Muddy gateways

[Sugarplum Furry]

Any idea how stop them getting worse?

Ours are ankle/fetlock deep at the moment, and TBH I've seen much worse at previous livery yards, but my present YO's have gone into panic mode. I did point out that ground recovers, eventually, and if they make a second gateway (their suggestion) they'll just end up with two poached area.

So, what do you reckon, a couple of truckloads of hardcore? What do you all do?

 

[Katie__Connie]

At our yard where some gateways are muddy... YO has put a few bricks down.... not laid just sort of "put" lol Has worked really well and not muddy anymore....

I know its probably unsafe in some way!!! not my idea...

!!! *gets ready for a telling off!!

!!)

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Cheers Katie. A few bricks..well, um, it's a start I suppose!! I have a mental vision of the horses at your place hopping delicately from brick to brick, holding up their rugs like laydees so they don't get muddy.

 

[skye_and_i]

well the best way would be to scape off the sloppy/soft mud then get some clean hardcore blinded of with some 20mm clean stone or scalpings.

 

[littleme]

We have hardcore

Also - bark chippings work well but depends what ground you are on, chips on top of hardcore even better!

 

[Katie__Connie]

haha that made me laugh.... well we only have a tiny muddy patch right at the gate so they sort of walk over the scattering??!

Seriously it works really well!!

 

[MrMeldrew]

My OH has just sorted mine. He dug a trench/soakaway - approx 4 ft deep. Put a layer of pea shingle, a pipe covered by a membrane, more pea shingle (a dumpy bag altogether), filled the trench with rubble (luckily neighbours are building) and then hardcore on top, (a couple of trailer loads).
My gateway was horrendous though as it is at the bottom of a slope.
I have also put a couple of rubber mats on top of the hardcore to help pack it down.
Working a treat so far.

 

[monkeybum13]

We have hardcore-it works a treat

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Thanks. Been doing some research, I think hardcore would work, I could drive over it with my land rover a few times to help tamp it down. It's not a huge area, but my YO's, as it turns out, think it's 'unsightly'. I could take them up the road to the yard where my daughter keeps her pony....the mud is knee deep there, they would faint with horror. We've got some field mud mats put down in the gateway, but they've sunk without trace.

 

[FeatherPower]

we have rubber matting that has holes in it - I am not sure what you call it but it works! its kind of pressed down into the mud so the holes fill with mud but the surface area becomes hard due to the rubber.

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Featherpower, that's the same mats that we have..or had...they are under the mud somewhere. We did have a bit of a problem with them when they first went down, the edges would get pushed up when mud collected underneath, despite pegging them down, and a few times the horse's hooves slid underneath and made the horse panic. I found the edges of the mats were quite sharp, did you have the same problem? Maybe we didn't lay them on flat enough ground.

 

[Spottyappy]

I have hardcore. I also electric tape off the actual gateway, and about 6' all round.

That stops the vast majority of the problems, as the horses can't congregate anywhere near the gateway, and doesn't push the problem further out either.

 

[ofcourseyoucan]

srape back the top and put 3 inch down rubble, roll and pack down to create a hard standing, reseed in spring! works well for us!