What Was He Doing?

[billytheghillie]

This afternoon went out with the dog, see this guy coming down track on quad bike, he stopped and speaks with a right west country accent, then goes on his way. He goes into field infront of my house where there is 2 horses, gets of bike and starts to prod the ground with a thin metal rod. He then picks something of end of rod and puts it in a plastic bucket, done this for about 10 mins. He then went into field at back of house where there is 3 ponies and repeated this procedure. Was he picking up samples for something? If so its a new one on me.

[ditchman]

doing a Ph survey ?

[JKD]

I know exactly what he was doing. He was,,,, hang on,,,,,, or was it,,,, no,,,,,,, maybe it was, errrrr 🤔🤔🤔

Why didn't you just ask him ?! 🤗😂

[billytheghillie]

32 minutes ago, JKD said:

I know exactly what he was doing. He was,,,, hang on,,,,,, or was it,,,, no,,,,,,, maybe it was, errrrr 🤔🤔🤔

Why didn't you just ask him ?! 🤗😂

I would have,but when he spoke in that thick accent i couldnt understand him, he mentioned something about the weather, that was all i could pick up.

[johnphilip]

Oh hope this does  not turn into another  mole catching  topic 😀😀😀

[Spr1985]

Could possibly have been a Water witch. 

[JohnfromUK]

Guess.

Grazing used for prolonged periods for horses builds up a worm load (as in parasitic worms including lung worms which can be serious) that infect horses.  The eggs (or at least some stage of the life cycle) is in the soil.  Could he have been taking samples to be checked for that? 

Possibly there is a treatment (spray?) for the land, or maybe you have to rest grazing (possibly by using another species such as sheep?), or maybe treat the animals?

[Old Boggy]

One of my farmer friends uses a company which takes samples of the soil on a quad. Normally a young lass starts off by driving around the perimeter of the field which by GPS gives an outline of the field. This is then logged into a computer on the quad. She then traverses the field and takes soil samples every 100 yards or so and details of each sample entered and located by GPS.

This programme is then used on the fertiliser sprayer which automatically adjusts for nitrogen phosphorus etc as dictated by the programme. The tractor driver doesn’t even have to steer as it’s all done by computer although my farmer friend does like to make sure that he keeps to the tramlines.

All clever stuff.

I would suspect as JohnfromUK suggests that the soil samples that Billietheghillie saw being taken were to check for a build up of a parasite harmful to horses.

OB

[JohnfromUK]

2 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

then used on the fertiliser sprayer

I did think about fertiliser adn liming (treating over acid soil with lime) but I doubt it is that for the following reason - and I hopethose who know more about equestrian matters will correct me if necessary.

Horses (in general and perhaps not high octane racehorses) tend to be healthier and easier to keep 'manageable' on less rich grassland.  Very rich grass is ideal for producing milk in diary cows - or putting meat onto beef bovines.  These animals need high nutrients for commercial agricultural reasons.

However, horses - which are not working and tend to get limited exercise can easily get both overweight and/or ill - There is an illness that is very serious called 'laminitis' agravated by over rich grass food etc.  Therefore generally those keeping horses as a 'hobby' in general like to keep the grazing un-fertilised and relatively 'sparse'.

Please do correct if I'm wrong, but that is my understanding from local horse keepers.

[billytheghillie]

Many thanks for replys, one of the fields with the 2 horses in it sometimes gets used for cattle grazing, the other one with the 3 ponies in it only gets used for the ponies. Mystery solved.