Rain Ranting Thread

[GrassChop]

I've decided to make a rain/bad weather thread so that all that are suffering with this endless rain can all come and get it off their chest and perhaps for some moral support!

I am so utterly fed up of it, to the point of tears and not the first ones either! I don't remember it ever being this bad and there is still no end in sight. My forecast is saying we only have 3 dry days over the next two weeks. My fields are wrecked, the hardcore and mats on my gateways are no longer to be seen including the small hard standing I had which has also given up, everything is covered in mud. My back, legs and feet are cramping from trying to walk through certain areas of field and pull wheelbarrows of hay through it. I am really struggling.

 

[slimjim86]

I'm with you! Bloody Shetland is so fat after spending 2 months in the bigger winter field so we could give our smaller paddock a break so we've had to move them back to manage her and it's looking awful after just 3 days

 

[GrassChop]

I'm with you! Bloody Shetland is so fat after spending 2 months in the bigger winter field so we could give our smaller paddock a break so we've had to move them back to manage her and it's looking awful after just 3 days

Nightmare. Could you not have her just with a companion on the smaller field?

 

[Sprogladite01]

Also in solidarity with you here. Keep chucking my two out into the knee deep mud because the lunge pen is flooded, which makes the yard, their stables and the tack room flood. Have had drainage engineers out but it's a right performance as the ditches causing issues for us don't belong to us/aren't on our land.

My youngster is full of beans and is wrecking my nerves when it comes to riding and there's no end in sight! Aaaahhhhhh

 

[slimjim86]

Nightmare. Could you not have her just with a companion on the smaller field?

Sadly no one else available to keep her company. The field will recover, it always does, we just have to keep making sure they have plenty of hay until then, then give it a few weeks and we'll be complaining there's too much grass and worrying about lami

 

[GrassChop]

Also in solidarity with you here. Keep chucking my two out into the knee deep mud because the lunge pen is flooded, which makes the yard, their stables and the tack room flood. Have had drainage engineers out but it's a right performance as the ditches causing issues for us don't belong to us/aren't on our land.

My youngster is full of beans and is wrecking my nerves when it comes to riding and there's no end in sight! Aaaahhhhhh

That sounds awful as well. I was putting hay into the shelter for mine to get them off the wet ground but that now floods too, along with the stables. I think it feels worse because it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon and options are limited as even places that didn't flood before, now do.

I hope you manage to sort the drainage out somehow. Could you do some in hand work with your youngster in the meantime so you don't lose more confidence?

 

[GrassChop]

Sadly no one else available to keep her company. The field will recover, it always does, we just have to keep making sure they have plenty of hay until then, then give it a few weeks and we'll be complaining there's too much grass and worrying about lami

That's a shame. I keep telling myself this too that it will recover but it feels that by the time it does, it'll be raining again!

 

[SantaVera]

It's awful

 

[southerncomfort]

Yep. I made the mistake of looking at the long range forecast.

Genuinely worried that it's going to be another wet spring and summer. The thought makes me want cry.

 

[GrassChop]

Yep. I made the mistake of looking at the long range forecast.

Genuinely worried that it's going to be another wet spring and summer. The thought makes me want cry.

I've just done the same. Great.

 

[blodwyn1]

My fields have never been so wet and there seems no end in sight! I have only ridden three times this year and to be honest it all doesn't seem worth it anymore.

 

[GrassChop]

My fields have never been so wet and there seems no end in sight! I have only ridden three times this year and to be honest it all doesn't seem worth it anymore.

I've barely ridden either or even just doing in hand stuff with them is limited as it's no fun for anyone trying to do it whilst getting soaked through and having nowhere with dry ground to do it either. It's utterly rubbish.

 

[Sprogladite01]

That sounds awful as well. I was putting hay into the shelter for mine to get them off the wet ground but that now floods too, along with the stables. I think it feels worse because it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon and options are limited as even places that didn't flood before, now do.

I hope you manage to sort the drainage out somehow. Could you do some in hand work with your youngster in the meantime so you don't lose more confidence?

Yes our shelter is flooded too but we're still putting hay in there as nowhere else is any less wet!

Yes have been doing in hand work too but she's one who gets bored quickly so if we do too much of the same thing she creates her own entertainment I am much more grey-haired than I was this time last year! Lol.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

We are lucky in that we don't have deep mud but the fields are so wet and waterlogged. Such hard work just walking across them. Have given up taking my dogs with me as they just get too filthy so I have to walk them separately as well. Knackering.

 

[GrassChop]

Just saw this. Definitely can relate!

 

[Julia0803]

I am also totally fed up.

Everywhere is so boggy and flooded, or all the top soil has washed away and reduced to loose fist size pieces of flint, which is also horrible to walk over (real turn your ankle stuff).

I’m supposed to be getting ponio fit for our first endurance event in less than 2 weeks. It’s been a miserable slog. We only have one route that’s on a gravel/grit base and is therefore ok to trot/canter on. We’ve been doing repeats of the same loop for several weeks now.

The field was drying up over Friday/Saturday, you could just about walk across it in trainers… it rained all day Sunday. Back to standing water in all the many many divets. It was dry yesterday but has rained hard for almost 12 hours today and everything is completely flooded…. Again.

So fed up.

 

[Baroque]

Apparently it won't rain here a week next Friday. So there's that.

 

[ElectricChampagne]

Oh I hear ya, fields trashed! I'm so sick of it it's beyond a joke now.

Had planned to be well into my youngsters training at this stage but I'm barely able to ride. I think sometimes I'd be better off keeping hedgehogs!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Another one fed up everything was drying up until Sunday torrential rain and again today so back to lakes in the field

 

[SpotsandBays]

And me! I want to get cracking with my two but without an arena, I just haven’t been able to yet!
Also bummed because I’ve had to put them into one of our nice paddocks because a goose flew into the wires above the winter trash paddock and caused enough damage to cut electric to half of the village! I can’t put them back in there until the electric board have been to sort it (god knows when that will be)

 

[Above the snowline]

It’s terrible but Spain have a serious drought!

Spain set to declare drought emergency in Catalonia – DW – 02/01/2024

Barcelona and its surroundings are preparing for tighter water restrictions amid a historic drought in Spain's northwestern region of Catalonia, where authorities are expected to declare a drought emergency for an area that is home to six million people.

www.dw.com

 

[Sandstone1]

I have heard there is a snow bomb on the way..... Not sure its true but maybe a change from rain at least......

 

[tatty_v]

I’ll join in - totally and utterly fed up. Boys are plastered in mud, standing water everywhere, have barely ridden as it’s always raining and/or blowing a gale to top it off, one of mine has just pratted around, skidded in the bloody mud and pulled a shoe off. By my reckoning we’ve had nearly four months of almost constant wet weather, with only January as a little break

 

[SEL]

And me! I want to get cracking with my two but without an arena, I just haven’t been able to yet!
Also bummed because I’ve had to put them into one of our nice paddocks because a goose flew into the wires above the winter trash paddock and caused enough damage to cut electric to half of the village! I can’t put them back in there until the electric board have been to sort it (god knows when that will be)

I saw all the moaning about half the village being out - didn't realise it was your paddock. Thought you'd moved them because it was so wet.

My OH is doing evening duties because I'm tied up at work and had just sent me a message saying the field is a muddy lake. It's vile. My young cob is bouncing out of his skin and dropping weight - he needs grass. I bought more bedding yesterday and the price has gone up again. I've never felt so exhausted and every time I think it's going to dry up the forecast changes

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

My youngster is full of beans and is wrecking my nerves when it comes to riding and there's no end in sight! Aaaahhhhhh

Ive given up riding my youngster until I can get some consistency to his work. We dont have an arena and the hacking is pants when its all so boggy.

 

[Bobthecob15]

We’ve had relentless rain since July here… utterly utterly fed up of it!

Is this the future now?! Climate change etc?

 

[PurBee]

Here’s an Ai image i generated which has basically been my experience of horse ownership for over a decade here west ireland!



If high rainfall is common there’s a few land management techniques that really help mitigate the worst. Over the years ive installed them all to help off-set the high annual rainfall effects. Mainly hundreds of metres of hardcore tracks and a sloping dry-lot turn-out, large shelters, to save the fields.
The trickiest land would be dead-flat land without any drainage channels as that would be a lake.
I always look for land with a slight slope for any agri plans now, having experienced a high rainfall climate.
If i was a serious aspirational rider/trainer i’d have moved years ago, as the weather isnt kind enough to enjoy daily riding/training.
This winter has been particularly brutal with endless storms passing through, but we’re out the other side now, and warmer brighter weather WILL come

 

[Above the snowline]

I have heard there is a snow bomb on the way..... Not sure its true but maybe a change from rain at least......

I heard that too

 

[94lunagem]

The field was drying up over Friday/Saturday, you could just about walk across it in trainers… it rained all day Sunday.

It was like this at mine too, I was feeling so much brighter generally because things were drier. Then Sunday happened! And again today.

I get up and get muddy and soaked, get dry/clean and go to work. Come home and get muddy and soaked, get dry/clean and go to bed. It’s like Groundhog Day.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I had been keeping my boys in on odd days to save the field but I've now given up. They are out daily. I've had horses for nearly 40 years and I have never known it like this. We have rain forecast almost daily for the next 2 weeks. I'm lucky to still be able to turn out I suppose!