Stall base not staying compacted - (new title)

[mmeqcenter]

I’m from Ohio, and in Ohio clay is evil. It’s horrible.

I moved to Florida a few months ago, and literally all any gravel/landscape materials place tries to sell me for various projects is clay.
I’m working on my stall rights now. We’ve just put in a good sub base of lime rock (road base), but it has larger rocks than I expected. So now I need to put something finer on top (compacted also, obviously). I want screenings but OMG they’re SO much more expensive down here! Also, half the places that even deliver bulk don’t even have screenings (limestone screenings)!

So, who has clay-based stalls? What are they like?
No, I will not be matting at this time, it is not in the budget.

All I can imagine is horrible red clay getting wet and sloppy from urine (even though my horses are only in a few hours a day to eat AM and PM) and dug up and yuck.

[amymoyer]

I’m not from Florida, so no help as far as what materials are available, but could you try pea gravel or sand (may be limestone sand)? Good luck!

[mmeqcenter]

@amymoyer

I’m not from Florida, so no help as far as what materials are available, but could you try pea gravel or sand (may be limestone sand)? Good luck!

Thanks, but I need something that will compact. Most “sand” doesn’t compact very well. My entire property is basically beach sand already, anyway. That’s what the stalls were, and we are building them up due to flooding and because the sandy soil just churns right up with everyone footfall, it’s too loose. Pea gravel doesn’t compact at all. Limestone screenings is probably what you were thinking of, and that is much more expensive than the Clay screenings ($30/yard vs $5/yard).

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

I love my clay based stalls. That said, I use pine sawdust on top, and slowly allowed the base of sawdust to compress into the clay as a deep litter system. That protects the clay base. You just keep 3" of fresh sawdust on top, and don’t dig up the compacted base - ever. It keeps itself dry, as long as no flood from the rain. It also never smells. Perfect!

[js]

I don’t have it in my stalls but down here in the Deep South we have a lot of red clay. I don’t know if that’s what you would end up with but honestly it can be extremely slick when wet and will stain horses red, along with everything else. Mixed with sand it does make a nice arena base though, no dust. Because it is so wet and we get so much rain we’ve always had cement floors with good stall mats and plenty of bedding.

[csaper58]

Can you get crushed oyster shell? The stuff for driveways, not chickens. It is a southern equivalent to screenings.

ETA…This explains what it is. Look for Aggregate Suppliers near you. www.bulkcrushedoystershells.com

I googled ‘Florida washed crushed shell suppliers’ and several links came up http://www.carrollsbuildingmaterials…florida-shell/

I love a good clay stall floor if it’s done right. Packed hard, crowned, and left to dry it becomes like Terra Cotta.

You can use mats or not, but you must be sure wet spots don’t sit long enough to soften the clay.

[cloudyandcallie]

I boarded in a barn with clay floors in stalls and the clay stayed firm and did not get wet or muddy even with a messy warmblood who trashes his stalls. Shavings were on top of the clay so the stalls were not too hard for Cloudy and Callie.

[cloudyandcallie]

@Fairview Horse Center

I love my clay based stalls. That said, I use pine sawdust on top, and slowly allowed the base of sawdust to compress into the clay as a deep litter system. That protects the clay base. You just keep 3" of fresh sawdust on top, and don’t dig up the compacted base - ever. It keeps itself dry, as long as no flood from the rain. It also never smells. Perfect!

This is the way it was done at that barn. I never saw wet clay in any stall.

[mountainhorse]

Ditto to Fairview-clay in the south is more of a ‘sand clay’ that really does ‘harden’ over time. That interim can be dusty, (red dust on everything,…) so we kept the dust down with a mist of water as we cleaned the stalls until the sawdust packed down on the clay and secured it all.
I have also used limestone screenings and it really is the best-probably why it is so expensive,…

[mmeqcenter]

Thanks all, looks like we’re going to go with clay and see how we like it.
Crushed shell is interesting, never heard of that before. I’m in Ocala, so not sure how affordable it will be to get. Searched yesterday and the only suppliers I found were coastal.

Our horses are out most of the day and night and only come in to eat, so fingers crossed!

Limestone screenings is all anyone uses in Ohio, definitely the best. Also like 3x the price in Florida as they were in Ohio.

[khall]

Clay base stalls are common here in the south. Really pretty easy to manage. That red clay packs like a road base. We usually would repair the stall floor once a year with adding new clay and packing it.

[FatCatFarm]

I am in GA and have a clay base to my stalls. I think everyone in the area does in fact as that’s just what is here - GA Red Clay it’s called. It’s not unusual to have a clay base and then M10 over that and then shavings or stall mats over that. It holds up very well as when dry, it is very firm. When gotten wet, it dries out and firms back up well. You do learn that if not using stall mats that you do not dig out the wet spots. Instead you clear off the wet shavings but just allow the base to dry. You can put down lime if you wish, but I don’t, I just let it dry but then my horses don’t spend much time in their stalls, even in winter. If you do get cupping, it’s fairly easy to replace/add in more clay, pack it down then allow to dry or cure.

[mmeqcenter]

@FatCatFarm

I am in GA and have a clay base to my stalls. I think everyone in the area does in fact as that’s just what is here - GA Red Clay it’s called. It’s not unusual to have a clay base and then M10 over that and then shavings or stall mats over that. It holds up very well as when dry, it is very firm. When gotten wet, it dries out and firms back up well. You do learn that if not using stall mats that you do not dig out the wet spots. Instead you clear off the wet shavings but just allow the base to dry. You can put down lime if you wish, but I don’t, I just let it dry but then my horses don’t spend much time in their stalls, even in winter. If you do get cupping, it’s fairly easy to replace/add in more clay, pack it down then allow to dry or cure.

Thanks, I’m going to give the clay a go. Mine are also not in much, only about 2 hours for AM and PM feeding, they’re out the rest of the time.

[mmeqcenter]

After two different places just never showed up with the scheduled delivery of clay, we bit the bullet and did concrete screenings instead.
We vibrator plate compacted them, yes wet. Soaked them several times. They feel very very hard under foot. But as soon as a horse steps on the stall floor, they dig it all up. Why?? How do I stop this?? I was told this stuff would compact to almost concrete hardness. I was at many a barn in Ohio with screenings for the floors and stall bases and it stayed compacted.

[csaper58]

Think of the stall base like an arena base, but you put bedding on it instead of footing.

Just like an arena, where if the footing gets thin the base is torn up, you must deep bed the stalls so the horse’s feet, esp shod feet, never contact the stall base.

Or, if you want to use thin bedding, you must use mats to protect the base.

Clay and road base will both compact to concrete like hardness over time or if you diligently and thoroughly compact it with machinery.

[khall]

Because they dry out. I would never use screenings unless I put mats over top (which is what I did).

[Pennywell_Bay]

I’m in Indiana. I have clay base. My contractor put down ag lime (which is super fine stone dust I guess?) it isn’t “lime”, persay. They put it in. It does not compact very well with a compactor so contractor advised to let the horses trample it. I was soooo hesitant. So I let the horses in the stalls (during summer so they were in for short periods of time). They were able to compact it down, no shavings were in because the aglime was very soft and squishy and absorbed the urine.

It took maybe a week. Now it is perfect. Hard, shavings sit neatly on top of my hard base.