What do you like least with mucking out?

I hate that moment when I walk in tools in hand and just think "Oh my god where do I start" I can cope with mucking out normally, but mine manages to just grind everything into a million tiny pieces so the temptation is to just take the whole blinking lot out and start over!
 
Water buckets.
My lad has two big ones overnight, and every morning without fail they're both dirty.
Not too bad when i've got someone to help me carry them or hes drunk enough i can lift both at the same time, otherwise i have to take them both separately down the opposite end of the yard, wash them both out, half fill them and take them all the way back up, then a couple of trips with buckets to top them up.

Its just annoying in the winter coz your hands get freezingggggg cold!
 
Raking the gravel on the main yard every day. I hate it I HATE IT.

It's beautiful, yes, and ok it is a godsend when it's really icy, but even though I have big twin wheeled barrows, I still have to rake the whole yard every morning, and it makes me want to die.
 
Filling hay nets. It's got to be the most awful job ever, though I fill all my nets at weekends to save time.

It used to be mucking out as I had to do loads of trips to the muck heap, but since I changed over to pellets I muck out into a trug and only take half a trug a day out for each, and it doesn't smell at all.
 
Brimmers said:
Water buckets.
My lad has two big ones overnight, and every morning without fail they're both dirty.
Not too bad when i've got someone to help me carry them or hes drunk enough i can lift both at the same time, otherwise i have to take them both separately down the opposite end of the yard, wash them both out, half fill them and take them all the way back up, then a couple of trips with buckets to top them up.

Its just annoying in the winter coz your hands get freezingggggg cold!
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I used to ahve to do this but I bought one of these to put the trug in and wheeled it up and down the yard, made life soooo much easier:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/ca...a=X&ei=8NiHUMHDBsfZ0QWWxoGIDg&ved=0CCUQ8wIwAQ

Can get them way cheaper, I put the trug inside, leave the whole thing in the stable, wheel to tap, empty trug, wash out, put trug back in, fill it, wheelie back to stable :D
 
RutlandH2O said:
I don't mean to hijack this thread, but to those of you who hate filling haynets, I'm curious...how do you fill them?
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I don't hate filling nets, but wouldn't be too impressed if I had to do them every day. I have loads of largish Cottage Craft nets. I open a small square bale, take off the folds of hay I need to make a net then place them on the floor. I then place the net over the hay, pull the sides of the net over the hay then flip it all over and push the rest in. Do it up by pulling the string taut and tying it to the bottom ring and it gets attached in the stable to a carabiner on a tiering. My haynets are always square, the horse can do the fluffing up as she pleases and it ensures I don't get any splinters.
 
milliepops said:
Last winter I bought 7 haynets as I had swapped to round bales and it was doing my head in - I spent half an hour on the weekend sorting them out for the week ahead - it was BRILLIANT. Best thing I ever did!

Sadly I now use a tricklenet and I can't afford to buy 6 more so I'm back to filling them daily :(:mad:
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Put the trickle net over each filled haynet daily :)

I also do mega chores at weekend so its much more time saving during the week:
10/12 night nets (for 2)
5 piles of hay into bedding plastic sacks for going out into field.
Large water tank in yard filled to brim for bucket dunking on occasions.
Dry feeds made up into ice cream containers - just need water etc adding.

Sorry OP - I think the one chore I like least is not anything to do with mucking out - its the picking feet out when bringing in, when they are mud-slathered :o
 
I use Miscanthus which is ideal until you realise after lifting all the poo and raking through, you discover you've missed loads! I then bend down and pick up by hand (which I have to remember to wash before putting my fingers anywhere near my face). The muck heap is not too bad as it's only 25 yds from his stable. Haynets are the worse by far, especially when your hands are so cold you can't untie the knot if the string is thin.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
Put the trickle net over each filled haynet daily :)
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I tried that :mad: My mare looked at me with complete horror as she couldn't get a strand out of it (my old nets were also small holes), and then sulked at the back of her stable. Perhaps she's ready for another go, having been using the tricklenet all summer :D

I feel for all of you with long treks to fill water buckets.

I probably shouldn't mention that I have a tap INSIDE my stable
 
milliepops said:
I tried that :mad: My mare looked at me with complete horror as she couldn't get a strand out of it (my old nets were also small holes), and then sulked at the back of her stable. Perhaps she's ready for another go, having been using the tricklenet all summer :D
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BF (RIP) also was horrified :D
I then popped about 2lb of hay into a spare net of Tiny Fuzzies & hung that on the same ring as the doube/trickle net - meant she got some chance to pull a bit of hay out while I was there ;) after only 1 night she had worked out that 'some hay' was better than nothing & then went on to pull hay from the combi set-up, leaving an empty net on morning 2 :)
 
I am currently actually loving mucking out, but that's probably because this year the whole process has been revolutionised . Instead of having to muck out the old stables , onto no concrete standing , then drag the wheelbarrow through 6 inches of mud , and what we know now was our leaking soakaway , then along a slippery plank onto the winter muck heap , which then had to be moved to the big main muckheap every following summer , I now muck out my beautiful mew stables, wheel the barrow along the apron , and fill a skip with a front opening ramp, which gets taken away every month . Am loving it very much right now .

Did I mention my lovely new yard :D :D :D
 
haynets and water arrgggg... water is the worst though as they have 6 gallon buckets that i have to lift onto a tyre when they are full! it hurrttssss!!
 
Nothing. :D

Because I no longer do it.

Everything lives out, I have a barn full of empty stalls which are only used when horses are standing in for some reason or other. Strict rule here is that ' if your horse drops it, you lift it!'

I do love my liveries, but they make me howl with laughter when they get a barrow, fork and brush to pick up one pile of dung, they are genuinely horrified when I put on gloves, grab the muck bucket and flick everything in. :D

On the occasions when I do muck out (I have goats indoors, they get cleaned weekly) in comes the quad and the trailer, everything gets lobbed in that and taken down to the wood and tipped on the edge of a field, the wild turkeys spread it very efficiently :D

Sweeping is my bete noir, but I have that sussed too. It is always windy here, I merely open the doors and the wind sweeps the aisle for me, I simply rake it up at the end.
 
I used to hate struggling with wheelbarrows - combined with mud and slopes they lead to frequent disaster! And then the muck heap gets messy and starts collapsing.. I stopped using the barrow, and now use a trug and think of carrying it backwards ond forwards to my muckheap as my daily exercise (so a positive, rather than a negative). And I can place each trug-full in the correct position to form a nice stable heap. Still sucks in sideways rain, mind you.

I think getting up in time to turm out is probably what I like least though. When the gate is freshly harcored I can do it in my work clothes, but just now it is muddy so I have to turn out, then go in and get changed. And about 10 minutes to my morning, but bed - time is valuable!!
 
Got one who Im trying to teach to go outside (hes what I call a city horse!) so he comes in at night. Hate this mucking out rubbish. Hate doing it, hate the way my clothes stink afterwards and hate filling haynets. This horse WILL learn to live out 24/7!!
 
I cant believe people hate filling haynets? In the winter I can have up to 60 nets to do per day and it is by far the easiest job of the day??

My least favourite job is the muck heap. Our muck heap is like a work of art, we tend to throw up our muck as we go and then rearrange it all after 20 boxes. After 20 boxes I have no desire to look at muck again let alone make it look pretty!
 
I weirdly quite like mucking out & then getting it all ready for the night - but am another who hates the trip to the muck heap! It's miles away, on a hill, and I have 3 to do and my mare trashes her stable overnight so end up going there about 8/9 times! Drives me insane!
 
Well all I can say is that we must be totally lazy

Mucking out....we pull the trailer down to the yard with the Discovery, muck out straight into it re-hitch and take to muck heap and tip it ...no barrows or emptying required.

Given up with hay nets....mine is on free choice, quite happy to eat it off the floor, never wastes any as he is a total pig.

Water is a very long hose that reaches all of the stables on the yard.....16 horses in about 15 mins.
 
Hate filling haynets & hate trying to get straw/hay off the bale when it's gotten all stick around the base of the bale & there's no one around to help tip it over!! I don't mind mucking out at all.....if some of you hate it so much why don't you just turnout? Hey presto!
 
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