I’ve seen a lot of people recommending pea gravel for dry lots for horses, and I’m trying to figure out if it would be good for my mini donkeys! They’ve really struggled with thrush and white line disease, so I want to make sure whatever footing I use won’t cause more issues.
I’d go with angled gravel, not rounded.
Over 13yrs ago I had my clay- based drylot dug down 9", geotextile put down & 9" of what my excavator called roadbase* over that.
Very little grass/weeds have grown through that & mud is no problem. At first it was loose & I worried horses would slip or get stones lodged, but they ran on the surface (to get to pastures) & noone got hurt. Now it’s packed solid, tamped down by traffic & because the angles lock the pieces together.
*stones of all sizes: fist-sized to pea.
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I’m happy with 6” stone dust (around here that’s 1/4 minus). My burritos love it. Perfect for dust bathes. I fill in low spots and generally top off every year or 2.
I use limestone screening for my donkey’s dry lot. Water drains very well and clean up is easy.
Similarly to others, I excavated and put down bank run gravel (stones of all sizes) and topped with stone dust, redressing every few years.
I will add, my mini donkeys continued to off and on struggle with thrush, etc until I started them on a ration balancer (be careful, not all are created equal and don’t over feed!). That really helped, haven’t had any issues since.
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Pea stone makes terrible footing, though it can drain well. Round stones are slippery, get stuck in hooves to be carried to other locations. Above suggestions, screenings of bigger sizes (so none gets injested with hay on the ground), road gravel, limestone are all good.
They need hard footing, poor grazing, to keep them svelte and not founder them. Neck under mane gets cresty, a fat roll under the mane first. Neck should be pointy going into the mane on a trim donkey. THIS FAT IS YOUR SIGN! Reduce calories, quantity or quality of what they are eating to prevent obeseity. Can happen fast, so keep an eye on their necks. If you are not familiar with donkey or mule hooves, they have longer, upright hoof walls and enormous, wide frogs when compared to horse or pony hooves. They do have (usually) rather flexible hoof walls that will bend over, not chip off like horse hooves. So unless you are working them regularly on hard ground to wear off hoof, they do need regular trims to keep hooves in good shape.
May I also suggest a nice pile of rough sand someplace in their lot? All of the long-eared equines LOVE rolling in sandy ground. They WILL use their sand pile often and be happy you provided it. The pile will eventually turn into a pit with use. Out here in the sticks we call the rolling places “a$$holes.” If you own any long-ears this name WILL come up, people can’t resist pointing it out as they laugh wildly! We also have lost some social skills, are not always very fit for non-farm conversations! Ha ha
Have a good time with them, they can be very entertaining!
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Pea gravel became trendy with the barefoot movement and especially in the UK, in my recollection. For horses that are already in good shape it can be good, but generally I wouldn’t recommend it and I certainly wouldn’t spend money on it myself.
Where in the country/world are you? You’ll find that aggregate and gravel designations are pretty regional but you won’t go wrong by asking for a certain size vs a name. You’d want limestone screenings or aglime or barn lime, basically something 1/4" down to fines. That’s what I would use, anyway. And it won’t hurt them if they do ingest it, besides perhaps a little extra tooth wear.
Thanks! I’ve been a bit worried about angled gravel getting stuck in their hooves - came home last week and the donk with the worst feet had a horrific limp from a stone getting stuck in there - just one from the pasture. But it’s great to hear yours had no injuries!
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Good to know! Their feet are definitely not in great shape, so maybe I’ll steer clear of the pea gravel. I’m in western Canada, and our property is insanely wet - I’m not sure how common limestone is around here but I’ll look into it!
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