Drainage Ditches - Open?

[scrbear11]

Does anyone have an open (not a french drain system) in one of their fields or paddocks? Any photo of what you have?

My back paddock stays under water for the most part. The property drains to this paddock. I do not want to put a french drain system in. I really just don’t think it will be effective. I’m thinking of having The Mister dig a shallow ditch to be lined with gravel that directs the water out of my paddock, or at least holds the water in that ditch. It will be shallow enough that none of the horses will be hurt crossing it. I’m just not completely sure my idea will work… I think it will…

[clanter]

no photo but technically you are describing a swale

Like a trench drain , a swale is a surface water drainage device.

[splitrockfarmnc]

I do, in my sacrifice area. We put it there to divert water away from the pasture and out through my neighbor’s driveway culvert (we did discuss this plan with him first and he had no issues with it). With water in it 9 months out of the year, it’s more like a creek than a drainage ditch. When it rains it fills up and flows like a river.

It’s kind of a rough dig and I was concerned about the horses at first, but they seem to navigate it just fine. They have to cross it to get to the main pasture. They usually step across at the areas that are a little more shallow but they also won’t hesitate to jump it at speed. Eventually I will rent equipment to do a cleaner dig, lay a pipe, and cover it so they have a flat place to cross, but this works for now. They are both sound, strong, and reasonably fit so I don’t worry too much.

No pictures but I will try to remember to take some later.

[ChocoMare]

I have a swale that cuts right down the middle of my property, dividing my side pasture from the back paddock and other pasture. In two sections, I had steel culvert pipes installed for easy cross over, since the side pasture needs vehicle/tractor access (a gate is there) and in the back section, the mound over the pipe is the chute the horses uses between the back and side.

This back one needs help, so we’re going what you’ve got listed above, with the exception of leaving the culvert pipe but burying it deeper. We’ll use geotextile fabric at the leading side of the pipe, covered in dirt and big rock. We’ll also enlarge and deepen that area too, to ensure water goes thru the pipe and not around.

[Robin]

Our farm is made up of hillsides and we needed to control where runoff water went. We have a number of open drainage ditches to guide the water away from buildings. The easiest way I have found to install an open ditch is to use a one bottom plow on a tractor with a 3 point hitch. I have an old Ford 8N which works very well for shallow ditches. It is necessary to do some shovel work after the plow passes to smooth the sides if planning to take a vehicle across the ditch comfortably and you may need to spread the overburden if you want drainage on both sides. This is much easier and faster than digging the whole ditch with a shovel.

[Weezer]

I have a long open ditch with poly culverts down in a few places for crossings. There’s no gravel in my ditch, I just seeded it to reduce erosion. But I do worry about the horses breaking legs so I’ve roped off the open parts. The ditch is about 400 feet long with a pit at the end. I then pump the water out of the pit and into the roadside ditch. The has really solved my water problem but I don’t like the look of the roped off ditch and don’t have the courage to remove the rope during the two years since we dug the ditch.

[AnnaB264]

I have had this argument / discussion with my SO. I prefer open ditches, because they are easy to clean out and unclog if you get too much debris, leaves, etc. after a heavy rain. He likes the buried kind. I can understand that under a path or driveway, but my issue is that they WILL eventually get clogged with mud, leaves, etc., and then it’s a royal PITA to clear them.

[LCDR]

How about an open ditch for ease of cleaning, with a bridge over it?

I’ve built many bridges for horse and rider in my hunt country which is riddled with creeks, and they can be both inexpensive and sturdy. And having a bridge at home would be another training addition.

[Weezer]

I agree that it’s good to have open ditches to clean them out easily. My ditch is narrow (2-3 feet) and about 3 feet deep. I worry that a horse will run through it and break a leg. Am I being being overly paranoid by keeping it roped off where there is no culvert for crossing? I do have a tendency to be a bit too worried about injury.

[anon81364900]

@AnnaB264

He likes the buried kind. I can understand that under a path or driveway, but my issue is that they WILL eventually get clogged with mud, leaves, etc., and then it’s a royal PITA to clear them.

Doesn’t have to be a PITA if you design it to avoid clogs and include a clean-out riser in your design. For our trenches we used this method, where you cut your strip of geotextile liner wide enough so it lines the trench (under all the rock and your pipe) and has enough extra material that you can fold the excess textile over the trench. (Though our ditch was lots deeper than this one to make sure the pipe wouldn’t get crushed by hooves or the tractor going over it.) So anyway the pipe is totally surrounded by rock and geotextile on all sides–we called it a geotextile burrito but I’m sure there’s a more technical name for it. And after you make your burrito, add more rock on top of that to finish the trench flat. With the clean-out riser in place, we can just remove the cap once a year and send pressurized water down the line to make sure it’s clear.

[Willesdon]

@Weezer

I agree that it’s good to have open ditches to clean them out easily. My ditch is narrow (2-3 feet) and about 3 feet deep. I worry that a horse will run through it and break a leg. Am I being being overly paranoid by keeping it roped off where there is no culvert for crossing? I do have a tendency to be a bit too worried about injury.

The horses know the ditch is there and will ignore it most of the time. Why wouldn’t they? Maybe shape the ditch to have a wider v profile if you still worry.

[AnnaB264]

I think you are worrying a bit much. The horses will know it’s there, and jump it if need be. They navigate all sorts of hazards regularly.

[anon81364900]

I also wouldn’t worry about horses injuring themselves in what is essentially a swale. It’s not as if you’ve got a deep narrow crevice that’s going to trap a leg. If you really want to make sure it’s visible, just use a solar LED spot light to illuminate the trench. I did that when our trench was still open–we had a big rainstorm and we needed to let it dry out before putting in the pipe, rock, etc. But our trench was deep–3ft with vertical side walls–not the shallow swale you have described. The light was mainly to make sure I didn’t stumble into it while feeding hay in the dark ) but I did also want to warn the horses since this was a new feature in their barnyard.

We also use one of these solar spots to illuminate the US flag on the house. It stays bright all night long unless we get a string of cloudy winter days, but even then it works well into the early morning hours.

Finally, another thing you could do is lay down a 6" wide strip of white rock to define the edges of the ditch. Even in pitch dark, you will be able to see that and horses will definitely be able to see it.

[Pico_Banana]

So, I don’t have a drainage ditch in a paddock, but there is one maybe 5-10 feet along the side of one of them. We are on a very slight rise and a lot of the water runs into this drainage ditch, which has the driveway on the other side. It is completely open.

We just bought this property late summer last year so I don’t know how it does in the spring, but it has worked well so far. There’s some standing water down at the end of it after a big rain, but even that goes away pretty quickly.

That said, there’s still a lot of water that does not drain into the ditch until it goes down through one of my paddocks. We are thinking of putting in a french drain on the fence line of that paddock, across the lane separating it from the paddock next to the drainage ditch, and along the back end of the paddock next to the ditch to get the water into the ditch.

Why do you think a french drain won’t work?