Poo picking purgatory - how much does yours produce?

JulesRules

JulesRules

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 October 2012
Messages
1,806
Location
Green and pleasant land
Visit site
Strange question, but how many poos do everyone else's horses do a day?

Since moving to a new yard my horse seems to be pooping for England! I'm taking out about 10 a day and I can hardly fit them in the barrow. If I miss a day of pooh picking it becomes a nightmare. She used to do about 6 or 7 a day at my old yard.

Is the grass richer at new yard? I've started getting paranoid that someone is putting their horse in my paddock. I'm sure that's just my paranoia, but I'm spending so much time poo picking I never have time to ride!
 
I had my 3 on my garden for 3 days to 'cut the grass' and I have just took off 3 barrows. That was a 14h2, 14h2 and 11h
 
My 11.2hh does six a day and they fit in a standard sized bucket.
My 12.2hh does about a dozen and its about half a wheelbarrow full.

I think i may need to get out more!
 
15.1hh 16 yr old mare does about 18-20 small well formed poos (she is a total pig and doesnt seem to have an 'off' button when it comes to appetite. 14.1hh 14 yr old gelding does about 8 - 10 big poos which are more of a heap. Amounts to about a normal wheel barrow full. Both on same very short grazing 1 1/2 acre field with no extra hay and handful of chaff with vits. Both over weight!!
 
My 15.1 cob cross does 8 -12 per 24 hours (usually 11 - 12, so one every couple of hours or so), out 24/7, but on restricted grazing.
 
My two are in over night currently say 6pm - 8.30am, I poo pick at 9pm taking two from one box and one from another but they are not yet being fed more than a handful for coming in and hay that night. During the day my hubby poo picks :) 3/4 - 1 barrow from 15h and 16.1 and two minis.

I once read somewhere that the average horse (say 15.2 m/w) does around 9ton of poo a year, thats a lot of shovelling!
 
My boy used to do 20-22 when he came to me, this dropped to about 14. Since having laminitis he is on very restricted grazing and they have dropped off loads, I am now obsessed and am putting him out more with his muzzle in the lusher grass to increase his poo frequency as am now worried about colic. I now can tell you precisely how many poos/24hrs my has done but couldn't tell you how many my 2 children in nappies have produced despite changing them all !
 
Last edited:
Horses should poo roughly once an hour and if you reckon they are foraging for around 16 hours per day then anywhere between 10 and 16 would be normal.
 
Three horses (14.2, 15.0 and 16.2) living out 24/7 on ok grazing, a small amount of hay and a hard feed each for breakfast (old large boy gets tea too) are currently producing roughly 35-40 poos between them. I find sad pleasure in counting! They topped out at 53 when they moved paddocks a while ago. No hay needed then!
 
I take out 6-7 full barrows a day - it's mind-numbing, but at least i know their guts are working! When it drops below 5 barrows a day, I move them into a new field. Four horses - 16.1-17.1hh
 
Sadly I do count, largely because I was concerned that at a former yard the boys were not producing enough! It also tells me what the grass is doing and whether they need more or less.

The worse this year was 50 in 24 hours from the two of them (16.2hh ID and 15.1hh cob) just after they moved on to a new field. They have now stabilised at around 22 between them in 24 hours. The grass is short and they are having to work a bit harder to eat but they can both do with dropping a bit of weight and I think this is about perfect. Once the number drops off to less than 16 per day between them, we will consider hay in the field.

Even more sadly, my fieldmate and I regularly text each other on numbers of droppings...
 
I did a thread on this a few months ago, my concern was that my mare new to a muzzle was a colic risk as hers dropped to very few in 24 hours. I think the grass was too short then and I ditched the muzzle. She is now in 8 -3 and does only one or two in her box, out she does around 8 which as she's a porker is about right I think, she's on restricted grazing and soaked hay. Her weight is coming down but her mbelly remains looking foal ready any tips on that?
 
10 a day! I wish! my Shetland does 17 a day!!
my 2 horses between them do about 30, Its never ending! I've been really sad and counted how many I can get in my barrow in the past too and its about 25!!!
 
Mine must be in a terrible state I worry if I get more than a barrow full off all four of them and usually get about a 3/4 of a barrow in 24/hours so as long as i get more than 4 each I am happy. What I look for is consistency rather than numbers if they look as they should then I am more than happy so soft and breaking on contact with the ground if they get hard and pellety I give them more grass If I had them doing 24 each in 24/hours they would be off their feet and the size of a house they are hardly thin now in fact if wasn't for the poo rate dropping I would give them less grass I guess it is what is normal for mine which shows just how different they all are. So 4 is a minimum and 8 a maximum if I can manage it well enough
 
I can easy get two wheelbarrow loads daily from my 16 hand TB mare and my 10 hand donkey. Its not so much how many my mare produces its the size of them! She is such a dainty looking wee horse but could easily put an elephant to shame with the size of her poos :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top