I am hearing conflicting things over the severity of this. I would have a total of 2 - 3 horses in a large (2+ acres) field that would potentially include sewage leach field. Not in a “gathering” area so to speak (like at the front gate, etc; I mention this because it seems like the impaction of hoofed animals above it seems to be more the problem). Is this a deal-breaker? Why or why not?
Thanks in advance!
My horses are specifically fenced OUT of my septic drain field. Not for their health but so they don’t crush the pipes. The contractor told me that is a lot of weight on each hoof.
I think it depends on your placement and soil.
Our septic tank installer said the leach field for the house was ok with a few horses on it during grazing, of course not if that is their dry lot.
For the barn leach field, he said not there, to fence all out, different field and soils there.
He said no driving over those at all, but parking a light trailer was ok.
You may consider, “if in doubt, don’t”.
For 10 years I had horses pastured on top of our septic leach field with no problems (and the previous owners had horses on it for at least a further 10 years). I didn’t even know that was where the leach field was until we had been there bout 5 years.
Well my leach field runs from the side of the house, past the back of the barn. There’s no way to avoid driving over it, walking horses over it, or having them graze there. Nothing I can do about it. The county requires the barn to be so far from the property line, it has to sit in the very middle of the property, which puts it next to the leach field. But no problems so far.
My neighbor’s leach field is in a pasture, in a lightly trafficked area (3 or 4 acres for only two horses, and not near the gate). Mine is in my front yard, so not in the pasture, but I occasionally let the horses in to graze. I think soil type would have an impact. My soil includes a whole lot of small shaley rocks which makes it nearly impossible to dig in by hand, so I don’t think the weight of horse hooves would compact it to any degree at the depth of the pipes. My well is in my pasture.
I rented a place where they had built a paddock over the leach field. When I did laundry, soap bubbles came out of the ground.
My leach field (28’x60’ i think) is in a 1.5 acre “field”. Not in a high traffic area 1-2 horses max. It’s rested all winter unless there is good snow cover and if it is even slightly wet I use other paddocks.
The excavator who installed it and another excavator who does a lot of septics in the area both said it can handle a reasonable amount of horse traffic, just don’t go drive super heavy equipment over it.
We have been told to keep weight off our septic field. It stays a bit wet and the soil is a bit unstable. The few times horses have got loose on the field, they do leave divots. It is quite an old field though, so maybe newer septic systems are made better?
I just went and dumped $20,000, lots of tears and 8 months into a new septic. The only place the leach field could go is in my 1.5 acre paddock. The septic was designed to withstand the weight of horses (ka-ching) It had to be built up and extra layers of gravel and some sort of geo-textile placed over it followed by more fancy money (i meant gravel and wrote money, lol) Without that, the horses could not go on it according to septic installer and the inspector and the engineer who did the design and a bunch of other random dudes :lol:. Without the extra put into it, the horses weight would eventually pack it down and the septic would fail.
I hope this helps.
The barn I work at had a paddock/dry lot over the leach field. Something happened and every time it rained you could smell sewage.:disgust:
Eventually you could smell it all the time and we had to shut it off to the horses.
The barn owners had it fixed early this spring and we’re supposed to be able to put them back out in it this winter.
Losing the perkability of your leech field means you have to redo the whole thing somewhere else. That’s $$$ especially if you don’t have somewhere else to put it.
If you can keep horses off of it, that’s certainly for the best.
Thanks for all the replies. It’s funny there are such varying responses; from no problem to big problem.
I get it isn’t ideal but it’s really right in the middle of things; I guess maybe figuring out the borders of the leach field would be good; maybe I wouldn’t have to give up a lot of pasture space for it and could fence it off, potentially.
Guessing that’s because it’s not a problem…until it’s a really, really BIG problem.
When I was looking at houses, I saw one with an extra little piece of land across the street from the main parcel. As we were poking around, a neighbor from a few doors down came wandering over. He was looking to purchase the extra parcel…because he’d lost perc on his leach field and had no where else to put it. His best option was going to be to purchase this little scrap of land several hundred yards away from his property and run pipe down the road so he could continue to keep his septic system working. I cannot even IMAGINE the cost!!
We didn’t buy that house, so no clue what happened there, but I always think about that guy when people bring up things that can damage the leach field. Just redoing at your own place is a hassle and expensive. But if you don’t have another piece of land that will perc, you’re really just 100% screwed.
A friend had her septic system fail. It had a couple of horses pastured over it for close to 30 years and the system was close to 45 years old. Did the system fail due to age or to the horses specifically? I don’t think anyone knows. When she had the new system put in, she added fence to keep the horses out. $$$$$ for a new septic system and $$$$ for additional fencing.
We have two leach fields, side by side, and switch from one to the other periodically, in a small part of a pasture. They’re located where there is no vehicular traffic over them, and there will never be, other than when we mow the area. Two horses are occasionally turned out in this pasture (by occasionally, I mean three or four times this year, so far), and they don’t tend to spend their grazing time over the leach fields.
We were told to avoid vehicular traffic, not foot traffic. Mowing this area with our garden tractor, as needed, is more weight applied to the surface than two small horses potentially walking across it a handful of times annually. Besides, we live in an area with a lot (a LOT) of deer, with no way to keep deer off the leach fields. Each deer weighs less than even a small horse, but there are many, MANY of them.
If it really would be helpful, we could put in a section of electric cross-fencing, to prevent the horses from ever walking across the leach fields, but we’d still have to mow this area, and there would still be the numerous deer (does and their fawns love to bed down in our pastures; I think they feel safe here, as we have good perimeter fencing).
I suppose this might depend on the original soil composition, how the leach field was installed, etc. I have a few neighbors with horses, which also have access to pastures containing leach fields. In well over 20 years, none of us have had an issue, although there’s always the first time. I certainly don’t want to restore/replace our leach fields.
Literature from our regional environmental water authority, regarding field care, states that a field shouldn’t be paved or used for vehicular traffic and parking, it should be covered with perennial grasses, and a healthy vegetative cover should be maintained.
The varied answers above depend probably have more to do with how the field was constructed than anything else. I’ve been told that our field is 12’ down (!!) by the man whose company installed it. We had galloping horses, large trucks, and more move over it before we realized that’s what was under that field. It’s still a horse field and has not been a swamp, smelly, or any of the other comments people have made above. Knock on wood everything stays down there.
You’ll get a variety of responses because there are so many factors to consider - soil conditions, septic type, when it was built (changing design requirements), usage, regional requirements, etc.
So it might be just fine to have horses graze on a leach field in one situation but have it lead to a catastrophic failure in another.
We replaced our septic system last year. The original system from the '70s involved cinder block “tanks” that had an open bottom and an area that was called a drain field that was a path cleared in the woods. :lol: We drove our (very large) tractor on that path and I led the horses on it daily basis for 5 years without any issues, because we had no idea it was the drain field! (We only realized it when they were designing our new system.)
Because of our soil (clay), property layout, climate (USDA Zone 4), and local regulations, the new system is a sealed concrete tank with a lift station to a mound system. It was about $25k. :eek: There is no way in hell any of my horses will ever step foot on that thing!
Our old system was perfectly functional and bulletproof from the perspective of heavy stuff on top of it not causing problems, but was likely an environmental nightmare. We were able to get a low interest loan to replace it from our county because of the environmental impact.
Our leach field is on one end of a 6 acre pasture. We have had 2-6 horses turned out there off and on for 20+ years with no problems. They are out at night only and rotated between 2 pastures every few weeks. I don’t use the big field when it’s very wet. So far no issues!
As so many have typed already, operative words are “SO FAR”…
sewage professional (it’s how I earn $ to pay for my horse, so a vested interest in getting it right the 1st time- I do about 50-60 systems a year) here, and no, I wouldn’t let horses out over a disposal field (knowingly) at all
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
