Poo crisis on DIY yard

brighteyes said:
You can't half tell those who own the land from those who livery, eh :rolleyes:

I'd be upping the livery bill for the non-pickers and discounting the pickers...

Disclaimer: not counting the conscientious liveries with bitches for YO's and lazy co-liveries. You have my sympathy.
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The owners of the land harrows where I have one horse and I kick harrow the other.

I have great grazing at both, weed free and the grazing in good heart.

Following FEC and bloods I only worm twice a year - when I do worm I worm for everything.

I've never poo picked paddocks - kick harrowing breaks up the poo and the rain washes it in. the ground also needs the fibre put back in it.

In years gone by the farmer would have spread the contents of the winter cow shed over the paddocks to keep up the fibre content of the soil.
 
shysmum said:
Best of all when it's frozen and comes up in one slab :D
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I don't generally pick up the poos in their winter field as it's much bigger but I do clear poos away from the barn where they shelter. I loathe a big freeze - once I took a pickaxe to the poo to loosen it from the ground but as I'm ageing I find this too much effort and tend to leave it to OH!

Stencilface said:
And why not use manure as fertiliser, beats synthetic ones and people pay to put horse manure on their gardens.
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I've got two native ponies who really don't need fertilised grass. The poorer the better for them. If I let them fertilise the summer field we'd have two down with laminitis in no time. Hence clearing it all away each day.
 
Not really Lizzie. I've always been DIY. Field and yard maintenance has always been done by yo as part of the livery service.
 
This is the reason why I insist that my horse stays in his own paddock (with horsey friends on either side so he is not lonely). I poo pick every day so his paddock always looks nice. When we first arrived the YO said that she wanted everyone to poo pick their own paddocks. No one else does it (including the YO) but they are all jealous of my lovely paddock. I recently moved my horse onto a new paddock for winter grazing. It had previously been grazed by the YO's pony. It was filthy and I insisted that I was going to clear it first before I put him on it. I spent a whole afternoon, with help from my OH, and we took off 4 very full barrow loads. This is not a big paddock ( about half an acre) so it was well and truly covered in poo. We would have preferred to have left it for a few weeks before moving my horse in, but we had to move as everyone was moving around at the same time. It now only takes me 15 mins every day to keep it clean.

My OH is a vet and he has tried to explain to the YO and other liveries about the importance of keeping the paddocks clean, but they are all too lazy, and would rather rely on wormers to prevent worms.
 
amymay said:
It does if horses are on around 15 to 20 acres.

As for the poo - if you have enough room and the fields are well managed, then worms will not be an issue. It's called harrowing, rolling and resting.....;)
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Yes and no. We find it difficult to poo pick every day with 13 horses and just two people. Small paddocks are poo picked every day, large ones given a mega clean every few weeks. We only harrow fields which will have a long rest and/or go for hay.

We usually have a brief spell of hard frost during mid-winter but I have read that even hard frost will not kill redworm.

I used to be on DIY livery and with a demanding job and long hours, I could only poo pick at the weekend in the middle of winter because I was usually mucking out and bringing in the dark.
 
amymay said:
It does if horses are on around 15 to 20 acres.

As for the poo - if you have enough room and the fields are well managed, then worms will not be an issue. It's called harrowing, rolling and resting.....;)
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Agree ^^

We have a static herd, a good worming programme which consists of broad spectrum wormer Spring/Autumn (tapeworm), Equest in January and worm counts in between.
In 4 years we have never had a worm burden. Our paddocks are 4 acres each and we never poo pick. They are harrowed, rolled and rested for 6 months.
 
Can anyone pin point the time line where this poo picking became an obsession?

All the places I've trained/worked in we have never poo picked paddocks.

We would have a blast hooning around with the tractor to harrow the dung, breaking it up and exposing it to sunlight will kill off the larvae.

Maybe it's because we didn't keep horses on postage stamps which is the trend these days - they ran as a herd.

At my riding school the helpers poo picked but that was because I had 32 horses and ponies on around 15 grazeable acres.

I don't strip graze mine have the run of at least a couple of acres each, and as everyone says - they don't eat around the area of the droppings so won't be eating worm eggs anyway.

With the amount of rain that winter brings, kick the dung apart and in a few days it will be washed to bits.

As for the comment about mucking out - a 14' x 14' box is a bit different to a paddock. AND how many of you have rubber mats and a pathetic excuse for a bed 'where he can pee'. Mine have deep beds when they are in - I deep litter, have no rubber mats and my beds stay beautifully clean.
 
Am I missing something? surely if you dont pooh pick your own paddock, your own horse suffers .... at my yard we each look after our own fields and if we don't ... more fool us!
We don't need a YO chasing behind us .....
 
Achinghips said:
Am I missing something? surely if you dont pooh pick your own paddock, your own horse suffers .... at my yard we each look after our own fields and if we don't ... more fool us!
We don't need a YO chasing behind us .....
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NO they don't suffer!

The grass may and in small areas the reason for removing the dung would also to prevent the grass die off that happens under a dung - the reason I kick harrow.
 
shysmum said:
poo picking is only satisfying when it's all in a nice pile (as it came out). It's when the rain and birds have scattered it everywhere that it ain't fun at all. Best of all when it's frozen and comes up in one slab :D
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try a leaf rake , the plastic one gets it all back into a pile again .;):)
 
I have my own paddocks, and have a limited amount of land. Some people have incredibly unrealistic ideas about 'just buy another 20 acres' suggestions, which really don't help.
Managing land is not a black and white simple practice. And horses do have a reputation as field wreckers. This is nothing to do with horses, but bad management.
I have 3 horses on 2.5 acres. Poo picking is an obsession, though I have had a lot of people who have commented on how well looked after my land is. Without poo picking I would be wasting precious grazing space. The fields are evenly grazed, with less weeds. I have never had a problem with worms either.
Sometimes, if we have had a good summer I manage to get 30 small bales of hay off my field too.
With land prices as high as they are, every acre must count!

The only time I wouldn't poo pick is if I had a small number of horses on a very large field roughed off. Then I would harrow/ roll etc.
 
Any may, on a larger livery yard I can't understand it as it probably works out better for the YO and is easier in the long run. From what the OP posted it is a small livery, so the grazing is more essential to them, so clearing the field is important.

Harrowing etc is all very well, and it does have benefits to the land, but it can also be detrimental. If there are worms present, and they are harrowed in, it can take a good couple of years to clear them out of the land and for a horse to get a clean FEC. Have been told this by several people, including two vets from different practices.
 
Tnavas said:
Can anyone pin point the time line where this poo picking became an obsession?

All the places I've trained/worked in we have never poo picked paddocks.
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Was a regular thing when I was young - and in most yards I've worked in (including going round with the vacc on tractor in 2 places or rakes & shovels with tracor at another).
Perhaps you are a bit older than I? ;)
Mind you, I'm only young :p & was been sent out with a barrow in the late 60's since I could push one around :o
Mum used to do it at the (top comp) yard she worked at in the 1950's too, so its nothing new :)

I'm one of those who does clear paddocks on a daily (or even twice daily when they are out 24/7). Means I dont worry if I do take 1 evening/day off as not much to catch up on :)
Even now it takes me around 10 mins with a torch after dark to collect the daytime stuff from just 2. I ensure field is gone over properly ;) when I'm there in the daylight tho :)
 
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My 2 are on about 6 acres and yes I do wonder around it looking for poos and get at least 3 barrows a day. It's good exercise, takes about 15mins, looks nice and have good grass that is eaten down evenly as a result. I see poo picking as a 'must do' chore just as importantly as mucking out their stables.
 
My retired horse lives on about 12 acres with 3 others. Oh my the pop picking takes an age lol. So much grass still, I have to play hunt the poo. As haven't been down in the light this week, will have at least 9 barrows to shift tomorrow. I'm thinking of getting a quad and trailer!

My other horse who is on livery is in a individual paddock. I still have to poo pick even thou he is on 7 day livery.
 
Irishbabygirl said:
I see poo picking as a 'must do' chore just as importantly as mucking out their stables.
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^ :)

and - you are also checking the field as you go - you get to spot:
Fence damage
Fence disrepair
Mole hills to be flattened
Rabbit holes as they appear
Noxious plants or nuisance weeds
You also get to know the ground & where the best parts are for dryness etc.
Sometimes you get to meet the neighbours too!

To sum up - you are looking after your land, not just posting animals in & out of a gate & waving goodbye to them, leaving them to find the fence/plants etc.....
 
Fuzzy Furry - totally agree with all of this. Just this week I have picked up two horrid chinese lantern things (result of fireworks parties locally) which I would never have found until they were being removed from my horses stomach!

An in summer months it is lovely to spend time with your horse just wandering around (he loves tipping the barrow over - such fun!!) and even in winter I enjoy just being outside with him when I'm not rushing around trying to ride/ muck out, etc.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
^ :)

and - you are also checking the field as you go - you get to spot:
Fence damage
Fence disrepair
Mole hills to be flattened
Rabbit holes as they appear
Noxious plants or nuisance weeds
You also get to know the ground & where the best parts are for dryness etc.
Sometimes you get to meet the neighbours too!

To sum up - you are looking after your land, not just posting animals in & out of a gate & waving goodbye to them, leaving them to find the fence/plants etc.....
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^^ This! found a very large vertical and very deep rabbit hole today that was fresh!;)
 
My Previous yard had problems with people doing their fair share of poo picking - and being lazy with the muck heap (just flinging it into the ramp that took you to the top)

My YO made everyone come up every Saturday morning at an allocated time, where we were given an acre and half each to poo pick plus we had to sort the muck heap out. We weren't allowed to put the horses out until we were done.

If you didn't turn up, without a valid reason, you were gone

Didn't take long for people to sort themselves out and and clean up during the week as being held to a Saturday was a massive inconvenience if you were pushed for time, or wanted to ride
 
amymay said:
Fields get checked regardless of Poo picking, surely?
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I don't poo pick but my fields are walked every day with my dogs.

I am finding it hard to believe that poo picking 6 acres only takes 15 minutes though.....it would take me that much time just to walk to empty one barrow if I poo picked.

I will stress again that so far in 4 years we have not had any worm burden at all...
 
amymay said:
Fields get checked regardless of Poo picking, surely?
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Not if you are my O/H. How do you like these excuses?

When walking the dog he is supposed to check for weeds and broken fence posts.

Broken post - He didn't see it as he was not looking in that direction!!!

Weeds, he cannot look at the grass as he has to keep looking at the dog!!!
 
I have four poo stations around the field, one in each corner so no time wasted going to muck heaps etc. It really does only take 15 mins, sometimes 10 if I get a trot on.
 
I've come to the concussion that I've been truly blessed on the yards I've kept my horses, reading most of these posts.

Thank god for good land owners, managers and yo's.
 
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