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My riding horse dug a hole in the sacrifice paddock to sleep in. I call it his nest. Naturally when it rains the nest becomes a muddy hole. Does the horse opt to sleep in his bedded over sized stall or even a dry place in the lot? No. He chooses to sleep in his mud nest.
My sacrifice lot turned into a mud pit the first winter at my little farm. Iām in New England. Absurdly high water table and mostly clay. I put down geotextile fabric with 3/8 minus on top. I was still worried about mud, so I used LightHoof just on the border of the lot on the two low sides. We are on winter #2 and itās holding up really great. Gravel is about 4 inches deep.
I did the fabric and gravel in my in/outs as well, but no LightHoof. The gravel didnāt end up quite as deep. Itās still holding up well except where my one horse has pawed. Just about every day I go out there with a rake to shift it back in place. I plan to add some more in the spring.
OMG. DROOL!!!
Can I ask where youāre located? This is almost exactly what I want to do in my area and we have a soft start with our two dry Lighthoof pads.
I need to take pics to share but Iām also very embarrassed at the state of the paddock 
For likeā¦a month, LOL. Itās holding up perfectly so far and we installed these on top of the really horrible mud.
The two feeders are much closer together than I want, but for long boring reasons, they are where they are. Once we extend this area along the fenceline and down towards our run-in shed (the current plan) it will be better.
Photo of said dry areas with 3 horses actively not even using them 
:
Sighā¦
Iād still give the stuff a try.
For the price, worth the experiment.
Worst Case:
It returns to the mud from whence it came, as it has for the 10+yrs Iāve been fighting it. 
Iām in Maryland. Our soil type is not technically clay, but it sure does look and feel like it. I sited my dry lot on relatively high ground (as high as I could get while staying central to the paddock system and convenient-ish to the barn) and it has a slight grade.
I feel your pain, i call it the SWPA suck. I donāt know if youāre originally from the area or familiar with the weather, but it has been unusually miserable this year. Itās normally bad, but not THIS bad. My boyfriend wonāt let me take my dogs with me to Aiken this year because he knows theyāre the only reason why Iāll come back home.
We cut a swale through our field where all the water naturally wanted to flow and have it feeding into the creek behind our fenceline. It really helps eliminate excess sitting water.
I framed out and built up the the gates and doors with crushed lime stone. I threw down a liner and ran a drainage pipe underneath to encourage proper drainage. I keep the transition area bedded down with straw. This is all temporary until I can really do it right.
I donāt think anyone really realizes what weāre up against here unless they live it. The composition of the clay varies depending on what county youāre in and your proximity to the rivers. When you do go to do any type of excavation work, make sure you have a layer of BIG rock. It will help with drainage and it helps to keep everything in place.
Pretty sure I saw the idea on here years ago: cheaper than geotextile, you can just use old carpet/rug (one that is not a natural fiber, obviously!) to put down before you put down gravel on top. I mention this because I saw one of my neighbors had a giant area rug out for the trash today and I was thinking I should grab it to put down under some gravel ā¦ for next year. This year sucks - pun intended 
Just knowing that Iām not alone helps, LOL. Iāve had horses in this area my entire life, but boarding. This is the first time owning a farm since I lived on ours when I was a kid and my partner (who is not from this area) keeps asking if this mud is normal. My response is always āI donāt ever remember it being this badā so itās nice to know that Iām not nuts!!
I do think Iāll have to talk to someone about drainage; we are at 1300 feet but the water doesnāt even really want to go anywhere, it just sits! So deflating.
Thanks for the helpful hints & commiserationā¦this just plain sucks!
I second @Live_Wireās idea about a swale. I have one field which has a small rise before it drains into a creek. When the weather is really bad, I hand dig a small ditch to help it drain. It actually makes a huge difference.
Floridian here- I think you are struggling due to the clay soil preventing water drainage. When I previously lived in a swampy area of Florida, everyone invested in truckloads and truckloads of sand/fill. And ponds. And water pumps to remove the water from the property.
You may want to consider digging a pond to capture the water, removing the mud you currently have and replacing it with something that drains. My neighbors invested in so much sand for their property, that they effectively drained their property into my backyard (prior to us moving out).
I have 4 horses on 3 acres currently and since we are on a hill, everything drains away to the sinkhole in my neighborās yard. No matter how much rain we currently get, the property stays dry because everything is on an incline. And sandy soil definitely helps.
Of course, then you have to worry about sand colic. I put mats around my feeding areas, but keeping those mats clean is work in itself.
I think I would move the horses to a different paddock. Some sections of pasture just seem to retain more mud than others. If moving them begins to create too much mud in a different pasture, then move them back to where they are currently. But it definitely sounds like the pasture they are in needs a break.
Good luck!
Geotex is pretty cheap.
Problem with carpet is, that like hogfuel, it breaks down & adds to the mess.
Our feed store has begun selling AgTec Mud Control Grids (essentially the same as the renowned Hahn Mud Control Grids), so I now have a new way to apply even more liberal applications of money to our mud problem. Weāre in NW Oregon, so our deluge season lasts from October through June, with temps too mild for much freezing.
Weāve started with just a few, since they are an investment ā shipping costs are a big drawback for many, but our feed store is within five miles of us. The few we purchased have already made a big difference. I can make it from the gate to our run-in shelters without falling on my you know what or getting my boots stuck in the mud. They float over even the worst muck without sinking in ā you can drive a truck or tractor over them, although I personally havenāt tested this.
These grids have a huge following in the UK and among those with Paddock Paradise tracks. It can still be difficult to find them close by in many parts of the US, but distribution is expanding, and hopefully theyāll eventually come down in price (haha).
Where did you get your ag grid? Iām looking for the non horse version as well because itās got to be cheaper!
I cannot tell you how much I stalked your blog when planning my little farmette!!
The contractor who built my dry lot chose the grid. It was his first experiment with a non-horse brand so he just charged me for materials at cost and no labor! Unfortunately I donāt know what brand it is exactly, but DuPont sells something really similar.
Elaineās Tack in Scappoose, Oregon. You can get the Hahn mud control grids for less in Scio, OR, but that would be 180 miles round-trip for us and the cost of gas would negate any savings.
Itās canāt be the dampest place on earth, because the Seattle area, specifically along the Snoqualmie river, is. Because itās clay with about 6 inches of silt over the top, plus it rains from October to June. Yay.
But I do commiserate with you OP. Iām down in Virginia, and though our climate is a bit different, our soil is very similar. And because itās been so warm this year we just havenāt gotten a reprieve. Usually in January the mud would be frozen and we would have a break, but it just hasnāt come.
My best advice would be to wait it out. You could try dumping a few dump loads of gravel, but itās so wet youād probably just loose all of it. We are already halfway through January. Itās only a few more months and then the grass will grow and the sun will shine again. Then Iād scrape everything up, put down a lot of stone dust/gravel mix, and compact it for next year.
One thing thatās cheap that you could do in the meantime to save your sanity is sign up for free wood chip delivery. Dump the chips by the gates and water trough. They wonāt sink like gravel will and when next summer comes around you can scrape them up and dispose of them in the manure pile. Just make sure you specify that you only want pine, no walnut.
Can I ask a questions that doesnāt contribute anything to the thread? Is geotextile fabric or grids necessary for places that donāt have clay or insufferable boot sucking-mud? My lots are more hard packed sandy loam, a lot of places almost like road base. I donāt get deep boot-sucking mud, but more of two or so inches of sloppiness on top and standing water in low spots. The very very small amount of road base that Iāve brought in to build up in some places does not get lost to the mud like a lot of yāall seem to experience. Has anyone in a more arid environment simply brought in hard-packing aggregate to build up and level the low spots without any synthetic material underneath?
Yes, I have. Iām in coastal Virginia, and the soil is as you describe. I brought in a couple of loads of asphalt millings a little over four years ago. I did no prep work except to wait until the dry part of summer to put it down. I put it at both ends of my little center-aisle barn, covering an area about 20ā x 20ā on each end. My neighbor brought over his bobcat and spread and tamped it. I would say itās about 10-12ā at its thickest point. It has held up very well. No mud. No sinking into the ground below. With my neighborās neighborly help (I gave him and his wife a gift card to a local restaurant because he wouldnāt take any money), I had about $600 in the project. Best $ I ever spent.
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