When will we get grass again.

[Groom Mum]

I was looking at my field today. I almost cried. It's trashed. I've split it down the middle to try to save it. The part directly in front of my stable doors is a foot deep of slushy mud. It's taken all of my strength not to fall flat on my face in it the last few months. In fact I have gone over twice. That particular bit I honestly don't think without re seeding it that grass will ever grow there again. But will the rest of the field ever recover ? Will the spring grass come through again.? This is my first year at managing my own land, and I'm so worried it's not going to come back properly. My other field I saved and saved but it was a bit of a mistake as the grass is a little bit yellow in places, although most of it is still edible. I have come to realise that having your own land and trying to manage it is a bigger and harder part than looking after the horses. That bit is a breeze !!

 

[paddi22]

i'm in the same boat! mine looks like a disaster and i completely mis managed it. I'm praying for the grass to come through again!

 

[Groom Mum]

How did you mis manage it ?

 

[paddi22]

Didn't section off correct areas at all! or switch them at the right time. Have seven acres plus an acre paddock and its all destroyed, with not a jot of grass.

I have a small all weather paddock but didn't move them into it as I had building work at the time. But I moved them in a panic into small paddock when the snow came, and then as it melted they completely destroyed an acre in a few days. If I had have moved them into it before end of last year the ground would have recovered by now. I should have fenced them into a small area of field during the really really bad rain, but instead i felt guilty about them being in a mud, and as a result they destroyed waaay more land then they needed too. Have to get my head around the fact that it's not the end of the world if they are in a muddy bit during the worst weather!

 

[Groom Mum]

I put mine in 2 acres. Then after a few weeks I started to split it up. But I had to leave the front of the stables ( which are directly on grass). Open as they needed to come and go into the shelter. So they trashed the front. Also I made massive mistake of putting stables on to grass instead of concrete I had other side of field. They are getting moved in April so im looking forward to being on dry ground. But I fear that end won't recover. I'm more worried about the field in total. I just can't imagine it getting back to how it was last summer. It's going to be harrowed and rolled as soon as I can get a tractor on it.

 

[Enfys]

It will come back if you give it time.

Harrow, roll and rest.

Managing your own land takes time, and it is a learning experience.

The advice I would give to anyone is, if you possibly can, bite the bullet, build yourself a dry lot, of reasonable sized area, that you can drain, or surface for winter, or wet weather use. My horses manage perfectly well on half an acre. They don't have grazing, but then there is NO grass here in winter anyway, grazing is not (how very un BHS of me) necessary if ad-lib forage is available, neither is the 1.5 acres per horse or whatever they say if the land is not feeding the horses.

 

[Pinkvboots]

It will come back I only have 3 acres with two horses on it, it is bare and muddy but it looks like this every year and it always looks like a different field by the end of spring and I never fertilise it I do split it in April then alternate them on each half and I do have a very small paddock I open in the summer that is rested from late winter, and I normally always still have half that has been rested from late summer that I save until about December. I didn't even get it Harrowed last year as it just got too hard too quick and my landlord never got round to doing it and it was fine.

 

[Equi]

See i see my grass like this and wish it would stay that way. I usually do everything opposite, and take them off in summer to stop obese/lami risk. Id love my grass to stay as it is now.

 

[Princess16]

I was looking at my field today. I almost cried. It's trashed. I've split it down the middle to try to save it. The part directly in front of my stable doors is a foot deep of slushy mud. It's taken all of my strength not to fall flat on my face in it the last few months. In fact I have gone over twice. That particular bit I honestly don't think without re seeding it that grass will ever grow there again. But will the rest of the field ever recover ? Will the spring grass come through again.? This is my first year at managing my own land, and I'm so worried it's not going to come back properly. My other field I saved and saved but it was a bit of a mistake as the grass is a little bit yellow in places, although most of it is still edible. I have come to realise that having your own land and trying to manage it is a bigger and harder part than looking after the horses. That bit is a breeze !!

Are you planning to roller it before you put your horses back on your other field?

I feel your pain but believe me it will recover even though it doesn't seem like it will.

 

[Groom Mum]

I have about an acre left that's still edible. I have been putting them on that for a few hours a day. But they have to come back into there main field ( which I have split right down the middle) because their shelter is in there and they love to go in at night to have their feed and abundance of hay. So I have a 2.5 acre field which basically is trashed, although half has been rested for last couple of weeks and I also have my other field which is around 2 acres which I've divided in half but move the boundary every couple of weeks. That's quite long still. But another month and that will be pretty bare too. Then that's it. That's why I'm panicking a bit I will be right out of grass by end of April and am praying my trashed field ( the saved bit) starts to grow soon.

 

[sunshine100*]

Hi are you going to be put hard standing down-everyone I know has booked builders to put that down after being caught out with all the rain! Are you ok with mud fever?

 

[Groom Mum]

I already have a fairly large area of hard standing. But it's uneven. So next month I'm ripping some of it up and re laying a better flatter area. Then I'm moving my stables from the grass on to it. I'm going out another 12 ft in front of stable doors then fencing the area off. I will NEVER go through what I've just gone through the last six months. I'm excited not to get my wellies stuck a foot deep in the mud, then falling into it when my welly releases. It's really not been funny. It's been horrendous. The poor horses have struggled to get in and out of their shelter too. I'm sure like me they can't wait either.

 

[jules9203]

Harrowing, reseeding, rolling and weed spraying when necessary - it will come back!