what are your yards doing to make the snow situation easier?

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lukeylou

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all my yard is doing is spreading woodchip about and mucking out onto the yard! there is minimal staff, my bed is a mess (i'm on part livery) there's no turnout, no safe place to ride and it's lucky if my boy gets on the walker! i often wonder what it is i'm paying for. baaah humbug! is it just my yard that is so utterly unprepared for this weather?
 
I am on a private yard, we have spread a mixture of grit and shavings over all the bits of floor the horses walk on (us owners are allowed to fall over... I have a bruised bum to prove it!) but apart from that very little!

I think very few yards are fully prepared.

Don't forget though that we have only had truly bad weather 2 out of the last 10 years. I doubt many people have bought snow tyres in preparation for this winter, and in the same way it probably isn't economically viable for yards or anyone else for that matter to invest in all the equipment to cope with the snow. Especially when the liklihood is that next year, or the year after, we will be back to warmer, wetter winters and everything they bought would then be out of use until next time this happens.

No way is it ideal and I feel your pain, but in tough economic times it is hard for yards to find the money to fund a lot of strategies to make the yard "snowproof", would you be willing to help foot the bill if they did spend a lot to make it better?
 
On my yard I have gritted the areas that the horses walk on and turn out is still open. The school is raked with the heavy tines and the tractor every day so has been perfectly rideable. Th only thing my liveries can't do is canter around the fields due to the permafrost! We are managing to cope, but it still doesn't make things any warmer....
 
Were at a large equestrian centre so we have an indoor :) .... The yard is stoney so YO scraps the snow away with the tractor so its not slippery, so were actually fine!! Only problem i have is getting out to view horses :p lol
 
Hairdryer near the taps, meaning we can actually have running water for 20mins, before it all freezes up again (-15 here at 10.30am).

Everything gets turned out, and hay in the fields.

We all pitch in to help each other :)
 
Never been on a yard that gritted, sounds like luxury :) If we want to get our horses in or out, we've always cleared a path ourselves. YO is trying to ensure one trough in the fields is still filling, but we've had no water on the yard for weeks, so we're bringing our own water in, in large water carriers for the stables. So far tractor is coming in once a week to put large round bales in fields, but we have a small supply of small bales for emergency use if tractor can't get in. When yard is too icy, horses are fed outside field gate and are totally field bound.
 
We have to clear paths to the school and the field ourselves, but to be honest, our ground is rock hard and rutted, so we are only turning out for a couple of hours at a time. I often use my wet easibed on the places where the horses are going to walk. It is brilliant - it sticks to the ice and gives them grip - better than rock salt!
 
YO does nothing, we have to grit ourselves to get the horses out at all, and the grit is so expensive! We're managing though, but I think everyone's so fed up with the snow now.
 
YO snowploughed lane and yard with tractor bucket (thankyou G!) and we have swept and gritted paths between the important places. Can't turn out but we have woodchip paddocks and indoor school and we can move horses safely between these.
 
We put grit down ourselves if needed, clear snow/ice to make paths if needed, none of the horses are out in the big field through personal choice, they are in their winter paddocks (not ideal but i'd rather that then stabled 24/7) mine would be out but I don't finish work til 5 and I don't want to cross the road & walk down the lane without being able to see where i'm walking properly, as soon as i am finished for christmas they will go back out.

Our YO defrosts the taps every morning and then big buckets/tubs are filled but he has just gone on holiday for 2 weeks and we don't know how he defrosts them, so were all bringing water from home.

I don't mind to be honest, is a diy yard and we all help each other out.
 
I'm at my own rented place - have dug paths to and from all the important areas (hay shed, stables, field etc), did have water stashed in bins & bath but that's used up now. Stand pipe should unfreeze soon so not too many days of bringing water in.
 
mine is working fine! got water (from a small distance) school and walker all fine just a little lumpy in places! horses all fine warm and well fed. have we seen an owner ...... that would be a no....... i personally as a yard o havent been able to leave (crap nice car) have no waste pipes, and down to one tap! but life goes on and every one moans! do y9ou actually know where the gate is?
 
Most YO that I know of in my area like myself have done as much as possible to try and make life as easy as possible in very trying times. I have cleared the drive and all pathways, have turnout for as long as the horses want to stay out (although no hay put out as it wrecks the ground when it thaws - we are on heavy clay) - have done all DIY horses as nobody could get here. Taps and hosepipes have been kept defrosted and running so has the hot horse shower, the horsewalker and the outdoor school was deep tined and graded but I will say the second dumping of snow did beat me ! and we have bins of grit everywhere. This is exceptional weather conditions and I am lucky to have equipment to help, some places would not. It will only be for a short time and it's Christmas so in the spirit of the season lets all help each other out !
 
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I am first on the yard so defrost the tap each morning.

Lovely YO has been emptying my barrow as he knows I am scared of the plank in the frost and dark.
 
rudolph bum13 said:
I know everybody is grumpy because of the weather but what is with all these posts complaining about YMs/YOs?
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Because they are bored, and quite honestly it's like the showjumpers tacking up thread, to those of you that aren't happy, quit flipping moaning and if you can do it better, bloody well do it then, or move.:mad:

I have snow every year, it is no big deal, it happens, get on with it, plow tracks, chuck rock salt about, blah, blah, blah. Looks like the UK had better get used to it too.
 
Maybe the question should be what are you doing to make life easier on your yard?

We had a fair snowfall here and everyone pitched in. One of the girls who leases a horse shoveled a path to the manure pile and salted it. Every time I was there (I'm DIY) I would check each horse's water and break the ice in it, make sure the tap was running and tending to anything else that needed doing.

My YM does a lot for me throughout the year and the more people that help, the less work it seems. ;)
 
my yard has been really helpful in the snow!
the farmer has cleared the lane up to the yard (which is steep and would be very scary in the ice) with his tractor/snow scraper thingy and they have gritted all the places we need to get to (fields etc). the arena is unusable but because its under snow- when it was just a bit frozen they were great at keeping it levelled everyday so we could still use it

Water drinkers are frozen but they have put little hoses on all the taps so the water is always on for us to fill buckets. so yes, very helpful- all they need to do now is build an indoor :p:D
 
Blitzenfys said:
Because they are bored, and quite honestly it's like the showjumpers tacking up thread, to those of you that aren't happy, quit flipping moaning and if you can do it better, bloody well do it then, or move.:mad:

I have snow every year, it is no big deal, it happens, get on with it, plow tracks, chuck rock salt about, blah, blah, blah. Looks like the UK had better get used to it too.
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*applauds*
 
The farmer scraped to top off the initial snowfall to make it easier to get on and off the yard. Other than that, nothing. However I am fully DIY and I wouldn't expect any more. With careful planning I have managed to keep the water running and have access to bedding and hay, which is all I need
 
I am on a small DIY yard, we have got 4 owners and 6horses. Plus sheep and YO's sons to move all the heavy stuff, all horses are having turnout (for aslong as they are not waiting) haylage in fields, our yard is still covered in snow last winter (jan) we cleared the snow and gritted but that actually made it worse was just ice rink. So the horses are managing well on the snow in yard, the path upto all the fields is on grass so same as in there fields. We all chip in, the tap is frozen but YO sons bringing up water into churns everyday so plenty available. Yesterday the sheep had escaped into my boys field so when i went up he just had free wandering across the yard and barn and school, and put himself back in when he was done!!
 
Blitzenfys said:
Because they are bored, and quite honestly it's like the showjumpers tacking up thread, to those of you that aren't happy, quit flipping moaning and if you can do it better, bloody well do it then, or move.:mad:

I have snow every year, it is no big deal, it happens, get on with it, plow tracks, chuck rock salt about, blah, blah, blah. Looks like the UK had better get used to it too.
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hear hear!
 
YO has made thick straw tracks from the stable to the indoor school and the horse walker. He's even made traks for us to safely get to the muckheap and the haybarn. He's good!

Other than that, we all make sure that the taps are covered up and that the kettles are left full at night so that we can use them to defrost any frozen taps the following morning.
 
One of mine is on part livery, but I'm going up and turning him out and brigning him in myself, as the yard doesnt want to take responsibility for injuries in this weather. I'm fortunate as although inconvienient it is possible for me to do, but I can understand how frustrating it is for people who can't get up to turn their horses out.

I can sort of see where the YO's are coming from. The track up to our fields is quite a long way, and where cars have driven on the snow, it becomes compacted and slippery, so is potentially a hazzard for staff and the horses in their care, and they usually lead 2 or 3 at a time which would not be possible in these conditions.

At the end of the day, no one would think twice if a horse had to be box rested for a month. They will survive being indoors and they are safe, and we are all in the same boat! There's going to be a lot of very unfit horses come springtime!!!
 
Yard has salt on so no ice or snow anywhere

Turnout every day

water taken up in buckets every day

can still ride out on the bridleways

Guess we are lucky
 
DH1 said:
That's easy, absolutely nothing. Its DIY in every sense of the word.
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Oh yes, know the feeling well! Entire drive and yard is now sheet ice, fell over trying to get back to my car yesterday and have knackered my knee.
We have cleared our own paths to the walker, put down our own salt and the horses just go round and round the walker twice a day! Nightmare.

It is no one's fault really, there is not alot you can do about the amount of snow and they just happen to have a very big yard and long drive so wouldn't expect the YO to grit it all, they'd be broke!
 
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I have gritted paths from the main yard and DIY yard to the fields, and also the the muck trailer.
Turnout as normal, with haylage or hay in the fields as normal. There's no water on the yard at all (the warmest it's been since Thursday is -9) and so I've been filling every bucket in the place with snow and leaving them in the tack room by the heater to melt!
Am hefting containers of water out to most of the fields, but luckily seem to have managed to stop the biiiigggg trough in the field with the thirstiest lot in it from freezing solid as yet.
I'm not allowed to ride at the moment because of the drugs I'm on, but have been anyway, pretty much as normal. The benefit of being in the middle of nowhere in the Cotswolds is that we don't get snow ploughs etc. on the lanes, so they're all still nice powdery snow rather than ice rinks, and all my usual hacking across the setaside etc. is still safe enough to ride over.
I've had one incident with a VERY ungrateful livery who made me want to strangle her, but apart from that it's all been fine!
My one worry at the moment is feed deliveries - the haylage lorry managed to get through and I've got enough for the rest of the winter now, but feed is meant to be coming today and I'm having a panic!
 
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