brightlights
Well-Known Member
Wonder if anyone can help me come up with a temporary turnout solution?
I'm looking to make a safe turnout space of about 15m x 15m to last through April. We've just pulled down four stables, leaving behind a level stone dust base on a larger, decently(ish) draining hardcore lot. To give an idea of what we're working with: The rest of the lot around the footprint gets slightly mucky with heavy traffic (tractor, lorry, etc) in wet weather, but even then it's only an inch of muck over a stable base. Whatever we put will eventually be removed this summer due to construction, so I'm hoping to put in something cheap and cheerful but not at risk of safety. Horses going out will mostly be shod and will be in work + usually getting time on the walker, but are still prone to an excess of energy. This is mostly just to give them something to have a bit of a stretch in and hopefully keep them a bit happier as our winter turnout is out of commission and some of them are a danger to themselves on the best of days
I tried levelled stone dust last winter and found it very unforgiving for my silly ones. I've looked into wood chip but got an estimate of 2000 euros for one load... not sure if for that price the potential of quite a slippy when wet surface makes sense. Is there any other option? Would it be best just to dump equestrian sand? I've heard pea gravel is fantastic, but not sure about for shod horses? Now wondering about using old stable bedding (minus manure), is that crazy?
Many, many thanks for any ideas or suggestions, I've been mulling this over for weeks and not sure what to do
I'm looking to make a safe turnout space of about 15m x 15m to last through April. We've just pulled down four stables, leaving behind a level stone dust base on a larger, decently(ish) draining hardcore lot. To give an idea of what we're working with: The rest of the lot around the footprint gets slightly mucky with heavy traffic (tractor, lorry, etc) in wet weather, but even then it's only an inch of muck over a stable base. Whatever we put will eventually be removed this summer due to construction, so I'm hoping to put in something cheap and cheerful but not at risk of safety. Horses going out will mostly be shod and will be in work + usually getting time on the walker, but are still prone to an excess of energy. This is mostly just to give them something to have a bit of a stretch in and hopefully keep them a bit happier as our winter turnout is out of commission and some of them are a danger to themselves on the best of days
I tried levelled stone dust last winter and found it very unforgiving for my silly ones. I've looked into wood chip but got an estimate of 2000 euros for one load... not sure if for that price the potential of quite a slippy when wet surface makes sense. Is there any other option? Would it be best just to dump equestrian sand? I've heard pea gravel is fantastic, but not sure about for shod horses? Now wondering about using old stable bedding (minus manure), is that crazy?
Many, many thanks for any ideas or suggestions, I've been mulling this over for weeks and not sure what to do