Ugh muddy field - any drainage experts?

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now_loves_mares

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Those of you in the south may not remember mud :rolleyes:. As always though, we've had an awful lot of it for a while. I've on heavy clay and have a particularly wet field, it seems.

The field is long and thin, but because it's so big (10 acres for one TB and a Shetland) it copes pretty well. Except for the area around my shelter :(

The rest of the field is flat, but the ground slopes down into a bowl just around the shelter, so it's inevitable it gets muddy. But it's just horrendous, so so wet. Ironically there is a stream running down the side of the field, but the water doesn't run into it because of the topography.

Some photos:
Looking down the hill towards the shelter with it's mud apron. The stream runs left to right in this photo, in front of the conifers/fence.

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Looking up the other way. The bit in the foreground under it actually has hardcore underneath :eek:. You can see near the corner post of the elec fencing how wet it is, that is broadly where the hardcore ends. The mud there is mid-calf deep.
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A close up of just how wet it is.
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Looking the other way. The fenced area is supposed to be my shetlands little fat paddock, but it's like a bog :(
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So - I was thinking about basically digging a "moat" around the existing hardcore apron (which ends about 5 feet in front of the shelter) through the mini paddock, then around the front and down to the stream; filling it with large bits of hardcore (a local recycling place do half-brick sized); then a top layer of a smaller-grade I can get locally for free (scalpings I think they are).

The problem is - it's not my field, I rent it. So I don't want to spend a fortune, and am therefore only willing to spend money on it if it's going to work! Basically I want to try to reduce the mud sliding down the hill around the shelter, dry out the little paddock a bit, and reduce significantly the mud path that they have to go through every time they go out to graze/back to shelter (my TB is a wimp and comes and goes to the shelter all the time).

Can anyone tell me if they think it will help? It would be ok if it's just like this in winter, but it's like this as soon as we have more than a tiny bit of rain. :mad:
 
hi, i have exactly the same problem except i have no option but to grin and bare it :( what you describe sounds good as it gives the water somewhere to go, like you said hardcore only lasts so long when the mud is so bad:(
 
Best thing is where the muds really bad, dig a big hole and fill with gravel, then fill back in again!! I got advised to do this by a paddock maintenance friend but don't own the land and landlord probably wouldn't let me anyway! Plus we're moving in a year and put up with it for 2 years, so just going to have to cope for one more year!
 
It's rubbish isn't it nixxyz? :(

Bumblelion I guess in a way that's what I was thinking! We too may be moving, but it'll be at least 2 years, and because this isn't just like this for a couple of months of the year, I think I need to do something.
 
Oh forgot to say that actually my landowner is moaning about the mud - he'd be delighted for me to concrete it all over I think :confused:.

I did ask him if he'd like me to have a word with him upstairs to turn the tap off, I'm not sure he appreciated my acerbic wit ;)
 
now_loves_mares said:
Oh forgot to say that actually my landowner is moaning about the mud - he'd be delighted for me to concrete it all over I think :confused:.

I did ask him if he'd like me to have a word with him upstairs to turn the tap off, I'm not sure he appreciated my acerbic wit ;)
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Lol, love this comment! May try with my landlord!! They complain, along with the non horsey agents!! I said, it's a horse paddock, not a bowling lawn!! They suggested I kept my two in all winter! Er.....no!!!! I'd have to get my idx pts and the tb would kill me!!
Yeah, got a couple of friends just moved here from glasgow, they keep saying how bad the weather is up there! Iv been wrapped up in a coat, cold etc lately and she turns up hot in her vest top and flip flops!!! You're all hardcore !! ;) Just thought, no satellite hit you up there then!?
 
I was definitely thinking JCB and a lorry load - trust me, I know this isn't manual labour - I've tried! :rolleyes:

Peternatt there is not a chance in hell the landowner will pay. But to be honest I hate it, it's soul destroying, so I'm willing to do a bit - just not spend £k's on a field I don't own.
 
OH used to have fields that were clay and were so deep in winter it was almost impossible to walk through. A lot of the problems were to do with water running down from the road at the top and had worsened a lot since runway extensions were one at the nearby airport. The field we rented from him had a public footpath along the top, where the water came in, and for years people had complained about it. I managed to get the council to dig a ditch all the way across the field at the fence line. The ditch was about 3 ft deep at the start and 6ft at the other end - then they decided they were going to leave it as a ditch and not fill it as they had the next door yard - not happy! But, I have to say, the field is much, much drier and certainly doesn't have the knee deep mud it used to. When it rained the water used to run so fast down the ditch it was like a river. So what you are thinking of should work as long as you get the depth etc right.
 
Put in some land drains (underground) to carry the water away rather than stand;gateways need digging out and hardcored with crushed tarmac on top.Costs a bit,but my top field was like the Somme last winter,and that is where the haylage feeder is too. Hopefully this winter no more mud covered legs and tails to wrestle with!
 
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