Surface for "dry lot" in PNW

[PonyRiderMom]

@enjoytheride

I would use something involving limestone and dust because the dust will solidify and hold the stone like concrete, but with drainage. Locally it’s called 53 stone. Then put Ag Lime or Dusty 12 on top.

Pea gravel will roll.

But wouldn’t that end up being a really hard surface that wouldn’t be very nice for them to stand on?

[enjoytheride]

I’ve never seen it done any other way so I think it’s fine. The Ag lime on top will get soft when it gets wet.

Pea gravel doesn’t have any stability to form a stable surface. It will roll underfoot and will work into the ground.

[PaddockWood]

@PonyRiderMom

So you’ve had you set up for four years, with the geotextile fabric, and the geotextile fabric hasn’t started coming up, poking through, or getting pawed up?

No, not at all. But it is/was buried under 6 inches of aggregate. I do see after these years that I need a fresh layer and get another roller. I do see the value of ongoing maintence to keep the pad in great shape.

I’ll dig up the old threads tonight when I’m home. I’ve got a dry lot file oh yes I do.

[TheJenners]

And is exhausting to try to walk on.

[Cowboy_Girl]

Scrape off and stock pile topsoil
Grade dry lot area to drain - 2% side slope
put directional ditch/and or berm at top and bottom of dry lot and - can be wide and shallow. Cover with salvaged top soil. Let gravity be your friend and keep outside water from getting into your dry area, and when it does, let it flow out.
Place 4 inches of 2 inch rock. Its large and angled and will lock together, and not sink. Top with 4 inches of 3/4 gravel. It will filter down into the crevasses and holes of the bigger rock and smooth the top surface.
Water will permeate through the layers of gravel and rock, hit the sloped grade below and drain away.

[PaddockWood]

From my big fat file Dry Lot:
First, the power of the COTH hive:

Best footing for stall runs and sacrifice area (in a rainy locale)

I’m in a self board riding club in the PNW. We are close to a big but built on solid ground. It’s an interesting Petrie dish because every stallholder does their own paddocks. From ten years observations, the primary thing is your drainage system. French drains down deep that lead somewhere plus rock and gravel and geotextile. On top of that, honestly I find hog fuel will drain faster than most grades of sand. In fact we have two riding rings actually built up in the bog area, the one with exce…

All-weather paddocks

The barn I currently manage has decided to add dry lot paddocks to contend with the mud problems that have been around for (what I’ve heard) the last 12 years. It’s a 14 stall barn on 17 acres in the mountains :nonchalance:. We’ve received over a 100’’ of rain this year and we are DROWNING. Needless to say, I’m thrilled to be making the improvements. I’ve done a lot of research on the construction: graded down, install the geotextile, add 6" of gravel to drain, top with 3-4" of screenings for th…

All-weather sacrifice paddock footing

So I have two blue stone / stone dust sacrifice paddocks that I love. But cleaning them can be a bit challenging. I loose more blue stone than I’d like in cleaning them and I find it can be harsh on their feet (both abrasive and hard). I have thought about adding some sand to the top of of one of the paddocks - may be an inch… My hope was that it would help with cleaning - ie might be easier to pick / sift through, and it would be a bit softer (although I know it’s still abrasive in it’s own …

Sacrifice Area Footing Recommendations/Tender Footed Horse

What type of footing would you recommend for a sacrifice area that will be used by 3 Thoroughbreds, one of which is VERY tender footed? We are located in Minnesota, so the footing will see 4 seasons: lots of winter snow, wet springs, dry summers and (at least this year) wet falls. The sacrifice area will be used for overnights in the summer, and full time in the winter. Would love to hear suggestions/comments from anyone on what has worked well for their tender footed horses. Thanks!

Some other goodies:

AEN115.pdf

https://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/geotextile-fabric-great-for-heavy-use/33379.html

EC1558.pdf

https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm07232816/page11.htm

And here’s a note I made from someone who said they made park trails. Their advice:
The way around spending money on gravel each year is to put down filter fabric first. Grade the area to create drainage, put down the fabric, put down drain rock, and apply a top layer either limestone fines or gravel depending on use. We built roads, parking areas, round pens, and paddocks this way and never once had to add additional gravel. The oldest areas are about 15 yrs old now.

[PaddockWood]

One more!

Which Paddock Surface is Best for a Rainy Climate?

[PaddockWood]

@PonyRiderMom

But wouldn’t that end up being a really hard surface that wouldn’t be very nice for them to stand on?

If it drys out for a period of time it gets hard but not like concrete. During periods of wet it gets softer, almost too soft.

[kaya842]

Agree here - it gets no harder than a packed dirt road IME.

Pea gravel is a real B to get a wheelbarrow through or even to walk on (and you’ll need to do both to pick poo up to keep it from turning into mud). The previous owners of our place had the barn floor as pea gravel, probably because the floor is so uneven, and the first thing we did was tear it all out and it was miserable.

[Obsidian_Fire]

I’m in the PNW also. One of the barns I boarded at had pea gravel paddocks - and they worked. They leveled the ground. They put down fabric - you need to get ‘road fabric’, or heavy duty nursery fabric, which you can source at OBC NW. They have it in giant rolls, not that little 3’ stuff that rips when you look at it… lol. Anyway, level the surface, put the fabric down, and put about 8" of pea gravel on it. It worked. It had been in place for years with little upkeep other than picking poo. Other areas of the farm had ‘pads’ where they put down the fabric, put down railroad ties, and filled with 1/4" minus or scalpings. It packed and drained and stayed mud-free.
The #1 problem I see with people trying to make ‘mud free’ in the PNW is they don’t address the drainage, the #2 problem is they don’t put down enough topping.

[PaddockWood]

What I’d add about keeping a dry lot free of organic material is surface really matters. The limestone topping is easy to rake and use a pitchfork. My horses gift me with doing all manure out on the drylot
versus their open stalls.

After our winter deepfreeze then buckets of rain I had lots of debris - hay etc and bit rake cleaned
it up fast and then saw the drylot tighten right back up. Pretty interesting.

[alfonsina]

Limestone… Is there a particular reason why limestone is specified in a lot of these comments? It’s not that available near me. And isn’t it on the soft or dissolvable side? What qualities does it have that makes it specified? Are there reasonable substitutes?

[luvmyhackney]

In my area limestone is crazy cheap and packs down hard yet drains really well.

It’s 1/2 the price of crushed bluestone.

[Mosey_2003]

@alfonsina

And isn’t it on the soft or dissolvable side?

That really depends on the specific area where it’s mined. Mine here is super hard, has a high iron content.

[PaddockWood]

I had my excavator over to talk about my plans to build/start a track around my property and he said the fabric down is a huge factor in the surface holding up over the years.

Good question about limestone versus something else.

[clanter]

@PaddockWood

Good question about limestone versus something else.

we use decomposed granite, it is less dusty

[PaddockWood]

And that comes out of agg pits too?

[NancyM]

The problem with limestone is that it’s basic nature can irritate the skin, usually on the pasterns, and create open lesions which can get infected. “Limestone poisoning”.

[Mosey_2003]

@NancyM

The problem with limestone is that it’s basic nature can irritate the skin, usually on the pasterns, and create open lesions which can get infected. “Limestone poisoning”.

Pretty sure that’s only hydrated lime, not the untreated stone and aglime/barnlime we use on roads and in barns. My MSDS on my material doesn’t list any burn hazards…

ETA - Just pulled it up and the only skin concern is if they’re sliding across it and doing actual mechanical damage - “Not known to be a dermal irritant or sensitizer” is the exact wording.

[NancyM]

Yes, it is when there is a lesion/cut/injury from something else that it can become a problem. A horse I raised and sold died/was put down from this. A small cut incurred during a race at a track where this was a known problem, due to the limestone under the track surface which got kicked up with the cushion during a race, small cut on the suspensory ligament. I don’t know how deep, I wasn’t there, heard about it after the fact. Ate right through to the ligament itself, resulting in euthanasia. The track was famous for exactly this problem, it happened quite often. Not a racetrack that I ever ran horses at.