Vile vile weather

I've just done a pre holiday car clean (taking friends and us in our car to the airport) clean.

Got hailed on, rained on and high winds blew all the dirt in my face while doing it. It's not even clean, I just got rid of the loose dirt and mud before it gets a proper clean in 2 weeks.

Horses have gone out at midday just for a few hours as in at night and they were in yesterday (large concrete yard so not shut in stables) It really is like a swamp on one side so they are going out on the better bit which is part swamp part grassy mush !!
 
Cortez said:
Of all the reasons I'm glad to be without horses possibly the most prominent one is that I don't have to deal with them and the land in this sodden, dismal, cataclysmic deluge. It's so wet out there now that I can't even run the dogs, they are slipping, sliding and bogging down.
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I must admit I really am not enjoying owning horses this year .For various personal reasons I have hung up my riding boots this year so they are field ornaments two of the three remaining ones are in their twenties when they go the remaining one who is 17 will go on retirement livery and we will sell up and down size and give up horses.
One of the oldies has COPD and the other some sarcoids and arthritis so not sure how much longer they will go on.
Will always have dogs but as you say they are slipping and sliding like Bambi on ice.
We are definitely too old for this horse care lark and this year had brought it home to us.
 
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Mine were out last night. It rained all night but it was steady rather than torrential. Not too windy either.

Hacked out this morning thinking pony would be tired after the last week of weather. Nope! He was very, very excited to be out! I was dizzy by the time we reached the bottom of the hill. 😆

No gales or storms forecast for next week.

Chin up everyone, tomorrow we start the long march back to spring. Better times are coming.
 
COldNag said:
I had a massive clear out before moving this year, and ditched an (old) inflatable dinghy.
Very much regretting that!!
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I could have used that today!!

I'm just persuading my OH that he wants to spend NYE helping me put beds down because the water has carried on rising in my winter field all day and there is nothing dry for them to sleep on.

I hate mucking out 😭
 
HappyHollyDays said:
The rain was so bad here last night I did the same at 10pm even though they were in rugs. I called them in the pitch black and they were both so desperate to come in I opened the gate to let one through and grabbed the other one. I noticed this morning all the hay I put out at 4pm had gone too so they would have been hungry and even more miserable by 7am this morning.

The gateway and beyond is the worse it’s been for 10 years and surprise surprise it’s raining again now. As much as I want them out at night they aren’t going back out until we get a decent spell of cold dry weather.
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Mine wanted in as well last night, its just started raining again so I've brought them in for a bit as they will be out tonight, I'm going out tonight so prefer them to be out at least its meant to be dry after 9pm 🤞
 
Mine are usually out 24/7 (unless particularly gross) but they’ve been coming in overnight for quite a while now. The mud is awful in our gateway, so I refuse to put them in any of the other paddocks as I don’t want them to turn into bog pits either! They seem very keen to come in bless them.
 
Another who has started bringing in even though I'm usually so set on them being able to live out 24/7. I had to drag my pony out to field this morning, he didn't want to go. I'm now researching ways to try and create a dry platform/ bed up the field shelter for them as it's just so sopping and miserable in the field. All my longer rested grass is so wet it's going rotten looking. I'm a bit hesitant about letting them have too much of the shorter green rested stuff as it's been so mild and I'm worried it might be like spring grass. Impossible, disgusting, hideous weather.
 
Still very windy here, and heavy showers within heavy rain (met office app reckons it should be dry?!) Brought them in for a bit of respite from it for a few hours (husband isn't happy because I kicked his boys toys out of the shed to bring them in), then threw them back out with their 0g rugs on, just to keep the torrent off their backs. The lad was easy going with either option, Madam did not want to go back out at all, and was rather spicy being led back!
 
Theoretically we have already laid hard core on all the gateways and walkways that need it. It makes a huge difference.

This route across a small area of grass to the muck heap (no horses on it in winter) has, in previous seasons, been dry and readily passable.

This year…

I could lay yet another track, but I’ve never needed to before, and I’d prefer to keep it as an all grass area. Fed up.

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The weather is always horrendous this time of year after all it’s uk and it’s winter! May be wetter than usual although winter of 2019 compared .

Have ridden as usual ( advise investing in an equidry equimac ) horse has gone out mostly daily with the odd exception and we mostly successfully ignore the wind and rain , much prefer to the Ice and snow that we briefly had in December and will probably follow in January and February .
 
lannerch said:
The weather is always horrendous this time of year after all it’s uk and it’s winter! May be wetter than usual although winter of 2019 compared
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It certainly did. I had offered to provide a home for my friend's mare and foal when they lost their grazing at short notice. They arrived in Nov 2019 just when the weather had really turned wet. I can remember only too well just how bad our fields got with the extra feet.
 
This is much more than the usual winter moaning. We’ve been here since 1986, and the ground has never been anything like as wet as it is now. Local farmers agree. Field drains are overloaded, they can’t cope, water is running off into the roads.

It is definitely worse here than in 2019.

The going in my sand and rubber Charles Britton arena is still perfect, though 👍.
 
We have given up poo picking as there’s no way a barrow is getting through the mud. It’s all I can do to walk through the gate and stay upright so I’m wheeling hay up the fence line and pushing it through. I then climb over the fence and separate it into piles. Honestly haven't seen this much mud since 2013 and like most people I’m questioning my life choices.
 
I have put my 2 on a huge field - and they have food one end, shelter the other and horses the other so mud isn’t a problem (yet!!) but they are still getting fatter, despite not getting any hay. The mild weather means the grass is still growing.
I have never not had to feed hay this late in the year.
 
lannerch said:
The weather is always horrendous this time of year after all it’s uk and it’s winter! May be wetter than usual although winter of 2019 compared .

Have ridden as usual ( advise investing in an equidry equimac ) horse has gone out mostly daily with the odd exception and we mostly successfully ignore the wind and rain , much prefer to the Ice and snow that we briefly had in December and will probably follow in January and February .
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Probably lucky in that whilst it has rained a lot field isn’t too bad and I find this weather easier than the icy weather. One windy day I did a truncated ride as didn’t fancy taking on the washing on someone’s line that was blowing over the hedge - horse had his eyes on that! When it’s icy it’s much more limiting on being able to get out.
 
HappyHollyDays said:
We have given up poo picking as there’s no way a barrow is getting through the mud. It’s all I can do to walk through the gate and stay upright so I’m wheeling hay up the fence line and pushing it through. I then climb over the fence and separate it into piles. Honestly haven't seen this much mud since 2013 and like most people I’m questioning my life choices.
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This was my plan B but it will take me ages to wheel the barrow all the way down to the gap in the hedge where i can shove the hay through. I wont be able to shove a whole bale through so am planning on pushing slices through then climbing over too. There's no way I can thro a bale over the fence.No doubt the horses will all freak out!

Unfortunately Plan C has swung into operation and the horses have had to come in at night times for the forseeable as the field is a quagmire.
 
myheartinahoofbeat said:
This was my plan B but it will take me ages to wheel the barrow all the way down to the gap in the hedge where i can shove the hay through. I wont be able to shove a whole bale through so am planning on pushing slices through then climbing over too. There's no way I can thro a bale over the fence.No doubt the horses will all freak out!

Unfortunately Plan C has swung into operation and the horses have had to come in at night times for the forseeable as the field is a quagmire.
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I gave in and bought mine in at 10pm 2 nights ago when the rain was torrential. Its pouring now and is going to be awful until midnight and tomorrow isn’t looking much better but after that it is starting to look a lot more promising so I’m hopeful they will be out again overnight by Thursday.
 
Nearly got blown over the other day while poo picking - the gale picked up the poop scoop and I ended up getting dragged about like Mary Poppins (or should I say...Mary Poopins!)

I'm very grateful that none of ours are ridden at the moment. The care is still hard work obviously, but I appreciate how manual labour keeps me active and gets me fresh air everyday. At least I don't also have to worry about keeping horses fit in this weather!
 
Mine live out 24/7 on grass livery in a 40 acre field. It's sopping wet but bearable simply because it's such a vast space. Older one is rugged, youngster isn't but is like a wooly mammoth. They want to be out and on the extremely rare occassion they come on to the yard for something, they cart me back to the field. Everywhere in Cheshire is underwater. Never had weather this relentlessly wet. Utterly had enough of it now but it just won't stop.
 
Just come back from getting ponies in, it's absolutely chucking it down. Again. Full day of heavy rain tomorrow too 😫 seemingly endless ATM.... And I usually quite enjoy all forms of weather, I like a mixed bag - but this is awful. Fields are muddy bogs, old girl is rugged up to her eyeballs and I'm sick of constantly having slightly damp socks.

Thank god I bought a new waterproof winter coat, on sale too. I'm getting my money's worth out of it for sure.....
 
I managed to turn out and walk dog before it started this morning but my field is a bog and the footpaths I walk ankle deep mud in some places. Got inside just as the rain started again. Going to be fun this evening with the ponies 😫
 
Rain all week here. Even looking at rain from his warm dry stable makes my biggest pony grumpy. Had hailstone and 40 mph winds last week, now the field is flooded, the drains overflowing again and its still raining. I complain about snow and ice but I really wouldn't mind some dry freezing weather right now. And the GSD is allergic to mud with means her eczema is bad again.
 
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