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 Tried and True
Posts: 21185
   
Location: Where I am happiest | Your only answere is rock/gravel of your choice. Anything biodegradable is only going to add to your mud problem down the road. We have crushed rock in our paddocks off the barn and the walkways and driveways around the barns and paddocks and have NO mud anywhere what so ever. Before we had all this gravel hauled in you couldnt get around out there and our paddocks turned to chocolate pancake batter. Suck your boots right off. It was awful!! Now, we have no mud at all anywhere. Just call your local gravel pit and have them haul in the loads of whatever rock you chose to use. You will have to move your horses out of the pens for them to dump it and you can expect some of it to disappear into the mud beings though it is already wet and muddy. However, you can have more loads hauled in untill you get the base built up your looking for. |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
 
Location: Bandera, TX | Is there anyway you can have someone come in and grade the area of the "dry"lot to run with the grade of natural slope? Then put down material. This is what we did. Graded the compacted sub soil. Laid down french drains to go with the natural slope. Placed 4-5" of 1.5-2" gravel down. About 2" of course river sand then we mixed clay and chat that had no lime in it together for the top layer. We've had to replace the top layer twice due to erosion. The horses love it and I've had no problems with dried out feet due to limestone caliche.
My husband is shooting grades for new pens and he's told me to save up for lots more french drains this time. cause he's going to run it out about 50-75 foot past the new pens. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 672
| ThreeCorners - 2015-12-30 8:42 AM
Your only answere is rock/gravel of your choice. Anything biodegradable is only going to add to your mud problem down the road. We have crushed rock in our paddocks off the barn and the walkways and driveways around the barns and paddocks and have NO mud anywhere what so ever. Before we had all this gravel hauled in you couldnt get around out there and our paddocks turned to chocolate pancake batter. Suck your boots right off. It was awful!! Now, we have no mud at all anywhere. Just call your local gravel pit and have them haul in the loads of whatever rock you chose to use. You will have to move your horses out of the pens for them to dump it and you can expect some of it to disappear into the mud beings though it is already wet and muddy. However, you can have more loads hauled in untill you get the base built up your looking for.
Yes, any straw, round bales, or bedding will only add to the problem and make it harder to clean once it does start to dry out!
Rock is the best to allow draining. Be aware of how your land naturally drains and apply appropriate rock. There is a lot of information online for creating a good drainage system so you don't cause bigger problems down the road.. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| Can someone explain " Screenings" please....... I tried to google it but not really what I was hoping to find. thanks@ |
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | You might not be able to do it now but if you can wait until it dries out, you can put down cow carpet or road fabric and then put the gravel or screenings over that. That will keep it from disappreaing into the mud later. |
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Common Sense and then some
Location: So. California | What type of soil do you have in your area? Is it clay based? Sandy? |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1118
Location: The South | FLITASTIC - 2015-12-30 9:28 AM Can someone explain " Screenings" please....... I tried to google it but not really what I was hoping to find. thanks@
I had never heard of them before BHW, and they are probably the best thing ever. I don't know if I'll explain it right, but it's little pieces of gravel that fall through when the rock/gravel place is sorting the different sizes out. So it's really small pieces, but once they settle and get packed down you have a solid base. Behind our barn gets really muddy and doesn't get any sunlight, screenings have been a lifesaver. I'll see if I can take a picture of our pile and post it, I'm not very good at describing things. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1118
Location: The South | 
Edited by LindsayJordan84 2015-12-30 5:17 PM
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| Thanks all! There is a rock place literally 1 mile from me. Need to get some price quotes. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1008
| Gravel base with lime on top. The mud this year has been awful! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1161
| any problems with gravel in the feet? |
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