This summer/fall has been ridiculous with the amount of rain we’ve gotten so far. I had the paddock scraped last spring, and tried to keep it picked out, but the last month or so, it has been impossible to keep up. We would get rain, then snow, then freeze, melt, etc…so it has turned into a mud pit again. Thinking ahead to next spring, I’m considering just getting a load or two of sand to cover the entire area. It’s not a big paddock by any means, and there is no grass to consider, it’s all just mud at this point! Just wondering what others do for footing? Does this sound like a good idea? Any pitfalls to adding sand?
Not sure if the sand would help. We add reground asphalt or pea gravel, sometimes fill dirt in low spots. But if you have a small area, not sure if they sand would just get hoofed down into the mud you already have. I am lucky to only have to work on spots but mud sucks. It will be interesting to follow this though to see what others say. In my really muddy loose spots it seems as if the additives just get pushed down in the mud over time.
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Limestone screenings/stone dust works great for dry lot type paddocks.
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Thanks! That’s what I was wondering, if sand would hold up! Never even thought of stone dust, that might be a better plan! Just so tired of watching my poor horses trying to navigate mud up to their ankles. And when it freezes, the ground is so uneven, it makes just walking difficult! I do have another area to turn them out in for a couple hours a day to play (trying to conserve the good footing, I limit the time out), so this mud pit is their primary home.
Unless you actually remove the mud, anything you add to it will just become mixed in with the mud and not solve your drainage issue…which is what this really is. It will be a short term fix. When time and money allows, it will be best for you to get the organics (topsoil, etc.) removed from your paddock down to the sub-soil, grade for proper drainage, install geo-fabric if you can afford it to prevent migration and then install a non-organic footing. At a minimum, try to at lease clean out the heaviest use areas and partially do this.
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If it’s already mud, your best bet is to add hogsfuel for the short term. It can “cover up” mud quite nicely. It will eventually break down and turn into more mud, but I usually get about 6 months out of my hogsfuel. At that point (when you’re out of wet/winter) you can scrape and add whatever footing you want for next winter.
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We have a lot of clay in our area, which can result in tons of mud.
For our 50’x150’ catch pen, we removed the top soil, installed geo-fabric and then laid down about 6-8" of stone dust and rolled it. Our catch pen gets a lot of traffic but it holds up beautifully. It is on a slight incline so we get “wash outs” in the spring. Therefore, we add a few wheelbarrow loads of stone dust once or twice a year, but other than that and picking out the manure every day, it is zero maintenance.
I’d love to see a picture of your pen! I’m also wondering about what an area like this costs to cover with fabric and material.
2Below- there are multiple threads regarding creating mud free paddocks on COTH, search and read to learn all you need to know! I’ve done just what OneTwoMany did, about 12 years ago now. Geotextile, if bought from a local source like an erosion control company, is very affordable. Rolls are usually 12 x 300 feet, and under $500. Do not use landscaping fabric from a home improvement store–won’t hold up.
You must install over dry, hard ground with decent drainage so wait until mud season is over. We topped ours with 6 inches of “screenings”, which is the equivalent of stone dust I think (regional differences in gravel names can be frustrating), but it’s small sand up to tiny gravel irregular shaped stone. It packs nicely, and is soft under foot.
You MUST pick up poop, dirt and hay/organics daily or you’ll develop a mud layer on top of your mud-free footing. The cost of gravel products varies widely across the country, but here a 12 yard load of screenings runs $275 delivered and dumped. I needed two of those to cover my cloth in a 50 x 60ish irregularly shaped area. I’ve added screenings over the years to maintain depth and slope. My husband (math teacher) worked out how much gravel I needed to cover X area by Y depth. He’s pretty smart…he’ll calculate yours for you if you need! 
My paddock is attached to the barn overhang (matted) that is 12 x 36 for two well-behaved (ish…they are passive-aggressive turds to one another at times…boys!) geldings. This opens onto an acre of pasture, but I close them off it frequently here due to the extremely prolonged wet that is fall, winter and spring in the PNW.
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If you go to just about any quarry website, they’ll have an area -> cubic yd calculator for you to use, no math teacher necessary 
(e.g. here - http://vernsorganictopsoil.com/)
PNW-- we tried it both ways, cubic yd calculator and husband. Husband was just as accurate and felt useful! Lol. Always important when spending “our” money on “my” horses!! I also found the amounts a bit off in how much we needed (we ended up using less). But the website will quickly give you a way to calculate costs!!
Hey, I’d use the husband (if he were a math teacher) over the calculator too, but for the rest of us who don’t have easy access to a math expert the calculator is a bit more accessible! :lol:
No shortcuts for a long term solution. The goo must be removed, down to hardpan and then layered up with crusher dust, 3/8ths minus, whatever it is called in your area…It must bd domed or sloped and you’ll have not problems.
We put conveyor belting (or mats) at the step off area from the barn just for extra protection.
Thanks for the ideas! I did have it scraped last spring, as I said, and really tried to keep the manure and wasted hay picked out but the last couple months it’s been impossible due to the weather! I want to prevent this mud pit next year. To be fair, this has been one of the rainiest spring/summer/falls in this area in a very long time. When we did have any dry weather, i was pretty meticulous about picking it out and it looked great! That being said, how do you keep on top of picking out manure in the snow? Just try?
Jim is onto something. It takes two things to make mud: dirt and water. If all you do is cover the dirt with rock then you might solve the problem but you might not. The first question might be “where does the water come from?” Then where can me make it go so it won’t make a mud mire?"
If all you’re getting is rain then you have one problem. If you’ve also got surface flow you have two problems.
Identify the water source first, fix that by improving drainage, and you might not need near the additional material that The Book says you might need.
G.
What is hogsfuel?
It is coarsely chopped wood.
As the snow melts it is easier to find the manure and pick it out. In the meantime, you just have to do the best you can. Another thing that helps is to have a hay rack of some sort to keep the hay in one place and to keep it from getting soiled. If you have the labor, put out only enough hay to last an hour or two and replenish during the day. This reduces the waste that adds to the muddy mess.
Calvincrowe-Thank you! Very helpful!
This could be problematical as wood is an organic substance and will rot to make more dirt. If a wet environment, which the OP already has, it will rot faster and thus create more dirt faster making the problem worse, not better. In a very dry environment this might actually work well, just not here.
G.
