My ponies are at livery and I am dreading them coming back :-(

[Naranji]

Sent them to livery to let the paddock recover a bit. We can only afford 4 weeks of livery even though it is what seems like a very good rate. I love it. The girls can ride in the sand school, no more stressing about the paddock maintenance, no more having to deal with a bolshy strong section a and a food obsessed, bullying NF. Also the woman that runs the yard is a font of knowledge and I love having the support. I am DREADING them coming back, the paddock is in a terrible state and I have no idea how to improve it. Dh is completely washing his hands of it and won't help even cleaning up the field shelter but also says no more than 4 weeks at livery.

[willyoulistentome]

Does the yard do grass livery - is that an option?

[CooEeeEldridge]

Is it your own paddock? Could you move to a similar place but one where there is a few more people for support?? Or is there something you and kids can sacrifice to make livery more attractive to your husband??

[Naranji]

There is a diy livery near us but I think we'd find that almost impossible as I work. At the moment my oldest dd does the ponies in the mornign before school - couldn't do that if they were at livery. If they go to livery it has to be full livery, during the week at least.

[BobbiFleckmann]

do they do working livery? or find a sharer?

[Naranji]

No working livery. dd1 would NOT entertain her beloved pony doing workign livery anyway

I feel awful because I love the ponies but the actual physical hard work is super tough. My friend said you won't want them back and she was right!!

[Naranji]

I have rung a paddock maintenance guy up to come and quote for rolling it and hardcoring the poached gateways. I really need the muck heap to be taken away too as I have no idea what to do with it otherwise. I have two muck heaps as when it was so wet I couldn't push the barrow through the paddock to the heap so had to make a new one behind the field shelter and it looks horrible!

[Callisto]

Can you fence off some of the paddock to let the rest recover? Could you ask a local famer to roll the paddock for you (paddock maintenance sounds v expensive) and put down some hardcore yourself? It won't be long before the spring grass is through and that will make everything look better.

[Littlebigbum]

Callisto is so right, it will spring soon.Then maintains will be a lot easier think about having some hard standing for them.

[HeathRobinson]

Could you do part livery, where they do mornings and you evenings? And you let them be ridden by other people. Or isn't there a riding school attached?

[HeathRobinson]

And what about dividing your paddock into halves, if it's big enough, or if it's a bit smaller, 2/3 and 1/3. So you rest at least 1/3 of it at any one time.

[Lovesswimming]

i ended up with 2 muck heaps as well, couldnt get to the summer one! I'll be asking the farmer to roll, spray etc and take the 2 muck heaps away! ive let them trash the first field (need one to be bare ish in summer anyway as they get too fat)
can you fence some off and then you'll see the rest start to recover?
how many acres do you have?

[Naranji]

2 acres so not huge. I asked the farmer to top it last year and he said yeah sure then took 7 weeks to come and do it (Somerset ). I just want someone to come and do it when they say they will!!

I will fence it in half anyway I think as the NF bullies the welsh. The welshie is old so he can have the field shelter with a little bit of grass as he gets lamintis - he's a loan pony and actually he's been a PITA - hard to keep condition on, stressy, hates to be away from the other pony, very strong on hacks and the threat of lami ever present. the NF is a dream in comparison - good doer, hardy, sensible chap with one speed = slow

[WillowKnicks]

What about returning the loan pony, who is a PITA & then you only have to find livery costs for 1 pony?

[Naranji]

Because he's fab in the school and my younger dds are learning to jump on him (very successfully) WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I feel sorry for myself

[mrslaughan]

Something sounds like it has to give. Dd may need a reality check about someone else riding her dpony to give you a break.
Only you know whether your finances can afford for dponies to stay in livery, but when you work full time and the family benefits from that income, it DH needs to share the load of child minding, supporting children's hobbies , house work and cooking- you can't be expected to be super women

[Nicecuppachar]

One of my liveries was in exactly your position so she sent her loan pony back and pays livery at mine and rents out her paddock and field shelter to go towards the cost.

[SaggyOldClothCatpuss]

Rent your paddock out, then keep the ponies on livery everybody happy!

[LaurieFairyCake]

Am I being dim but couldn't you freecycle the manure? People could help themselves - if you were anywhere near me if be on you like a rabbit on a carrot

[SaggyOldClothCatpuss]

Actually that's a good point. We freeclycle our muck heap. Ours get mucked out into sacks, then a friend loads a huge trailer, ships it to the allotments and the allotment blokes pay for his fuel/time. We also have people who take it away in small loads, and a local allotment bloke leaves us a small trailer, then picks it up once a week, empties it and brings it back. This is a great time of year to offload it too, because the gardeners are preparing their ground for planting.

[lovebeansontoast]

Any vineyards near you? Ours is gladly taken by them

[Naranji]

Freecylcling is complicated because to get to the paddock (which we rent) you have to go through the paddock owners garden. She lets us do it but is paranoid about her lawn gettign trashed (which is has been - leading poines in and out - and she doesn't want lots of people coming to take the manure. She'll be ok about a farmer doing it once a year.