Muddy paddock help please!

[Chestnut_Mare1]

I’m sure this has been discussed to death but I can’t find much in my forum search - so please humor me

We want to move my mare home again. Our rental property is set up for horses with barn, etc. but the paddock between the stalls and the field is a muddy mess. Think knee deep boot sucking clay. Last winter my mare got scratches on all 4 pasterns and I had to move her to a board facility to get her out of the mud.

I really miss having her home, and want to give it a try again now that I know more about the effects of wet/muddy legs.

We don’t want to spend a ton of money on the paddock because we don’t own the property, and landlord will put down more gravel.

How many inches of gravel do you think we need to put down on top of the clay? Also, what type of gravel? Could we put down cheaper stuff and then rounder stones on top so its not hard on hooves? WWYD?

[whitney159]

By any chance does the rain run off the barn roof into the paddock? If so, gutters can be relatively cheap.
With my barn there was 48x30’ area of roof from which the rain would run off into the paddock, it was a mucky mess from the horses walking through it. Bought gutters this year and ran the downspout away to a ditch outside of the area. It has made a massive difference in the mud level on that side of the barn.

[Chestnut_Mare1]

[QUOTE=whitney159;8941878]
By any chance does the rain run off the barn roof into the paddock? If so, gutters can be relatively cheap.
With my barn there was 48x30’ area of roof from which the rain would run off into the paddock, it was a mucky mess from the horses walking through it. Bought gutters this year and run the downspout away to a ditch outside of the area. It has made a massive difference in the mud level on that side of the barn.[/QUOTE]

There are proper gutters on the barn that take the water away from the paddock completely. The other properties across the road are all higher up on rocky ground so all the water drains straight into this paddock. The paddock already has some ditches dug out all around it to drain off some of the water but it is still not enough.

[ElementFarm]

I feel like you could be talking about the place we rented a few years ago! We dug trenches around the outside of the fencing to try to divert neighbors’ run off. We also had gutters and grading away from the barn, but it wasn’t enough. We had three fields and 1 stayed dryer than the others. We put a mat at the gate and the high traffic areas around the water trough, and used just that field when the ground was wet. Even doing that, it turned into a muddy mucky mess all winter. We never did find out a good solution (also didn’t want to invest a ton of money into a rental property). What worked for us was moving. We bought a place and are slowly spending the money to fix those problem areas.

Gravel dumped on clay won’t help much – it’ll just sink into the dirt. If you put a geotextile cloth or even old carpeting underneath the gravel, that may work for a short-term (a year or 3) solution.

[danacat]

You have to install a barrier – GeoTextile fabric – in between gravel and ground. Otherwise your new gravel footing (as ElementFarm said) will mix with ground when wet and you’ll still have a muddy mess.

GeoTextile fabric is sold by the roll - around 400.00 a roll for hundreds of feet - 14 ft. width-- so the coverage of a roll will is pretty big.

You just roll it right over your ground – over lapping the edges by at least 6 inches – then cover ( 4" depth at least) with your gravel.

I would use stone dust – or ‘screenings’ as it’s called in some places.

I’ve done this in all of my sacrifice paddocks and it works. No mud ever. And the stone dust is easy to clean/rake etc.

[demidq]

If you need more protection around a gate, you can often find old carpet which holds up better than geotextile under gravel.

[2DogsFarm]

Another vote for geotex under gravel :yes:
I did this 5yrs ago & the only bootsucking mud is where I (stupidly) left areas by the gates w/o the fabric.
These areas got the same 6" of gravel but that has disappeared/been trodden in.
Where there is fabric the gravel remains & the horses & I have solid ground year-round.

[Chestnut_Mare1]

Just revisiting this thread for more input and another question.

We have had too much rain and the ground is too wet and muddy to put in gravel, I’m thinking we will wait until the summer.

In the meantime, before the horses move in, could I dump a massive amount of shavings/wood chips in the paddock? Do you think it will keep the boot sucking scratches causing muck down?

If so, what type of wood will be safe to use. My mare looks at a puddle and gets squishy spongy frogs

[S1969]

I personally wouldn’t dump wood chips into the existing mud. It might take a lot more than you think for them to help instead of just contributing to the mess.

I have heavy clay and we addressed this in the summer, not the wet season - excavated and graded the dirt paddock to remove a lot of the top layer of clay, silt/remnants of old bedding, hay, and some old gravel. Laid down geotextile fabric, installed 3" of gravel and then 3" of crushed stone. It probably cost about $6K but has held up very well over the last 10 years.

If you’re willing to remove everything you throw down, you can try woodchips. Even a path might help.

[poltroon]

[QUOTE=Chestnut_Mare;8941882]
There are proper gutters on the barn that take the water away from the paddock completely. The other properties across the road are all higher up on rocky ground so all the water drains straight into this paddock. The paddock already has some ditches dug out all around it to drain off some of the water but it is still not enough.[/QUOTE]

Dig deeper ditches. Redirect the water before it gets to the paddock.

If water is running on to the paddock, there’s not much you can do to keep it from being swampy - even the geotex and gravel won’t help per se except in that they raise the grade above where the water collects.

Adding wood chips probably won’t be a solution and will probably contribute to it being worse next year.

You can put gravel on to mud, though it’s not ideal as you say, and you’ll have to put in more than if conditions are dry. (Of course, that neglects the issue of getting the gravel to your site which may be impossible in muddy conditions.) In your case, what I might do is try to make a single high point in the paddock and ensure that the areas around the water and gates are elevated out of the mud - spot gravel, maybe some rubber mats, etc, so your horse has a dry place to be and isn’t obligated to be in mud.

[HungarianHippo]

For what you’ll spend on a temporary solution (which will basically be replaced when you can do it right in the next dry season), you might be better off just boarding for another 5 months.

Woodchips will seem cheap now, but not so much when you consider the labor to scrape them up next year before putting in your geotextile and then stone.
But if you’re already committed and have no option to board out this winter, then I guess woodchips would be the cheapest of the shortcuts, and should keep you above the mud for at least most of the winter. But never forget, it’s a deal with the devil–those chips will contribute to even deeper muck come springtime.

[mroades]

organic material always makes the muck deeper…

[shelly]

I love gravel, it is a godsend. I go on the cheap however and instead of goetextile I get used carpet for free and the gravel goes on top. Works wonders!

[specifiedcupcake]

Well, you could take landscape timbers or railway sleepers, fix landscaping cloth to them to make a “tray” with 4" of gravel- no digging required. Friend of mine did this and it was great. I put down straw as a temporary solution in one area and it’s been okay, I probably wouldn’t do wood as it holds moisture a bit more.

We also installed gutters on all buildings with a rain barrel- I want to give it a few passes filling/emptying tso soak away any plastic residue before I use it to water the horses but it hasn’t killed the hedge yet.

Fun fact, where a study was conducted for agricultural land, water filtered through unmarked soil at 20mm/hr, a single pass (of a vehicle) reduced that to under 6mm/hr, and after two passes it was down to less than 2mm/hr. I can’t imagine what some 500+kg point load “pistons” shaped like hooves to do topsoil, but it can’t be good if we are all swimming in mud. Commonly what’s happening is the top 6" are so are getting compacted so the water can’t reach the looser lower levels and leak away… So I also walk around with a pitchfork and liberally stab downwards, wiggle the fork when it’s all the way in, anywhere I see standing water and it’s typically gone within an hour.

[OTTB2]

If you know the source of the water, IE where its running off from perhaps your best bet is to rent a excavator for the day and dig some ditches.

[Chestnut_Mare1]

[QUOTE=specifiedcupcake;8962426]
Well, you could take landscape timbers or railway sleepers, fix landscaping cloth to them to make a “tray” with 4" of gravel- no digging required. Friend of mine did this and it was great. I put down straw as a temporary solution in one area and it’s been okay, I probably wouldn’t do wood as it holds moisture a bit more.

We also installed gutters on all buildings with a rain barrel- I want to give it a few passes filling/emptying tso soak away any plastic residue before I use it to water the horses but it hasn’t killed the hedge yet.

Fun fact, where a study was conducted for agricultural land, water filtered through unmarked soil at 20mm/hr, a single pass (of a vehicle) reduced that to under 6mm/hr, and after two passes it was down to less than 2mm/hr. I can’t imagine what some 500+kg point load “pistons” shaped like hooves to do topsoil, but it can’t be good if we are all swimming in mud. Commonly what’s happening is the top 6" are so are getting compacted so the water can’t reach the looser lower levels and leak away… So I also walk around with a pitchfork and liberally stab downwards, wiggle the fork when it’s all the way in, anywhere I see standing water and it’s typically gone within an hour.[/QUOTE]

LOL!! the hoof shaped pistons made me crack up!! That is exactly what happens especially if you take on horse out - the other one just tears everything up