Cleaning Up After Your Horse

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by snowdrop

Just in case you thought I was joking about the bullets......this afternoon the road was choc a bloc with police cars while they tried for four hours to get a teenager (who delighted in brandishing a gun at them) down from a roof.
The worlds gone crazy....if only they took an interest in wildlife, I'm sure they'd be better people for it.

The police or the teenager - if the police in question took an interest in countryside sports they could have got him down a lot quicker - i recomend a charge of birdshot ( and no not really before anyone gets uptight)

[Treehugs]

The difference between horse muck and dog muck is that dogs do it on the pavement for our kids to step in, where as horses do it on the road.

[NikkiStar]

Originally Posted by Blackbrook Eye

Loads of horse riders around my home patch and I have not seen one of them clear up the mess thir horses leave, they will however spend hours clearing it from their own paddocks and grazing fields so it is not that they are too lazy, I suppose it is not practical to stop and clear up when out riding as a bag of 'Hoss muck' tied to the saddle would look rather undignified, not at all the thing to be seen with.
On the subject of using it for your garden, make sure if you do that it is really well rotted, otherwise you will have a crop of weeds you wont believe !!!

As a horse owner, can I just clear up a few commonly held myths on this subject...

The reason that we clear muck from fields is that horse poo suffocates the grass and prevents good growth, so it is both best from a ground management and an environmental point of view that it is cleared from fields.

Secondly, as a few people have said, the practicality of clearing it up makes it almost impossible. On an average saturday my horse and I can go for around 10 miles so I would have to drive back after my ride to collect said 'poo' having remembered the locations that my horse chose to 'go'! Not an enviromentally responsible option.

Also, as somebody else has mentionned, dog poo is full of nasty things that you wouldn't want your kids or other animals to be near. Horse poo is made up of mostly grass or hay and has very little to worry about. It doesn't smell bad either.

And lastly, once again to reiterate what other people have said, not all horse owners live in stately homes. It is a completely untrue stereotype. I work very hard to keep my horse and live in a city centre flat having, in the past, had to hold down two jobs in order to carry on with a hobby I love. As in all walks of life there are some horse owners who are less than responsible - but the majority of us care for our environments and communities whenever possible. Collecting poo isn't always a viable option though.

[NikkiStar]

Originally Posted by m1.carson

Hi kayleigh,

I'm begining to think that horses shouldn't be allowed on the road, too dangerous for all concerned,

Max.

Where else are we supposed to go? There are hardly any bridleways anymore... Maybe we should ban cars and motorbikes?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by NikkiStar

Where else are we supposed to go? There are hardly any bridleways anymore... Maybe we should ban cars and motorbikes?

actually there are over 15'000 km of bridleway in the uk - not to mention the restricted byways and byways.

but the usual advice to owners of other anuimals such as dogs is that if you don't have anywehere where you can safely exercise them without causing inconvenience to others then you shouldnt buy one in the first place !

[ChrisJB]

Nowt wrong with a good bit of horse muck. It's a good aroma of the countryside and puts hairs on your chest as my dear late Uncle Fred used to say. Grand for the roses too.
When we were kids, my mate would occasionally pick a nugget of it up and announce to us all, that it was 'bob time' and chuck it about! Where I live, we tend to call bob, bob, rather than poo.
Oh, the happy carefree days of childhood, how I miss them.

Regards, Chris

[Bouncytigger]

Originally Posted by ChrisJB

Nowt wrong with a good bit of horse muck. It's a good aroma of the countryside and puts hairs on your chest as my dear late Uncle Fred used to say. Grand for the roses too.
When we were kids, my mate would occasionally pick a nugget of it up and announce to us all, that it was 'bob time' and chuck it about! Where I live, we tend to call bob, bob, rather than poo.
Oh, the happy carefree days of childhood, how I miss them.

Regards, Chris

Oooooooooh Chris

you sound just like my mother!!

[outdoors]

they never clean up after them,it's a different story if u dont clean up after ur dog ,u get find,, it should be the same rule for horse rider's

[JP]

Sorry but why? they poo on odd occasion on roadways its basically partially digested grass not protien like a dog, it rots down quick unlike dog poo, expecially when some idiot picks it up in a plastic bag only to lob it in a hedge row down the road, my pet hate!! and has hardly no odour! This is a classic tidy britain attitude and the reason our stag beetles are on the decline, tree dies cut it down and remove stump nice and tidy

[ellen h]

This thread head line reminds me of a conversation I overheard as I was walking my dog in the local country park.There is a herd of Hereford cows that regularly graze the saddleback-a prominent ridgeway leading from Hadleigh castle.
A family was setting up a picnic and this woman unfortunately sat in a cow pat.She shouts out
"For ####s sake why cant the farmer pick up after his cows,there is a public right of way here after all.Its disgraceful!"
I looked at her in disbelief and said "you ignorant person"-or something like that!
I have also seen people going up to cows with kids as young as 2 or 3 to stroke them!!
ellen

[outdoors]

Originally Posted by JP

Sorry but why? they poo on odd occasion on roadways its basically partially digested grass not protien like a dog, it rots down quick unlike dog poo, expecially when some idiot picks it up in a plastic bag only to lob it in a hedge row down the road, my pet hate!! and has hardly no odour! This is a classic tidy britain attitude and the reason our stag beetles are on the decline, tree dies cut it down and remove stump nice and tidy

i dont agree, they leave a mess

[NikkiStar]

Originally Posted by ellen h

This thread head line reminds me of a conversation I overheard as I was walking my dog in the local country park.There is a herd of Hereford cows that regularly graze the saddleback-a prominent ridgeway leading from Hadleigh castle.
A family was setting up a picnic and this woman unfortunately sat in a cow pat.She shouts out
"For ####s sake why cant the farmer pick up after his cows,there is a public right of way here after all.Its disgraceful!"
I looked at her in disbelief and said "you ignorant person"-or something like that!
I have also seen people going up to cows with kids as young as 2 or 3 to stroke them!!
ellen

I wholeheartedly agree!! A nice dose of common sense! x

[NikkiStar]

Originally Posted by eeyore

actually there are over 15'000 km of bridleway in the uk - not to mention the restricted byways and byways.

but the usual advice to owners of other anuimals such as dogs is that if you don't have anywehere where you can safely exercise them without causing inconvenience to others then you shouldnt buy one in the first place !

Sure, but those bridleways are connected by..... roads!!

And, for many of us, owning horses is a way of life - I've had mine since I was 11 years old - and in that time the roads have got busier and people less accepting. It isn't a choice of whether to buy one...

Maybe we should get historical about this and ask what form of transport was using the roads first - horses or cars? I'm not arguing for priority or right of way for horses over everyone else, pedestrian or car, but maybe a bit of give and take amongst all road users is possible!

[Brightnbeautiful]

I,d be absolutely thrilled .....so would my vegetable garden....I am making a new compost heap and a few dollops of horse manure on the base will act as a great "starter" to get it all "cooking" ! By the way ,it,s quite expensive to buy at the garden centres .

[ChrisJB]

Originally Posted by Bouncytigger

Oooooooooh Chris

you sound just like my mother!!

Yes, my memories of 'bob time' are very dear to me indeed Tig!

Regards, Chris