Hard standing turnout

[Fanatical]

Does anyone have experience of hardstanding turnout areas for winter? Is it feasible?

My land can be very wet and I’m thinking of putting in an area of hardstanding with a large shelter for when it’s too wet for them to be on the field. Ideally it would only be in the worst of the wet weather but is it fair to keep them slightly cooped up?

I know some studs have large barns and have youngstock in them for the majority of the winter so I know people ‘do’ keep them in a lot but it doesn’t mean it’s right, or good for their development.

I prefer my horses to have as much turnout as possible and have had horses wintering out previously all winter but don’t have enough spare land these days.

Thoughts?

 

[Red-1]

I use my arena for winter turnout. It is 30 X 30m with a small shelter. Better than being knee deep in mud. No days in.

 

[kathantoinette]

I had a hard standing area for a couple of years then put sand over it in the end. I thought it blunted the horses shoes and I felt a bit sad that they didn’t roll on it. All good after the sand was put on.
If you get one done make sure it’s drained and done properly otherwise it’ll be a swampy mess!

 

[be positive]

I hope it is feasible as mine are going to be moving to a new home soon with less land than I wanted so I will have them spending most of the winter living on hardstanding with access to shelters, they will have ad lib haylage, a fair amount of space to move about and have a bit of time in the field most days depending on how wet it is, mine are not young and well settled so should be fine even if it is a bit of a shock initially to not have acres to wander about on.
I have not decided exactly how to set it up but do plan on a sand area for rolling as well as bedding on top of rubber mats in the shelters, there is already some concrete but I need to extend the overall area.

 

[Fanatical]

I hope it is feasible as mine are going to be moving to a new home soon with less land than I wanted so I will have them spending most of the winter living on hardstanding with access to shelters, they will have ad lib haylage, a fair amount of space to move about and have a bit of time in the field most days depending on how wet it is, mine are not young and well settled so should be fine even if it is a bit of a shock initially to not have acres to wander about on.
I have not decided exactly how to set it up but do plan on a sand area for rolling as well as bedding on top of rubber mats in the shelters, there is already some concrete but I need to extend the overall area.

This is good to hear - and I was thinking of a similar set up with an area of sand for rolling etc. Just mulling it all over.

 

[Hack4fun]

I put one in - 200m2 for three large horses and with a field shelter. I use it when they need to be kept off the clay soil, which is not all winter. It works well. I used a plastic mesh - ecogrid - filled with stone. It works OK and is not as treacherous as concrete when icy and does not break up like crusher run.

 

[Jellymoon]

I hope it works too as this is what I will be doing when I move the horses to their new home next year. Same issue, not quite enough land to live out on the fields all winter, but don’t want to have to stable them. My turnout area is soft pea gravel and the barn has a concrete floor. I’m going to try just putting mats down in the barn, no bedding, in the hope that they wee outside! I might give them a little sand area too. I’ll just see how it goes. I think they be absolutely fine, they can go out in the field when the weather permits, they’ll get exercised, and they’ll have a large barn and turnout area to wander about in.
My only concern is that one of them is a bit territorial about space and food, will have to monitor that, he might have to have his own area to be grumpy in. Bit like my OH.

 

[Auslander]

I've got two hardstanding pens - one attached to each field. I have a couple of loads of woodchip delivered every other year, so that it's soft enough for them to lie down/roll. It gets a bit soggy, but it's way better than standing in knee deep mud. My lot have access to the field if they want to go out, but hay.feed. water all happens in the pen, to minimise field useage!

 

[Lintel]

Definitely feasible.
I have roughly 2 acres made of 3 paddocks. For 1.5 horses.. is a shetland a 0.5?

In winter I select a paddock to get trashed and leave it open alongside my field shelter and hardstanding/small arena. Paddock is left open so they can have very small nibbles during the day!

We fenced it ourselves and had woodchip put straight onto the stones, it has done amazingly well considering this is Scotland! I could not winter without it- or summer for that matter it's great just to get the fatties off the grass for abit.

 

[FabioandFreddy]

We put a turnout pen in for our horses - our land is clay so gets really bad in the wet weather. The field shelter was already positioned there handily! If the fields are too wet then they get the time split between the stables and the pen so breaks the day up for them a bit too.
We ended up adding some sand to a big area of it as one of the horses was getting sores on his fetlocks from rolling and then getting up on the road planings. Been fine since though.

 

[Landcruiser]

Absolutely possible, that's exactly what I do. I have a 20x20m area straight off my yard. My fields are heavy deep clay. Both yard and turnout have a surface of fine hard aggregate, which holds in all conditions but isn't slippy like concrete would be. The turnout area was actually totally overgrown and grassed over when we moved in 4/12 yrs ago. The old owners had added coarse sand, which had then been allowed to turn into "soil" which took a lot of clearing. I left some areas of this softer stuff, so there are bits the horses happily roll on, they get a bit trudged up when it's really wet, but dry out again quickly. It looks like builders rubble was originally used to stabilize the land, so there are large chunks showing through, although flush with the surface. Both my horses are barefoot, so it all helps keep their hooves in condition/self trimmed.
I keep 2 stables open with rubber mats, so the horses have free run of yard, stables and turnout when the fields are too wet. The second winter they were continuously on this area for several months - they coped very well, although a bit of rug shredding went on as they were in such close proximity all the time. Last year it was only for the odd couple of days, but without this arrangement it just wouldn't work on this clay land - 6 month land it's sometimes called.

 

[Fanatical]

Thank you all, sounds like I am not mad to be considering it!

 

[sherry90]

I honestly think this is the way forward for keeping horses in the UK. If I was lucky enough to get my own land I would be setting up a turnout area that wasn’t grass for winter (and also summer at times, as someone said, for the fatties).

Very sensible decision OP!

 

[Leo Walker]

I honestly think this is the way forward for keeping horses in the UK. If I was lucky enough to get my own land I would be setting up a turnout area that wasn’t grass for winter (and also summer at times, as someone said, for the fatties).

Very sensible decision OP!

Same here! I'd love this sort of set up with a track leading from it.

 

[meleeka]

I have a yard area and am planning on extending that with planings for this year. I’ve found mine rarely venture out in the winter anyway (hay is provided in the yard with stable doors open), but I’d like them to have more space. Unfortunately my dung heap is also in the field so putting planings down will also help me get there in the winter.

 

[MagicMelon]

When I had my stable block built, I had an extra bit out the front of hardcore. Its brilliant, I leave my stable doors open so the horses use it as a field shelter basically, I put the hay bale holder outside on the hardcore so it encourages them to stand about on it in the dry and not in the field making it muddy. Absolutely best thing ever. Hardcore doesnt get slippy or icy like concrete or rubber matts would. Hardcore lets the water go through it so its pretty much always dry.