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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wonder if a paddock manure cleaner is more efficient than a person poo picker?!

8 replies

Nomdemare · 15/06/2026 19:31

Just that really! Really hoping for some decent traffic to help guide us. Currently picking up horse manure from a grassland
meadow by hand - it’s exhausting and back breaking! Have seen various ads for paddock manure cleaners (eg paddock blade) and sadly can’t afford a terra vac colt. Practical advice appreciated please.
thank you!

OP posts:
whattheneighboursthink · 15/06/2026 19:57

I've often wondered the same. If you have flat fields and short grass the paddock blade MIGHT be good but I'd worry about smearing and spreading shit about rather than picking it all up. And then emptying it? You still have to throw it up on the heap.

Everyone I know who's had some kind of poo vac has stopped using it as it's too difficult to operate on your own and emptying is a pain.

I like the idea of a paddock sweeper rather than hoover but again you need fairly flat paddocks and short grass. However, it's been linked to grass sickness.

Anything that spreads or potentially spreads the shit will reduce your grazing area so that type of solution should only really be used when you've moved to the next paddock.

I got a battery powered wheelbarrow, which I love. Because although you're still using a fork (I use a lightweight plastic shavings fork) you don't have to pick up and push the barrow. Emptying it is then the issue because of all the wheels you can't just aim and charge up the side of the muck heap. I still love it though.

If you have enough land, easiest of all is worm counts, rotating paddocks and chain harrowing (when hot and dry). And maybe a couple of sheep.

One other thing we used to do that actually worked well was picking by hand into rubble sacks (don't fill to the top, too heavy) and collecting those from the field once a week with a trailer. Then over to the muck heap and empty the bags on to it to reuse. Emptying the bags was a lot less hard work than using a fork to fling the shit up. That might work with an electric barrow too. Ha! I'd forgotten we used to do that!

The least backbreaking is paying someone else.

BottomsByTheirTops · 15/06/2026 20:04

How many horses?

GOODCAT · 15/06/2026 20:11

You want a vacuum rather than sweeper as there is a correlation with grass sickness with the latter. I would go for an electric wheelbarrow personally. In the thick of winter a wheelbarrow will be kinder to your fields.

Nomdemare · 15/06/2026 20:13

7 horses so completely backbreaking!

OP posts:
FinalFrog · 15/06/2026 20:15

Wasn’t there a query about the vacuum (years ago) that it increased the risk of grass sickness as it was dragging the soil up the grass?

Sprig1 · 15/06/2026 20:17

No. Your options really are to keep poo picking by hand or, if you have enough land, make smaller fields and mob graze, harrow the field after the horses have moved on and then rest.

BottomsByTheirTops · 15/06/2026 20:27

7! Oh shit - to coin a phrase!
We have one though which is sick dt being over-revved I suspect. Main issue was needing 2 people ideally. Doesn’t deal with long grass. And it would encourage leaving the job a few days which then made emptying it a drama.
I’m down to 1 horse 1 pony now and their offerings in 24hrs conveniently fill 1 barrow, so it’s not too bad a job - I realise this is no help to you! I just wear gloves and pick it up.

I did a CPD on horse worming recently (I’m a vet albeit small animal) and unfortunately harrowing has a thumbs down now, which is a drag. Poo picking is particularly important - and as effective as ivermectin in reducing wec’s iirc if done at least every 2 days.

Are all these horses yours? No liveries you can rope in? Tame teenagers wanting to ride in return for help?

BottomsByTheirTops · 15/06/2026 20:30

Can’t remember the blurb on how long you need to rest paddocks. Look up the PROTECT worm control info.

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