Managing turnout/mud bath paddock WWYD?

[Landcruiser]

What an interesting thread. I too am a new land owner, and also on clay. We have 3 acres altogether - two acres are adjacent to the stable yard and one is the other side of the house, being kept for hay. The two "horse" acres are currently as follows. The stable yard is hardstanding. Then there is a 20x20m area which used to be sand apparently, but was very overgrown (posted about it recently in another thread). This then opens into the paddocks proper, near one and far one with a stream between them and currently no bridge!

We moved at the end of November ad the horses have been restricted to the stable yard (two open stables) and the ex sand area, which has now been eaten off and poached, looks like mud with some large stones now showing from underneath, but thankfully isn't too deep. They get haynets in the yard. One of them goes into a stable if he feels like it, the other doesn't generally, so an open door policy allows free choice. They seem happy mooching backwards and forwards, and have plenty of space to roll (clay/sand horsey mud angels testify) and even have a play if they want. I add toys - a traffic cone, an old flexible pipe, a ball - and they move them around, chew them etc.

Without the hardstanding and the whateveritis turnout area, I don't think we could have contemplated buying the property, because the land is too wet, particularly as it's neglected, the ditches are gone, and the drainage is non existent. Our budget wouldn't have stretched to starting from scratch (as the house needs LOTS of work, and the stables are shot too.) As it is, the horses are fine and will be turned out when conditions allow, but I intend for them still to have access to the yard/stables and turnout area too. Barefoot, variety of surfaces.

 

[kobi]

Ooohhh toys, what a good idea! Mine like chewing on old logs. I originally put a few in the yard in to stop them chewing on the fence. Worked a treat. Might try some of the things you mentioned!

 

[Hayjay]

FabioandFreddy, thank you so much for posting the photos, they are great and Wow what a difference. Really lovely set up you have. I will be showing them to my hubby tonight as this is what I need!

To anyone on clay soil who has built turnout area: did you need any drainage? We were thinking of removing the topsoil down to the clay then putting down hardcore/rubble and then concreting. But from all the posts, I think sand is a much better idea - nicer to stand on and they can have a roll too.

 

[OWLIE185]

Simple solution is to have drainage put in. It will make all the difference.

 

[FabioandFreddy]

Any other pics of turnout areas for more ideas? Fabioandfreddy your photos are great and really useful. Does the hay get smashed into the sand or is it relatively easy to clear up?

No - we put the hay nets in the shelter or the fenced sides where the road planings are and not the corner where the sand is so no problem with lifting any hay that gets trampled in.

Fabioandfreddy - what did you do to recover the paddock, or did it sort itself out?

Last year because we took them off the paddock altogether when it did dry up it was like concrete and the ruts hadn't been trampled down - ordinarily other years they would have trampled them in a bit as they'd been on the field still. Anyone with clay soil will know its one extreme or another! So when it dried, it dried rock hard! We got the handy JCB man to come with his power harrow to go over it all as our towable harrow wasn't touching it. So that then levelled it all again and we re-seeded and left it for about 2 months. It did need a re-seed in fairness as hadn't been done for a while but other years it has recovered fairly well without re-seeding.

 

[FabioandFreddy]

FabioandFreddy, thank you so much for posting the photos, they are great and Wow what a difference. Really lovely set up you have. I will be showing them to my hubby tonight as this is what I need!

To anyone on clay soil who has built turnout area: did you need any drainage? We were thinking of removing the topsoil down to the clay then putting down hardcore/rubble and then concreting. But from all the posts, I think sand is a much better idea - nicer to stand on and they can have a roll too.

Thanks. It really has made a massive difference and wish we'd done it sooner!

We didn't put drainage in as its on the highest side of the land anyway - well, for our flat Lincolnshire land anyway! Our lands all fairly flat but does all slightly graduate down to one end.

 

[kobi]

We didn't put drainage in but put a membrane under the stone. We used type 1 MOT stone (roadstone) for the base, whacked down then 10mm to dust on top. We then put the woodchip rolling area on top of this in one small corner. If you put sand or woodchip straight onto soil it would all sink into the mud pretty quickly. I wouldn't concrete personally, the water can drain through this but it remains hard. Also I'm not sure the rolling area would work on top of concrete unless your surface was super deep.

 

[MillionDollar]

MillionDollar are they built straight on earth or do they have a solid base as well as drains?

They have drainage, then terram, then hardcore, then terram and finally 6 inches of silica sand.

 

[pottamus]

Last year my lad trashed his paddock around the gate third of it, hanging around fed up with the lack of food and wanting to be brought in. He too gets stiff and has some arthritis...this got really bad last year and I am sure it was because he was having to walk through the deep mud and was stood around in it all day getting cold limbs.
This year I have him in the same paddock but opened up the yard and he has access to that and his stable. I feed his hay on the yard and have been strip grazing his paddock. There is barely any mud in his paddock this year, certainly not thick mud and he spends lots of time on the dry yard eating hay. He is so much better in terms of stiffness too. Moving really well and happier too. I would go for yarding until things get better.

 

[Hayjay]

Thanks pottamus. I am now mainly yarding and they are much happier. They stand in their stables a lot and always poo in them - never on the yard! I put them out today for a few hours and put hay in the drier area. They were still keen to come in though. Husband is making me a big dry turnout area for next winter - we have loads of hardcore to get rid of when we knock part of our old cottage down

 

[arlowbird]

Applecart14. Hello, hope you don't mind me butting in on this post! - I have just read your post that your horses are in a sand paddock in the winter. Can I ask - does it drain well? I am looking for some inspiration as our horses are also in a sand paddock for winter but two days of rain and the place is drowned even though there are three big drains underneath.