Cleaning Up After Your Horse

FlyAgaric · #1 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 03:45 PM

Hi all.

This morning I woke up to find a huge mountain of horse poo on the road out the front of my house, and I mean this was large it could fertilise an average garden for a month. It is not the first time this has happened either, and probably wont be the last. I live on a housing estate by the way, that is next to the countryside, and horse riders use the estate to cut through to their stately homes. It happens nearly every day somewhere on the estate.

Doesn’t really bother me too much myself, as it soon gets mashed into the road and vanishes, but the debate on dog mess on this forum got me thinking. Dog poo is disgusting and should be cleaned up, but no one ever complains about horse poo, and horse poo is often a hundred times larger than a dog poo, yet it seems more acceptable, and no one ever talks about it. I am sure if I let my dog poo on the horse riders road or drive and then walked of leaving it there, they would be ranting and raving at me.

Maybe when people go out on horses they should have someone tag a long behind them, with a spade and a black sack scooping up the poo as they go?

FA

Wild-Woman · #2 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 03:53 PM

Waste from herbivores isn't so unpleasant. It seems to break down faster (no doggy food preservatives) and disintegrate. Wicked stuff for tomatoes too.However, it's a slip hazard on the road if you hit a patch!

FlyAgaric · #3 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

Waste from herbivores isn't so unpleasant. It seems to break down faster (no doggy food preservatives) and disintegrate. Wicked stuff for tomatoes too.However, it's a slip hazard on the road if you hit a patch!

True, but do you still want mount faeces towering in front of your nice abode?

paulchandler6 · #4 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyAgaric

True, but do you still want mount faeces towering in front of your nice abode?

I personally wouldnt have a problem with that, I'd have been out with my shovel and put it on the garden.

Also not all horse riders live in stately homes.

Paul

juliejam · #5 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 04:15 PM

As a child I grew up around horses and there were many others within the village
You came out with your bucket and picked up the horse manure and took it
back to the garden …My grandad always said it was the best thing for the roses..

If you break it down its vegetable matter unlike some Dog foods which are brought by the owners..We sold horse manure by the sack load in our money today would have been around a pound ..good value ..Is it the fact that it’s the owners using this route to get to their stately homes that has wound you up …

Julie

Cazzie · #6 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 04:21 PM

I'd be out there with my shovel - quick sharp!

Blackbrook Eye · #7 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 04:38 PM

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 !!!

paulchandler6 · #8 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbrook Eye

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 !!!

In most places it would be too dangerous to stop and clear up the horse manure on a road.
Crop of weeds or wild plants/flowers

Seriously though it would go in the compost bin first.

Paul

FlyAgaric · #9 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulchandler6

Also not all horse riders live in stately homes.

Paul

The ones here responsible for poo mountain do

FlyAgaric · #10 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by juliejam

Is it the fact that it’s the owners using this route to get to their stately homes that has wound you up …

Julie

Nope, I know them personally and get on very well with them (if its the same folk) I also love seeing horses walking through my estate.

demicav · #11 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 05:04 PM

With dogs you have the risk of worms and disease being passed on if the dog isn't wormed that is. I've never heard of any health risk associated with Horse manure, wouldn't recommend eating it though

. It wouldn't be so nice to stand in a pile, it would probably reach over your shoes and would smell awful on the living room carpet. It does break down pretty quickly though.

Blackbrook Eye · #12 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by demicav

With dogs you have the risk of worms and disease being passed on if the dog isn't wormed that is. I've never heard of any health risk associated with Horse manure, wouldn't recommend eating it though

. It wouldn't be so nice to stand in a pile, it would probably reach over your shoes and would smell awful on the living room carpet. It does break down pretty quickly though.

I agree with you about the problems with worms etc. from dog mess but as for horse muck not posing any health risk, I know a few motorcyclists who might want to take issue on that L.O.L.

nightshade · #13 (**permalink**) 26-09-2007, 05:18 PM

Definitely in the compost bin first,I had a super crop of cereal plants
after I put it straight on the garden

ron1863 · #14 (**permalink**) 27-09-2007, 12:03 PM

Our village has a walkway that runs for 10 miles, and though horses, motorbikes etc. are banned from using it, they still do, with the result that if you don't stumble in a bike rut, then you will trip over the horse oeoeoeoe, and it is ten times worse in wet weather.

briar rose · #15 (**permalink**) 27-09-2007, 01:39 PM

I used to own a couple of horses and it never even crossed my mind about picking it up, apart from in the field or from the stable, I wouldn't say it was unheard of, but no one ever did it that I knew of, it did seem to disappear quickly, but it's a good point

I wonder what size poo bags you'd need

Run rabbit · #16 (**permalink**) 27-09-2007, 02:37 PM

I'm not bothered about it on the road but around here there is an increasing tenandancy for people, especially young girls, to ride on the pavement instead of the road.

I have to admit that it annoys me, when I walk home from work, to have to step into the road to avoid standing in the stuff. I've even had to move into the road to allow them to pass on more than one occassion. It is a narrow pavement!

excoriate · #17 (**permalink**) 29-09-2007, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyAgaric

True, but do you still want mount faeces towering in front of your nice abode?

Shame you can't bag the stuff and send it up for my veg patch!

Dan Salter · #18 (**permalink**) 29-09-2007, 01:21 PM

I am a ring leader in the anti dog/dog poo/dog walker brigade but...some would say hypocritically i would not have a problem with the horse poo in the slightest.

firstly...horse poo, cow dung, sheep droppings etc....are all part and parcel of country life...and the beautiful...yes beautiful smell they give...

Secondly as wildwoman states they are herbivores so the poo is a whole different kettle of fish ( or grass ) infact its not much different to a damp pile of grass cutting slighty rotted down from your compost.

Third....i would be grateful for having horses passing my house in the road, again another reminder your living in the country...

Fourth...any keen gardener like myself would have just said....great...free manure and gone and bagged it up or shovelled it onto the compost ready to spread on the veggies or garden.

Dog poo on the other hand is so similar in size, ingredients, texture, smell...to human poo ...i wouldnt want a big pile of poo in my road from gerry at number 28?.

Stewy · #19 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

Dog poo on the other hand is so similar in size, ingredients, texture, smell...to human poo ...i wouldnt want a big pile of poo in my road from gerry at number 28?.

Haha........

Whats that film with Jim Carey in and he does one on his neighbors lawn?

juliejam · #20 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stewy

Haha........

Whats that film with Jim Carey in and he does one on his neighbors lawn?

Me Myself And Irene...watched it again over the christmas holiday with my Daughter...

Julie

Stewy · #21 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by juliejam

Me Myself And Irene...watched it again over the christmas holiday with my Daughter...

Julie

That's the one Julie!

Kayleigh · #22 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 10:06 PM

First of all you have to worm horses regular or they get tape worm that humans can get.

Second your lucky to live in an affluent area and you don't have doge bullets. Just horse poo.

And third you try riding a horse carrying a whopping bag of of s**t

m1.carson · #23 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 11:30 PM

Hi,

Diversifying from horse poo, on the country paths around here the horses hooves churn the mud up to quite a depth, what was a muddy path turns into a quagmire in a very short time.

Most of the riders appear to be young girls having riding lessons, so instead of a couple of horses a day using what may be a "bridlepath" you have ten of them, some of whom are unable to fully control their mounts.

Max.

Kayleigh · #24 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m1.carson

Hi,

Diversifying from horse poo, on the country paths around here the horses hooves churn the mud up to quite a depth, what was a muddy path turns into a quagmire in a very short time.

Most of the riders appear to be young girls having riding lessons, so instead of a couple of horses a day using what may be a "bridlepath" you have ten of them, some of whom are unable to fully control their mounts.

Max.

We never used the bridleways in winter for this reason. The deep mud can also pull tendons. But the country lanes are so dangerous now with drivers not giving a horse enough room and driving so fast they nearly knock you and the horse over... The riders have little choice to ride safe in winter at least they are off the road.... I have had a driver come so close to my horse he nearly touched the horses legs. There was no where for me to pull over.