Wheelbarrow. Mud. You know. That.

[PapaverFollis]

Barrows of poop, slight upwards slope, increasing amounts of mud. It's making me sad.

Are two wheeled barrows better?
Four wheel garden cart?
One of those roller ball ones?
Poo panniers on the pony?
Woman the F up and get on with it?
Give up completely and keep the horses on the hardstanding forever?
I don't think giving up on poo picking entirely is an option for me.

 

[neddy man]

There are electric and petrol powered wheelbarrows, but £ouch.

 

[PapaverFollis]

Well quite. If I could afford those I'd be half way to a quad and trailer.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

I also recently discovered these issues! Share horse has a long rectangular bit of grazing and of course he favours pooping right at the furthest end from the gate. There's a strip of really clay mud right across the width of the field so now can't get the barrow up the top end. I've taken to wheeling it up as far as it will go without getting stuck and using a squashy bucket/trug thing to ferry the poo pickings to the barrow. Thankfully it's usually not too much as it's done every day so I don't have to do many trips back and forth.

 

[PapaverFollis]

My muddy bit is right by the gate and there's usually two full barrows out there. I think walking back and forth with the poo picker skip might finish me off faster than wheeling through the mud! Buuuuuuuut if I had a couple of trugs perhaps I could fill and carry. Maybe I need one of those poles with a bucket at each end... a yoke?

Personally I think pony poo panniers is top pick at the moment.

But in all seriousness would a two or four wheel barrow be better? It seems to me like it would but wondered if anyone has any experiences.

 

[neddy man]

A 1 horsepower muck remover, fit a breastplate to your horse 2 ropes to a big fibreglass tray fill it up and lead or long line your horse to the muck heap. ( If pushing 1 wheel through mud would pushing 2 or 4 be any easier? )

 

[rextherobber]

I found the two wheeled barrow worse, but it was also bigger, so I stupidly put more in so was therefore heavier. If you have compliant horses, you could fill 1 ton builders bags left strategically in the field, then tow them out in the spring when the ground is harder? (I cannot do this, mine are idiots, one would be terrified of them, the other would climb inside the bag and do herself an expensive injury!) Or a pathway of grass mats to run the barrow on? I feel your pain, had exactly the same issue, but moved to a different area, different soil, and didn't have any problem in the very wet winter last year ( an extreme solution, but effective!)

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

I can't use a single wheeled barrow (trying to balance it on the move puts too much pressure on all of the sore bits of my body from the Fibromyalgia) so I have a couple of twin wheeled ones, I love them ❤ I must admit that I generally pull, rather than push, them as I find that easier.

 

[planete]

I do the poo picking twice a day and now make three trips instead of my usual two so I do not have to push a heavy wheelbarrow. It has stopped the muscle burn in my back. After a night of heavy rain which had made the poo twice as heavy as usual i had to go home and lie on the floor to ease my back one morning before the new strategy.

I am also reaping the benefit of the hard standing I made with some mud control mats covered in rubber matting in the field by the gate. The hay box is in the middle of that and the poo can just be scraped off. As the horses spend a lot of time on it eating, they also poo on it a lot. Win win.

 

[asmp]

I’ve given up in years gone by so when it is really muddy I just make a few small piles of poo on the hedge line. It’s removed in the dry summer months.

 

[Bradsmum]

I too feel your pain and have to admit I've given up poo picking. We moved here Sept 2019 and I chose the property partly because all the fields were on a slight slope, the ground was good and there are good ditches which drain water away. However the stoney ground does not like horses hooves and the mud has appeared. The hard standing area is not big enough to house the horses 24/7 so something had to give. Oh how I wish I could have moved my sand school with me. It was my winter turnout and I miss it so much. Re the barrows, I don't think 2 or 4 wheels make it any easier to be honest. I did think of a sledge type contraption (curved corrugated iron sheet) which might glide over if I didn't load it too high. Still playing with that idea.

 

[Griffin]

To be honest when it is really wet and muddy in the winter, we don't poo pick and wait for drier days to go out and blitz it. Not ideal but after having to rescue stuck wheelbarrows and muddy people, this is our solution at the yard.

 

[dogatemysalad]

I sympathise. The single wheeled large narrows are a disaster for tipping over when ploughing through thick mud.
My solution was a large, two wheeled barrow and a husband. Love that man.

 

[SEL]

If horses could look back in time they'd be having a real giggle. 100 years ago they were the ones pulling sh1t around and now they get pampered while we bugger our backs!

When it gets that muddy I make poo piles that get picked up when the ground is more solid.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

When i had more fuzzies I would fill barrow only half full or so in winter. More trips but easier.
I never push a barrow either except on the yard but instead I stand in the shafts and pull it, much easier on my limbs and back.

 

[PapaverFollis]

Right. In that case...

https://packsaddleshop.com/collections/horse-panniers/products/vinyl-pack-horse-panniers

 

[rabatsa]

I gave up poo picking the loafing area mud. Now I have some mud control mats in part of it they get cleaned up but the deep gloopy mud - no way. In about five years time I may have most of it matted all being well.

 

[rabatsa]

Right. In that case...

https://packsaddleshop.com/collections/horse-panniers/products/vinyl-pack-horse-panniers

To use these you need this

 

[PapaverFollis]

Well I'm down the 'make the horses do it' rabbit hole now....

 

[little_critter]

What you need is a mud horse
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/britains-remaining-mud-horse-fisherman-775588

 

[PapaverFollis]

Fortunately most of the field is reasonably dry. Just a short section near the gate causing me bother because it's a bog then a short hill. Next year they'll hopefully be in the new winter field by this point which is flatter, less boggy and can probably have the poo left then harrowed in spring anyway. I think it might be trugs and carrying as a solution. As fun as making MrT be a pack pony would be.

 

[Cloball]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1865256433612921&id=813295672142341

You need these guys!

 

[Auslander]

I dont' poo pick in winter. The horses are on a good wormcount/worm programme, and I harrow the fields as soon as they are dry enough, then we poo pick religiously through the dry months.
Horses have hay twice a day, and a small measure of barley in their winter feeds, which encourages the birds to spread the droppings, so the fields dont look like they're full of poo.

 

[julesjoy]

I have a single wheel barrow, a double wheel barrow and a ball barrow. The ball barrow is definitely my winter mud barrow.

 

[Suby2]

Our field gets really muddy in winter. Before we finally throw in the towel each year and stop poo picking we use a plastic sledge with a trug on it. It has to be a solid trug though not a bendy one otherwise it’s really difficult to empty.

 

[tda]

I got a two wheeled barrow thinking it would be easier in general, it it's not, well not on our hard-core yard, probably fab on concrete which we don't have??

I've got quad and trailer but don't even try and take that in field anymore when it's muddy. Leave it til spring ?

 

[PapaverFollis]

I'm now thinking two lengths of plank with handles so I can do a removable/movable walkway over the muddy bit...

 

[honetpot]

I do not poo pick from when it gets really wet, about now till about the end of March. When the paddock is harrowed, quartered in to sections to be cleared, and fertilised. The seven acre field has a thrash paddock over winter, and is never poo picked, just harrowed and fertilised. I have never had a high worm count, ever. We are on clay, and some plonker dumped more clay sub soil on top, so I need every bit of organic matter to improve the soil. The cow pats are just left.

 

[BBP]

Don’t laugh, but for really deep slider mud, a snow sled (the plastic ones) can work better than a barrow, just pull over the top. We used to poo pick into plastic sacks and then use a sled to tow them to the gate for the allotment holders to collect. It was way easier than the barrow when the clay was really slick.

 

[neddy man]

Don’t laugh, but for really deep slider mud, a snow sled (the plastic ones) can work better than a barrow, just pull over the top. We used to poo pick into plastic sacks and then use a sled to tow them to the gate for the allotment holders to collect. It was way easier than the barrow when the clay was really slick.

Very clever and cheap option.