Poo picking, normal for larger yards not to?

[Cocorules]

What acreage per horse do you need to make it ok not to pick up muck in your view? I have 3 ponies 14hh ish on 4 acres and have plenty of grass but still poo pick. This is not overstocked
but still a small area and it does need clearing. More land and I would feel less need to poo pick

 

[Welshie Squisher]

Pearlsacarolsinger - you are quite right, only a week or so ago my friend had her arm broken due to horses barging and scrapping at the gate.
They do get very hungry in small paddocks at this time of year.although they are great with good doers in summer.

I'm not so concerned now, I'll have poo counts done just to put my mind at rest in spring.

 

[Daytona]

My yard has a sit on mini tractor thing that they drive about on that sucks up all the poops

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Pearlsacarolsinger - you are quite right, only a week or so ago my friend had her arm broken due to horses barging and scrapping at the gate.
They do get very hungry in small paddocks at this time of year.although they are great with good doers in summer.

I'm not so concerned now, I'll have poo counts done just to put my mind at rest in spring.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's arm - I hope she recovers well.
I didn't actually mean that people could get injured, I was thinking about horse injuries.

 

[lizijj]

Hi, just a question - if you have a closed herd do you need to worm? (I have wormed regularly in the past, but considering increased tolerance to wormers, have slacked right off). I would love to have the time to poo pick, but alas do not. I have 7 acres with three horses and two ponies. The winter weather seems to break most waste down and in the dry months we harrow.

 

[newbie_nix]

We have 17+ acres here and 2 horses (plus 10 cattle) on very lush pasture (down in NZ).

Mine are both good doers so they are currently in a track system on the hilliest, rougher pasture i.e. the bits with more traditional meadow grasses and not just all rye/clover like the lower paddocks- BIG problem with rye grass staggers, laminitis, founder etc down here.

We have the space to rotate so in theory could do away with poo picking but I do it anyway.

Its great exercise and call me strange but most days I quite enjoy it. OK so I am in my first year of horse ownership , lets see if the novelty wears off!
But currently I happily chat to the boys whilst I pick up after them and its a great way to get to know the paddock - spot and remove any non beneficial weeds etc

The pasture is so rich it doesn't need all that dung re-fertilising it at the moment (might look at harrowing some back in in future if need be)

I am a keen veg gardener and love all the free fertiliser. Its worrying how excited I get watching the manure pile grow! Yes I know, I need to get out more....

My vet felt it can only help re the worming issue. We get worm counts done anyway and only worm as necessary.

I can understand though why larger yards with multiple horses might avoid it if they could get away with it as I can imagine it would turn into quite a chore. I guess it also depends on the type of pasture you have. As I said ours can probably get away with not being fertilised for a couple of years, whereas some pastures would really benefit from having the manure harrowed back in.

 

[rockysmum]

Our yard doesn't poo pick unless individual owners want to do it.

My three share have shared a paddock for years and I dont, I never had to as there is rarely any poo visible.

The trick to this is a few nettle patches and my old gelding. He has always refused to poo anywhere other than weeds and the other two largely copy him. The nettle patches are pretty disgusting and very well fertilised though. The horses dont eat near them.

Our yard is on a worming programme which we all have to follow.

Perhaps I should rent him out

 

[Bedlam]

Poo picking is necessary in my opinion and large yards ought to have machinery to do it.

Worm counting and appropriate worming is also necessary. I've found it quite scary how many responses on here think it's OK to worm once a year or to just blindly follow a yard programme whether or not it suits their horse. Wormer resistance is a problem for all of us that we all need to work together on for the benefit of all.

 

[teasle]

My horse is part of a group of 8 on about 10 acres. Even then the field gets disgusting if we dont poo pick for a few days when they are all out. Really it does not take too long and if , when your horse is out you allocate the time to poo picking that you would have spent doing the stable the job will get done. I only stop in the winter when it is too hard to push a barow on the soft, muddy ground. However, more inportantly, it is when you are out poo picking that you notice broken fencing, ragwort growing and other hazards in the field.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I have 3 on either 3, 4 or 2 (summer) acres. imo the paddocks have to be cleared-with 3 horses out 24/7 in a week that's a lot of **** and it knackers the grazing. I am on a property atm that had 4 horses on 11 acres (split into 3, 4, 2 and 1.5) that hadnt been cleared in 2 years and in the process of improving the grazing. if you can harrow and leave for weeks then that's fine, I can't.


as for worming, any vet that recommends worming every 12 weeks and never doing wec should be pointed towards the latest research and anthelmintic resistance-not everything is about saving a few quid in the short-term.

 

[lannerch]

If you don't pooh pick but you do do regular worm counts ( and worm for encrysted red worm and tape worm in the winter ) and the worm counts come back clear then how can you be criticised for not pooh picking!
Pooh picking is recent in the fact that yes it was done before but not very often , now people can get paranoid about it and it's necessity.
It is necessary in crowded fields.
But in large under grazed with horses who are clear initially you'll most likely be fine.