Wood Chip / Fibre - good for horse walkway?

[kit279]

I need to try and sort a walkway from the fields to the stables that is reasonably attractive to look at as the stables are in my garden and they are churning the ground up a bit.

What would be the best thing to put down?

Don't really want to use hardcore if I can help it.

Would wood chip/wood fibre (eg. Cushionride) be OK to use and if so, do I need a membrane underneath?

Any advice welcome!

 

[Digger123]

Could use wood chip but if you don't put some sort of membrane down it would probably just disintegrate into a muddy mess.
You can get rubber mats which interlock and then the grass grow's through them.
If it is to be a permanent feature it may be worth using hardcore as a base topped with a membrane and a covering of your choice.

 

[ofcourseyoucan]

scrape the top off the ground down to 6 inches, then some harcore, then some plainings. you can top seed over with grass in the spring. to make a hard based grass track. if you put woodchip/fibre down now you will have a deep deep boggy track that you will have to dig up in the spring.

 

[mrussell]

We tried to use woodchips for a track up the paddocks.. biggest mistake we ever made. It became a lethal tendon pulling bog for most of the year and wouldnt dry out for love nor money. Tarmac scalpings rolled and rolled and rolled are the only way forward.

 

[loz9]

Hi, we have a woodfibre path across out front field to help with the mud & access to the back fields. It has a small hardcore base (literally a few inches of brick rubble) followed by a cheap permeable membrane (fraction of the price of arena membrane, but we did use some of the left over arena membrane at the gateways) & then topped it with 5-6" of woodfibre, which has bedded down to about 3" (we had the last articulated lorry filled up when we put the arena surface down for this purpose & as top up for the arena) The 3" depth is fine for walking horses on, but not so great when they run off!
We did it on the cheap, but it looks very smart & is withstanding the weather so far! Its only been in since mid summer. Will have a hunt for a pic for you.

Best I could find, but you can see it easy enough, it now has fencing down both sides:

ETA we also had drainage put into the whole field & even thought there is standing water on the field atm there isnt a drop on the path. Im guessing the key is drainage & hardcore just like when constructing an arena!

ETA again: im guessing if you just put woodfibre straight onto mud it will eventually churn into the mud & then decompose creating a mulsh. At least the membrane keeps the mud & wood seperate!

 

[Booboos]

We've done the same as loz9 on two yards BUT it only works if you remove the topsoil, add hardcore, compact, put down membrane and then woodchip. Then it's lovely! Anything else is a waste of money and you are just waiting for the mud to suck it down (membrane without hardcore might even be dangerous as bits are sucked down and bits stick up to trip you and the horses up).