- Clippers

Get them clippers out and check over them, you probably haven't used them for a good 11-7 months. Check your blades, are they sharp enough? Do they need to be sent away before you start using them come September? Do you need to buy more oil in preparation? Little bits like this are always good to check over before you need them.

- Winter Field Fencing
Haven't used your winter field since April/May? Have a trip to the field and check it over. Check that all the fencing is secure and the harsh dry summer we've had hasn't loosened your poles in the ground. I've found that a few around my field have become a bit lose due to the hardened ground. If you have electric fencing around your field are all accessories secure? Do you need to buy any replacements before the colder weather starts? If using electric fencing I always like to have a spare set of battery's around on the yard just so I have some ready to pop in when needed. 

- Mud Fever 

I'm quite lucky with this one as I don't struggle with this but I do know that with autumn/winter comes plenty of rain and with rain comes mud. If your horse suffers from mud fever, have you got everything you need to approach it? Are you stocked up on your favourite cream or powder? Are their boots still in good condition, do they need a good clean before this time? Or are you looking at buying some new ones? Don't wait until you need them, get them ready! 

- Laminitis 

If you have a pony or horse that struggles or is prone to laminitis you're probably well aware that there's still one last push of the grass to grow and they're just as vulnerable to get it then as they are in spring. Keep an eye on them, make sure they are still on the feed that helps them through the time the best, reduce their grass intake and get them on the hay or a hay replacer. You don't always need to bring them in all the time. You can make them a small paddock with electric fencing or put them in a sand paddock. You can use the track system while on little grass to keep them. Moving. 

- Winter Feed

If you're one of the lucky ones and haven't had to feed your horse throughout the summer, have your feed bins had a good clear out. Have you disposed of all of last year's feed bags? Try to remember you can also recycle your feed bags and any supplement containers and do your bit for the environment. You can either make a mixed bag of bags and containers and separate them at home or have a plastic bag for plastics and then paper bag for your paper bags. Always handy if there's a few of you on the yard and you do a paper and plastic bag, can make it easier for everybody to recycle then. 

If you have any feed from last year left in the bins, empty them out and give them a good clean before you start adding in fresh from this year. 

- Stable Deep Clean

If you haven't already, it might be time to give your stable a good deep clean out. If you have rubber matting, pull all of it up and out. If available give them and the stable a good power wash clean or otherwise just a hose and some hard work with a brush will do the same job. Adding disinfectant like Jeyes fluid can help really get it clean and away with any smell that might be strong. 
Alternatively if you're not wanting to do a deep clean every year you can keep it clean throughout the time using it by adding disinfectant crystals to your bedding.  

- Warmer Rugs

Dig them to out check them over, any repairs need doing before they will be needed? The temperatures can drop out of no where so it's great to be prepared. 

After sorting through your rugs will you find you need some new rugs? Get them in the current sales before the prices hike up. You don't always need the latest seasons rugs, the horses don't know that they are the newest on the block and won't care if they are a destroyer. 

Find you have got too much rugs? I've always said too many rugs is not enough but you always have to be realistic, if you're horse isn't wearing them all do they really need 3 spare rugs of each weight and in std and combo? Have a clear out by selling them online, people will start looking to buy rugs.

- Start Buying Bedding/Hay
Start buying bales of hay/haylage and bedding every so often now, this way it won't be such a hard hit when you have to buy loads when the horses come in. My horses are kept out until the first week of November Typically, I've already started buying now and I'll have a good stock up for when they come in.

Some stockists will do some deals on buying multiple bales of bedding, if you know somewhere doing this take advantage, as Tesco say every little helps!

With the dry summer we've had I know there have been many of people who have been buying their summer/winter hay supply since the first cut. This may leave us with a little less supply towards the end of the year. I'm really hoping not and hoping people don't get greedy with the prices knowing it will be sought after. 

Even ourselfs are thinking about stocking up and buying a pallet of two of haylage for the stable nets throughout the time in. We are struggling to find a supplier of the big round bales this year though. 

How are you finding the hay supply this year where you are? 

The Art of Strip Grazing

Well It's definitely been a while since I've written a proper blog post here, It feels weird typing like this again actually.

Strip Grazing is something I've always done with the horses as soon as I've had the opportunity to. When I first moved on the livery I'm at Legacy was in the fields with other horses, at this point we didn't have Cloudy so he wasn't there yet to go in with her. It was winter when we first arrived so she was hay throughout. During the winter her field buddy became lame and had to come in on box rest for a good amount of time. Therefore she gained a new friend as a field buddy.

They then stayed together throughout the summer, but as the grass was eaten I gained a problem that I feel most finer type horse owners would feel my pain with as the other horse became fat. Meaning all I could do was give Legacy hard feed, and no hay as the other horse was on a 'no extra feed/hay diet'. Unfortunately due to the lack of Grazing Legacy ended up getting worms. Thankfully she recovered well from this.

Before the diagnosis of her having worms she rapidly lost a lot of weight and went down to a bag of bones. I was actually scared to weigh her at her worst so I don't know how bad she went. To try and gain some some on her we tried bringing her into the stable for hay but she was stressing herself out more than it was helping. After this we tried her in the round pen as it was near some horses in the field. She settled in here and she would go in there from about 8/am until 2/pm just eating grass and hay. 

After a good worm and a visit of the vet to confirm it was worms for the weight loss, we kept her in the round pen and changed her hard feed to Baileys no. 4. That food is amazing and if anyone ever asks what I recommend for weight gain, I always say feed that and at the recommended amounts.

Not long after this my mum got Cloudy and he went down Into another field with some other geldings, until he was needed as a field buddy for Legacy. Since these two have been together we decided that we would strip graze to try and maintain an amount of grass for them for as long as possible throughout the summer and autumn. 

We try to keep the two horses out for as long as possible weather and grass providing. 

The way we done it the last couple of years is we've had them on the last section of grass by the end of August. When moving the fence we try to alternate between giving them more grass and some hay. This way we can get the grass to last us longer.

When we give them the last section, we let them eat it down for a week or so then cut it off again for it to rest and grow back until it stops and then they get it all again. It's typically not long after this that they come into the stables over night for winter. When this happens they move field. 

To try and keep them supplied with grass but also give the bits they've just eaten a rest and little time to grow back, we swap the fence in a diagonal line. When we move one size of the fence in to give them more grass we move the other side out to cover tee eaten grass. This seems to have worked for us in the past. This year its not ideal as we're not currently having any rain to get the grass growing again. 

Below I've added some links to some electric fencing starter kits like the one I bought. The Exact one I did get is the Hotline starter kit which I found great and very easy to set up considering I'd used any electric fencing before. The only problem I found was that there wasn't enough fence posts so I had to buy another set.
Both of these kits come with tape for the fencing, due to the amount of wind in my area the tape lasted a season, after this I changed to wire as it's more durable with the wind. The only problem I found with wire though is that as Cloudy jumps over the fence it does start to fray with use and moving the fence.