turn out area

[cobden]

HELP ! I have my ponies at home, and in the summer had 2 stables and a feed room put up. The builders who dug out for the concrete base had to take out quite a lot as the area is on a slight slope. Instead of taking off the top soil they put the whole lot back on the field and ran over it with a JCB to flatten it. Clay soil, nightmare. I have now paid £1500 to have land drains and a load of chippings put down, and the ground levelled over the top. However, because it is clay the water is sitting on top and I daren't let the ponies on it as they will churn it up in days. What should I do ? I want to use it as a turn out area but even after all the work it still seems unuseable. Should I put bark chippings on top ? A few more tons of stone chippings ? Any advice on how to rescue this much appreciated !

 

[claire1976]

My land is also very clay like in areas and its awful!! I only use the flat areas in the summer and try to reserve the slopey ones for winter.
I can only suggest using something like sand to absorb some of the moisture but this can be a problem for grazing on, bark chippings probably wont absorb much water. Bales of straw spread out might work over winter but will look an awful mess. You could try asking your local building merchants/garden centre which materials are best for soaking up moisture from grass land.
Good luck!

 

[Triskar]

Before making our manege we bought a book from the BHS bookshop on all weather surfaces (not the BHS booklet, which we also got) which has some information in it on adding rubber to grass areas in order to increase the resilience. Apparently its been used on some racetracks and on some eroded footpaths - it might be worth contacting the people to find out more about whether this would work in your situation?