now_loves_mares
Well-Known Member
Looking for some advice please! I rent grazing for my 2 horses. It's a total of 10 acres, split into a 6 and a 4 acre field. However it's proving very difficult to keep in any kind of decent state; it's a very awkward shape, long and narrow. The gate, water and shelter are all at the one end, with no way of accessing the rest of the field without going through this "foreground". I therefore can never rest it to let it repair.
This has meant, with 2 wet summers in a row, plus typical Scottish winters, the top area is horrendously boggy, up to knee deep sometimes, and constantly holds standing water. To top it off, they hang about this end the most as it's the "action" end - feeding, catching, interesting passers-by
It's soul-destroying for me, shoe-suckingly depressing for them, and takes forever to dry. Basically I need a month of dry weather before it is not wet. Funnily enough, I don't get that much 
sooo - my first question is a technical one. If I manage to keep them off part of it whenever it's wet, so that it doesn't get poached, will it then drain/dry quicker?
Hopefully the answer is yes, if so my plan is to fence off the main part of the top-end into a paddock, leaving a "lane" around the outside, with access to the water/shelter, and the rest of the field down the far end (which remains much drier all winter). When the ground is dry, I could allow them access to the fenced off area, which should then be in a decent state, with grass and no shoe-removing mud; and then when it has rained I won't let them in that part, but it means they will have to walk around it, down the "lane" to get to the water and the rest of the field. However, the down side of this is that they'd be walking up the same narrow stretch whenever it was wet, and I wonder if it's already reached maximum possible mudiness, or whether this could make it even worse (hard to imagine that's possible to be honest)
However, there is no point fencing the area off if it's still going to take a month to dry out after heavy rain, as they'd never get allowed in to that part.
I was also considering getting field mats to put part of the way up the "lane" - probably between the water and the shelter which is the most journey'd path I suppose, at least in winter when they have hay in the shelter. Any experiences as to whether these would help in a really wet badly drained area?
One other option is just to fence off a large "corral" area around the shelter for winter, so that when it's wet they just have access to the shelter, water and maybe a bit of the field (bog) for rolling in. But I'm not sure about that plan, as one of mine bullies the other a bit and I prefer the option of them having room to separate from each other
Any thoughts on what works for clay soil is much appreciated.
This has meant, with 2 wet summers in a row, plus typical Scottish winters, the top area is horrendously boggy, up to knee deep sometimes, and constantly holds standing water. To top it off, they hang about this end the most as it's the "action" end - feeding, catching, interesting passers-by
It's soul-destroying for me, shoe-suckingly depressing for them, and takes forever to dry. Basically I need a month of dry weather before it is not wet. Funnily enough, I don't get that much sooo - my first question is a technical one. If I manage to keep them off part of it whenever it's wet, so that it doesn't get poached, will it then drain/dry quicker?
Hopefully the answer is yes, if so my plan is to fence off the main part of the top-end into a paddock, leaving a "lane" around the outside, with access to the water/shelter, and the rest of the field down the far end (which remains much drier all winter). When the ground is dry, I could allow them access to the fenced off area, which should then be in a decent state, with grass and no shoe-removing mud; and then when it has rained I won't let them in that part, but it means they will have to walk around it, down the "lane" to get to the water and the rest of the field. However, the down side of this is that they'd be walking up the same narrow stretch whenever it was wet, and I wonder if it's already reached maximum possible mudiness, or whether this could make it even worse (hard to imagine that's possible to be honest)
However, there is no point fencing the area off if it's still going to take a month to dry out after heavy rain, as they'd never get allowed in to that part.
I was also considering getting field mats to put part of the way up the "lane" - probably between the water and the shelter which is the most journey'd path I suppose, at least in winter when they have hay in the shelter. Any experiences as to whether these would help in a really wet badly drained area?
One other option is just to fence off a large "corral" area around the shelter for winter, so that when it's wet they just have access to the shelter, water and maybe a bit of the field (bog) for rolling in. But I'm not sure about that plan, as one of mine bullies the other a bit and I prefer the option of them having room to separate from each other
Any thoughts on what works for clay soil is much appreciated.