Above knee deep mud- best way of fixing

Kokopelli

Kokopelli

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Last winter the going out to the field was awful, at one point the mud was well above your knees. As I didn't want to lead pony through this in case of injury we lead 20mins around the road but this year we're not allowed to do that. So I need solutions to prevent this happening again.

Obviously in an ideal world we'd hardcore the whole path to the field or the very least just the very deep bit but not sure we can afford this. What's the going price for horse safe hardcore done properly? There is currently no grass coverage over the mud despite trying to grow some it's just ruined.

We were considering the matts with the holes but do they actually work? Or would it make enough of a difference we won't sink too much.

We're on proper clay soil and it is below the water table so is very wet at the best of times.
 
mats with holes are useless, we had a couple and in an inch of mud they just disappeared! do you bing them in at night?

why aren't you allowed to lead them the long way round?

my suggestion would be to move yards?
 
I kind of figured they would be useless. I really don't want to move yards, surprisingly there isn't anywhere around that I actually like. The horses do come in at night now. We are no longer allowed to lead around the road because someone else runs the yard we have to go through and they don't want us leading through their yard.

How much do you think it would cost?
 
Kokopelli said:
I kind of figured they would be useless. I really don't want to move yards, surprisingly there isn't anywhere around that I actually like. The horses do come in at night now. We are no longer allowed to lead around the road because someone else runs the yard we have to go through and they don't want us leading through their yard.

How much do you think it would cost?
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Oh that's annoying about the other yard! did you bring them in last year as well? if not the fields might be better now that you have to bring them in??

I don't know how you cope? we had ankle deep mud in the gate ways last winter and I almost cried every day, used to get the wheel barrow stuck, it was horrible!

the yard im on now has some sort of hard standing under the grass and a concrete gate way, so hopefully it wont get too muddy this year! oh and the horses will be in at night!
 
Can you electric tape off the offending areas, to stop the equines gathering in them? It may push the mud back slightly, but bigger area should mean the mud doesn't get so deep.
 
The actual gate in the field is fine as it has hardcore down from years ago but getting to the field you have to go through the awful gateway so there is no way of avoiding unfortunately. We were joking about buying waders but in all honesty we could have down with them, instead we just wacked on waterproofs and went for it.

Where can you buy the hardcore from? I would love to get it sorted before it gets rubbish again.
 
If you google aggregates and your area you should come up with something. The bigger places like wicks and jewsons sell it but they'll be more expensive.
 
you can get hardcore from builders merchant type places, no idea how much you would need, but i think my friend got i think 20 tonnes for under £200, which did quite a large area. you can get a lorry to deliver a pile and borrow/rent a little digger to spread it and roll over it a lot to make it compact.
 
See if anyone has any hardcore on freecycle. I was on a yard like that, drove me nuts. I'm loving being able to walk across the field at any time of the year now! Well drained and on a hill!
 
I'm on clay soil here and we had an area that sank at the end of last winter. We had to did the clay out first and then filled with hardcore and with scalpings on top. We needed to dig it about 50cm deep to get rid of the soil. We struggled to get good clean hardcore earluer this year so thr scalpings on top were essential. We previously had grass mats in the gateway, they worked the first year but last year they sank.
 
We hardcored one of our gateways ourselves last winter. We got the hardcore free through a local rag but it was hard work! It has held up so far. This year we have put a long wide track down the side of our muddiest field, going into the first gateway. We had it done professionally and they dug out a good 2 foot of clay, laid a membrane then hardcore and scalpings. It was expensive!! :eek:
Last year was a nightmare so I hope that this will last for years :) :)
 
Where abouts are you? There are loads of quarrys near me (north cots) where you can get tonnes of the stuff but I am not sure how much. There is a company called Hemmings that hire digger and man out to do it so maybe give them a call to get an estimate. If you had some handy people that can drive a mini digger that might be cheaper too.
 
Put a few loads of road planings down whilst the ground is dry and hard. You should be able to get them free or £50 per load max.
 
You would need tonnes and tonnes of hardcore depending on how long a stretch it is. Ideally you would put geotextile down first or rubble, then cover it with road planings (aka recycled hardcore usually about 12 pounds a tonne). You need to dig it out first as well probably. You would be amazed how much you need to make a firm base.
 
Are you sure you haven't got underground springs there, we have a couple runs past the barn entrance and over the field to the fence going to the barn, huge mud problem, aggravated by the horses trying to avoid the mud and increasing the muddy area, nothing we have tried has worked
 
I would lay membrane down without digging out first then get lorry to reverse up and dump scalpings or stone, scalpings were 12 pounds a tonne when I last bought them. You will need to get them spread or get the shovel out
 
We had shocking mud in one gateway a few winters ago but put down a load of some sort of sand and last winter, it barely got wet, it was amazing! I can find out what sort of sand if you like?
 
We have very similar land by the sound of it.

We made a hardcore turnout area, the same principle should work in a gateway, but it needs doing ASAP before the land gets wet again.

We got rough hardcore for free, laid it about a couple of feet deep, then bought road planings, which were £100 for 20 tons and spread them over the top. It didn't cost as much as you'd think.

We have done a couple of gateways by rolling the clay soil and spreading crushed hardcore on top, again, a couple of feet deep (in our case we knocked a wall down in the house, so smashed it and barrowed it down ourselves. It has sunk a little bit, but is on the third year and still keeps the area dry. We may have to top it up next year.
 
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