Winter time and dry lot poo

[BroncoMo]

Is there any decent way to keep my dry lots, more specifically runs (20 X 80), picked in the midst of a winter wonderland(hell)? Am I missing something that other people living in a tundra are doing to make it doable? I was keeping my runs picked daily or every couple days in the summer/fall and it was manageable. But I have varying layers of manure, ice, and snow. Some of it under drifts (between 18 inches and 4 feet). Usually I just have to let it all go and scrape it out in the spring with a skid steer. But I want to do better; I just don’t know that I CAN do better. I especially try to keep the runs picked better as each horse is obviously more confined than the ones in bigger lots. I assume there’s no good way to stay ahead of this crap (pun intended)? I can’t convince myself to put the money and effort in to remodeling the footing (geotex, base, packed screenings, etc) if I’m just going to end up with a disgusting mess that’ll ruin my footing as soon as all this melts off in May.

Should have prefaced, all horses live outside with ample shelter space. Bringing in to stalls so poo is contained is not an option, as I do not have stalls.

[cutter99]

I just always did the best I could until spring, and then used the tractor and cleaned out really well. Once horse poop freezes, you are truly s**t out of luck! I would clean out really well if we got some sort of a thaw. If it wasn’t frozen, it got scrapped out.

Or you could do what I did- move south!

[BroncoMo]

@cutter99

I just always did the best I could until spring, and then used the tractor and cleaned out really well. Once horse poop freezes, you are truly s**t out of luck! I would clean out really well if we got some sort of a thaw. If it wasn’t frozen, it got scrapped out.

Or you could do what I did- move south!

That’s semi-seriously being considered. I did put a thread in the hunter jumper forum about Kentucky hunter hot spots and didn’t get much for responses. Did you happen to have improved footing? Ie, mud free/screenings/geotextile? I’m curious if the standard “scrape it out in the spring” concept will ruin super expensive footing and drainage if I were to go that route.

[NaturalSelection]

We are in Wisconsin, less snow than you (so far), but still plenty of cold. I also have my 4 horses in an approximately 200x200 dry lot. No stalls here either.

I do do try to pick the dry lot, even in the winter, to the best of my ability. The hardest time for me seems to be in the mud season when the dry lot is actually 4" of mud.

This year we did invest in a few “islands” of crushed limestone around the round bale feeder that I really keep clean so they will have somewhere to get out of the mud come spring. We also put stall mats in the 3-sided shed. The shed and the limestone island get picked daily. I pick the rest of the dry lot on the weekend. Edited to add that the nice, level surface of the limestone makes picking the area much easier than the frozen mud.

I’ll probably add more limestone next year, but I don’t think we’ll ever have 100% limestone ($$). And I still plan to scrape with the skid steer in the spring.

Good luck!

[bathsheba8542]

If you can see it and it’s frozen to the ground, hit it with a sledge hammer. Knocks it loose to pick up, and gives you a great forearm workout at the same time.

[walkinthewalk]

No pun intended, but it’s going to be something you have to keep picking away at, until everything melts.

what I find to be the most helpful is a heavy duty lawn rake. Buy the professional landscaper version as the tines can take a pretty good beating when you’re trying to yank frozen manure loose:)

it is not an ideal solution but it does help, and you’ve got yourself a great yard rake to use for many other things:)

[cutter99]

@BroncoMo

That’s semi-seriously being considered. I did put a thread in the hunter jumper forum about Kentucky hunter hot spots and didn’t get much for responses. Did you happen to have improved footing? Ie, mud free/screenings/geotextile? I’m curious if the standard “scrape it out in the spring” concept will ruin super expensive footing and drainage if I were to go that route.

I did have turnout paddocks with geotextile and layers of different size rock with screenings on the top. I very rarely had to scrape with the tractor when things warmed up. I would use a pitch fork and a plastic leaf rake to get up most of it. I think I put more screenings down once in ten years of keeping horses this way. I had very little mud, if any at all.

[trubandloki]

I pick my paddocks 2x per day all spring, summer, and fall. Even in mud seasons. Yes, I am one of those people.
Winter paddocks make me twitch. I want to clean them but once we get buried in snow and everything freezes solid I just have to give up. The layers of snow and ice just make things a serious battle. When it is just a frozen pile here and there I can break them loose (I use the claw side of a hammer), but once the snow/ice adds in the battle is lost.
It becomes a disaster which I clean up as soon as I can in the spring and then I have my nice clean paddocks once again.

[Leather]

I’ve got two horses on a dry lot with a run-in in the frozen tundra, so I feel your pain.

The biggest help I’ve found for winter is to use a large ice fishing/utility/Otter sled rather than to try to wrestle a wheelbarrow through the snow. (Slide a small piece of PVC pipe over the rope to use as a handle so it doesn’t cut into your hand.)

I follow a 3-step process. I find it easiest to complete each step for the entire paddock at a time so I don’t have to carry 3 tools with me: [LIST=1]

Using a pointed end shovel, pop up the piles of poop.

Using a bow rake, rake the apples into large piles.

Using a metal tined fork scoop the poop into the sled. [/LIST] This is the fork I use--it's heavy but it doesn't bend or break: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ames-10-Tine-Welded-Bedding-Fork-2826300/204476209

After spending 2+ hours this Saturday cleaning the paddock, I’m vowing to do this every couple of days rather than once a week.

[NaturalSelection]

I second the heavy-duty metal tined fork, also have one!

[Lolliver]

It’s been in the teens here for a few weeks now. I can clean the run in and the drylot, because the ground is level. What I CAN’T clean is the area around the run in that was muddy, then got rutted when it froze, so there’s no way to get the poop out. It makes me crazy, but I’ll try and clean it as soon as it warms up a bit.

[longlanefarm]

Ugh, I feel you. The manure on flat areas I can break up with this old dull ax thing I got at a sale and fork up but the nuggets that roll into the frozen mud divots, forget it. I am forced to leave those until I can get the tractor in when it softens a bit.

Screenings and stall mats in the run-in have helped tremendously. However, that doesn’t help in the paddock.

[Foxtrot_s]

My friend who has horses in freezing country has the worst, arthritic, knobbly hands from trying to do chores in the winter.
Best save it for Spring and the tractor.

[Madhouse]

I’m seriously delinquent this year… but typically I will scrape the lot with the tractor/loader weekly and pile in a corner of the lot. Because the ground is frozen the bucket doesn’t dig the footing away. Typically the piles will pop off the surface of the lot - especially after there is a layer of packed snow in the lot. If I would let it, it would take until mid June for all of the snow to melt in the pile. I end up hauling the snow/manure mixture with the manure spreader in the spring.

[punchy]

I am one of those people squatting in my dry lot at night with a flashlight in the rain picking up individual goopy pieces of poop with my bare fingers or stabbing at frozen pieces with a screwdriver. I don’t have anything useful to say, other than I feel your pain.

[akdraft77]

What I cant pry out with a spade shovel or skid steer now, I leave for spring, It is what it is. Sometimes, it is good traction.

[alibi_18]

I will leave that here : http://www.cyberhorse.net.au/stablemaid/users.htm

[Magicboy]

Oh my…what a crazy thing

[Libby2563]

@alibi_18

I will leave that here : http://www.cyberhorse.net.au/stablemaid/users.htm

:eek::lol::eek: So glad I clicked on that link!!!

[sorrelfilly721]

@alibi_18

I will leave that here : http://www.cyberhorse.net.au/stablemaid/users.htm

Soooooo I’m wondering what happens when the horse lays down. Or poops for the third time. That just looks like it has disaster written all over it (or America’s Funniest Home Video). Anybody actually tried one of these?