Poo crisis on DIY yard

Jenni_ said:
This is annoying me at my yard too ATM - horses out 24/7 but the fields horrid! Liveries responsibility and I wouldn't mind 3 barrows a week but it would only be me that done it :(

I'm going to offer to spend an afternoon in there if the yard can give me a quad and trailer but I'm not trekking a 1/4 mile to the muckheap with every barrow in a field that will easily be 30 barrows.
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We have a golf buggy that we use for poo picking! It's brill!
 
3 per person a week.

I know people work.. I do. Full time with a long commute and a buisness on top. I still manage to do my horse commitments.

I don't see why the horses should suffer for their owners laziness. I'm massively anti single horse paddocks. When we put all the horses out together into the seven acre field that have a whale of a time. Hooning around like a proper herd, and never any injuries. I want my horse to be able to hang out with his own kind.
 
The old poo-picking conundrum! The most common cause of yard dissention IME whether it the fields or clearing droppings from the school.

One yard I know of allocates a section of field per person to poo pick so you know who has and who hasn't. Problem with this is the horses tend to poo in certain areas so some people have loads and other very little. Although rotating the area would help.

Another yard I was on poo-picked with a paddock cleaner in the summer but left it in the winter - no poopicking done by individuals as large fields with 10-12 horses and you could never keep up with who did what so not worth the stress.

Personally I would just add it to the livery bill and pay someone to do it a couple of times a week - less hassle and stress all round.
 
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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Add sheep into the equation and hey presto no poo picking and no worms!

OP - if you allocate a day to a person then if the poo is not picked on that day then you know immediately who is the culprit.

Not sure how the tub trugs would work - what are you supposed to do, drag the tub trug around the field? Or fork poo into a wheel barrow and then fork poo out of wheelbarrow into tub trug? That sounds like making more work to me???

Not sure about "pretty fields" - I personally do not tend to look at a field and judge it on it's attractiveness.

Personally, I chose my yard as there is no poo picking - I just do not have the time to spend poo picking and left my last yard for this very reason.
 
Sugar_and_Spice said:
Wallykissmass, I'm on DIY and there are no extra costs for not doing the field. I'm on a yard where nobody collects droppings, they are left in the field to rot. All liveries and YO are fine with that. All horses are healthy.

I've been on many yards, most as DIY livery. Some with enough land for the horses, some with enough land only if horses stabled nights and YO collects droppings, some with overgrazed and overcrowded fields. None have I had to collect droppings from the field. It's not an acceptable part of horse ownership for me, neither is pulling ragwort or fixing fences.

I have generally paid aprox 30 pounds a week for DIY livery with no field maintenance required of me.
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I'm speechless !

3BayGeldings said:
3 a day? I wouldn't do that either - people work, you know! Split it into 6 sections, each section to e cleared once a week, you know which section is whose If it doesn't get done. Sorted.
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Its 3 a week, not per day. I think OP corrected her mistake. I just don't understand why poo picking is so hard, I presume those that don't do it, still find time to muck out stables or pay for the service ? Why then, wouldn't you care that the grass your horses are eating is contaminated ?


It takes a few minutes a day, its nothing but good simple horsecare.
 
Are the fields level?
Are they muddy?
Easy to access with the wheelbarrow?
How far does the full barrow have to be pushed?
Or, do you have a quad and trailer?

I wouldn't go somewhere where it was in my contract to clear a communal field (although I would do an individual paddock) there will always be people who do more than others for whatever reason, physical, time constraints, pure bloody idleness. If I had to push a loaded barrow through mud etc risking my back, legs etc I would rather pay someone to do it for me. I'm blowed if I would walk around a field picking up after other people in mud, wind, rain and dark.

Pay a teenager or two 20/30 pounds to do it at weekends, give them a quad and a trailer and they'll be happy.

I harrow all my paddocks when the ground is right.
20 horses on 40+ acres = over 200 piles a day - sod that for a game of soldiers ;) I'd be at it all day every day, I have better things to do.
 
mcnaughty said:
Add sheep into the equation and hey presto no poo picking and no worms!

OP - if you allocate a day to a person then if the poo is not picked on that day then you know immediately who is the culprit.

Not sure how the tub trugs would work - what are you supposed to do, drag the tub trug around the field? Or fork poo into a wheel barrow and then fork poo out of wheelbarrow into tub trug? That sounds like making more work to me???

Not sure about "pretty fields" - I personally do not tend to look at a field and judge it on it's attractiveness.

Personally, I chose my yard as there is no poo picking - I just do not have the time to spend poo picking and left my last yard for this very reason.
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I think you put the trug in the wheelbarrow, wheel around the field, lift out the filled trug, and begin again with a fresh one.
I've ordered 10 75Litre trugs and am pretty giddy about the whole system to be honest. I'm particularly excited about explaining the system to my liveries. Particularly the livery who swore blind she had put her magic vanishing field poo on the muck heap even when my eyes and security camera say otherwise.
 
amymay said:
The reason why poo picking is needed is because quite simply the horses aren't enough land.

Well, as the YO your rules apply. So you can insist or kick off if they don't do it.

Or buy yourself a poo vacume........
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Lucky you for not having to poo pick :)

We have 3 horses on 6 acres and believe me you still need to pick up the poo!

Poo vacume's cost an insane amount of money
 
I'm on a large DIY yard and we don't poo pick. Fields do not get poo picked by anyone. We do have plenty of grazing and rotate between fields every 6/8 weeks.

I would not go to a yard where I had to poo pick.

Sorry, that doesn't really answer your question does it!
 
Don't understand why poo picking is so hard? I guess you're in perfect health and physically fit then. I'm not so lucky and find it an impossibility to do, without making myself extremely ill. Spending half hour a day (the time it would take me to clear an individual paddock now) scraping muck out of grass and pushing a barrow full of poo across 100yds of field, is absolutely nothing like mucking out a stable. I know this because I used to be a groom (when I was in reasonable physical health) and did the collection of field droppings as part of my job.

Even when fit and well I never had horses in yards where as a livery I'd have to collect droppings. I want my precious spare time to be spent with the horse itself, not on land management. I have a horse because I like being around them not because I want to be a labourer. I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel this way, but most probably wouldn't dare to post it on here ;)
 
OP are YOU the YO in this scenario???

Coz there should be something in people's contracts re. poo picking. All my liveries sign a contract and that's included there.

IF people are not fulfilling the terms of their contracts then there's a simple solution; notify them in writing that if they don't do their allocated poo picking duties then you will deem them in contempt of contract and that you will give them notice to leave within the terms of that contract.
 
6 barrows a day seems excessive to me! There is no way I take 1 barrow a day out, even when they are out 24/7 in summer!

Is everyone doing their fair share? I.e if someone has more than 1 horse, they should collect more?
 
Sugar_and_Spice said:
Don't understand why poo picking is so hard? I guess you're in perfect health and physically fit then. I'm not so lucky and find it an impossibility to do, without making myself extremely ill.
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When I've been too ill to do it myself, I've organised family or paid YO to do it. Otherwise, yes, I've done it with crutches after an operation, when pregnant through mud so thick it sucked your boots off and generally when poorly with flu,ligaments torn, toes/fingers broken, bereavement etc etc.

I just thought that's what horse people do- get on with it or organise someone else to do it for you but don't leave your horse in a regular sized paddock eating around his s***.
 
I kick harrow.

I will not pick up dung - my horses are worm free as any other.

One place I grazed at made me feel so uncomfortable that I left - when I was working I'd poo pick weekly as to me part of owning a horse was to be able to ride it.

Lenght of time it takes depends on the eequipment available - this YO was a bitch we initially had the use of quad bile and trailer - she decided suddenly that we had to do mucking out with wheelbarrow. The distance from paddock to muck heap was a long way and partly up hill - my back protested horrendously. YO would have a melt down if I didn't poo pick daily. I left - wasn't worth the hassle I was no longer enjoying my horse with her breathing fire down my neck everytime I went to see my horse.
 
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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Moobucket said:
I think you put the trug in the wheelbarrow, wheel around the field, lift out the filled trug, and begin again with a fresh one.
I've ordered 10 75Litre trugs and am pretty giddy about the whole system to be honest. I'm particularly excited about explaining the system to my liveries. Particularly the livery who swore blind she had put her magic vanishing field poo on the muck heap even when my eyes and security camera say otherwise.
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Only problem with the trug system is ...How, at this time of the year is anyone supposed to be able to lift a large trug fillied with water sodden s**t??

And might I suggest that one problem with your system is allocated days - especially at this time of year when time is short, it would be best to tell them that you don't care when they do it but they must do at least 3 barrow fulls a week and that you can easily work out if some aren't pulling their weight - and you will find out who is responsible.
 
Wagtail said:
Yes, I know that method is used by some yards. I think it's lazy.Probably is, say as an owner of a full livery would you prefer me to actually care for your horse or spend all my time picking up his dung?
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...... I am sure you'd be thrilled to come to ride to find him filthy, un-exercised with a mucky stall to be told "but look at the paddocks, they are spotless " ;)
 
OP, I think I would offer your owners the choice, either they pick up or pay for someone else to do it.

Or, release them from that duty and up the livery by x amount to cover the costs of having someone do it for them.
 
On my yard we have single sectioned off Fields (with 1 horse in each. Or 2 for those who own multiple horses) so you clean up your own horses mess. If you don't then they'll be grazing in a field full of poop. Delicious.
If it gets too excessive when the field rota is changed you get 3 days to clean it out, otherwise you get asked to leave.
:)
 
No one regularly poo picks at our yard - we're supposed to but no one does it.

I did a few hours one day in the summer but was the only one who did it and I felt like a bit of a mug.

It's a difficult think to properly enforce and hard to prove who has and hasn't done it!
 
I don't think my yard has rules about poo-picking. I don't as mine is in 20 acres with 4 others and cows and sheep alternating. There's no way I'm cleaning that! I'd struggle to do 3 barrows a week unless all at weekend, lack of daylight.
 
We have to poo pick which is fine, the only difficulty being the poached muddy gateway in the winter. That does make it extremely hardwork getting the barrow out of the field when it's full and down to it's axle in mud.

Having said that, don't really know what the answer is tbh, but it is nice having a clean field.

Can't see that 3 barrows a week is too much hardship. I'm pretty sure poo picking is written into our contracts.
 
If I kept my horses at livery then I'd never go to a yard where I had to pick up poo. I'd be at it 23/7 :eek: I harrow my fields. Lazy? Not sure about that, I harrow which fertilizes the ground naturally thus saves on purchasing fertilizer and keeps my land chemical-free. I have lots of grass and my fields always look nice. Those who have to poo pick either don't have enough land for the animals it's supposed to serve or only have a handful of horses in small enclosures. I think there's a big difference between people keeping horses on hundreds of acres versus those who keep them on 5 or 10.
 
I like poo picking and was always on top of it when I was at livery which required it to be done - it only takes 5-10 minutes if you do it everyday. We were required to do it by contract and where charged £15 an hour for YO to get it done if we were not up to date.
 
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