Aunty Beeb was right again

3pm today, it was warm enough for the Grey to fall asleep in the sun (if you squint you can see she isn't even tied up). Half an hour later and the field was blanketed with hail. We were out doing hill work, but scooted back before we all got too wet and cold. Then early to bed for the girls. OH was busy repairing the damage to the fencing wraught by last nights gales. The BBC weather forecast predicted a hail shower sometime between 3-7pm. Right again!

Living out 24/7

The Grey lived out 24/7 until she was 19 months old. From then until September this year she has been at least partly stabled and at times, when injured, fully stabled. It is not particularly common for riding horses to be out 24/7 these days and especially so in the area where we are.

So naturally when starting this Paddock Paradise experiment I was concerned about how she would cope. Would she be miserable, get thin or ragged looking?

This picture shows her this morning. We have had several days of below freezing temperatures, and they were preceded by 10 days of horrendous rain. As an added concern she is at the bottom of the heap, social dominance wise, so always gets the rough end of the stick when it comes to hay, grass or shelter.

She is rather unfit, and as always a bit muddy, but I don't think she is fading away just yet. I keep taking photos so I can mull over them and compare/contrast them with pictures from previous days/weeks and even years.

I am particularly relieved to find that she is actually looking better than she ever did at this time of year when she was at full livery.

Perpetual motion

With the all the restrictions that go with rented grazing and our fierce planning laws and fiercer neighbours, creating a Paddock Paradise is something akin to chasing fools gold. But we continue to experiment with what can be done rather than fret too hard about what can't.

The drainage (if there ever was any) on the land has failed, big time. Now every time it rains a a continuous sheet of water blankets about a third of the field. Naturally this portion includes our hay storage area, the stable, the field shelter and the thick hedge. The average monthly rainfall is 2.75 inches, but the last three months have average over 4. So with the lack of sun, falling temperatures and dodgy drains, the water that falls is taking much longer to clear.

So we/the horses have a dilemma, either the 'bodies' have shelter, but the feet dissolve in the liquid mud, or we can have dry feet, but the 'bodies' have to withstand torrential rain/howling gale.

So far we have managed to keep the actual stable floor dry, but to get to it involves a long trek through quite treacherous conditions (for me anyway). The field shelter, newly roofed by the magnificent MOH, seems to have developed a spring in the middle. So we are rather short of suitable dry standing, especially as the two QH have big personal space requirements.

In the short term the posse are being decamped to Rockley Farm. Both for some intensive foot tending and to give us some breathing space in which to decide how to deal with our watery dilemma.

Our landlord is very tolerant and quite obliging, but I don't think there is a lot of scope for serious field renovation. Partly because of the expense, partly because of the short term mess, but mostly because of fear of hassle from the neighbours.

The 'circuit' we have is mobile. That is we can move both the inner and the outer perimeter fencing. Next year I shall make better use of this flexibility to avoid grazing the horses on the wetter areas in the winter. Provision of shelter will be more challenging as the stable and field shelter positions are not negotiable. Ideally I would like to drain these areas and lay pea shingle. It all depends on how far the landlord will bend and of course finances.

But for today I have moved one of the perimeter fences to cut off the worst of the mud. Unfortunately it has also cut off the best hedge, but I am hoping that the weather will stay dry and the wind will stay away at at least for a couple of days.

I did dig a trench in front of the field shelter, which helped stop water flooding in, but it didn't cure the spring and it did break my very expensive spade.

But tomorrow is another day. I will go and buy another, cheaper spade (maybe it will last longer) and try and put in some interim drainage ditches. I need to dry out the access to the sheltered areas to give the posse somewhere to go when the weather gets rough.

The field guard mats have long ago given up the struggle. I wish I had spent the money on pea shingle instead, it would have been a better investment.

Gorgeous George

We have a new arrival. The girls have been joined by 'George'. An 11 year old American Quarter Horse gelding.

We thought long and hard about mare/gelding for our next horse. I like the deep bonds I have formed with the girls, but felt that the 'herd' would be better for a mix of sexes, so long as the individuals were carefully matched and introduced.

I would normally spend several weeks introducing a new horse to the group, but an advantage of the circuit is the ease with which horses can manage their 'personal space'. So we quite quickly turned George and the girls out onto the circuit as a group.

There was a bit of squealing, but really very little drama. George has joined the 'honorary girls' club.

Paddock Paradise goes large

Madam suffers from sweet itch on her belly and groin. She is particularly sensitive to poo flies, so we poo pick the circuit twice a day. She went through a phase of creating poo towers a bit like a stallion which made it easy. Now, she tends to hide her droppings by the electric fence. If she were human I'd say she was trying to get me electrocuted. Madam finds most human activities intensely annoying, unless of course they are to her direct benefit.

An upside to all this labour has been improved, longer lasting grazing. The little half acre circuit has lasted for four weeks, but now it is time to move to the big time.

Our Paddock Paradise is going large and we are moving the girls onto their new circuit which is approximately 0.5km long.

Paddock Paradise UK style

My grazing is rented and the landlord wants it kept 'pretty' and 'no mud'. It is also in a conservation area, so overall I can forget about trying to change the basic nature of the grazing or introducing any pebble track areas.

But I am keen to find out what can be done and what will work within these strictures. We have started out with a 'nursery' circuit in roughly 1/2 an acre. Partly because my first circuit blew away - (lesson - long lines of tape between plastic posts do not work well on a windy hill) and partly because Madam has just finished 8 weeks of box rest and is still relatively fragile.

I have had to compromise between supplying a wide enough track to be safe and yet not providing so much grazing that the girls stop moving round the circuit. I have been careful to ensure no 'corners' which might stop movement or allow a horse to be trapped.

I have read some advice to put down hay, even when there is grass. I try this and find it works. The horses seem to like the change and it stops them getting upset stomachs (and maybe laminitis?) from gorging on too much grass.

The first day in paradise passes without incident.

Two horses, one trailer, four people and a Freelander

There was no way the Freelander was going to shift all our gear, the girls and four adults all in one go. Even if I'd been tempted to try, one of the helpers is a very tough copper who would probably have booked me on the spot.

So we moved each of the girls in turn. My other half (MOH) who is fantastic, but not horsey 'volunteered' to play anchor to the first horse we moved (Princess) whilst Madam was in transit.

This is not something I would recommend, but if you knew how well Princess and MOH get on you might worry a little less. I didn't, but then I worry about everything anyway.

Our biggest concern was the sheer foolhardiness of taking two horses out of 24/7 stabling and then moving them onto 24/7 grazing. We had done lots of preparation by introducing hand picked grass in increasing quantities into their diets, walking in hand and trial turn outs, but it was still risky.

At the new place we grazed the horses in hand for about 4 hours, it was hot and sunny and we were all dozing off. We had some Sedalin (sedative) for the release in case the horses were wound up, but we didn't think they would need it because they were so chilled.

Madam of course proved us wrong. She belted round the circuit 5 times squealing and bucking before settling to graze, definitely rather more lame than when she started - but not hopping lame. Princess kept up, but more in the spirit of companionship than any real desire to hurtle round.

And that was it. After 20 minutes you'd think they had spent their whole lives there. We had brought sandwiches, tea, blankets, torches - enough kit to camp out for a week if we needed. But we didn't need to. So far they seem fine. I ended up checking them a couple of times in the night and discovered Madam really dislikes head torches, but apart from that all is well.

Tomorrow we move to paradise

Have you ever noticed that sometimes random events connect and take you on a journey you had previously only dreamed of? Tomorrow I move my horses to 'paradise' and this is our story.

'Madam' is a half pint American Quarter Horse. What she lacks in stature she makes up for in attitude! On 31st May she suffered a serious, career threatening injury while walking on a flat, safe surface. At the end of July she was still on box rest, depressed and making very slow progress. I was exhausted from keeping her and her stable companion exercised and entertained. Then I spotted a tiny ad for grazing very close to where I live.

I have spent all my spare time for the last four weeks setting up a very basic circuit in honour of Jamie Jackson's Paddock Paradise. Then I spent most of the last 48 hours redoing it because the first one blew away in a storm... You can see a larger version of the plan for the Nursery Circuit at the bottom of this page.

But we are as ready as we can be - tomorrow 'the girls' move to paradise!