Poo picking - please be honest

catembi

catembi

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I thoroughly understand the importance of poo picking, ie it's better for the worm count to poo pick than it is to worm (altho better to do both) etc etc.

But I simply can't get on top of it! I've got a horse & a pony on 2 1/2 acres & altho I do a couple of hours most weekends & get 1 to 2 HUGE barrows off, I'm still getting further behind.
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When we were DIY with just mine on 9 acres, I didn't bother cos they poo'ed on one bit & ate in the rest. But with less field, I'm really doing my best & not winning. It's v disheartening.
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So how does everyone else manage cos I'm obviously doing something wrong!!
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But please be honest - if you don't want to 'own up' under your own name, pretend you're speaking on behalf of a lazy 'friend'...
 
My lazy friend
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poo picks in the summer when her three horses are strip grazed but in the winter when her horses are on a large field she can't manage it so doesn't. Horses are wormed and the fields are harrowed.
 
I started off by poo picking every day but it knackered me out so I now do every other day and its done quickly as poo doesn't build up beyond management. It's certainly not my fav job as my neds field is a fair old walk from the yard. He is wormed once in the Autumn and worm counted regularly.
 
I dont!

at livery we have a poo hoover and when i was at home/down south we grazed big 4/5 acre fields so they were rotated and harrowed. we never poo picked unless they were in small paddocks - and even then anything over an acre was also rotated and harrowed

worm counts were always low and we wormed every 3 months
 
There are only three horses on our yard and they poo for England! I try and poo pick daily as it is a real chore if you leave it as I found out today. I could'nt be bothered for the last two days and ended up taking out four large wheelbarrows. Thats just my share as the other person we share with will do her bit. I think it is worth doing as it keeps the grazing looking kind of fresh and I dread to think how many poos there would be if we just left it.
 
i go in with my quad and little trailer once a week to take everything out then take the barrow in every other day to kep on top of it, i combine it with running the dogs around so does two jobs in one.
 
I don't do it in the winter when they're in the big field (13ish acres), but I have been doing it in their summer paddock (2.5 acres). I was almost keeping on top of it when there was just 2 in the field, but now there's 4 I can't keep on top of it. Plus noone else bothers, and I'm not picking up 3 other horses poo. I'm hoping to get him into the winter field asap (waiting for the grass to die a bit!), and I'm just going to leave the wee field and hope its gone by next summer
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My lazy friend
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poo picks in the summer when her three horses are strip grazed but in the winter when her horses are on a large field she can't manage it so doesn't. Horses are wormed and the fields are harrowed.

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Me too.

Summer field is out the back of the house and we use our neigbours land too so do it out of consideration for them as well. We put the poo into bags and then if it is dry enough take a small trailer out to pick them up and take them to the muck heap. Takes me and my Mum about 2.5 hours a week - we are a bit slow because her dogs come too and so we end up playing with them some of the time.

In the winter it is an impossible task with 3 (one does elephant sized droppings). We used to cope with 2 by dragging the bags across the field but one extra has made it impossible. I was spending all my time collecting manure and not riding.
 
OH or myself poo pick daily without fail. By doing it daily it just takes 5 - 10 mins (for three) where as if you only do it weekly it becomes a long, hard chore.
 
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But I simply can't get on top of it! I've got a horse & a pony on 2 1/2 acres & altho I do a couple of hours most weekends & get 1 to 2 HUGE barrows off, I'm still getting further behind.

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To be honest, that's your problem. A horse will produce a couple of (ordinary-sized) wheelbarrows full per day, therefore, if you leave it for a week and as you've got two, you would need to do approx 28 (ordinary-sized) barrowloads in one go to clear the field. Daunting (and not to say, knackering!) task. Some every day or two really concerted efforts at the weekend is the only answer.
 
Ponio has a small field to himself over winter and spring. I poo pick that regularly, as there's only him. He's grazed with sheep, which tend to spread it out a little .

Later in the year he's in a big field with others, which doesnt get poo picked as it's only used by the horses in the summer. The rest of the year it's rested, then grazed by cattle and sheep.
 
Mine are in 2 acre paddocks (24/7) at the moment and I was poo picking 9 horses worth a couple of weeks ago, I did it every other day and it only took an hour. Now I've gone down to 6 (2 liveries went and sold one) and I still poo pick every other day and it takes half an hour. I also have my secret weapon,which is my quad bike and trailer.

Luckily in the winter they'll go in a 10 acre field and I'll only have to harrow.

My adice to you is try and do it every day if you can as it will only take 20 minutes!
 
The big fields I harrow, the smaller night time paddock (to keep the Houdini foal safe) is 3/4 acre and I do that once a day with the quad and trailer. I probably wouldn't be quite so fussy except that the paddock is right on the road and outside the kitchen window, I can't bear to have to look at a messy field and it looks bad to passers by. 4 horses in the night paddock produce about a trailer load per day.
 
Mine are poo picked once a day. When turned out in a large field I use a localcontractor who has a vacuum collector and also a brush and collector.

One of mine got Laminitis as a result of emerging encystead small red worms (which don't show up in a worm count) so since then I have been very carefull.
 
Every day if I can. We only have two horses, each in a 2 acre paddock. There's a big hedge around the edge of each, so I just go out with buckets and rubber gloves and pick them up and then put them right under the hedge, which looks very healthy on it! Agree it is a very daunting task in the depths of winter when it's always dark and I can only get out at weekends!
 
mine lives in heard of 5, poo pick once a day in summer, is thrown to the side fencing, winter fields never get pooh picked. fields are harrowed. had worm count done the other month and was told don't really have to worry about worming but we all do it still.
 
Poo pick once at if not twice at day, if you get behind, Blitis it! Give your self a morning (what ever) and clear the whole field, fresh start. Other idea is to get a few markers (Electric fence posts are good) In bigger fields or maybe in your case this method works well. Hypoheticly dived the field into a few sections and use a marker (I put the electric post next to the normal post, or tie a big bow or something) and then do a different section each time.
 
I poo pick once a week, but the feild my boy is in is shared with six other liveries and so we each do a day each and we always clear it, so it's kept on top of. No turn out in winter, so no poopicking!
 
its something that Ive always detested so I found the easy way round it-I pay someone to do it for me!
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. Ive got 9 plus the pony and donkey so theres lots of it, but then hes well paid to do it! He wombles around with his pod thing stuck to his ears singing away and getting a sun tan too so hes well happy-Im happy too
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. He does it once a week in the summer and every 10 days in the winter when the boys are on the grotty winter paddocks. It gives me time to do more important things and saves me the hassle.
 
I hate not poo picking, but my horse has been turned away in an eight acre field and it'd take me (seriously) an hour a day to clear it! So although I hate not doing it, it just isn't practical.
Then horses at the yard are only in less than an acre (between two horses, fields rotated as we have about 20 acres) and they are poo picked every day without fail. Or at least the fields I deal with are!
 
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