Horse on Small Paddock Rest - SURFACE

[miamibear]

Hiya Guys
Im wondering if you can help me, my horse was diagnosed with suspensory ligament damage last week and is on small paddock rest (twice the size of his stable) although its a bit smaller. Hes a quiet lad and it suits him to be able to see his field friends.

However - the ground in this paddock is as you can imagine getting very muddy when it rains and i need some advice, suggestions and past experiences of a surface to put down to help with this. I dont want to have to deal with mud fever and thrush as well if i can help it!

Please please any suggestions would be very welcome, its going to rain on Thursday so this week is rescue the field week!

Im not trying to save the grass by the way its all gone!

Thank you in advance

xx

 

[Honey08]

Depending on HOW muddy the paddock gets, you could try grass mats, which will allow the grass to come through. They didn't work very well up here in the Pennines, where we get knee-deep mud though, but I reckon they'd be great in a Surrey meadow..

We have a winter turnout paddock here that is the only way to avoid chronic mud rash. We tipped a load of hardcore over the area. Over a couple of years the grass grew on top of this, so the mud is only ever a couple of inches deep.. Every year they churn it up to an inch of its life, and we never think the grass will come back, but it always does. We feed piles of hay on top of the hardcore-mud, so the seeds probably help.. The grass mats worked well on this shallow mud. Obviously if you did this, you're not going to get grass through in time for your horse this year, but you could feed haynets, and the horse would still be outside in fresh air, in view of his mates...

 

[akashapachamama]

I use wood chippings on muddy areas like gates and around the water troughs during the winter. I put them straigt down on the grass and then top up when i need. IO think they're fab as they rot away and grass grown back again very quickly one the ground is horsie free.

 

[miamibear]

Thank you both

I have found a supplier of wood chips in my local town so im going to give it a go and see what happens

Thank you for your replies