Creating a mud free paddock off stall - how do you do it?

[Scribbler]

[QUOTE=Obsidian Fire;8694882]
Lots of great ideas here, and most are where I thought I should go anyway - as in far far away from wood products!!

Thank you very much!![/QUOTE]

Just remember that if you don’t have good drainage underneath, water will still pool in a sand paddock. And there are a lot of different options for sand or aggregate. Some of them pack down so hard that they can’t drain, and get green pools of slime in the winter. It might be a good idea to rake sand paddocks periodically, just as sand arenas need a lot of grooming and harrowing too. And if the sand develops high and low areas, water will pool too.

I see a lot of horses at different facilities here with flooded sand paddocks in the winter. The paddocks aren’t muddy, you don’t sink up to your knees. But they can retain a lot of dirty water and drain very slowly, even once the rain stops.

[Jim_in_PA]

Anything that decomposes will create mud when mixed with water…hence, the suggestion to avoid wood, shavings, bark, etc. Consider that one of the reasons that folks have to put out new mulch in their gardens nearly annually is that it turns in to soil…

[Foxtrot_s]

With our crusher dust, limestone, or whatever it is called in your region, we have it sloped so water runs through it or off it. Sand was a disaster, because the fines clogged it up, but the hoof prints held water.

[Obsidian_Fire]

Thanks all. The run is sloped, so that does help. What I can’t speak to - is whether or not there are underground “springs” that crop up when the water table is high. There are areas around here like that. Seem perfectly fine and drain well and then it rains for a month and you have a sinkhole or standing water that never drains because of the stream underneath it.

Once I get it completely dug out I’ll have a better idea of which (non wood) way to go!