Best footing for stall runs and sacrifice area (in a rainy locale)

[BITSA]

Hi–I know this has been discussed on some older threads, but I thought I’d get some more recent input. I am just finishing building a small 3 horse barn with 12x24 runs and a connected sacrifice area.

I have a good layer of gravel down but am wondering what to put on top of the gravel for the horses to stand on day in and day out (retired horses so no shoes).

I live in Oregon so a lot of rain and slightly sloped land so nothing that will run off to easily. I do plan to put a geo textile under whatever it is to help stabilize the footing.

Any insights are appreciated.

[NancyM]

Move to a dry climate. You may think I am being an ass by saying this, but really, that’s what we did. It’s great. When the heavens open, and it pours rain daily for weeks on end, there is no footing you can use that will cope with this, and the mud is unavoidable, and the situation is unsolvable. We tried, and failed, in the Fraser Valley of BC, north of you. Thousands of $$$$, multiple times, drainage, sand, etc. If you have a place that is built on a “gravel base”, that is basically the potential to be a gravel pit, you might be OK. But most places like that are not available for farmland or large acreages, it seems. Ours was a clay base, and it was not possible to keep the footing dry or drained, no matter what we did. The foundation of our barn was rotting out. So we moved to a dry climate. We no longer need stalls, and horses live outside year round. Cheaper and easy horse care for us, and healthier for the horses. Win, win.

[costco_muffins]

We have hoofgrid and I would do that again in an instant. Well worth the cost and never deal with mud. Over time the hoof grid gets compacted down and the gravel/poop settles into the spaces but you never have mud.

FWIW, I live in the PNW where we get 60-75" of rain per year.

[horsepoor]

I’m also a fan of Hoof Grid, which I have in my paddocks off the stalls. Or EcoGreenGrid or whatever grid is available near you (as shipping is always a factor in the cost). I’ve been happy with a topping of pea gravel and my barefoot old horse has done well on that surface.

We originally built our paddocks with just a geotextile topped with 5/8" minus gravel, then a top dressing of pea gravel, and that worked really well too but did not last with young, digging horses…hence the hoof grid. But an option if you have horses that won’t dig and make a mess of it and can’t afford the grids.

And moving is an option too…I often think how easy it would be to have horses in another area where it doesn’t rain 60"+ a year and the wind didn’t blow so much!

[BITSA]

@costco_muffins

We have hoofgrid and I would do that again in an instant. Well worth the cost and never deal with mud. Over time the hoof grid gets compacted down and the gravel/poop settles into the spaces but you never have mud.

FWIW, I live in the PNW where we get 60-75" of rain per year.

Thank you–this is helpful–what type of gravel/sand did you put over the hoof grid?

[costco_muffins]

We have done both pea gravel and 5/8" clear and both end up packed in with us scraping the top for poop.

They both still drain, however and we have ghetto french drains under the hoof grid. By ghetto, I mean we vaguely used the excavator to make a small ditch with some slope and put large clear rock in it, with 5/8 clear over that and then hoof grid. Hoof grid was covered with clear or pea gravel (which has since all been scraped off via cleaning poops.

In all fairness, our paddocks are picked by children once per day so they aren’t super well tended, but 5 years in they still have no mud and horses are happy with dry feet.

[Scribbler]

I’m in a self board riding club in the PNW. We are close to a big but built on solid ground. It’s an interesting Petrie dish because every stallholder does their own paddocks.

From ten years observations, the primary thing is your drainage system. French drains down deep that lead somewhere plus rock and gravel and geotextile. On top of that, honestly I find hog fuel will drain faster than most grades of sand. In fact we have two riding rings actually built up in the bog area, the one with excellent drainage basically gravel all the way down with a couple feet hog fuel on top is a true all weather ring.

Whereas our sand roundpens on higher ground flood.

And many folk went to sand paddocks. The ones without good supplementary drainage become swimming pools in the winter.

So drainage is the key. I do commiserate with Nancy M’s story though. The best farmland around here is all in the flood plain.

[poltroon]

The two most important things are to ensure that water is not running on to the surface, either from uphill or from a roof, and to raise the surface up above the grade so water won’t pond on it and it physically can drain, either off the top or through the material.

If water runs into your area, you will fight a losing battle no matter what material you use. Gutter any roofs and you can add trenching or french drains around the outside of the area to take any water that’s not actively falling on your surface away before it adds to the problem.

[Calvincrowe]

I’m in the Portland Metro (Hi Horsepoor!) and I have had great luck with my set up. I luckily have a sloped sacrifice that I put geotextile fabric over, then topped with 8" screenings, or tiny angular gravel–not pea gravel! This packed down into a permeable base that drains well and have had no mud. I do have to replenish the gravel every few years. Please, please use geotextile cloth that is heavy duty. I went to an industrial supplier and bought an entire roll off the loading dock. So worth the effort! The second paddock we did last summer has been a bit of a disaster. We used a different textile product that ripped easily and the screenings that were delivered turned out to be primarily pea gravel. Due to the slight slope my gravel migrated downhill, exposing my cloth. While I have no mud, I do have a mess. We have plans.

So, if you don’t have diggers and are able to put in plenty of screenings (which most quarries/suppliers can get here by that name) and pack it well, it’ll be good.

[BITSA]

@Calvincrowe

I’m in the Portland Metro (Hi Horsepoor!) and I have had great luck with my set up. I luckily have a sloped sacrifice that I put geotextile fabric over, then topped with 8" screenings, or tiny angular gravel–not pea gravel! This packed down into a permeable base that drains well and have had no mud. I do have to replenish the gravel every few years. Please, please use geotextile cloth that is heavy duty. I went to an industrial supplier and bought an entire roll off the loading dock. So worth the effort! The second paddock we did last summer has been a bit of a disaster. We used a different textile product that ripped easily and the screenings that were delivered turned out to be primarily pea gravel. Due to the slight slope my gravel migrated downhill, exposing my cloth. While I have no mud, I do have a mess. We have plans.

So, if you don’t have diggers and are able to put in plenty of screenings (which most quarries/suppliers can get here by that name) and pack it well, it’ll be good.

Thanks! We have gutters on the barn and the whole area is sloped away from the barn. We did the geotextile fabric and gravel. I’m just trying to decide what to put on top of the gravel. I’m in Wilsonville, just south of you

[Calvincrowe]

BITSA-- I’m planning sand in two spots to create a rolling/lying zones, but I am sticking to screenings for my repair and replacement of the majority of the paddock area. My retirees are barefoot and have zero hoof issues with the set up. I do have a covered overhang on my barn that they hang out under. It is raised up about 4 inches above the surface of the paddock and has a dirt fill with mats over that. I used RR ties to create this space.

[susanne]

Also, Alaine Blickle of Horses for Clean Water has excellent information and offers workshops for owners of horse properties in the northwest. You can get info at horsesforcleanwater.com, on Facebook, and in her column for horse.com.

[Benwick]

The Horses for Clean Water people are very helpful, we went to one of their seminars before setting up our farm.

We have our 100’ X 200’ sacrifice area on old railway bed (two tracks). Since the ground is a packed down gravel base already and it drains on either side to a ravine or to our lower grassy paddocks, we use pea gravel. HCW is big on 5/8- and we tried that but I didn’t like it much and in our situation, pea gravel works really well. The underlay with gravel mentioned above is also a great system and that was a good comment about getting the heavy duty geotextile cloth. I’m glad we didn’t have to go that route but we do have gutters on our sheds and a couple of french drains. Gutters make a big difference and rubber mats are also your friend.