Concrete farmyard - ideas on making it safe for horses?

[Romany]

We’ve bought a farm which was not a horse farm.

We plan to turn the smaller large barn (40’ x 70’ or so) into a barn for the horses - one end with open stalls and closed tack room, the other as a deep run-in so they can take shelter from flies and weather.

I figure I’ll put down mats in the new stalls with straw, etc, and deep-litter layers of straw and shavings in the run-in end that we can scrape out with the loader every so often. The floor does slope gradually to the wide sliding doors on the long sloth-facing side, so I think this will work ok.

My bigger concern is with the yard in front of these doors. It’ll be the only egress for the horses, and the entire yard (70’ x 70’ ish) is concrete, as the previous owner fattened a few beef cattle every year, and I guess it was easy to keep clean. I’m not happy with the horses being loose on the concrete, and we’ve been puzzling how best to mitigate our concerns.

Again, there is a slight grade, so moisture will run off. Can I layer sand, stone dust, wood chips, something to make the footing safe?

Our climate is hot summers, long cold snowy, often icy, winters, so really, it’s the slipperiness of the footing in the winter that’s got me fishing for ideas and suggestions.

Pulling up the concrete isn’t an option. We do have access to plenty of wood (excuse for DH to get a wood chipper), straw, sand, etc.

Open to all ideas!

[sherian]

you can get it grooved so they have some traction or you can add a layer of textured concrete on top (just make sure it gets cleaned really well first and add a bonding epoxy to the new layer or it will not stick)

[AKB]

My daughter’s barn has a rough, concrete, floor. She put down rubber mats from Tractor Supply in the area that the horses use as a run in shed. It has worked well.

[ladyj79]

Our yard in Holland was entirely concrete/asphalt/brick, from the stalls to the parking areas ie anywhere you had to walk a horse. This is not that unusual in Holland and Belgium, where entire show grounds might be paved/paving stones. Honestly unless you plan on running the horses around the courtyard its just not that big of a deal if you are careful.

[SuckerForHorses]

Honestly unless you plan on running the horses around the courtyard its just not that big of a deal if you are careful.

It’s my understanding from the OP that the horses will be loose on the concrete yard as it is where the run-in type area opens up into the yard/paddock.

If that is the case, there is no way the OP can stop the horses from being idiots if they so choose, and start running around on the concrete.

[sascha]

[QUOTE=ladyj79;8711284]
Honestly unless you plan on running the horses around the courtyard its just not that big of a deal if you are careful.[/QUOTE]

It also depends on the climate where the OP is located. Ice + concrete is horrible and can be a very big deal.

[StormyDay]

I would suggest redesigning the plan so the horses won’t be loose on it. I have seen horses fall down on concrete and it is not a pleasant sight. Covering with shavings/gravel will just make it even more slippery. You could try mats but even mats become dangerous and slippery with a bit of ice. I wouldn’t risk it.

[ladyj79]

[QUOTE=sascha;8712401]
It also depends on the climate where the OP is located. Ice + concrete is horrible and can be a very big deal.[/QUOTE]

Honestly ice plus any footing isn’t fun and slippery/dangerous.

[Foxtrot_s]

Horse can and will have accidents - remember Teddy O’Connor. If the surface was roughed up and you had Steady Eddie’s who would not frolic…or who had other outside turn-out to let off steam…

[sascha]

[QUOTE=ladyj79;8712465]
Honestly ice plus any footing isn’t fun and slippery/dangerous.[/QUOTE]

Heavy ice + any footing isn’t fun. Light ice, heavy frost can be perfectly safe on dirt, gravel, stonedust, and unsafe on concrete. Only thing worse is sealed asphalt.

[spacehorse]

I had a long response…COTH monster ate it. Bottom line, I also have a concrete barnyard and have been using it…carefully. My shod horses have traction of some sort, and the barefoot ones it isn’t an issue. I did have issues with ice this past winter. I used quite a lot of barngrip and icemelt on it. Fortunately, mine faces south so it gets sun early. There were days I had to leave horses in later than normal until the ice melted a bit. We had 3 feet of snow at one shot this past winter, I had to shovel paths (my horses are pansies) and when the melt started it made BLACK ice.

My animals are pretty sedate so they don’t really run on it…although once my big horse came running into it from flies and did wipe out…

Matting it is not an option for me. A friend of mine did have hers removed. $$$$$

[js]

Any other options for exit doors maybe on the side(s) of the barn where your horses can come and go? I’m not sure wood chips etc. would stay on the cement with heavy rain, plus seems if they stayed wet for long periods they would break down. Snow and ice will be an issue. I’d look at putting doors in the side of the barn for the horses to use.

[clanter]

my thoughts are as you are thinking pretend the concrete is just the base then layer stone dust deeply, wet and compact as you layer to provide a surface that will be hardened but forgiving

[SugarCubes]

[QUOTE=clanter;8713503]
my thoughts are as you are thinking pretend the concrete is just the base then layer stone dust deeply, wet and compact as you layer to provide a surface that will be hardened but forgiving[/QUOTE]

This was my thought too…probably the most inexpensive and safest option you have.

[Romany]

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses!

Yes, even aged sober horses frolic, and yes, they’d be loose on the yard as-is, and yes, falling down on concrete, winter or summer, is never good (and yes, I do remember Teddy O’Connor - although iirc he sliced a tendon on metal siding - whatever, it was a horrid accident).

The barn is cinderblock for the first 4’6", and then steel on frame above that. I think we’ll be getting a contractor in to put a doorway in one of the end walls, so the horses just won’t ever be loose on the concrete pad. I can leave the big doorway on the long side as-is, but fence across it, so it’ll get the warm low winter light (it faces south) but they won’t be able to prat around out there without adult supervision.

Bummer, as it’s otherwise a lovely farm. I’m looking forward to turning them loose in big pastures again!

[StormyDay]

OP, I think you made a good choice. Maybe that concrete pad will become useful for something different in the future, you never know. Something that doesn’t involve turnout

[Romany]

[QUOTE=StormyDay;8715077]
OP, I think you made a good choice. Maybe that concrete pad will become useful for something different in the future, you never know. Something that doesn’t involve turnout :)[/QUOTE]

Yup! I’m pretty sure the ever-helpful local farmers already think I’m a wimpy fusspot for not wanting to turn the horses out 24/7 on the concrete and let them munch hay through the cattle stanchions. They’ve advised me with great authority that they’ll be perfectly fine turned out in the concrete yard, whatever the weather/temperament/excuse for horse-like-behaviour. :rolleyes:

At least I’ve got a good idea what characters I’m going to be dealing with going into this one!

• I sound hostile, but I’m not. They do things their way, we’ll do things ours. :yes:

[ElementFarm]

not cheap either, but similar to “using the concrete as a base”, what about affixing one of the geotextile grids to the concrete and then filling it in with gravel? I’m picturing the mud-free dry lot systems out there. You can even put in dirt (vs pea gravel) and try to grow grass, or just just use the gravel and have a good-draining area in front of the doors (which you want anyway, as the high traffic areas in wet weather will turn to muck pretty quickly)

I’m picturing something like this:
http://www.hoofgrid.com/
permanently attached to the pad, and filled with pea gravel.

the other thing I would suggest, like others have said, would be to mat the whole thing. We use mats in our run-in sheds, and they work great in there.

[Romany]

[QUOTE=ElementFarm;8717371]
not cheap either, but similar to “using the concrete as a base”, what about affixing one of the geotextile grids to the concrete and then filling it in with gravel? I’m picturing the mud-free dry lot systems out there. You can even put in dirt (vs pea gravel) and try to grow grass, or just just use the gravel and have a good-draining area in front of the doors (which you want anyway, as the high traffic areas in wet weather will turn to muck pretty quickly)

I’m picturing something like this:
http://www.hoofgrid.com/
permanently attached to the pad, and filled with pea gravel.

the other thing I would suggest, like others have said, would be to mat the whole thing. We use mats in our run-in sheds, and they work great in there.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for that link, EF - I haven’t seen that stuff before, and I’ll look into it. No doubt cripplingly expensive because of our sad little Canadian $, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Romany;8717740]
Thanks for that link, EF - I haven’t seen that stuff before, and I’ll look into it. No doubt cripplingly expensive because of our sad little Canadian $, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.[/QUOTE]

If you wanted to go the route of painting something on the concrete for traction, any roofing company may pour asphalt on the concrete and you can throw shovelfuls of sand on it and have good traction on it.

That is what we used to do before trailer mats, run a new trailer by a roofer and they would mop some tar on it and we added sand on top and that was great, nothing slipped on it.