Rainy season, thrush preventative, and pea gravel?

[paintedpennypony]

Rainy season will be upon us soon here in the SE.

Aside from picking hooves daily, what is the best thrush preventative? Product names would be very helpful. I use diluted iodine spray when I pick their feet but I’m guessing there are better products out there.

Their paddock is a dirt lot right now as we work on fencing in pasture. I want to put pea gravel down, at least in the low lying and high traffic areas, but ideally over all of it. Is pea gravel suitable for mud and erosion management? Scraping and putting down geotextile fabric before the gravel is not in the budget at the moment.

Thank you!

[Calvincrowe]

I haven’t ever really had thrush issues but the few times I have kopertox solved it.

As to adding gravel to dirt or mud? Unless you add A LOT you’ll simply have gravelly mud. I live in WA in the wet region and I did the geotextile route. If you add 6+ inches and there’s a bit of a slope you might get some effect. If not use pea or round rock. I’ve had 1/4 minus angular gravel in my large sacrifice paddocks for 20 years. Farrier is happy, horses are happy. It takes maintenance but I love it.

[paintedpennypony]

Thank you!

Our sacrifice lot is hilly and not really flat in more than two or three small, low-lying spots. It slopes downwards towards the back of the property. So the water will have somewhere to go? not sure, we’re only a few months into keeping the horses at home and this will be our first winter on this property. I know 100% the geotextile fabric is the right solution but we just can’t swing it financially before it really starts getting wet here. Was hoping pea gravel would mitigate to some degree and do an okay-enough job for a year or two. Maybe crushed limestone instead?

[Calvincrowe]

I used pea gravel once, and my paddock just barely slopes, but it rolled and migrated terribly. I hated it!!

You might have to experiment a bit, creating “pads” of gravel to give horses a drier place to hang out. I’m lucky that my areas are very large and mostly flat so I was able to buy a roll (around $450 for 12X300 feet) of cloth directly from an erosion control company. Your hilly issue might be hard to work with.

[Obsidian_Fire]

Since you can’t swing the fabric, I wouldn’t be buying the most expensive option (pea gravel). I’d start for now with something cheaper, so you won’t cry when it’s crushed into the mud.
Around here that would be ‘scalpings’ which is 1/4" minus with screenings, it packs well and is relatively cheap.
Pea gravel paddocks that I’ve seen work well are flat, have a good base of fabric, and are about 6-8" deep.

[PaddockWood]

I am loving Red Horse’s Artimud. You smear the tiniest bit down next to the frog, into the collateral sulcus, central sulcus and any other cracks you see. It’s only helpful, not harmful to tissue and what I keep running into is hoofcare professionals and vets talking about how painful thrush is and how you can think you don’t have an issue but you do and just can’t see it.

My mustang enjoys breathing it in too. For what that’s worth!

[goodhors]

As others said, pea gravel is not the best option. Ours also migrated, got flung elsewhere as horses took off running. Since we had put the pea gravel along the fence over drain tile, it got flung onto ME, and it hurts when it hits! I had to get rubber mats to cover the pea gravel along the fence, keep it from being flung or filling the horse hooves to go other places.

Our clay dirt eats fill, disappears in a couple years without the fabric layer to hold fill apart from the clay.

What we use now is crushed concrete which is cheaper, more permanent than gravel or pea stone. It makes excellent “pads” horses like standing on, easily cleaned off, drains well. The chunks kind of knit together with use, get very solid for standing or driving over. Chunks can be any size you want, big or small. Ours vary from a couple inches down to dust in the same load. You might ignore the field mud, make some big, solid pads closer to your gates that horses will use when things are wet, muddy elsewhere. Mine like standing on the crushed cement driveway thru their barnyard to the field gates. Keeps them up out of the mud. I use the tractor bucket to clean off manure with a light scraping. Not enough daytime to be out hand picking it clean with multiple horses!

[Ziggy793]

Agree with artimud and its also what my hoof care professionals prefer. I just smear some into the central sulcus and collateral grooves as part of my regular routine when its wet out and it keeps everything happy and healthy. As @PaddockWood said, its gentle and won’t harm healthy tissue so its a nice preventative. And a thin smear stays in place pretty darn well for a few days.

[WavyRider]

Strong second for this. A thin coating will protect the hoof from getting thrush in the first place.

[PaddockWood]

And, do we not need to discuss that products like Thrushbuster and anything that you wouldn’t put on your own skin should not be put on the hoof. They damage healthy tissue.

I used Thrushbuster too so I get it. But do better once you know.

[endlessclimb]

Jokes on me, I get that crap on myself every time I use it.

Note that Durasole has the same ingredient in it, though…

[Simkie]

@goodhors

What we use now is crushed concrete which is cheaper, more permanent than gravel or pea stone. It makes excellent “pads” horses like standing on, easily cleaned off, drains well. The chunks kind of knit together with use, get very solid for standing or driving over. Chunks can be any size you want, big or small.

Just curious, and I apologize if this is taking the thread on a tangent, but what exactly is this called and what do you have to order to get this blend of size? How does it compare in price to a load of screenings? Do you get it from the same place as other rock products, or from a different type of vendor?

I need to bring in some fill and was planning on screenings, but this sounds like it might work better for what I need (which is building up a slope & changing the grade a bit.) But it’s always so damned hard to order from the quarry unless you use exactly the right words to describe the product and they’re often not real helpful about it :-/

[endlessclimb]

@Simkie around here it’s called recycled or ground concrete. It comes in different grades just like virgin limestone and gravel.

What size rock are you ok with?

[Simkie]

Fab, that’s great to know, thank you. Especially a couple terms for it–why does every quarry call stuff different names??

I’m not entirely sure on size. Big enough to stay put but not so large as to cause horse problems? I need to build up & even out a slope in my sacrifice area, but I have a gelding whose mission in life is to dig in loose material. Something that will pack hard enough to not excite him would be so nice. Thought I’d try to make due with screenings but the ground concrete sounds like it might be a better choice?

Here’s where I get stone stuff from, but they don’t have much info on their site. I wish they had a product list.

Aggregates

I’ve been putting off this project because I’m just not sure how to maximize the chance of success. Rock is so $$$, and I dread seeing my dickhead (said with all the love in the world) gelding dig it all up.

[PaddockWood]

@Simkie

ust curious, and I apologize if this is taking the thread on a tangent, but what exactly is this called and what do you have to order to get this blend of size?

Good question. We know aggregate is so important in horsekeeping and the more we learn the better we can keep them! And when we hear less expensive, we’re all ears!

Can you post a picture of what it looks like?

[endlessclimb]

For a digging butthole, I’d be tempted to try CA6, “road base”. That’s 3/4" minus. If that makes you too nervous due to the stone size, I’d do 1/4" minus.

[endlessclimb]

How big is the area the stinker digs in?

Any chance for these? They’re durable, and stood up to pawing.

Amazon.com: TRUEGRID | PRO Plus Permeable Pavers | Designed for Roads, Parking Lots, Stables | Outdoor Pavers | 1.8" Depth, 250,000+ lb Load Class | Pack of 10 (40 Square Feet) : Patio, Lawn & Garden

[Simkie]

He’ll dig wherever he finds something loose, but the area I’m working on is maybe idk 20x30? The run in shed sits on a slope, so there’s a drop off/step down at one end. I want to build that up. We’ve talked about doing grid in the paddock, but it’s not feasible $$$ wise right now, unfortunately.

The rock we’ve gotten for the driveway in the past has no fines so doesn’t lock up. He dug up and removed a whole damned pile of it years ago. He’s uh a good helper

I’m down for using something like that with fines so it’ll pack. That’s 3/4" minus?

I did find this thread about the recycled concrete that definitely raises some concerns.

Crushed/ recycled concrete?

Sorry, I had another thread, but I can’t figure out how to edit the title to clarify I am wondering if anyone has used crushed concrete as part or all of an arena base? I have called a few companies who say yes, but I am hoping someone here has seen one for better or worse Yes I realize the size/ content are very important. Just wondering if anyone here has used it. Thanks!

[endlessclimb]

Anything with “minus” in its name is going to have the fines. The first number indicates the largest size of rock in the mix, and minus indicates everything down. That’s the easiest way to deal with the quarries - don’t use the local name, tell them [max size] minus.

Edit: Here’s a pic from my local (expensive) quarry of 3/4 minus. I think your horse might still try to dig in this, especially if it’s not super duper compacted to start.

CA6 Gravel: Road Base Gravel & Recycled Concrete | Ozinga

[Simkie]

Lol I love all the names here. Indiana 53. Whyyyyy can’t they just call it one thing everywhere.

Yeah, he could still go to town there, but it might be okay if I compact the shit out of it and nail down mats over the deepest part. I think better than screenings, anyway.

Thanks very much for the input!