Large bark chippings - any good for gateways?

[EMC]

New horse arrives soon and the costs are mounting up!

Would love to buy holed matting for the gateway in his paddock but after pricing up a whole new wardrobe/bedding/feed/livery fees and the rest I'm now looking at cheaper alternatives for the short term.

Has anybody tried using the wood chippings sold at B&Q and garden centres? The gateway is looking muddy after the recent bad weather and Im wondering if putting down a good layer of wood chips would help stop it getting any worse. I'm assuming he won't eat the chippings.....

Also has anybody found an alternative to expensive stable matting? Only need a small area to cover near the door where he will be standing nosying at everyone else.

 

[pachypach]

No idea about bark chippings, but I've been looking at doing something similar for the muddy & worn areas in the paddock.
I live in France, the price of the rubber grass mats here is extortionate.
Also to import them, price of mats is ok, but the transport cost is ridiculous!
I've found a fab german site (they ship to europe), and have ordered grass pavers.
works out about half the price of the rubber mats.
they do different thicknesses.
http://land-grid.com/index.php/cat/c1_Paddockplatten.html/XTCsid/iep4h6eleh3r24e9261vnk6up0
you can email them for a shipping quote, mine is only 40€ for 100 pavers
hope you get it sorted!

 

[LynH]

I bought just two grass mats. They aren't enough to cover the whole gate area but they make it so much easier to get through the worst of the mud and the horses prefer to stand on them. I will try and add more over time but even if you can afford two they be better than woodchip.
When we moved into our house the driveway was covered in woodchip but it was so boggy we had to remove it all and replace it with road planings.

 

[LynH]

By woodchip I mean a mix of bark and large wood chips.

 

[meesha]

Bark etc from tree surgeon type person has been used down our lane, no drainage underneath and was put in existing potholes, has turned to mush-horrible. Friend also used on yard in gateways and again mush. Chuck down terram then get lorry to tip stone straight on.

 

[Honey08]

If it is not muddy already it may help, if there is already mud it will just get swallowed up.

For future reference, we put one grass mat and one stable mat down in our mudy gateway, and the stable mat did a much better job - the grass one sunk fairly quickly..

Hardcore chippings would be better - or a bag of gravel..

I would think about getting the mats and buying one less rug. It could prevent the horse getting mudrash and therefore big vets bills... Once you have a muddy churned up gateway its harder to get rid of than it is to prevent... We got our mats cheaply off ebay..

 

[Petalpoos]

Frankly - no! The only way to fix gateways permanently is to put in french drains with chalk or gravel on top and then put mats on top of that and fix them down well. Adding anything once the mud is already there is doomed to fail as it just adds to the mud

 

[TarrSteps]

Unfortunately the bark is also absorbent, so ends up decomposing and turning into a fine brown dust and making the gateway a dusty mess when it's dry, as well. It CAN sort of work if you have an absolutely endless supply of the stuff, particularly if it has a lot of hardwood bark in it (I grew up in British Columbia where you could get it as waste from the pulp and paper industry) but I don't see how you could possibly get that done here.

 

[EMC]

Thanks guys, so glad I didn't leave B&Q with six bags of the stuff!! Grass mats or preferably gravel it is then.

 

[applecart14]

i would have thought that grass mats would be better than bark chippings. Bark will just disintegrate and turn to sludge in the mud after a few weeks. Or loose shale would be better in a large quantity and packed down firmly.