Remind me again why I have ponies?

[CatPussRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

I've just been out in the light of my head torch and hacked at the six inches of ice in the water trough with the wheel brace from my work van, then a oiled ever last cube of ice out with my bare hands! HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! The pain! im seriously considering taking up reptiles instead! Nice warm vivaria, heat lamps...

[proofreader]

but you cannot ride a lizard CatPuss....

[CatPussRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

No! But I don't actually ride any of these beggars either! arse Far to big they're all Dds really! She saw sitting in the car, minding the fish and chips!

[Mirage]

I feel your pain.My friend and I have just been comparing notes on why ponies + winter=bad thing.

I'm getting up in the dark to turn one of them out,poo picking in semi darkness,breaking ice on troughs,spending a fortune on hay/replacing shoes lost in the mud.And I don't even get to ride-the dds have all the fun.I don't know why,but this winter seems infinitely worse than last winterand it has barely started yet. Only 8 days until the shortest day though.

[marialuisa]

It is miserable, I think it feels so much worse because summer never really happened. It's just been wet and muddy for as long as I can remember. I'm lucky that I don't have to do mornings but we're all full of cold and struggling. at least school finishes today!

[frostyfingers]

I have just come back from a filthy 2 hour ride in the pouring rain and howling wind. I had to take dhorse out as he hasn't been ridden since Monday, hunting was cancelled on Weds, the roads were too slippery to ride on yesterday and I want to hunt tomorrow. He spent all his time trying to turn round and go home and I spent all mine with my head tucked down trying to forget about the ice cold rain trickling down my neck.

Marialuisa is spot on re the summer - I was still faffing about with rugs in May, the hacking was grim because it was always wet and it just seems to have carried on being horrible.

The only time I feel satisfaction atm is in the evening when they are both tucked up in their stables munching away on their hay (until I remember the pile of poo that will await me in the morning!).

[horseylady]

I agree about lack of summer. This year has been hard hard work :(

[CatPussRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

God yes! We haven't had any fun with ours in months! We don't have a manège, the fields are swamps and the roads are shit! dd is really struggling!

[Pixel]

Dhorse thinks he's taken early retirement, it's so long since he's been ridden. I spent all summer saying I'd ride when the weather improved. Still waiting for that!

It was so foul this morning, for the first time in about 2 years I didn't poo pick the field. Will have tons of it to do tomorrow . I've never seen such mud, poor dshetland can barely make it to the shelter as it is up to her belly. Even the scaffold plank we usually put across it for her ladyship to walk on is no match this year, we can't even find it!
Still, the troughs and hose have thawed out so I've filled up the water containers ready for the next icy onslaught.

[Pixel]

Btw if that makes me sound like a terrible fair-weather rider then let me say in my defence that like Catpuss we have no school, the fields are muddy and sloping and the roads are busy, we don't have any proper bridleways, plus I wear glasses .

[ponymaloney]

We have no school either. Ponies are going mad only being ridden at the weekend (we take them off in the trailer to go to rallies/hunting/lessons). This weather is a nightmare. I hate it.

[CailinBainne]

same here

Can I ask - is it bad for ponies to not be ridden for any length of time - I feel terribly guilty about it. Mine are youngsters age 6 and 5. they don't misbehave when ridden after a long break or anything, just poor fellas look so bored standing in muddy fields all day.
We have a small sand arena at the house, just never get the time during daylight hours

[Mirage]

We've got access to a school,but there is no lighting,so can't ride after school,plus is woodchip and horrid when it freezes.We are only riding twice a week when we normally ride every day.DD2 has a new pony on trial and has only ridden her 7 times in 2.5 weeks,at this rate it'll take ages for her to get to grips with her.I can't wait for the school to break up next week,then we'll be able to get out and about in daylight.

[CatPussRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

DD rides on the field in the dark if the ground is dryish. We know there aren't any holes or obstacles so she just gets on with it. It's fantastic when the snow is down, nearly as bright as day!

[Plomino]

Yep , hate this time of year . Was so cold last night that I bandaged up the big horse (his circulation is crap so he gets really stiff overnight) . By morning it had warmed up , so DH put them out this morning , but didn't realise had been bandaged until he let him go ... So big horse spent the morning charging round the fields playing dragons , in purple fleece stable bandages.

None of mine are being ridden at the moment , but that's because I've broken my leg . Am quite fortunate that neighbour lends me her school and the hacking's only on a road for about 300 yards before we hit bridleway though.

[frostyfingers]

Soaked through again - go away sodding rain! Dhorse has an overreach on his back heel and although he's in at night the squelching about during the day completely negates any good that does.

I've decided to bring them home and stick them in our field over Christmas where there's plenty of grass cover (no stables though, which is why they are at livery) to give them a break from the mud, and me a lie in..... Hopefully the wound will heal then, even if it's wet it will at least be mud free for a week.

[50BalesOfHay]

We've got an indoor school but the mud in the fields really puts me off bringing them up in the dark. GD rode last night, I'm struggling to be motivated, but I must. It has been truly crap this year. Hopefully we'll get some half way decent days over the holidays.

[Alameda]

frosty, how can he have an overreach on his back heel?

can't ride at all, one lame, one constantly soaking wet and everything flooded

MISERABLE

[frostyfingers]

What I meant was that his dear field companion had trodden on him so it's like an over reach but not IYSWIM?! Although how anyone else is supposed to work that out god knows - my brain is addled from the rain.

There is not a patch in their field which isn't more puddle than ground poor things, and dpony hadn't dried out this morning even though he'd been in since 7.30pm. He is warm and dry right under his coat, so he should be ok though.

[Alameda]

ohhhh I see!

sorry, was puzzling the logistics for ages (should get out more but it's too horrible out there!)

[Pixel]

We've just opened up the top of the field which hasn't been touched all summer and is long rough grass so not muddy at all. Makes poo picking twice as hard though and the sudden downpours always wait until I've trudged right up to the top with the wheelbarrow and there is nowhere to shelter so I'm drenched in seconds. Then comes the fun of actually trying to get the full wheelbarrow out of the field . Yesterday I thought it would be a really good idea to put some bark chippings in the shelter because there is a rubber mat there and dhorse has nearly gone over a couple of times (wet floor and no shoes). It all seemed straightforward until I reached the shelter and realised I couldn't get the full wheelbarrow across the lake mud.
One of the liveries has been using her driving pony to drag tarpaulins full of bark to the muddiest bits of her field, think I'll have to borrow her .
We had so much rain last night that our deep wheelbarrow was full to the top with water this morning. That's a lot of rain!

[CatPussRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

Grrrr! Bloody youngsters have been messing with the fencing between the field and my landladys garden! Got a call at work to tell me! Got home at 7.30pm and spent an hour in the mud and shit repairing fences and chasing the bleeders about! I'm so tired, I could cry!! And now any Christmas money I get will be spent on flipping fence rails!

[Imabadmum]

Oh I'm glad it's not just me that sometimes wonders wtf I am doing busting a gut morning and night trudging about in the wind, rain, cold and dark, looking after a horse and DS's 2 ponies tht I cant ride. I do love my horses, but sometimes I do ask myself really, is it worth it?