Dear God! Im in horse shit HELL!

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

And its my own fault!
I recently took on a nice little yard with about 6 acres, in 2 paddocks.
It is waay more land than Ive had before, and I discussed it with the owners, and we decided that Id run my gaggle of ponies on one paddock at a time, then move them over when it is stripped bare and harrow. The trouble is, there is too much grass for the five of them, and they arent eating it fast enough! So Ive decided that Ill have to poo pick instead.
Jeeessuuus! There is bloody TONS of it! Im off out to attack it now, and its going to take days and days!

[Mirage]

I feel your pain. We moved dpony out of her little paddock into one 3 times the size and I have to trek all over it poo picking now.Before I could see exactly where I needed to go,now it is so much bigger and hilly I'm walking all over the place.I can still do it in 10 minutes though,so nothing compared to what you are doing.
On the plus side-it is a lovely day to be outdoors.

[marge2]

harrow?

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

When the field is bare, you move the ponies out, then drag a chain grid around the field, to spread out the muck and break it up. You need to leave the field for two or three months for the muck to break down and disappear. In theory, nice and low maintenance. In practice, harder than it seems!

[Butkin]

For the future maybe worth investing in electric tape to subdivide the field. That way they don't wander around too much which makes poo picking much easier. We use a large wheel barrow and get DD to help us but if I ever came into money I'd like one of those machines that suck it up!

[Butkin]

PS we always harrow as well. Not only breaks down the poo but aerates the ground - tiz a good thing.

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

I used to work on a stud that had a poo Hoover! It was Jeffing fantastic! even more so because it had a lovely quad bike to pull it!
I have subdivided now, and won't be moving them until it's bare. The problem I have as well is that now they are eating it, it's exposing rank patches from the previous tenants, and there's lots of stuff I'd call chickweed, although I'm sure it isn't. I'm going to keep them on a patch until it's grazed right down, then lawnmower the weedy bits. I'd still like to Harrow, once I get them on the right sized patches, a friend has given me a tiny prehistoric ride on tractor and I'm going to see if I can get it going.
I have to say, I bloody hate poo picking! And it doesn't help that a/ in their usual helpful way they are concentrating all their jobbies in the already rank patches so I have to extract them, and b/ annoying WM mare keeps legging it through the electric partition!

[CailinBainne]

I only have 2 ponies but I poo-pick daily... I swear that all the ponies in the district come round for a party overnight in my field...

[Eve]

Find a road with a few mumsnetters living on it , go deposit it along road and sit back & wait for the horses should pick up their poo threads!


.....or borrow my boys, they get paid 50p a time for poo picking... As pocket money overtime.

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

Eve thanks for the offer, but your poor boys would take one look and demand a payrise, Im sure! Do like the idea for depositing it though! Im slogging through it slowly, the main problem I have is my wheelbarrow is too small. Im going to switch to a 1 tonne aggregate bag instead. Its great when the poo is dry and light, just keep filling and then drag it to the muck heap!

[Earthdog]

Have to admit I have never poo picked (it wasn't done back in the day and I am too busy at the moment). However I worm count and my horses are all zero counts except the baby and she is always a low count.

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

Id love to not bother, however the land I rent is huge, which means that they just pick what they eat, and poo in the long grass, which then ends up rank and bushy and messes up the field. The owner then gets cross. We agreed the harrowing idea, but there is just too much room!

[MitchiestInge]

I wish I liked poo picking and could come and help but I HATE it, even on a nice hot day with iPod and plenty to drink - hate hate hate hate hate it. I would rather spend a whole day mucking out (my second most hated job) than an hour of poo picking.

They could treble my livery overnight and as long as the no poo picking state is unaltered I'd be happy! The harrow is my best friend.