Rain, rain and more rain - changes to seasons in last 10 years

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Hi everyone,

Aware that there are a few posts about rain previously but coming in fresh from November 2025.

How many others out there are under water with a rain forecast set in to not stop for 7 days? I am South West of UK and even by English standards this is wild - or wild compared to the last time I had horses in November - is this the norm now?

For context I'm new here - hi everyone! First time back having horses after a 10 year break and second guessing myself constantly - feel like ive forgotten everything, not made any horsey friends yet around here to chat to really. So keep finding myself here looking up threads and loving the advice available so thought id sign up - will also stop me bending the (non-horsey) OH's ear off!

Would love to hear others thoughts/situations/forecasts and also how you are keeping spirits up amidst all the wet weather.

Also any advice for me on how the seasons have changed in the last 10 years and adjustments you've had to make to your horse management because of it would be awesome.

My memory of November is it felt like winter and was cold with frost some mornings - not this endlessly downpour of rain and not dropping below 10 degrees. Was 16 degrees here this Saturday when the sun came out. I was in a T-shirt! 🤯

😊....sorry for long opening thread!
 
My fb memories showed that 5 years ago we had a proper frost at this time but the last few years have been wet! although this year isn't as we as it was last year! but still winters are defo getting milder and wetter! I remember when I got my first horse 25 years ago, I would love the sight of frost on the fencing. I remember worming after the first frost! I've got my womers lined up but I cannot see us having a frost any time soon!
 
The weather is totally mental at the moment - usually I'd be shovelling feed into my guys like no mans business, have little to no grass and be feeding tons of extra hay, with them in at least 250g turnout rugs.

Today, both my boys are out in 200g with no necks, have a ton of grass in their field and a stupid amount more in the field I've been resting, I've not needed to feed any extra hay in the field yet and I'm not feeding anywhere near what I usually would feed them.....oh and the temperature is like 10 degrees plus! I was boiling just mucking out this morning.....

I'm always been told to worm after the first frost in winter - but given the current weather - I can't see a frost happening any time soon! x
 
Welcome to the forum!

We are currently being plagued with rain and we've had it for quite a while now. We're on the NW coast of Scotland and we've been getting lots of rain for months, even when places in England were bone dry. To be honest I'm getting really fed up of it, especially when it's accompanied by gale force winds (happens frequently up here!)
I don't mind riding in the rain but the horses are consistently wet (they do have lightweight rugs on) and we have no stables, so tacking up and staying relatively dry is a problem.

We've just shifted a round bale into the haybell and got absolutely soaked in the process even though I was wearing waterproofs!
 
We moved from Suffolk to South Lanarkshire in June and although we had a bit of sun and mild, dry weather, there's been a lot of rain, and we had gale force winds for the first two weeks, non-stop (and I had been working regularly in Scotland for about 3 years so was well acquainted with the weather!). My potted plants went into shock and some haven't recovered! We overlook the upper Clyde and it's been super high for weeks.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone - a comfort to know its not just me feeling it.

AppyLover (sorry dont know how to tag) i have the exact same grass situation. To the point where 2 of mine are huge and im thinking whether to restrict their grazing but I cant do that because with all this rain the field will be a mud bath in seconds. I just keep thinking surely the grass cant be retaining much goodness we've barely seen sunlight and been under water. Got no rugs on - the 2 fatties need to burn some off getting wet - but the TB bless her I can't get her dry enough to put a rain sheet on - so I feel you there NancyKitt! Mine are all live out too and are soaked and caked in mud. Have just accepted no riding until the weather changes.

Am currently looking out the window and its like someone is throwing buckets of water out of the sky (sigh).

Thank you for the welcomes everyone!
 
Observations over the years show that a really hot dry summer is often followed by two wet winters.
Mud rash, thrush, soft feet are a fact of life.
Horse constantly getting wet in warmish temperatures can lead to rain scald. As can wearing a rain sheet in the same conditions.
Mild weather until January often heralds a really cold spell from February on as far as April.
Trying to work out the best time to worm for encysted redworm, and becoming more confused.
 
Absolutely biblical here in south west Ireland.
A whole week of rain last week and another week forcast.
Fields are bogs, all in (bar 3 retirees on 20acres) on allweather turnouts.
One horse with atrocious mud fever and one with a snotty nose(no temp or cough).
Too wet not to rug and too warm to heavy rug.
It's a lose lose situation here Im afraid.... :(
 
Welcome!

Weather has been odd all year. I'm on sand so had to feed hay most of the summer due to the ground not holding any moisture for the grass to survive never mind grow. I've now got more grass than I've had all year.

My 2 fatties are out naked and loving it - the rain is helping them self regulate as they stand in the shelter when it's bad. The precious one has a 100g turnout on, mostly to keep him dry as when wet the little darling shivers. He gets pushed out of the shelter too so he's often stood in the rain.

We're still in double figures temperature wise.

I think it's going to be a wet winter this year.
 
Climate change, and its speeding up. Lots of eminent scientists think we are past the point of no return. Its not going to get any better from here on. Weve got a while yet and scientists are working on things to mitigate it, but its going to end in wars and famine as it currently stands. I am very glad I will not be around to see it.

And just because I havent said it enough, we are in the middle of a mass extinction event. Actually living in an age where the sixth mass extinction event, the Holocene extinction is happening all around us and no one really seems to care. The planet has lost half of its species in recent years. And even worse, we have caused it this time.

Not too long from now we will be looking back on owning horses and worrying about mud and the price of hay and wishing we could go back to that.
 
I’m in Dorset and it has been like this for the last few winters. 2024 wasn’t quite as bad but the two years before that it felt like it never stopped raining and I really struggled mentally with it as well as physically.

My horses are out 24/7 with only natural shelter. Luckily the field is undulating so had drier places but the high traffic areas are really bad. Getting round bales out is difficult.

If you look up rainfall maps it shows the South West as having really high levels.
 
I think what I also find difficult mentally is that the councils are so awkward about shelters, hardstanding etc when it’s fine for them to build huge housing estates everywhere nearby. Mud mats just aren’t enough although do help a bit.
 
It's been fairly wet here in South Wales for the last two or three weeks. I think it's my fault as I said when we moved them back into the winter field (later than usual as it had been so dry the gateway to the summer field was still passable - normally we have to move them before we run out of grass because the gateway is on a slope which gets very wet and muddy and difficult to navigate, this year we ran out of grass before the gate was a problem) "if this weather continues there's enough grass for the horses to stay out until Christmas". They've been in a week now :rolleyes:. There's still a fair bit of grass but it would get too churned up if we left them out 24/7.

2 years ago was exceptionally wet, last year wasn't so bad. Before that I think it was 2020 or 2021 that was exceptionally wet. About 30% of our village flooded - it stopped about 50m from our house. We're on a bit of a hill so I wasn't worried about our place flooding but it was quite an eye opener to see it so close to the house.

OP - my boy was off work last year and naked. I had to give him a bit of a clip (chest and top of front legs) as he was sweating so much, would that be an idea for your horses? I'd put a rug on the TB even if she's wet. Rug technology has improved so much even over the last 10 years that you can put a rug on a wet horse now and they'll still dry off underneath. If you can towel off any thick wet mud first, that will help them dry off and save getting your rug filthy.
 
I’m midlands and we’ve had a very dry and hot summer. Last week it was still 18 degrees in the day!
Today the epic rain has started and it’s forecast for as far as the BBC weather app goes. They are coming in tomorrow as all miserable, really muddy and the grass has gone.

My pony is a lover of her stable so she’ll be over the moon to come in. She’ll be getting ménage turnout throughout the day but is currently lame after she went through a fence when fireworks were going off.

She is a cob and her feathers are diabolical even though she’s been getting regular pig oil. I’m going to wash them tomorrow, scrub out her thrush prone hooves and accept that mucking out season has started!
 
We must be between bands of weather. It's been more damp than wet, with the occasional big downpour. A local fencing contractor was saying that he was trying to replace some fence posts only last week and 4" down, he was hitting hard dry soil.

We've had grass growth but its pointless, long stuff lacking in nutrition. Put my boy out overnight last week for a treat on fresh grass and he came in hungry.
 
I will go a bit against the mood and say I hope we do have a wet winter, given the state of the reservoirs and ground water. I'll hate trogging through the mud, but I will be very happy to see those water levels go up. Though my caveat is I'd like slow, steady rain, not the monsoons we seem to be getting.

My horse is still muzzled, we have lurid green fields and he's just had a high worm count. Colder weather would be a big help!
 
Highmileagecob said:
Observations over the years show that a really hot dry summer is often followed by two wet winters.
Mud rash, thrush, soft feet are a fact of life.
Horse constantly getting wet in warmish temperatures can lead to rain scald. As can wearing a rain sheet in the same conditions.
Mild weather until January often heralds a really cold spell from February on as far as April.
Trying to work out the best time to worm for encysted redworm, and becoming more confused.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more about the rain scald.
 
November is always wet, although last week’s run of 18c days was insane.

We’re on clay so currently both ponies are muzzled. Sectioning off the field into small paddocks won’t work in winter as it will be too muddy.

Currently procrastinating about walking the dog.
 
I've just overseeded my paddock which was intended to be their winter turnout. There's minimal grass and a billion (now weed killed) weeds because it never had a chance t recover from last year's wet winter then no bloody rain from end of Feb onwards. I'm sick of buying grass seed to watch it germinate then burn off so it can take its chance over winter. They can trash what they're on and move in the Spring. I'm southeast on light soil.
 
Annagain said:
It's been fairly wet here in South Wales for the last two or three weeks. I think it's my fault as I said when we moved them back into the winter field (later than usual as it had been so dry the gateway to the summer field was still passable - normally we have to move them before we run out of grass because the gateway is on a slope which gets very wet and muddy and difficult to navigate, this year we ran out of grass before the gate was a problem) "if this weather continues there's enough grass for the horses to stay out until Christmas". They've been in a week now :rolleyes:. There's still a fair bit of grass but it would get too churned up if we left them out 24/7.

2 years ago was exceptionally wet, last year wasn't so bad. Before that I think it was 2020 or 2021 that was exceptionally wet. About 30% of our village flooded - it stopped about 50m from our house. We're on a bit of a hill so I wasn't worried about our place flooding but it was quite an eye opener to see it so close to the house.

OP - my boy was off work last year and naked. I had to give him a bit of a clip (chest and top of front legs) as he was sweating so much, would that be an idea for your horses? I'd put a rug on the TB even if she's wet. Rug technology has improved so much even over the last 10 years that you can put a rug on a wet horse now and they'll still dry off underneath. If you can towel off any thick wet mud first, that will help them dry off and save getting your rug filthy.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this - all new rugs bought this year so maybe I could get away with chucking the rain sheet on after a few dry hours.

Another poster mentioned rain scald - this is the worry with the TB but last time I left her in a rain sheet (no fill) she got sweaty (she runs hot) so then it had to come off. I cant really win right now sadly as both of these scenarios can cause rain scald. 😫

The sun came out on Saturday morning and it was 16 degrees here and the other mare who has already grown a huge thick winter coat was sweating. Refused point blank to go and stand in the huge shade spot so I actually had to cool her off using cold water. Thankfully it was nice for several hours so she was dry before the rain started back up. She stood like a statue for the cold water so I knew she appreciated it. It was around this moment I wanted to start this thread because I thought this is crazy. Its November! Ive never experienced this kind of horse management worry before - just dont know what to do for the best for them half the time right now!
 
Surbie said:
I will go a bit against the mood and say I hope we do have a wet winter, given the state of the reservoirs and ground water. I'll hate trogging through the mud, but I will be very happy to see those water levels go up. Though my caveat is I'd like slow, steady rain, not the monsoons we seem to be getting.

My horse is still muzzled, we have lurid green fields and he's just had a high worm count. Colder weather would be a big help!
Click to expand...
We've just had a high worm count too (East Yorkshire). Very surprising as we poo pick every day and there have been no other horses in these paddocks for over a year. Last count in early Spring was 50. Also one of ours had the first case of laminitis in May. Our vet and farrier say this year has been very strange. Oh for the days when rugs were off on 1st April and on 1st October 😔
 
Billabongchick said:
I think what I also find difficult mentally is that the councils are so awkward about shelters, hardstanding etc when it’s fine for them to build huge housing estates everywhere nearby. Mud mats just aren’t enough although do help a bit.
Click to expand...
Agreed! But if your shelter is moveable, and for animal welfare, likewise mudmats, they can’t really interfere other than insist you move them occasionally. Better than nothing.
 
Billabongchick said:
I think what I also find difficult mentally is that the councils are so awkward about shelters, hardstanding etc when it’s fine for them to build huge housing estates everywhere nearby. Mud mats just aren’t enough although do help a bit.
Click to expand...

Dorset council only act on reports of planning issues. I have first hand experience thanks to some lovely neighbour's, but good conversations with the council guy said they no longer go out looking for 'illegal things' they only respond to complaints.

Ironically they were only interested in the shipping containers we use as feed and tack rooms and didn't even mention any of the shelters or chicken sheds we have built.
 
Tbh I don’t see much of a difference, it’s winter in Scotland so very much wet windy and cold.

This time last year was rather dry, our horses were still out 24/7 until first week in December. This year they came last week. Anytime after October week is a bonus for ending 24/7 turnout.

Some years are drier and colder some years are wetter and windier. Swings and roundabouts
 
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