I have heard about 2 barns in our area that uses wood chip in their paddocks for mud control… What kind works best? Do you get the landscape kind or just from a local tree service? Does it work better than gravel? Thanks!
I will use bags of pelleted bedding to fill in low, wet spots in my paddocks,
and around my water tubs.
Works great for smaller applications imo 
Depends on how wet it is where you are. Here, in the PNW, wood chips are a nightmare. They will decompose and you will end up with even more of a mess than when you started. I personally wouldn’t put anything organic down to try and control mud. Gravel is the only way to go.
Gravel/stone dust would be preferable. If you do use chips be very, very careful that there’s no black walnut in there. Laminitis risk.
I would use stone dust.
I remember a farrier telling me once that since wood chips or “hogs fuel” as it was commonly called in the PNW, would hold moisture unlike gravel, and that it wasn’t very good for feet.
The problem with wood, as mentioned above, is that wood holds onto moisture.
When everything else has dried this will still be wet.
It might work as a temporary fix if you are planning to scrape it all out when you fix the footing later on.
Adding anything organic like wood or wood chips will only increase your mud problem. It breaks down, holds moisture, and becomes a worse bog than before.
It might work as a temporary fix, but in essence you are creating more work. The best route is to scrape down to hardpan if you can and fill with stone & gravel, crush n’ run, stone dust, sand… something like that. Getting the general drainge of the area sorted out too is necessary, make sure runoff has a place to go either away from or all the way through the paddock.
I’ll go against the grain –
my best friend does this on her farm - it’s a small barn (20x40, one side is basically 2 large run ins, the other is the ‘aisle’ and grain room w. loft over both). she has a run in arrangement - 3 horses on one side, 1 on the other alone. the ‘congregation’ area was packed/damped down 10 years ago - the general substrate was stripped and IIRC, a very thin layer of stone dust was placed down. they then placed down about 5-8 inches of coarse wood chips. this is about a 40x100 area that leads out into a huge field.
it has worked very well - they NEVER have mud (though it will hold water in thick bouts of rain). they get a new load every fall (not a big one) and spread it over the existing chips. they factored in the incline and placed the congregation area pretty close to the natural low area of their property, so it drains pretty quickly in severely wet weather. they pick it every day though. if they didn’t, i don’t think it would work. it takes a great amount of dedication.
what i like most about it is how clean it keeps their feet. we’re in NE MA where all the swamp is and they have not had thrush in 10 years and i know this family well, they are not good at picking feet or brushing their horses :winkgrin:
Don’t for reasons given. Got that T-shirt. Becomes a slimy mess with time.
Use crushed stone, #2 I believe is what I have used. It will take a fair amount. Just keep adding. Water seeks its own level and so will stone. Once reached the problem will be solved for years. Dirt/soil mixes in and some grass will grow to help bind everything in place.
I would say don’t. The last barn I was at tried to use wood chips to control the mud problem in the front part of my horse’s field. They stood there to eat their hay out of hay nets so this portion of the field was pretty boggy.
They might’ve put down too much, but I found that it made the surface even slippier because wood holds onto moisture and gets slick when wet. All three of mine are barefoot year round and their feet were more smelly when the wood chips were put down because their legs would sink into the mixture of mud and chips and encase the foot. I was so nervous that someone would slip and suffer a leg injury. Wood chips also break down into smaller pieces and get stuck in frogs and feet and such.
Buy some crushed rock. Wood rots in mud.
Anyone I know of that has used wood chips or hog fuel in these parts (PNW) has regretted it. Same reasons as others mentioned above – it retains moisture and breaks down too much. Definitely better to go with gravel or screenings.
I have seen small round stones about i" in diameter, maybe 2" , used at gateways. They sink into the mud,and water runs down between them. I wouldn’t use and wood product, as it breaks down it becomes slippery.
Don’t, it will decompose. Crushed stone, after you’ve scraped out the mud.
I use hogsfuel and it completely eliminates mud for me for the winter. And I am in the wet and rainy PNW. I usually wait too long to put it in and so I get the “benefit” of comparison as I have a few weeks of mud before we lay it out.
The wood chips may hold moisture (though I don’t find that to be problem of any sort) - but the mud holds a lot MORE moisture I would rather have my horses above the mud than in it!
I put it at the entrance to all stalls/run-ins/gathering areas and as a bib around the 30x10 overhang my biggest group of horses eat under. I couldn’t find a recent picture, but here’s the bib around the shelter from a couple of years ago: http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a484/PNWjumper/IMG_2154_zpscjhk0cyb.jpg.
It’s an annual chore to get it and lay it out. And I’m sure if I did grids/gravel I wouldn’t have to reapply every year like I do with this. But I don’t pick the manure out of the paddock area (only from under the shelter) in the winter, and so I prefer having something that I can scrape back at the end of the summer to get ready for winter again.
I started using a guy for my hogsfuel last year who sends the wood through a chipper and brings it directly to me. If you buy hogsfuel from a dirt place it’s usually somewhat composted and dark brown in color. The stuff my guy brings is fresh out of the chipper, more of a sawdust color, and holds up from late December until the mud’s gone (usually June - ish). The pic above is from one of my older loads. With that being said, the more composted stuff usually lasted through the season as well as long as we put it down in a thick enough layer.
I tried it and had the same results as some other posters did. It made it slippery. Also seemed to take longer to dry.
You need to be very careful what kinds of trees they have chipped, as well. And, it isn’t like they are going to tell you-- or even are sure.
Many years ago, I lost a yearling who ate the cherry bark on the chips. They had just been chipped that day, and so the cyanide was active. Just like when cherry trees have branches that break, and the leaves wilt, the stuff is lethal. Dry cherry- no- live cherry is fine , too.
One other note- I also had a horse ram a piece of wood from the chips through his frog. The blades in the chipper can leave sharp edges, as they cut.
Chips- sans cherry- are great for a quick fix, but they are a catch 22 down the road- you need to add, or clean it up, and adding is dangerous. Cleaning it out is expensive, because after cleanup, you still need to put something safe in there- like stone.
I have tons and tons of stone around here- around gates, troughs and walking areas. The grass has grown over some, as it has sedimented, but it isn’t muddy, and the horses do not slip.
We have decomposed granite (also known as DG) in the high traffic areas near the gates in the turnout fields and the places we drive the tractor (dumping manure). it makes a HUGE difference. I can actually walk on it without sinking into the mud. We had a huge load of DG delivered a few yrs ago and every winter, we add some more to the high traffic areas. I know I would be slipping all over and falling down in the mud were it not for the DG. And its not that expensive either!
I tried wood chips at a gate area. The chips were fresh from a chipper. A 3-4 inch layer, mix of hardwood & pine. After 6 months, the manure and wood chips made a nasty, stinky mess. Had to scrape it out and replace with sandrock. Three years later it is still walkable after a rain.
