Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie

   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie
  • Thread Starter
#21  
I won't "face that I'm not up for the task" of owning horses. I'm up for about any task. Which is why I asked for advice on different ways to accomplish this. Because I'm simply just a rookie with mud/ground control.

I used to be a rookie or a know-nothing about a lot of things in life, but have learned to do many of them very well and better than others in some regards.

I can do this.

When I say the "future" for making more paddocks, I mean near, like June. I've already expanded a larger t-post electric rope grazing area to set them out during the day so they aren't stuck.

I think it's really down to what should I do with the muddy areas, or is rotating them the best thing and not much I can do with the mud itself?

Maybe this is actually more an a question for an equestrian forum, but I figured since I'm part of a tractor forum, and I know any groundwork I do will be with a tractor, I thought I'd see if anyone here had experience with horses and mud control.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie #22  
Maybe I should have been more specific but take my word,there is no secret shortcut or silver bullet solution to this. My mention of being up to the task isn't just in reference to fortitude,it includes resources, land,structures,money and yes,experience which you are attempting to gain. You don't have enough land which can only be overcome with inclosed stalls and maintained floors. You are correct,horse people can offer far better advice than tractor people and I advised you to seek them. I could lay out plans but you are much better following local practice. What works in Texas might fail elsewhere simply because of no snow vs several feet every year,ditto for rainfall,temperature and countless other factors.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie
  • Thread Starter
#23  
Okay my bad. I misunderstood. Took it a little personally. Lol. Thank you for clarifying.

I was actually just browsing a horse sight an saw a few times that one thing people have done is to drill/auger many holes in the ground, and fill with sand or drainage rock, covered with a mesh layer so the rocks don't come back up, then fill back with the topsoil. Might be worth trying in some parts and seeing how well it works.
 
Last edited:
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie #24  
I sure you already figured this out but the problem is there are to many animals for the available space. IMHO you should have at least 1 acre per head, when our horse were still alive they had 2 acres per and at times that was not enough especially if we had drought conditions, the opposite of your problem.

As I am sure you have figured out already horses are like us men, we shave to same way each day, mow the lawn the same way each time, well horses walk the same path and stand in the same areas each time. The paths and standing places from ours are still plainly evident even though the fences have all been long since removed. Face it give horses a little time and they can make a hole that will hold water on a rock mountain top. Putting in drain tile and building up the area with rock is about your only hope IMHO but you will have to cover the rock with something to prevent the rock from damaging their hooves and it will be a constant maintenance project. Or add more land. Horses are expensive to keep up, they are always tearing up something, injuring themselves, need feed or hay and any of a number of other things just remember this "The way to make a small fortune with horses is to start with a large one."

They are just like a boat, a money pit but sure do miss my last one.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie #25  
Horses are large animals requiring large areas. They stand on their feet all day. Long term mud and horses hooves don't mix well.
In Tennessee you would have enough acreage for one or two horses.
The actual state, county and city that you live in can also influence how much land you need. Some states have “stocking rates”. For instance, Colorado requires that you have 5 acres for 1 horse. Tennessee requires 2 acres per horse.
from link
Why not build them a nice big barn with an indoor riding ring?
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie #26  
I say relish the fact you live in the part of the world where your biggest worries are the condition of the pet horses play pens. First world problems.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie
  • Thread Starter
#27  
Horses are large animals requiring large areas. They stand on their feet all day. Long term mud and horses hooves don't mix well.
In Tennessee you would have enough acreage for one or two horses.

from link
Why not build them a nice big barn with an indoor riding ring?


This is the ultimate goal.. a 4 stall barn with covered arena. But... having 3 young girls (7, 5 & 3)... funds are.... not thin... but spread amongst an array... not sure if dumping all our funds into at barn now is the right move or if first we should fully fence the property.

I'm not sure what a barn would cost, or if they make good loans for something like a barn, but I know we don't have the cash for the entire project of doing that. But a barn and arena would definitely reduce almost all of our mud troubles.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie
  • Thread Starter
#28  
I say relish the fact you live in the part of the world where your biggest worries are the condition of the pet horses play pens. First world problems.

The horses aren't the biggest worry in my life. Not even top 10.

You're not wrong though, many people in the world have worse problems.

They're not play pens though... they're currently living areas, and I want to make it more comfortable if I can. They're more than pets, my wife was there for the birth of hers 20 years ago.

I might live in a first world country but they don't. They live in the mud. And I hope to do better by them.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie #29  
I understand about the money priority thing and about them being more than pets, BTDT, but the only way you are going to make it better is fewer heads or more ground. There are no easy answers but the bottom line is you are going to have to put the horse to acre ratio more in line. Do you have a neighbors that you could get to lease you some extra ground? Or maybe a horse boarding business where you could rotate them if funds allowed?
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie
  • Thread Starter
#30  
I think that's probably the common solution I'm seeing. Not worry about controlling the mud in the space I'm using, but expanding the space or reducing the number of horses.

Reducing horses isn't an option at the moment unless the in-laws take their horse that we're taking care of for them.

Us paying for board isn't really an option... but the neighbors property may be. She's mentioned to us once that we could let them graze... my only issues with that is it just feels awkward using someone else's property, and the other is, she is never there, but her nephew and his friend lives there, and they just seem a little..... off? I dunno, just get a weird vibe but maybe I should get over it and try.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie #31  
Just going by the 2 pictures, it does appear you have some good slope for drainage. This is just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. It looks like your biggest problem is water coming in to the paddock from the upper side. In the picture with the white outbuilding, it looks like a natural swale running though the paddock. To me, it would make sense to divert the water coming in from the high side around that area. Whether it would be cutting a swale around, or put in a curtain drain, and let both daylight out to an area, they won't be tromping in, making pucks in the mud to trap water.

Cutting a swale would be the least expensive in the short term. You'd just need to make it deep enough to catch the water, yet, grade it so it's easy to mow. Something 12" -18" deep, then slope back from that, making something like a 5:1 slope so you could mow with about anything, get vehicles close to the building etc. Even drop in a culvert to get vehicles to your hay, and feed storage building. Easy to do with a moldboard plow, and box blade, as long as you have a place to waste the dirt.

Putting a curtain drain across/above the paddock. Dig a trench 18" or so deep, put a 4" perforated pipe in, and fill to the top with gravel. If that is pasture above the paddocks where the horses walk, top it off with 3/4" crushed limestone, or gravel, so it will lock together, and not push around when they walk on it. The water shedding off the uphill side, will drop in that drain/French drain, and divert the water around.

Not sure if the blue building is the one where the stalls are, but if it doesn't have gutters on it, putting them on, and diverting the water away would be a big help too. The smaller white building probably isn't that much of a problem. But, you do need to divert as much surface water away, coming in to the area. Every time they step in the mud, it makes a puck to hold water. And usually with the fine silty dirt associated with a lot like that, plus the compaction from the horses, it seems to be good at holding water, and takes forever to dry out.

Being you're in a different region of the country, it's hard to advise what material to use to top dress the paddock. I'm in Ohio, and Limestone is king here for projects like that. Personally, I use Limestone screenings in my paddock. Basically Limestone chips down to dust. And it makes a big difference which quarry I get it from. A couple quarry's with better screens gets most of the dust out. I prefer to get it from the one's where you'll get approx. 25% dust mixed in. Something that will pack, and lock together. That being said, there are 2 different kinds of Limestone, fresh water, and salt water. Fresh water Limestone will break down quick, and and also turn to mud. Salt water Limestone is harder, and will not break down as fast.

I put it down in my paddock approx. 6" -8" deep. Do it after everything dries up. If you put it on top of the mud, it will just pump the mud to the surface, every time the horses take a step in it. You'll actually want to put the screenings down wet, then roll to compact, once graded out. I see you have a 580CK, and that would make a perfect roller. That's the key to getting 25% or so dust in the mix. If put down wet, it will compact to a very hard surface. Between rolling, and the horses walking on it, if graded to shed the water, it will make a very nice hard surface. I originally did mine 10 years ago, and top dressed with 2"-3" more 4-5 years ago. I clean my padock, mainly around the hay feeder 6+ times a year with my Bobcat, and the bucket skims right across the surface, almost like concrete, almost.... I will skim a little off every time, but it holds up well. Just need to clean it down to the surface, and top dress when it dries up. But, they do need to be put down wet, rolled, and let the horses walk on it for 30 days or so, for more compaction.

I'd move your hay feeder to a higher spot, to prevent them from having to walk through mud to get to it. It appears to be setting close to that swale that's feeding water to the area, only making things worse.

I have 2 pastures, one is the sacrificial pasture I turn them out in over the winter, so they are free to roam. But even in Feb./March during the freeze thaw period, I do shut them out of there when it's extremely muddy. I just keep plenty of hay in the feeder during this time. As long as they have plenty to munch on, they seem content.

Again, not sure what materials are available to you, but the screenings I use don't hurt their feet, and are compacted enough, they won't pick it up in their hooves. With all of that mud, I'm 99.9% sure they're not shod, or your farrier would be there pretty often putting shoes back on. Mud will pull a shoe off PDQ. Probably wouldn't hurt to dress their hooves with some hoof oil. Walking in that much mud/water will wash the natural oil out of their hooves, and cause other problems. Lots of products out there that comes with a brush applicator. I always keep a can on hand, but really haven't had to use it, unless we have an extremely wet year. It doesn't take but 5 minutes a week to apply it, once the hooves are cleaned.
 
   / Need Advice with Mud & Horses. Rookie
  • Thread Starter
#32  
Wow, that's a lot of information. I think I even understand it. Lol.

So the two pictures are two different paddocks. The white shed is in the bigger one. Funny enough the horses move the feeder around every day. I usually bring it back up to the high side fence every few days, but when they're pushing it around I'll usually let it go till I can't make the shot when I throw the hay in. Which is about 3 days. My record is about 40 feet. Lol. I could anchor it down, but they actually push it to the less muddy spots anyways.

The blue shed is in what I'd call our temporary paddock. I say temporary but its been set up for 9 months and there's always been at least one horse or pony in it. It's only about... 8,000 sqft I'd guess, made with round pen panels. And obviously that means its muddier than the bigger paddock.

I believe we might have limestone available to us here... but never bought any to be sure. But we have all sorts of gravel readily available. I have maybe 5 quarries within 10 miles of me.

I think all of what you're saying sounds close or exactly correct. It is a natural swale or slope they're in. The low side is actually the dry side. So yes the muddy side is the high side where the water comes in, and also the side they spend most of their time walking around. And also correct, currently they do not have shoes as riding as been minimal with the weather and they'd just get pulled off in the mud, just regular trimmings is all.

I'm not exactly sure I understand what you mean or the process of "cutting a swale" but I could look it up and look into it.

I believe I do understand what you mean about making a curtain drain though. You're suggesting just going across the high side where the water comes in correct? Not down the ends or low side too, just the top. That makes sense, its dry at the bottom, no sense to drain it.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2024 CATERPILLAR 259D3 SKID STEER (A60429)
2024 CATERPILLAR...
1996 John Deere 770 Tractor w/ backhoe
1996 John Deere...
2007 CATERPILLAR 725 OFF ROAD DUMP TRUCK (A60429)
2007 CATERPILLAR...
SD Launch SDLB25 (A53317)
SD Launch SDLB25...
2008 JCB 190 ROBOT SKID STEER (A60429)
2008 JCB 190 ROBOT...
2017 CATERPILLAR 120M2 MOTORGRADER (A52709)
2017 CATERPILLAR...
 
Top