Turn out area - winter paddock, who has had one built?

[Acobandawelsh]

This year we are hoping to make a winter turn out area in the field. Needs to be large enough for 3 x 15hh horses. They will all come in at night and be out from 9 - 3.
We are on clay so always a challenge. Will want a soft area so they can have a roll. We currently have a concreted yard area which is a fair size but looking for a surfaced area for them.
I have 3.5 acres in total but putting up new stables and yard also and i ideally want 2.5 acres for summer grazing (loads of meadow grass in the summer - they are fatties so only ever end up strip grazing half of it over summer!)
Questions are -
What size ?
What prep did you use?
What surface did you use?
I haven't got a massive budget but what i do have is a very capable (none horsey but getting there ?) husband who built our house and is brilliant at making stuff and groundworks!
Plus we have a digger and help on hand!
So would do all the groundwork our selves.
Pics of your set ups would be fab
Thank you

 

[cauda equina]

I have a 20 x 20m woodchip turnout for 2 fatty ponies (14hands and mini shetland)
It was built by a groundworks company who had put in similar ones for a big horse charity locally and persuaded me that my original idea (scrape off the soil, dump woodchip on what was left) would be a disaster
It's basically built like an arena - drains, limestone, membrane then woodchip, expensive but worth it
It's been brilliant, never waterlogged and improves with age - initially it was very deep and slippery but as it's rotted a bit it's much more stable

 

[Jellymoon]

We did membrane/limestone/tarmac planings. They have access to a barn for rolling, but they do wee on it! I am now retrospectively putting some drainage in as some large puddles and mushy areas have formed. I guess it’s roughly 20x20m.
Best thing you will ever do. I am now not stressing about my paddock getting trashed and shlepping through mud.

It’s not a total substitute for turnout as I do think they seem a bit bored and would prefer to mooch around a field picking at stuff. If my field dries up enough I do still pop them out for a few days, and I try to exercise them daily to keep life interesting.

 

[meleeka]

I have planings too. I didn’t put a membrane down, nor any drainage, but it was laid in summer and is quite thick. It’s more of a rectangle, around a shelter which is rubber matted. I don’t need it so much now I haven’t got big horses, but it means they always have somewhere dry to stand and eat hay.

 

[Dam1]

I think if you're going to the expense of a dry turnout area which will need to be properly drained surfaced etc etc that you might as well make it big enough to ride/lunge in the bad weather.
I've only got 3 acres (clay)which includes the house and I don't know how I'd manage without the school (20 x 40) as I use it a lot in the winter for turnout as well as riding. Even if you made the turnout area smaller you could still ride/lunge and make more use of it to make it more cost effective. My school only had a sand surface on it for a good few years until I could afford to put some rubber on the top but it worked well for turnout in the winter as its wet here (sw) most of the winter lol.

 

[sportsmansB]

I think if you're going to the expense of a dry turnout area which will need to be properly drained surfaced etc etc that you might as well make it big enough to ride/lunge in the bad weather.
I've only got 3 acres (clay)which includes the house and I don't know how I'd manage without the school (20 x 40) as I use it a lot in the winter for turnout as well as riding. Even if you made the turnout area smaller you could still ride/lunge and make more use of it to make it more cost effective. My school only had a sand surface on it for a good few years until I could afford to put some rubber on the top but it worked well for turnout in the winter as its wet here (sw) most of the winter lol.

I 100% agree with this, if you are going to spend even close to the money that an arena would be on doing a turnout, make it multi purpose. Once you get into stone and drains etc then you're half way there anyway! You could always make it 20 x 20 or even 20 x 30 and then extend in time when funds allow if you plan for that from the outset.

 

[honetpot]

I 100% agree with this, if you are going to spend even close to the money that an arena would be on doing a turnout, make it multi purpose. Once you get into stone and drains etc then you're half way there anyway! You could always make it 20 x 20 or even 20 x 30 and then extend in time when funds allow if you plan for that from the outset.

Then you get in to planning, a temporary surface and you do not need planning. The stones, drains and manpower cost a fortune, and unless it done well it will still get boggy.

 

[Cortez]

I have one. It's basically the same as an arena as far as drainage and surface are concerned.

 

[sportsmansB]

Then you get in to planning, a temporary surface and you do not need planning. The stones, drains and manpower cost a fortune, and unless it done well it will still get boggy.

But a temporary one will be more likely to get boggy
I think its either cheap and cheerful and accept there may be issues, or go the whole hog to drainage and stones etc and make it dual purpose. I just don't think there's much point doing a middle ground of these - expensive but not as useful / add as much value to the property

 

[honetpot]

I think before you spend £30k, you need to think if it will put at least that much on the value of your property. I know at least three people who did DIY, hired machinery etc, and it still cost over £20k for one fifteen years ago.
Maintain if you are using it for turn out is also a problem, debris can block drains.
For about £1200 you could lay a pallet of Mud Control Mats, see if they improve the situation before spending a huge amount of money. They will resell if they do not work for you.

 

[Palindrome]

I second laying mudcontrol slabs.
They work as a single slab path so that's not so expensive. I am on clay, I built a 100 m long path with the slabs last year and it works well. I am planning to extend it as part of a track this year.
I have also made some feeding stations with slabs and have already moved them 3 or 4 times when I changed the way I was feeding (big bale in a net, big boxes of loose hay...). My path now goes from the shelter with the 2 hay feeding stations next to it and at the opposite end there is the gate and water through. I found that if water and hay are next to each other, my horses just stay in the same place day and night. With water and food at opposite ends, they have to move a bit.
ETA: I bought 2 pallets last year and have now added 1 pallet, so a total of 3.

 

[Landcruiser]

I inherited a 20x20 turnout with our 3 acre total heavy clay property. There's no drainage - as far as I can tell it's builder's rubble and then agregate. You can tell there was a coarse sandy agregate at one point, but when we moved in there was a 4 inch layer of mud/grass over the whole lot. We've cleared most of it off over the years but have left areas for them to roll and areas which get a bit deeper, although never more than a very few inches. The ground slopes slightly so that's the "drainage." It adjoins my stable yard so I have the lot open, with 3 open stables for my 3 x 14.3 horses. We have repeated the construction method to make a track - builder's rubble laid evenly ON THE SOIL - no removal - then a coarse reclaimed agregate, then a finer one rolled on top. Works for us.

 

[PurBee]

We were lucky to have a natural gradual sloped area of land around what became the horse barn. This meant we had natural drainage run-off, and didnt have to dig/construct drains. The size is a weird shape following curved bank boundaries and other barns - about 50m long & 10-20 wide.
We scraped off 6inch shallow topsoil to very dense and firm limestone layer underneath - then put many tonnes of a quarried material we get here thats called ‘slig’ - its shards of soft rock, that squishes-down when rolled-over it with digger tracks, creating a level surface thats got traction.
This was about 8inches thick.

No issues at all. No drainage problems due to slope. Good traction in snow and icy weather. Lasts and lasts. Gets better with age really.

Part of it im going to dump woodchip ontop so they can have a lay outside, rather than just have the barn bed to lay in. Their barn and the outdoor area are interlinked so they go in or out as they please.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I second laying mudcontrol slabs.
They work as a single slab path so that's not so expensive. I am on clay, I built a 100 m long path with the slabs last year and it works well. I am planning to extend it as part of a track this year.
I have also made some feeding stations with slabs and have already moved them 3 or 4 times when I changed the way I was feeding (big bale in a net, big boxes of loose hay...). My path now goes from the shelter with the 2 hay feeding stations next to it and at the opposite end there is the gate and water through. I found that if water and hay are next to each other, my horses just stay in the same place day and night. With water and food at opposite ends, they have to move a bit.
ETA: I bought 2 pallets last year and have now added 1 pallet, so a total of 3.

It sounds like I need a similar solution as I have to walk through my fields to get to hacking and the gateways are bad, my horses don't like being ridden through them so I thought of doing the gateway and extending it a bit further, I already have hardstanding concrete at one gateway but the field beyond it gets deep and horrible, it's not a huge area so I could interlink both gateways with a mud mat type set up.

How did you lay them initially I'm a bit worried how to do it ?

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

This year we are hoping to make a winter turn out area in the field. Needs to be large enough for 3 x 15hh horses. They will all come in at night and be out from 9 - 3.
We are on clay so always a challenge. Will want a soft area so they can have a roll. We currently have a concreted yard area which is a fair size but looking for a surfaced area for them.
I have 3.5 acres in total but putting up new stables and yard also and i ideally want 2.5 acres for summer grazing (loads of meadow grass in the summer - they are fatties so only ever end up strip grazing half of it over summer!)
Questions are -
What size ?
What prep did you use?
What surface did you use?
I haven't got a massive budget but what i do have is a very capable (none horsey but getting there ?) husband who built our house and is brilliant at making stuff and groundworks!
Plus we have a digger and help on hand!
So would do all the groundwork our selves.
Pics of your set ups would be fab
Thank you

I have slightly less land that you and I am going to put a menage in and try and incorporate some mud mats around it as it will be in part of my field, I also already have a bit of hardstanding behind my stables so I think you should essentially do the same because then at least you will have an area to ride and turnout, that's how I have tried to look at it anyway especially if your going to spend a certain amount of money.

 

[Nudibranch]

I have stable mats over hardcore in the field shelter and large gravel over membrane and hardcore on the area beyond and the run in to the stables. The main traffic area also has gravel grids for extra stability. We have a tractor so it was relatively inexpensive to do and the hardcore was already down from the previous owner. To do that lot from scratch would probably cost a fair bit so I'd probably go for mud control mats instead. But the proper ones, not an alternative!

 

[Palindrome]

It sounds like I need a similar solution as I have to walk through my fields to get to hacking and the gateways are bad, my horses don't like being ridden through them so I thought of doing the gateway and extending it a bit further, I already have hardstanding concrete at one gateway but the field beyond it gets deep and horrible, it's not a huge area so I could interlink both gateways with a mud mat type set up.

How did you lay them initially I'm a bit worried how to do it ?

You can lay them straight onto the mud. If deep mud (ankle deep), the mud will fill the holes and they will sort of sink into it but it's like a solid bridge when you walk on it. If not muddy, they will stay a bit more on top so I stomp on them a bit.
Last year, I did a path that was 2 slabs wide with the 2 rows staggered, but I am now using a path that is 1 slab wide and it's as good. When it is not muddy/wet, the horses prefer to walk on the soil but as soon as it gets wet, they use the slabs.
My horses aren't shod but I have heard for shod horses you need to put coarse sand on top otherwise it's slippery.
The notice also says that you can lay the slabs upside down and fill them with gravel and sand (and have a geotextile underneath to keep the sand and gravel in). That's better if you are going to ride on them or for high usage areas. I have ridden on mine (no sand or gravel) but in walk only.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Thank you that's really helped as my gateways are are not really deep just sort of boggy and wet so I think I will buy some and lay them then put sand on top, I have one shod horse so hopefully that will work.

What mats did you buy?

 

[Palindrome]

Thank you that's really helped as my gateways are are not really deep just sort of boggy and wet so I think I will buy some and lay them then put sand on top, I have one shod horse so hopefully that will work.

What mats did you buy?

It's the mud control ones from Germany (although the company is called Sagustu). I think the Jelka tend to sink a bit too much in clay as there are flexible.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

This is where we get ours from. https://www.mudcontrol.co.uk/. They are on facebook too.

 

[Lou_wizzard]

I have an area outside my stables. I had a contractor come in and do it. They took off top layer of soil put down a membrane and then laid stone one top. The stone was larger than I wanted but it soon settled down.

I have it attached to the school so I can use the school for turn out too if they are shut off the fields.

if I didn’t have the school then I don’t see why I couldn’t put down some stable mats, membrane and then sand on top and enclose it with sleepers

 

[JoannaC]

I do the opposite, mine have all the grazing in the Winter and as they are porkers they get the smaller paddocks in Summer, this works so much better from a mud point of view and means they can stay out in Winter as well as Summer and saves on hay and bedding. I do have an all weather bit in front of the barn which they have access too as well as being able to bring themselves into the barn whenever they like. I'm on clay but it doesn't get that muddy when they have the whole place and no gateway to hang around.

 

[Bluewaves]

I did a small one that cut off part of a small field which already had drainage problems so not good for grass anyway. A guy with a JCB dug it out, and someone knew someone who could bring up a few loads of stones from a quarry at a decent rate as they were coming up our way regularly with an empty lorry to buy sand nearby.

There was a membrane put down too but my post-menopause brain can't remember what else was involved.

Someone else who was very reasonably priced did fencing with wooden gate posts to split it from the rest of the field.

It's not suitable for horses to roll but mine used to do it anyway in the remains of their haylage from the day before which i had spread over an old tarpaulin.

I have moved my horses temporarily away from home so it's not used at the minute. If i bring them back, then I'll get a lighter grit layer put down on top of the stones so it's ok for rolling on. I kept two horses on it and it definitely wasn't big enough for an arena but they could canter about a bit if they felt like it. I don't know how big, it really to me is very small and literally just a place they could stretch their legs in winter and stay off the clay fields.

All in all it cost £900 for costs and labour about six years ago. No planning. I just did it.