a nice mix of sand to clay, would have been perfect for growing crops in medieval times...
 
Mine came in at 10 this morning first day in this winter. Fields beginning to look like lakes surrounding roads flooded. More rain forecast. Stables have now also flooded including hay barn with 40 odd bales of hay in it :( have had to put them back out as field has less standing water than stables! I hate rain.
 
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