Arm day

(Discussions of horse poop follow.)

Last week I realized I had three muck forks all with broken tines. Trying to muck with them was hardly better than trying to haul water in a bucket with a hole. You spend far more time picking up the poop that fell out than you do anything else. It's slow and frustrating. 

So, I decided to order a new muck fork. This isn't any old muck fork, though. The other annoying thing about my extant forks was that the space between the tines didn't match the size of object I was picking up. Small ponies create small poop. Poop that is small enough to fall through the tines of the fork. This is doubly true if that same pony then walks through all the poop breaking it up into even smaller bits and spreading it all around. This new muck fork promised both less space between the tines and a larger carrying capacity. This felt so important in the moment that I ignored the hefty price tag and purchased it anyway. 

It arrived yesterday so today was the first run. Here it is all new and shiny and ready to go. L. commented that it was merely a basket in a stick. She's not wrong.

Do notice the size. It is significantly bigger and heavier than my other forks. 

The extra weight didn't seem to be a huge deal as I was carrying out to the barn, but once that much bigger basket area was filled? Well, it wasn't light. I don't think my arms have ever become sore while mucking, but they were definitely yelling before I had even moved to the pony stall. They're actually still feeling like they got a workout this morning. I'm not actually looking forward to tomorrow morning. I'm hoping my muscles acclimatize quickly because this could grow old.

On the positive side the thing works better than any other I've used. Here is the before of a pretty typical state of the dry lot first thing in the morning.

My previous forks would get the larger bits, but the little stuff always got left behind. It has never pleased my slightly pathological standards. But look at this.

I don't think I've ever been able to get it this clean. The sore muscles are definitely worth it.