Too much mud? am i over stressing?

[Clodagh]

My clay recovers fine come the spring. I do have a handy farmer husband who runs the chain harrows over it and tops any rough patches but that is all it gets in the form of maintenance. I agree I'm afraid that you do have far too many horses on your land for them to live out - IMO - I have two big horses on 4 acres and the only muddy bit is by the water trough. There is a zillion tonnes of crushed concrete and hardcore out there though for gateways and by the field shelter. You will get there over the next twelve months, as long as they don't have mud fever and abcesses they will cope.

 

[splashnutti1]

Oh dear. Started positive then went down hill. Wish i'd never asked now. Hard standing is in the planning for the future and we have a drainage contractor to come and quote but for now i can just do my best i suppose.

Hi hun try not to worry to much you can only do your best, when i first took on my yard which is 3 acres and stables the frist year even with them coming in at night the fields were just mud and slush, we had 3 14.2 horses and 2 small ponies!

I have been there many years now and thanks to help from a local farmer who comes every year, harrows, fertilisers, weedkills and cuts hedges back i have now learned to manage it well, i have 3 fields an acre each, i use 2 in the winter and rest one. At the moment i have a 14.3 cob x and a 15.3 cob on one paddock and a 14.2 cob and a welsh b on the other paddock both are muddy around the gate but fine at the back! Every year i get lovely lush grass and have plenty ( i usually end up having to restrict my horses lol) infact i have only just started feeding hay in the field and they started coming in last week at night (i know you cant do this yet hun but will come with time)! I have had up to 6 horses and been ok it all depends how well you manage the paddocks

Just battle through this year, keep an eye out for and mudfever etc, your horses will be fine. then you have all summer to plan for next year. Like i say try not to worry although i know this is hard, like you i suffer depression and so everything always seems ten times worse than it actually is! ((hugs))

 

[Lynsey&Smartie]

I feel for you, I was almost in despair at the same thing last winter. I have 3 horses and 2 acres of my own on clay soil, I also rent a field from a local farmer which although just up the lane seems to have better soil! I always try to use the farmer's field in winter as although it gets muddy by the gate the rest stays OK but last year one of my horses broke the fencing in his field and we had to take them off it in Autumn as he wouldn't let me repair it and didn't do it himself until the Spring. I therefore had to use one acre of my own clay field for winter turnout all last winter say 8-4pm and it got really muddy, proper deep soup mud, there was literally no grass left, we re-seeded and fertilised in Spring and rested it for months but TBH it never came back that well, the grass was patchy and the bits by the fence were still almost bare.

I have asked the farmer to give me a price for digging out a small area around the field shelter in my field and putting in some proper hardcore, membrane and woodchip to create an all weather turnout area, not doing a huge area but enough for them all to get turned out in wet weather. I will then just use this whenever it is wet which should help preserve the fields.

 

[ester]

I think you may need to have a back up plan in place until hard standing can be sorted (other field rental?)- particularly if this winter turns out to be anything like last year (certainly the wettest we had had in 9 years of having ours on our own land and tbf we have barely started winter this year).

We are low lying and clayey. Have 2 14.2/15hh Run a paddock paradise track round in the summer and cut hay (as we generally have too much grass in summer!) on 4-4.5 acres. After the hay cut we let the grass grow up long to protect the ground in most of the field and have only ever had to do minimal maintenance for it all to come back up well again. In some years we *might have been able to keep them out 24/7 - last year we were struggling to get them out 7-2pm and even my cob started to get grumpy about the soup . In winter we usually rotate them on 4 x 1 acre patches which does us until spring as each one gets too muddy (and they aren't the type to churn it up).

For the time being you definitely need to keep an eye on legs/feet if it is that wet.