Sweeping - why are we obsessed with it ??

Shysmum

Shysmum

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This question was posed to me by an impatient hubbie yesterday...

My answer is that I started with horses very young, and sweeping was instilled into me as absolutely essential - probably as I was the slave labour.. I have now been on enough yards to be able to tell a lot just by the level of sweeping that goes on, strange as it sounds, and a well swept clean and tidy yard says so much about the possible level of care the horses get.

I am also very particular about my broom. My absolute favourite is one I got a few months ago from Boyes for a fiver. It flicks up every last flake and is soooooooo satisfying to use :) A bad broom is just not cricket. I am also a dab hand with the hoover too..

Anyone else have a sweeping fetish they care to admit to ??
 
Yep, not to sweep just seems sloppyness. Like you say, if you don't care for the appearance of the yard and can't take a minute to whip a broom round, then I do wonder if it says things about attention to detail with looking after the horses. Obv there will be exceptions, but it is what a messy yard makes me think anyway! Either way a swept and tidy yard is safer than a messy one covered with grot. So easy to see if a rushing farrier has dropped a nail or something!

Shall continue to be happily attached to my broom, though I may well use it for other jobs if I find out who nicked it and broke it, v mad!!!
 
Yes, me! And its all about the broom for me too! I like the tough bristles and small heads, not the long heads. Wooden handle as well! You can get them into all the cracks in concrete. It's was all about sweeping when I worked on the yard, and a swept yard makes me feel calm (tidy yard = tidy mind) even now when I go for my lesson, I'll grab a broom and have a quick sweep round!
 
God no, someone has broken your broom ?? I am so lucky in that my broom is always where I left it, and my last one simply died of overuse (by me), having had hubs re-attach it six times to the handle.

Why do peeps think "borrowing a broom" is okay. It is a very personal piece of kit ;)
 
Totally agree with you both.
An untidy yard is a dangerous yard.
They used to say you can tell someone's standard of horse care by the state of their muck
heap. You don't need to look that far in most yards these days.
 
Another sweeping fiend here! I have a normal (nice and flicky) yard broom, AND an american corn broom for extra perfection! I'm not ashamed at all - I like a nice tidy yard! V relieved that my stable is in a separate block of two, with it's own expanse of concrete. I'd hate to be on the main yard, where people don't sweep up properly. It would make my teeth itch!
 
now you come to mention the muck heap - ours IS a work of art, tiers and everything. I love the routine of all this yard care - being on a yard where I was the only one who did bother (think wheelbarrows left full for days, sometimes including MINE as it had been nicked cos all the other barrows were broken, so the wheel would go down, but that's another story - grrrrrrrr ), I am in heaven now :p

I also have a deck broom for really scrubbing the stable floor, love that too. x
 
lol, def need diff brooms for diff jobs! Have my big butch broom for outside (when fixed again!), a nice flicky one for inside stables only and a nearly dead ex-inside broom for a quick swiz round doors. Makes me happy! Must say though, the order is v imp. OH will sweep after mucking out but before hay goes in - what is that about?!!!
 
arrrgh, I hate sweeping in the rain - we have tarmac on our yard and it's nearly impossible to get the ground clean!

I have to say, when I got my first horse in this country (having kept horses of my own for years in the states, and have had worked on a few different show yards there, too) I must admit that I was rather weirded out by the seemingly obsessive compulsive nature of the liveries on that yard with their incessant sweeping! Every yard I've been on in this country has been the same - sweep sweep sweep - must remove every last spec of any trace that anyone has walked across the ground.....

....and even though I do tidy up and sweep up after myself, I refuse to be obsessive compulsive about it.

I don't like to see untidy yards, with lots of stuff blowing around, rugs hanging about all over, fences looking like they need to be repaired, droppings not cleared up and all that. But the sweeping does my head in just a little.
 
And me.. I love corn brooms for dry ground and stables.. I feel you get a better sweep.. I have my horses at home and before this private sole lets and I've always been anal about sweeping even though there is nobody but me to see..

Very satisfying!

Then the horses come in and mess it all up ;D

I'm similar about my beds, tack and feed room.. House.. Everything generally.. If its tidy and clean, it's safe in my head.. Also came in handy when the farm was burgled earlier in the year as I knew what had and hadn't been touched..
 
One person I knew always said that first impressions count so the riding school yard was always spotless and no junk was allowed to be lying around. We had a very large gravelled yard which he meticulously harrowed on a Friday night ready for the weekends customers.

At the yard where I trained a bell would ring and we all had to fetch a broom and start sweeping.

I love a clean yard it is theicing on the cake. Happy horses, clean beds and a clean yard.
 
I recently viewed a house to buy with a small amount of stables.... I was itching to get my broom out and have a good sweep and tidy up. You would think you would have a clear up if potential sellers were coming round! LOL :)
 
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