Rain

I'm stressing to the max as my mare has the biggest hole in her hoof from an abscess and I need to keep the thing clean all winter! I've currently got 8 woofwear medical boots being cycled daily!

rain, rain, go away, and come back in normal amounts when we need it! stop giving us crazy dry summers and insane wet winters!
 
I’m a bit annoyed but I don’t think it’s as bad as this time last year. I had given up and stayed bringing mine in at night last year at the beginning of December but so far they are still out this year. They do all have field shelters which helps massively and the fields aren’t too bad but it’s quite muddy in front of the shelters now.
 
It’s been relentless here w.ireland for the past 2 weeks really. Some long stretches of 30 hours of wind and rain. The horses are in the large dry lot turnout we built for this reason, with dry bedded barn during this stint of bad weather, as there’s literal streams running through their grass turnout. They’re careful in slippy mud sections most times, but perpetual soggy periods like this test even the most sure-footed horses.

But here’s a cheer-up….just 20 days to go and the daylight gets longer! It’s a fact I grip on tightly to at this time of year! 😁🥳
 
It’s miserable but I’ve been incredibly lucky so far, so keep reminding myself winter misery was going to hit eventually! Moved the geriatrics onto the rested field 2 weeks ago so it’s been holding up ok but taken a pounding this week, it’s hilly so the top half is dry enough but of course they insist on hanging around the bottom 🙄 Gateways are trashed. Horses look reasonably fed up already. I keep reminding myself “This too shall pass” and it’s just winter, then in the next breath trying not to cry at the thought we’ve got months to go yet 😆
 
KikiDee said:
It’s miserable but I’ve been incredibly lucky so far, so keep reminding myself winter misery was going to hit eventually! Moved the geriatrics onto the rested field 2 weeks ago so it’s been holding up ok but taken a pounding this week, it’s hilly so the top half is dry enough but of course they insist on hanging around the bottom 🙄 Gateways are trashed. Horses look reasonably fed up already. I keep reminding myself “This too shall pass” and it’s just winter, then in the next breath trying not to cry at the thought we’ve got months to go yet 😆
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That's the thing that's getting to me "we've got months to go yet"! I've looked at the weather forecast and it's non-stop rain, night and day, for the next two weeks at least. Fields will soon be trashed and then that's it for the rest of the winter. Mud, mud and more mud. I'm on chalk so I shouldn't really complain.
 
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Its rained relentlessly here in Shropshire for the past few days; I got drenched to my undies last night moving the electric fence to get my 2 off the worst of the ankle deep mud and up onto the mud mats area, however its not nearly big enough and I spent a good hour last night googling and pricing up some more to put down - any recommendations?
They have also trashed the round bale I bought last week and scatterred it everywhere including using it as bedding and toiletting areas - so i need to get another delivered later this week at an eye watering cost.

The forecast thankfully looks dry now for a few days.
 
My old boy is out on half of his winter turnout but stands in one corner most of the day and that is now just mud ☹️. There’s plenty to eat out there but with this constant rain he stands there with his bum to the weather and looks like he’s sleeping most of the time. I can’t bring him in because he’s a fret monster and ends up all sweaty and then we have more problems. Just want a bit of a let up from this rain.
 
I’m alternating the geldings between their field with the shelter (which I am strip grazing but we have already just gone just over half way across the field now) and they also have some hay in the shelter and the other field they go in just has hedges for shelter - it grows stupidly long grass which we cut for hay and I’ve never seen it yellow even this summer. We only got one cut though as it got too wet before the second cut was ready so there’s plenty of grass and they don’t need hay in there but the disadvantage is that’s it’s quite wet in places - but less muddy just puddly on top. So I’m still putting the in there on dry days and nights as I’m saving my hay, they actually stay cleaner and I know they won’t be able to go in there all winter as it will eventually get too wet so I’m making the most of it. The horses do like it in there. The other fiwd drains well but they’ve made a bit of a mess in front of the shelter - we might have to rethink next year about getting some mud mats or hard standing in front of it but it’s a bit late this year and we can’t get machines on there now with it being this wet anyway.
 
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