Field Management - Adding a Hard-standing Area?

[3Beasties]

I'm after some advice (and piccys please?!).

I have been given notice at the small yard I rent so need to move my 2 horses and 1 pony. I've decided to bring them back home as despite a shortage of land I am hoping that with a bit of work and the correct management it could be successful.

The main issue is the small size of our field which is on clay soil. It gets very churned up, very quickly. There is not enough land to enable me to turn them out for any huge length of time but I am hoping that a large hard-standing area would solve this problem. Horses could go out on it daily whatever the weather and only out on grass when its dry.

Does anyone successfully manage horses in this way? Any photos?

What type of stone is best to use and what sort of depth should I be aiming for?

I will hopefully be able to rent some land locally too but I still want to be set up at home so that I am not reliant on anyone else.

Any thoughts, advice or opinions would be welcome.
Thanks in advance

 

[CazD]

Hi. We have this sort of set up. We have 3 (used to be 4) on 2.5 acres. For the really wet months of the winter they end up confined on the hard standing area with hay nets as we are on clay soil and sloping land. They have access to the field shelter which is on the hardstanding. The whole set up has worked well for the past 10 years or so although the hardstanding is now needing re covering in stone. No pics sorry but feel free to pm if you have any questions.

 

[3Beasties]

Thanks Caz, what size area did you cover?

 

[Polos Mum]

I've a friend that does this - she has 2/3 horses on crushed limestone that has gone smooth where it had a vibrating roller over it.

She did have quite a big space c.4 20 x 40 schools worth so they can still kick their heels up - they are on this full time for 3-4 months. Also gets local farmer to drop round bales of hay over the fence so they have constant access to food.

 

[Gift Horse]

This is a timely thread for me; I have just spent all day making this. I can’t advise how well it will work until next year! We have two stables and a tack-room and have made a 12 ft wide strip around these so that there is hard-standing on all four sides. There had been some hard-standing there before but it had been covered in years and years of mud, so we scraped this off with a digger and added some more hardcore on top.
We are also on heavy clay and were advised by an experienced farm manager to not dig the soil away, but instead to lay any hard-standing directly on top; the rational being that if you dig away on clay and then fill it with stone, you end up with a pond effect due to the dug out area where the stone is filling with water (unless you are going to put drains in)
You will need a lot of stone/hardcore. We have used about 20 tonnes of crushed concrete, we had a large amount of waste concrete blocks on site and paid a guy to come and crush them. I would like to top it off with lime stone but the concrete is crushed quite small, so it might not be necessary.

 

[Inthesticks]

I have an area done with wood chip, and I top it up every year, I prefer wood chip to stone

 

[flow]

Following this as I am considering doing this too.

 

[Red-1]

We are on clay, and my horse is turned in the arena in winter. It saves the field, keeps him free from mud, and ensures daily turn out. The arena is 30 X 30m and that is fine for daily exercise.

 

[peaceandquiet1]

We use this system and it is invaluable. We used road planings. Horses winter on it with a shelter and come in at night in summer too. Could not manage without it.

 

[Cobbytype]

My field is clay, so we put down a limestone track on top of a membrane, from the gate to the large field shelter. I guess it's about 18ft wide x 120ft long. I'd recommend a membrane to stop the stone from disappearing into the mud. Over the years the track has become smoother and now has a lot of grass on it, but it's still very solid underneath the thin layer of soil that's accumulated on top. Our biggest problem was the first 18 months or so, when some of the limestone was quite chunky. I contemplated putting sand over the top to smooth things out, but was concerned about sand colic if I fed hay on the track.

Over the years it's all bedded down nicely and has lasted really well - it's about 14 years old now and hasn't needed any further work on it since the day it was laid.

I seem to think that the area was skimmed lightly before the membrane was put down, but it was necessary to even out the very poached land. The membrane itself is just the woven nylon stuff that comes on a roll - I thought we might encounter problems with it coming through the stone over time, but it's been fine.

 

[Honey08]

We have one. There are pictures on my profile of it if you want a look. Ours is about 50m x 15m in an L shape. They can get onto the yard and shelter under the overhang. We've had two big horses on it for four winters now and it has been a godsend. We used to be constantly fighting mudrash, now we haven't had it for five years.

We got a load of free hardcore and a farmer spread it with his bucket to a depth of 2'. We then layered road planings on top. We didn't put a membrane down, we too are on clay. It hasn't moved. It's the best thing about our yard.

 

[kassieg]

I have 1 in front of my stables i didn't put it down but its fantastic !

I couldn't use it much the winter just gone as i had just moved in & there was a tonne of rubbish dumped there that i had to get shifted & the remains of a fire which needed digging up & removing after a lot of hard work it is now clear & i am looking forward to using it this winter when it is really bad weather. My ground is the besr draining ground i have been on but i don't have tonnes so would rather not trash it completely!
The hard standing actually has a small amount of grass growing over it which is nice for them
it's probably about 30 x 40

 

[Patchworkpony]

Not sure, but don't you need planning permission to do this? Councils can be funny about adding things to the land - just be careful. I could be wrong - I certainly hope so. Has anyone come up against a problem with planning when doing this?

 

[Gift Horse]

You are right it does usually require pp. there are exceptions for farmers.

 

[Honey08]

Technically yes you would need pp, however the road planings blend perfectly in with winter mud, and grow grass in summer (as Kassieg mentioned) so they're quite easy to get away with if you're prepared to risk it.

 

[abes mum]

Our horses live on a hard standing area the size of a 40 by 60 School with access to 3 stables with doors left open, they didn't have access to grazing for a year but we have now got access, just waiting for fencing to be sorted. They have 1 hard feed a day and ad lib hay and they always get commented on what good condition they are in.