Road planings for gateways, stable doorways etc.....

[claire1976]

Just been looking at finding some hardcore material for the muddy entrance to field and in front of my stables. Proper hardcore comes in at around £30 per tonne plus delivery.
My gardener suggested using road planing/scrapings, basically where a tarmac road has been dug up it gets crushed into pieces & sent to a industrial recycling depot.
I made enquiries and its loads cheaper - £6 per tonne. Since I'll need a few tonnes this will save me a fortune. My only concern since its tarmac and will contain tar is will it be detrimental to horses hooves?
Anyone tried this or any thoughts?

 

[lilym]

have used it in the past on gateways and found it excellent, packs down well and doesn't seem to cause any problems to the feet as its set tar not the wet sticky stuff.

 

[claire1976]

Thanks lilyM, nice to hear that someone has had success with it. Just getting soooo fed up with mud and cannot bear another 3 months of it!! This seemed the cheapest solution by far.

 

[tiggersdad]

If you go on the road your horse is on tarmac already. I have used it in gate ways and it has been very good. The mud have squeezed through so you cant see the tarmac but when you walk on it there is a firm bottom. In the summer the grass grew and you could not detect the tarmac. I have seen stony hardcore put in gates which was too big to sink and the horses have struggled to walk over it. Hope this helps.

 

[claire1976]

I know what you're saying about the road I just wondered if it was broken up whether that would make it more inclined to get embedded into soles of feet.
Interesting to know that grass grows through it. I take it its not harmful to the horses then if they eat the grass thats come through?

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

We've had similar problems with muddy gateways & track down to the paddocks but we got an even cheaper resolution. A local tree surgeon was having problems getting rid of all the shredded up branches etc so we told him to drop it off at our stables. Lord knows how many tons he's dropped so far but the majority of gateways & half the track now has a depth of about 8" (200mm) along it. He's even spread it out for us. It's made a real difference. I'll probably pinch some for my flower beds at home.

 

[wench]

I work for local council doing road jobs....

Ring your local council up, and find out who does their road jobs for them - there will either be one contractor that does the lot, or the council will adminstrate the contractors that they do use.

If it is one contractor, find out there name + number, and give them a ring, find out if they have any jobs coming up near you. If they have ask them if you can have some road planings, if you go and pick them up yourself. You may find that you will be allowed some for free!

If it is the council, ask them if they have any jobs coming up near you, find out contact number for contractor, and carry on as above!

Tarmac planings at £6/t is actually quite expensive.

 

[suestowford]

We had a load of this stuff for free when the lane was resurfaced last year. It's been really good and stood up to tractors & all sorts going over it. I haven't found any problems with the ponies' feet either.

 

[NuttymareII]

We had it put down on the drive to the yard (filled in the muddy holes) and in the entrance to the field. Good stuff, does tend to smell a bit when it was really hot in the summer, but then I like the smell of tarmac so it didn't bother me!

 

[RobinHood]

Road plannings are fantastic we have then in all the gateways and the yard and there is no mud.

I wouldn't using bark chippings, the local tree surgeon has a huge heap next to one of our fields and there are always swarms of midges round it, would be awful for horses to have that in the gateways.

 

[CBFan]

Very good stuff! Incidently makes a great base for a menage too. You can roll them down really flat (industrial roller) but they still drain really well - put sand and your chosen surface on top - hey presto!

No problems found with them clogging in horses hooves as they are dry as oposed to sticky...