Fix for a lumpy, bumpy pasture?

[Heinz_57]

We’ve just bought (and are working on moving into) a new place. And, upon walking the pasture and fenceline, have discovered that it is REALLY lumpy in some areas, definitely not rideable like I was hoping and I’d be concerned about the horses playing out there. They are small bumps and lumps and dips, if that makes sense - hidden by the grass, very uneven and very HARD. Almost like they overgrazed it down to foot-sucking mud and then let the grass grow back over.

I’ve got some temporary runs set up off the stalls until I can get the fencing fixed and figure out what to do about the unevenness.

Any suggestions? I’m hesitant to rip up the pasture this late in the season, as it means they’d pretty much be confined to their runs until next year, but if it must be done…

[Calvincrowe]

Ugh…I have the same problem in part of my front field (about an acre), but mine is caused by mole hills and dogs digging in them! I’ve been filling and harrowing with my drag for two years…not a lot of success, but it is better.

Shovel, then harrow?? Lucky you, you live in the Valley where they still farm. I wonder if you could get a farmer out to till it up and harrow it smooth, plant it for fall grass? Sucks, but a smooth pasture is a hard thing to create without a complete redo. Maybe you could do half now and half next year, allowing you some pasture turnout while you are fixing the problem??

[Heinz_57]

I worry…

The front portion of the pasture has been used recently - grazed down to nothingness, tromped into a mud bog over the winter, and then weeds allowed to regrow over (mint, thistles, other inedibles, maybe 20% grass). This is where the stalls and runs are located, and I’m trying to figure out a solution to the mud that will inevitably return this fall.

The back is where the lumps are.

I’m afraid that if I tear up the back, and they are confined to the front only, that without some sort of mud intervention up front before the rain rolls in they will end up ankle deep in muck by Halloween and I’ll have nowhere to rotate to, short of locking them inside 24/7.

[MistyBlue]

My grass paddock was a lumpy/holey mess too. I just took the tractor and rake out there and tore it up and re-graded it nice and smooth. I didn’t even reseed like I planned…got sidetracked and then planned on seeding in fall. But it’s all green right now and the horses go out on it. I just keep them off until it’s 100% dry after rain…the cause of lumps and holes.

However I have a mud-free main paddock and my grass paddock it laughable in size compared to actual pasture.

If you keep a dirt paddock up front…scrape the dirt off of it. Scrape down to subsoil, scrape it to a slight slant to encourage run off and no puddles and then drive over it for half a day to compact the snot out of it. It’s always worth any extra effort to have a mud-free sacrifice area if possible. :yes:

[jherold]

On the other hand, my trainer always attributed my mare’s ability to handle varied terrain to the fact that she was born and raised on my less than pristine rough pasture. “She’s like a cat. She always knows where her feet are!”

[sk_pacer]

Can be pretty hard to fix…I have the same mess but mine is caused by bunch grass (crested wheat grass) being used as the main grass for the pasture. If the cause is bunch grass, either native or seeded, there isn’t a lot you can do but start over by breaking it, conditioning the soil and seeding turf forming grass after you are certain the bunch grass is all gone, or live with it. I chose the latter option - cheaper, easy and horses DO learn where their feet are, even racetrack hothouse flowers. The problem here is exacerbated by heavy clay soil that holds water until the dirt itself stinks; also doesn’t help that the whole yard was built in a flippin slough.

What actually causes the holes is livestock (and humans) going over the ground and sliding off the clumps of bunch grass to the soil between the bunches. The sliding causes erosion of the soil, regardless if it is wet or dry so you have a lump of dirt around the roots of the grass and a hollow between the bunches. I can tell you that these humps and hollows are gonna be a lot harder on you than the horses

[Calvincrowe]

Mud prevention is critical as you know! I know $$ is tight, but if you can create a mud free area for turnout, you’ll be a happy woman.

Here’s the $1000 solution (maybe less!):

Get a roll of geotextile cloth (runs about $400/12’ x 300’ roll). I got mine in Vancouver from a company that does erosion control–must be one mid-valley?

Lay the cloth out where you want your paddock to be. Screw digging down, laying rock, all that jazz. Just put 'er down and put a couple rocks on the edges to hold her flat.

Order 5/8s minus gravel or screenings. For a 12 yard dump truck load, you’re going to pay from $250-300 a load. Not sure how big you need, but Mr. CC can figure out how much you need for a certain depth (he’s a math teacher) and paddock size. Dump it in the middle and get spreading. A tractor helps, but we did our first round by shovel and wheelbarrow. I’m sure that had nothing at all to do with my chronic back pain!;).

That’s it. That’s what I did 5 years ago, and I’ve had a mud free 40 x 60ish paddock ever since. I am going to put more in this year, just to give my boys a bit more “spring” in their footing, but it has held up incredibly well…and god it was wet this spring!!

[msj]

Every spring and fall (if I can), I drag my sacrifice paddocks with a York Rake when the ground is just starting to dry out. I’ve got clay, that when it dries, the hoof prints are virtually impossible to pick the manure out and I pick up all the manure the horses leave in the sacrifice paddocks daily. Also makes for easier walking for me and the horses. :yes:

It usually takes about 3 passes over each piece of ground to get the worst of the hoof depressions smoothed out to a reasonable condition.

It’s probably too dry now to do this but if you get some rain to soften the ground you might have some luck. It takes a good bit of time. I have 2 sacrifice paddocks that measure about 110’ X 110’ and it takes me a good hour to do each one. Sometimes in the spring as they are drying I can only get maybe 1/2 done one day or risk getting stuck in the mud. :sigh:

If you have an equipment rental near you, you might see if you can rent a York Rake for a couple of days. I usually just use my garden tractor, a 20 HP Wheel Horse to drag the Rake but have used my larger Massey Fergeson tractor on occasion.

Good luck, hope this info helps.

[Heinz_57]

[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;6470288]
Mud prevention is critical as you know! I know $$ is tight, but if you can create a mud free area for turnout, you’ll be a happy woman.

Here’s the $1000 solution (maybe less!):

Get a roll of geotextile cloth (runs about $400/12’ x 300’ roll). I got mine in Vancouver from a company that does erosion control–must be one mid-valley?

Lay the cloth out where you want your paddock to be. Screw digging down, laying rock, all that jazz. Just put 'er down and put a couple rocks on the edges to hold her flat.

Order 5/8s minus gravel or screenings. For a 12 yard dump truck load, you’re going to pay from $250-300 a load. Not sure how big you need, but Mr. CC can figure out how much you need for a certain depth (he’s a math teacher) and paddock size. Dump it in the middle and get spreading. A tractor helps, but we did our first round by shovel and wheelbarrow. I’m sure that had nothing at all to do with my chronic back pain!;).

That’s it. That’s what I did 5 years ago, and I’ve had a mud free 40 x 60ish paddock ever since. I am going to put more in this year, just to give my boys a bit more “spring” in their footing, but it has held up incredibly well…and god it was wet this spring!![/QUOTE]

Ooooheee! I’ll take you up on that help figuring it out. Even if we can’t do it right away, maybe we can save up and get it done before the rain comes. The paddocks are currently about 25x50ish each, enough that they can move about but not really big enough for playing. So, really, it’s just a ~50’ square. They could be expanded lengthwise, but then I’d have to go through the paddocks to get to the rest of the pasture and I’d rather not have 3 electric gates to contend with.

If I could get mud-free paddocks set up, I bet I could live with the lumpy pasture. :lol:

[Mosey_2003]

I have a quick calculator here on my work computer. For a 50ft square at depths of:

1 inch: 13.89 tons
2 inch: 27.78 tons
3 inch: 41.67 tons
4 inch: 55.56 tons

Typical tandem dump truck can usually legally haul around 15 tons. Semi, depending on the weight of the trailer, is usually 20-25 tons.

[Dressage59]

Following.

[Palm_Beach]

Mud happens when it rains. Horses will make deep footprints in even good pasture. If it makes you feel any better, there are thousands of very well bred and expensive thoroughbreds who live outside just about year round in Kentucky. They don’t come in when it rains, and they make deep hoofprints in the pastures and manage to survive, thrive, win big races, etc.

I’ve never rolled pastures or paddocks or laid down geotextile or done anything other than unload rock in the gate areas.

If you want to make a mud free dry lot and put down lots of hard stuff and spend all that money, that may work. But grass and weeds will grow up in it when the horses are not using it, and you will have to pick manure out daily, which may or may not take up a lot of time depending on how large it is and how many horses are out in it.

[OneTwoMany]

@Heinz 57

I worry…

The front portion of the pasture has been used recently - grazed down to nothingness, tromped into a mud bog over the winter, and then weeds allowed to regrow over (mint, thistles, other inedibles, maybe 20% grass). This is where the stalls and runs are located, and I’m trying to figure out a solution to the mud that will inevitably return this fall.

The back is where the lumps are.

I’m afraid that if I tear up the back, and they are confined to the front only, that without some sort of mud intervention up front before the rain rolls in they will end up ankle deep in muck by Halloween and I’ll have nowhere to rotate to, short of locking them inside 24/7.

Time to install a dry lot.

Yes, you have to pick manure daily, but if the footing is installed properly, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes per horse per day. Our dry lots don’t really have much in the way of weeds or grass growth during the periods of non-use. We certainly get more grass and weed growth in the outdoor than the sacrifice paddocks.

ETA: Not trying to be argumentative, I know of a very nice hunter that was lost to uneven footing during turnout. He wasn’t doing anything unusual, just took a wrong step and shattered his fetlock. Just an anecdote.

[Heinz_57]

@OneTwoMany

ETA: Not trying to be argumentative, I know of a very nice hunter that was lost to uneven footing during turnout. He wasn’t doing anything unusual, just took a wrong step and shattered his fetlock. Just an anecdote.

Check the date, folks… This thread is 6 years old.

[enjoytheride]

Since it’s 6 years old, tell us what you ended up doing!

[Heinz_57]

@enjoytheride

Since it’s 6 years old, tell us what you ended up doing!

Shoot, I wish I could remember! I can say I didn’t get around to laying cloth and rock - those stalls have since been demolished, and the horses are in a different area altogether now. The back pasture is still somewhat uneven, but I’ve been keeping them off it til late winter/early spring and that seems to minimize the destruction and allow enough grass to grow to support the soil. The front paddocks by the new stalls are a sacrifice area - one that we hope to excavate and add rock and footing to soon, because it does get pretty darn muddy in late fall/mid-winter.

[walkers60]

If the land wasn’t cleared correctly then what you have is from the trees and the pasture was never properly graded. before planting I’ve learned to walk the fields before I buy a place and have found several that were lumpy like that . This was from smaller pines trees and its easy to harvest or just knock down pines ,take them out and then some folks plant grass. What a mess. If your problems was caused by moles or run off it would be easy to tell that but if an area is lumpy and hard . I’d bet it never got graded correctly.

[OneTwoMany]

@Heinz 57

Check the date, folks… This thread is 6 years old.

Not trying to be snarky, but if someone bumps an old post up, are any of us committing a faux pas if we respond?

[S1969]

@walkers60

If the land wasn’t cleared correctly then what you have is from the trees and the pasture was never properly graded. before planting I’ve learned to walk the fields before I buy a place and have found several that were lumpy like that . This was from smaller pines trees and its easy to harvest or just knock down pines ,take them out and then some folks plant grass. What a mess. If your problems was caused by moles or run off it would be easy to tell that but if an area is lumpy and hard . I’d bet it never got graded correctly.

Huh, maybe where you live? My pasture has been farmland for more than 150 years. So ruts and bumps might be from clearing trees, or from a lot of other things.

That said (and I realize that this thread is 6 years old) - everything depends on the soil. I have super dense clay. In spring it is soupy, then turns sticky, then turns to rock hard. Any improvements have to be done at just the right time or you make things worse.

For basic pasture ruts and bumps, dragging and/or rolling helps. And keeping horses off it when it’s soupy/sticky or they will make big divots.

I have a sacrifice pasture for this reason. It I didn’t, it would be a disaster. Oddly, there are places not far from me that are mostly sand. They have totally different problems, but divots from hooves isn’t really one of them. (Washouts, inability to grow grass, etc. are their problems.)

[goodhors]

I am in the process of discing pastures now. I then apply fertilizer and drag. I usually use a chain harrow with the teeth down, car and truck tires tied on top to hold the teeth down to the ground for spreading and smoothing things out. I may be several days getting things finished because of rain or other time problems. Discing opens the dirt for better water absorbtion. Any cuts of dirt sticking up can dry for better crumbling when you drag later. I am just cutting the soil and turf, not making it ready for planting crops. Horses compact the soil, so discing cuts helps open it again, slicing the grass roots makes for better plants, letting rain and air get into the dirt.

Cut soil lines slows rain runoff, prevents fast runoff and erosion. I spread bedding on our pastures to add organic matter to the soil, which aids in keeping clay dirt particles seperated and less sticky/slippery over time.

A cheap yet effective drag can be made with tires. Making holes in the treads to attach them together with bolts, chain, or rope. Sidewalls down will give you width and length. Don’t make it too big, there is a lot of friction dragging it for the tractor. It is fairly flexible, yet heavy enough to knock down the dirt sticking up and spread out poop piles for a smoother finished pasture. One or two big tractor or implement tires might also do the job of smoothing things for you and are great for smoothing muddy paddocks that are small. Flat dirt seems to dry quicker, stay smooth a bit longer.

I keep horses off until grass is growing well again, fertilizer is rained in, soil is drier. There may be a couple mowings to keep grass short and productive. I keep it no shorter than 5 inches, no taller than 8 inches. I expect to do pasture upkeep yearly, fix hoof marks, just part of horsekeeping. I figure pastured horses year around are happier, can play on their time outside. Ready to work on my time! They usually are not off pasture too long in spring. My sacrifice area is our outdoor arena and dirt area beside it. Still room to run and play, some grazing bites as we get them used to grass turnout, build up grass tolerances in stomach come spring.