Hooves or Pasture?

[mayhew]

Which do you save when you know you can't save both? I have two horses and a donkey on about a five acre pasture--2.5 of which is our own, and 2.5 of which is a neighbour's who lets us graze our horses on it. I've already closed off the neighbour's pasture (it's fine to trash your own pasture, but you really shouldn't do it to someone else's!) I know that to save the pasture that they're still on, I really need to close them into the sacrifice paddock, but that is quite muddy in spots. I've been struggling with a mare with a really big abscess in her hoof (big enough that her heel and frog just FELL OFF yesterday), and I'm afraid that the mud is just going to make it worse. I've been throwing the horses some hay in the hopes that they'll eat that rather than the pasture, but they aren't interested in it at this point, because they would rather eat what little pasture is left. Hoof, or pasture? What would you do?

[MistyBlue]

Yeesh, fun decisions. First...good on you for not trashing your borrowed acreage.
But I;d also worry about trashing your own grazing area too. If it gets ground up enough or eaten down to far you won't have grass in there either and then have to rely fully on the neighbor's 2.5 acres.
can you rehab your sacrifice paddock to reduce the mud? Many times people will have a sacrifice paddock to not only save their grass but to have an area that's mud free. A quick semi-fix while it's still wet and muddy is to get in there with a tractor and blade and scrape off your topsoil. Sub-soil doesn't get thick mud, it doesn't absorb much. My main dirt paddock is big but we had the topsoil all removed and then had the entire thing graded to a very slight slant...only about 5-7 degrees difference from end to end and it's 200 feet long. Now even if it rains buckets for weeks the water sheets off the top of it and can't soak in so the mud in there never gets any deeper than maybe 1.5-2" tops with solid surface underneath. No sucking hoof holes. The mud never gets deeper than 1/4 way up the horse hoof.
Also look into cowcarpet or gravel/processed stone to eventually de-mud that sacrifice area. Or at least part of it, and then fence it off so you can keep them in the mud free zone and off the grass when the ground's been really wet.
Can you put up some temporary fence across part of the grass paddock now so the horses can get off the mud but not trash the entire grass area? Do you have some t-posts and tape you can string up quick? Or anywhere nearby you can pick up temp fencing cheap to close off a portion of the grass they can go on and save the rest? Or do you have a round pen? I bought one a couple years ago just to have the moveable fence panels...I never use it as a round pen but to fence off areas easily if I need to. You can use round pen panels to fence off a portion of the grass.

[webmistress32]

don't let them guilt you.

you have the bigger brain and you have to think for them, sometimes.

it's best to keep them in the lot this time of year. :-)

[mayhew]

Those are some great ideas--thanks!

[spaghetti legs]

Can u put your mare in a small made pen with a load of bluestone?

[webmistress32]

I'm sorry I didn't notice that your mare with the hoof issue can't be on mud.

I just had limestone delivered. three yards for $180 that seems a very good deal.

maybe that will help your mud.

[mayhew]

It does seem a good deal. And there's a disused gravel pit just across the road from us....

[BramblewoodAcres]

Webmistress,
How much does three yards of limestone cover and how deep is that coverage? Is is three yards square coverage? We are researching different materials for our dry lot and I would like to consider the limestone in the figures, too.

[downthecenterlinetheycome]

Could you keep your mare in pasture while her abcess clears up and the rest in the sacrifice paddock? If they could still see eachother?

[goodhors]

Some previous threads on this used wood edging, made a contained area like a raised garden bed, filled that with limestone. Their horses would stand on the raised area, stay dry up out of the mud in the sacrifice area. Raised bed was larger areas, room for several horses to stand on, like 24'x36' along one side of the barn.

You might best talk to the gravel and stone folks, because figuring quantities to fill with is hard. You need depth, as well as length and width. You want to over fill a contained area because stone will compact down with use. Much cheaper to buy a FULL truck load, pay once for hauling it. Cost of several deliveries of little loads gets very expensive. Have them dump load out of the way, use what you need to fill now. Extra is there to use anytime later, when you need it. You may actually need ALL THE LOAD to fill and make a good dry spot. Saved money not having to call for more, with extra trucking fees. Few folks ever have TOO much stone, you can always use it. We rent machines to move the loads, fill in the raised areas or gateways. Rent is low for time and effort saved sweating partial wheelbarrows full across the muddy paddock. You can move a very large stone pile in only a hour or two with a bucket on the skidsteer. Skidsteer bucket will help flatten stone, smooth out mud in paddock too. Very easy to drive, rental guy gives quicky lessons. Save your body for other jobs, not designed to move rocks by the ton.

You renting a compactor to run over fill on contained area, will greatly improve the surface, make the fill stay put with horses walking on it. Compacted fill stays up even with edging on contained areas.

You do need to keep manure picked up, don't feed on stone, so rocks maintain the larger areas between for drainage. Manure and old hay turns into compost, trickles down to fill all the openings between stones.

We now use geotextile fabric, to lay on the dirt before putting the stone down. Our dirt just eats rocks and gravel. Without the fabric all the additional stone just gets mixed into the mud and disappears. We are talking GRAVEL TRAINS worth of fill over the years. With use of the fabric, the added fill stays right where you put it, no more boot-sucking muck build up in the gate ways. Fabric is usually available at landscape places. Overlap well, if using more than one piece, so it doesn't move.

[mayhew]

Could you keep your mare in pasture while her abcess clears up and the rest in the sacrifice paddock? If they could still see eachother?


You know, I could! Wow. I feel really stupid for not having thought of that. Thanks. :yes:

She won't be doing much damage anyway, because she'll hang around the sacrifice area/barn, which is already pretty much finished, in terms of pasture. Our run-in is split between being open to the pasture, and open to the sacrifice paddock, so she'll have shelter... She'll be a little anxious at first if they go around a corner and she can't see them, but donkey loves her and will come to see her whenever she calls. The mind boggles at one's own lack of reason!

[mayhew]

Thanks everyone, too, for all of the mud management tips!

[Cloverbug]

Sacrifice lots should be stablized and you can it using all kinds of different material. Key is you want a good drainage base and a nice walking surface for the horses. Other important thing is to cut off all up slope water that is entering the paddock. Example if your sacrifice area is directly outside the barn and you do not have gutters and downspouts on the barn you need to get them. Along with some way to direct the water away from the area either by an underground outlet or via a pipe on the ground. Water + soil + manure = MUD. These numbers are for Pennsylvania but on a 36' x 48' roof in a 1" rain storm you are putting over 5,000 gallons of water into this area without a roof runoff management system.

Sacrifice areas can range in size from a double box stall outside a barn to something a little largers. Usually 1,000 sqft is recommend for 1,000 lbs of animal. A 20' x 50' area for 1-1,000 lbs horse.

Options for footing - Hogfuel (course, large wood chips) avaliable in some areas of the county, not avaliable in other areas. Rule of thumb apply 2 x as deep as the mud. 3" of mud you want 6" of chips. Requires maintance because the wood is organic and it will break down over time.

Combination of footing - using 3/8" - 5/8" crushed gravel apply 2:1 ratio with mud. 6-8" deep works best. You can also use sand but do not feed off it and you should supplement your horses with a sand colic treatment on a regular basis to prevent any problem.

Top of the line - excavate the topsoil off and get down to a soil base. Start with a large rock - 3" of a 1/4" - 1 1/2" in size. Then come in with 3-6" of a walking surface such as a lime stone screenings. Start light you can always add more later! If you can't get down to a solid base you can use a geotextile fabric to seperate the organic layer from the footing you put down. But make sure your ends are stapled down and there is enough cover to prevent the horses from digging the fabric up.

Another method that works well if you live in the right area is shale/slate. It packs nicely but still drains the water.

No matter what you do make sure you clean up the manure and wasted hay on a regular basis. These things contribute to mud and muck.

You want a slight slope on the area either to one side or crown the area that the middle is higher and sheds water. Make sure the area around the sacrifice lot is in good vegetation because it will filter out any sediment and nutrients that may leave the sacrifice area.

1 cu/yd = 27 cu/ft - 10 feet x 50 ft x 3" deep (0.25') = 125 cu/ft / 27cu/ft = 4.6 cu/yds to cover an area 10 feet x 50 feet at 3" deep. Fill in your numbers.