In the Saddle: Is Spring on its way?

With the winds came the rain and with rain comes sodden ground and mud. Brilliant. Just want an equestrian wants.

So, how does the farm differ from our last property in Ferry? We are thankfully on sandy soil now as opposed to the clay soil out there.

It makes a huge difference to the draining of the land and it’s so much better for horses, well, I think so. Clay mud sticks to hooves, boots, tack, you name it.

We’ve still had mud here. It’s impossible not to have it with horses. Part of the land always gets poached around the gateways and walkways back to the fold yard, but this year I was given a Mud Mate brush to try.

The brush is a clever little thing which comes in a watertight tub. You pop a used plastic bottle on the end (just screw it on) and voila - a brush to scrub off the dirt.

I’ve seen friends use them for football boots and figured the brush would be great for horses hooves.

Luckily I haven’t used it on my horses due to the sandy soil, but I think it would be super for clay-based ponies.

Instead I put it to good use cleaning splashed on mud on horse boots, you just have to tip the water back up to the brush, but it’s ideal if you’re in livery yards. You can chuck it back in the car in the container.

I wish I’d got one sooner when I was struggling with the clay soil, but I hadn’t heard of it at that point - more’s the pity. You can buy one (£9.99) from Amazon or via their website online. They are based locally so you can buy one from a few shops in Epworth like ‘Wags & Whiskers’.

Hopefully with spring approaching we can say goodbye to mud...but with April showers around the corner and our typical British weather you just never know.