Back story - I like to learn lessons the hard way :

Our pasture got REALLY over grazed, the farm grew too fast then we got the cow pasture finished and it's been slowly growing back. The horses have a specific lot (because the sporthorse thinks he is a cow horse), so they're on a dry lot until the rest of their pasture recovers. Dry lot = mud lot when it rains and NW PA it rains a lot. Then it freezes and its rough and no one's happy. Of course the expensive horse gets thrush crazy easy, while the other two could stand in water all day and I swear they'd still have rocks for hooves. 

The whole pasture is a square. It's then split in half, and one half is split in half again. They are kept on the split side over winter, but the big side is still recovering and not really grazing worthy yet.

What would you do to keep yourself sane in this pasture situation...

Have you used asphalt millings, how slick does it get when it's wet?

What would you use to reseed the grass portion?

What am I not thinking about?

My idea:

Get pea gravel in their shelter and have it raised significantly, bury boards on the front and the back for a ledge. Then have an apron going in and out. Considering adding asphalt millings to make it easier to scrape the top off?

Adding a gravel pad to a designated round bale feeding area and a path to the water trough. Round bale area close to the gate to prevent ruts on the fun swampy days.

Ideally they'll be kicked out on to grass on nice summer days, and back on their lot on not as nice ones.

Bump

I have areas going into the gates of my lots that are muddy and slick also. I'm thinking asphalt millings would be an improvement. 

as far as reseeding, talk to your extension agent. Mine gave me a whole plan of what to seed, when, and what to fertilize with.

I fence feed so that area became mud hole up to knees and hocks every winter and with heavy rain all during the year.

I finally built a 'driveway' all around the inside of the fencing. 12' out from the fence was dug out, 12" to 18" of gravel, topped with another 12" of blue stone dust (the packing kind). It gets a surface covering of mud - like an inch or so  - from the horses poo and wasted hay, but no more knee deep mud. Expensive, but not as expensive as all the problems caused by all that mud! The horses stand on the driveway most of the time and that has allowed the pastures to not get churned up in muddy conditions.

As far as seeding back to healthy grass - we have to add lots of lime and then a general pasture mix does good. 

Do you have an extension agent specializing in horse pastures? Or is it more of a pasture management person?

Thank you so much! That sounds like an awesome idea to do the outside of it. I knew any part of this project wasn't going to be cheap, it comes with the territory, horses lol! Hopefully mine are as smart are as yours

I have 3 big pastures, I love them, and they defiantly do take some management however. We do a ton of rotating so no pasture gets overgrazed. It sucked having to build fence and shelters but now my pastures are AMAZING!

In each pasture, each spring we: broadcast brome seed, drag to remove manure piles, fertilize with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, then spray with 2-4D and an insecticide. Seriously my pastures are knee deep grass for my 4 horses!

It takes work but it is so worth it, my horses use less baled hay, I never have ulcers because they are always grazing…even in the winter when we open all gates to all pastures, they just rummage through the snow because there is still forage down there.

Each pasture has a shelter, so we feed in the barns and the automatic waterers are set up on concrete so I never really have to worry about too much mud build up.

May I ask how many acres you're rotating them on?

We're getting there, we have one  more portion to split, and I plan on making a reseeding mess this year. 

Good ideas on those. is 2-4D a grass killer or just weed?

That's exactly what I want ours to be like. Started off on the wrong foot, and cow pastures came first to fixing cause that's actual income.

You got me excited to take on this work load, but sounds super doable!

We have the “driveway” concept. We put down M10 where I feed along the fence, and at the gates and water troughs. The places along the fence that we left bare are a MUDDY MESS! The M10 parts are great!

Noted and thank you! Going to be a fun tractor process and expensive, but save me on horse hoof care