Calling all land experts(or anyone with abit or knowlegde)!

Lintel

Lintel

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So we are looking into buying property that already has some land with it. It also has a "massive" gravel/stoney driveway, far more than we will ever need. So I'm thinking we could turn this into extra grazing as it would equate to just under 1/2 an acre and would still leave us with a very generous driveway.
How would I best go about this, and turn it into decent grazing?
It is mainly laid with what looks like road plainings(I am no expert) and I believe under there somewhere will be soil.
 
vidis said:
In that sense, would such a surface be acceptable for Winter Turnout for a couple hours a day?
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My horse lives on that surface 24/7/365!

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Doesn't seem to be holding her back any ;)

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Lintel said:
S
How would I best go about this, and turn it into decent grazing?
It is mainly laid with what looks like road plainings(I am no expert) and I believe under there somewhere will be soil.
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dont, you are in Scotland, embrace the hard standing! we bought somewhere with a large car park, even with a generous area of parking (7.5t lorry, van and estate car) we can still end up with a large hardstanding pole yard in the winter. As it is it will be a godsend, especially if you have very good doers as well.
 
FfionWinnie said:
My horse lives on that surface 24/7/365!

5B94BA55-910A-49C7-9324-0006FE4DE848_zps98jqpghs.jpg


Doesn't seem to be holding her back any ;)

D3B1CB7E-D143-4C76-8F45-8A3B24E58F82_zpsm62kwl0v.png
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She looks great! I can't quite make out the surface, but it's gravel is it? Interesting as I recently had a thread here regarding keeping a horse on 1/2 - 3/4 acre of grass and was mostly told no way, even with feeding hay year round. Would be easier in hard srtanding.
 
I'd love that! Perfect for horses prone to laminitis or with muscle disease and great for winter. Brilliant!
 
vidis said:
She looks great! I can't quite make out the surface, but it's gravel is it? Interesting as I recently had a thread here regarding keeping a horse on 1/2 - 3/4 acre of grass and was mostly told no way, even with feeding hay year round. Would be easier in hard srtanding.
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It's recycled type 1 (road planings). She's lived on it for 16 months and eaten only hay, coolstance copra and alfalfa pellets in that time. She has a muscle myopathy which is the main reason she is kept like this.

I replied to your thread and said you can do it - just buy a good doer!

I've got a quandry as I've been offered some free round pebble type gravel and I don't know whether it would be good to whack on top or not.

It's almost like Tarmac now, it's been down for about 16 months although I did have a smaller area prior to that which was down for longer so I knew what I was getting.
 
FfionWinnie said:
presumably on almost tarmac it is easy to clean up dung, how easy would it be on pebbles? cleaning dung off pea gravel which is similar is very difficult. Would you lose a some of the pebbles into the dung heap which may be a problem if you want to spread it on a farmers field.

OP, many people would pay a premium for the hard turnout area you are describing. I have had to make that sort of surface as it is the only way I get through the winters rain without totally trashed fields. You are very lucky!
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Free pebbles? Send them my way - I'd love some conformable surface for my horse with thin soles, and the others around the place who would like to wiggle their toes in some pebbles. Planings settle into a solid flat surface don't they?
 
paddy555 said:
presumably on almost tarmac it is easy to clean up dung, how easy would it be on pebbles? cleaning dung off pea gravel which is similar is very difficult. Would you lose a some of the pebbles into the dung heap which may be a problem if you want to spread it on a farmers field.

!
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Yes that is what is holding me back. It would be excellent for her feet tho. Not that her feet need any help. I've got a couple of soft bits which need improved so was going to put more planings down then got offered these.

I'm very careful when picking up but you always lose some.

I've got plenty of other places they can go however ;)
 
Thanks for all the replies, hadn't really thought of that before- my boy is a wimp on stoney type ground so I'm not sure if it would work out well for him also what are the impacts on there joints if they decide to have a run around.. not that I think he could be bothered! That looks a great wee set up though- was considering a track system as well... so many options!! Also following the smallholding picture thread with great interest!
 
We also have a road planings winter turnout area. If we moved house it would be the first thing I'd build. It's just so useful. We have boggy clay ground, so it has rid us of our mudrash vet bills for the past six winters (since its been down). It is also useful for laminitis and box rest, it's level. Our planings haven't turned to Tarmac, they've stayed as little tiny clumps of Tarmac, like small stones. I like that. It drains really well, has settled to a flat surface with some give. They trot on it, but don't canter. It's very easy to poo pick, much easier than a field.

If you go to my profile there are picture of it on there. They are from the first year. It's not as pristine now, but not bad. It grows a covering of grass in summer from the remains of the hayseed and droppings.
 
Honey08 said:
We also have a road planings winter turnout area. If we moved house it would be the first thing I'd build. It's just so useful. We have boggy clay ground, so it has rid us of our mudrash vet bills for the past six winters (since its been down). It is also useful for laminitis and box rest, it's level. Our planings haven't turned to Tarmac, they've stayed as little tiny clumps of Tarmac, like small stones. I like that. It drains really well, has settled to a flat surface with some give. They trot on it, but don't canter. It's very easy to poo pick, much easier than a field.

If you go to my profile there are picture of it on there. They are from the first year. It's not as pristine now, but not bad. It grows a covering of grass in summer from the remains of the hayseed and droppings.
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That looks great- slowly being persuaded just to keep them! Where would I get excess road planings? - there is a covering but if I was going to use it as suggested I'd probably put more down. :)
 
I met someone recently who had a very wide driveway and they had narrowed it by fencing a strip off at the side and save that for winter turnout, I suppose the strip was about 10ft wide and a couple of hundred feet long, enough room for horses to have a potter
 
We first put road planeings down about 25 years ago, and over the years grass has gown through, but it never gets back to the sea of mud that we had before. If you are worried that they may be too sharp look at option of some smaller size limestone on top, this has worked really well in our yard and ponies spent all winter chosing to stand on it rather than the grass in the field.
 
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