The water containers are just sitting in mud making it worse ever day with the horses walking in it all the time to drink water. It is the ideal conditions for pigs! They would love rolling around in it!
At least they are turned out 24/7 and they have a large field to run around in. I think the rain bothers us humans more then it does the horses!
I have been looking for a field shelter for them and have seen a couple I like. I know that, Ollie, will be in there more then the others. He loved the shelter when he was young in the last field and would go in to sleep and when emerged he always looked like a snowman covered in shavings!
When the fields are so muddy the grass is no longer available for them to eat. At the top end of the field there is grass, but not enough to keep them going. I have got the farmer dropping off a large bale of haylage. It seems to be impossible to get hay from anywhere, only haylage is available at the moment. It is all down to the amount of rain we had throughout the summer months. The farmers need the hay for their animals.
So it is back to having fun again! Checking the haylage to make sure there is nothing inside the bale that shouldn't be there, animals, ragwort and no mouldy haylage!
The large bales of haylage weigh a ton and moving and rolling them is hard work! I prefer moving and rolling the large bales of hay instead. They are dry where as the haylage is wet and heavy. When feeding the hay I always give it a good soaking to stop the dust whereas haylage is dust free. If you don’t soak the hay before hand the horse can start suffering with broken wind or a dust cough and go on to develop a dust allergy! Already up to one in every five horses suffers from some form of dust allergy!