I poured 12 x 12 concrete pads using 2x4's as forms. It's heavily brushed to give the critters good traction. Plenty of room to park a bunk feeder that I can fill by tossing bales from the mow above. I used 2 golf cart roofs as a sun shield. Couple of other comments:
The brushed concrete will wear down their hooves in a very good way for depth, shape and flatness. You will have 1/2 the number of farrier visits.
Gravel will wind up in their hooves and contribute to "stone bruises". Small pea sized stones can travel up their leg by perforating the hoof and exiting up their foreleg. Its VERY painful and expensive to fix since it almost always causes an infection. ('No Hoof, No Horse'). You would need to check and clean their feet daily.
'They' tend to congregate on the pads, too, so make them big enough for the less dominant animals to run around without stomping into the mud bog nearby.
The pads make a good place to wash the critters, too. Have then sloped to run water down and away from the barn and into a trough put around the edges made from 1/2 of a plastic drain pipe.
Good place to wash a tractor, too !
The brushed concrete will wear down their hooves in a very good way for depth, shape and flatness. You will have 1/2 the number of farrier visits.
Gravel will wind up in their hooves and contribute to "stone bruises". Small pea sized stones can travel up their leg by perforating the hoof and exiting up their foreleg. Its VERY painful and expensive to fix since it almost always causes an infection. ('No Hoof, No Horse'). You would need to check and clean their feet daily.
'They' tend to congregate on the pads, too, so make them big enough for the less dominant animals to run around without stomping into the mud bog nearby.
The pads make a good place to wash the critters, too. Have then sloped to run water down and away from the barn and into a trough put around the edges made from 1/2 of a plastic drain pipe.
Good place to wash a tractor, too !