# Paddock & Run-in issues; Straw filler controversy



## countryguy (Jan 8, 2019)

First post.. LONG time forum guy all over w/ this same handle. Hello and thanks for the cool forum! 

Issue: Past 2 years- Misses has put out bale after bale of straw during Winter melt and freeze for footing. It goes all over the Run-in path to Water buckets. Then all around (20yrd x 20 yards) in front of the Run in. 

Freeze all this, add Rain, Snow melt, and Manure.. (which we try to shovel out) - The end result is a 8" to over 1ft" of straw strewn made liquid muck that's simply a mess. 

I'm of the opinion that we should NOT be putting down straw as it's just making a worse issue. 
Wondered what you might do for horse footing when it freezes and thaw's and re-freezes. 

I took the entire layer off... made a 10-12 yard pile, and then spread the rest over the paddock. ...and I got in trouble. It's now pretty low in that space.. But (in a gold rush theme) " I got down to pay'. it's firm and they only sink a inch or two... vs- the 1ft of muck.... I noted it had to come out. It's not going to firm up anytime soon. it's useless muck. Hence I thought I would seek out a forum to ask.. What the heck to pro's and others do for horse footing when it ruts, freezes, and it's so hard for them to move around. 

In the past I have: 
Taken out the Harro, 
Taken out the Box Blade 
Taken out the Tractor w/ Tiller on the rear. 
... She is a great horse owner and we try to keep them as happy as we can. But just plopping a few bales of Straw is making me crazy....


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I'm probably not really understanding what's happening but straw isn't cheap and if its now working/becoming a negative then seems like a waste of time and money to do it
Can you lay some outdoor rubber mates around the immediate area of the run in and scrape any snow off ASAP?
We have a track that runs the length of three small paddocks and leads to the bottom paddock that the horses have to go up and down to get into the barn every day and it does get rutted if we have a wet spell (rain or thawed snow) followed by freezing temperatures but the horses just have to deal with it and pick their way carefully
I think if my DH had his way they wouldn't go out at all in muddy weather - the farmer mentality in him kicks in, he can't stand to see paddocks churned up and next years grass being destroyed!


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

Welcome to the forum!

I have a pile of mud and muck in my paddocks. It's so bad that I keep getting my boots sucked off and the horses are standing under the paddocks and pooping but it's so muddy that I can't get the tractor in to clean it. I did break down and bring the tractor in to clean the mess but now I have a mountain of sloppy poo in the corner of the paddock.

I have been putting down flakey pine shavings from tractor supply in my walking path and that has worked out well for footing. I'm only doing along the gates and the fenceline to the paddocks though.


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## countryguy (Jan 8, 2019)

I like the Rubber mat idea! we have them everywhere else... may as well make a runway we can just scrape. Could even epoxy down sand for traction.... Hmmmm Yeah...


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

We get by with cornstalk bales. They make a nice area in the paddock for the horses to lie down where it's dry (even in wet weather, the stalks stay fluffy and dry fast) and a thick layer will stay on top of mud most of the time. Plus, it's cheap. People give them away here for the cost of hauling. The horses have been in their run-in a lot more than most winters because it's been wet rather than cold. We gave up keeping it scooped out as the mud's so deep the tractor would bog down, shoved a round bale in, and the horses have been pulling it down to lie on. They nibble it periodically but that's about it. Once a week or so we go spread it out so the walls are banked and most of the frozen manure is covered. When that bale is gone, we'll add another. It will take some work in the spring to break it up and we'll have to use the tractor to get it scooped out, but having a dry, comfortable area for the horses out of the rain and mud is important. Our temps have been fluctuating between -20F or colder, and 50 degrees. That's not good for animals, so if they want to stand inside, they get to stand inside.

I got some used stall mats off of Craigslist cheaply this summer, and have them down by the gates to help with the quaqmire there.


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## dogpatch (Dec 26, 2017)

A long time ago in a sheep raising book, the author talked about putting down a lot of ag lime and running over it with a tractor until it firmed up. The advice was deleted from later editions, but i,ve always wondered how it would work. Here in rain country we lay down geotextile and cover with crushed rock. Needs to be redone every few years. Organic matter is famous for producing a reeking quagmire here.


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## countryguy (Jan 8, 2019)

Everyone THANK YOU! Some great ideas. I even had a movie and pics to post.. but as fellow Horsemen/woman it seems you get me.  
at the end of the day, my fear is the below grade space I've made. I'm now another 8 inches to a foot lower than I was in this trail and key space. Plus (like Farmpony's post) I have the slop pile I may get to spread back out come summer in a corner! But it so full of straw it will just turn to slop again when wet. It's the chickens sledding hill for now I guess. 

(...and yes, you-know-who has another 3 bales all spread out in the space I just cleaned). . Grrrrrr But it is what it is. 

I was a'thinkn - I wonder if I could put down some Crushed concrete 23A, then top coat w/ crushed 22, then 2" of the diamond-dust (crushed limestone which is $$ and hardens like concrete) I mean if I could put in Drain pipe under 20 yards of stone, and then say 5-8 yards of the Diamond dust to get it back to grade it'll be firm and over-grade some. Should hold up year after year. I'm just DONE w/ paddock maintenance from run in to water and main path space. 

We did the Diamond dust in the run int then put rubber mats over that. IT's been really well held, but again is dry year round.... 
Hmmmmmm Hmmmmm. I guess we'll see what I can talk you-know-who into....


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

I use the crushed limestone that you're calling diamond dust to build up the horse stalls and aisle - ways in the barns. We're also going to spread a bunch of it when it dries out to make a good solid path between the barns, barns to arena, barns to pasture gates and to firm up the area around the pasture gates. When we get a full month's rain in just a day, it all turns to slop around here, and this year we're not getting the opportunity to dry out in between wettings. 

I would cheerfully KILL anybody who threw down straw or old hay in the muck, that all has to be dug out eventually and it's back breaking labor.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

It will look tacky and involve a little labor to pull it up in the spring, but a friend just posted on FB that she scored some used carpet found by the side of the road on trash day, put it down ahead of her sheds and by the gates and made a 'runner' from her barn to the manure pile, and it's working great. When the ground dries up, she'll pull it up and dispose of it, but apparently it's made her life a lot easier in the mudpit everyone has. 

One year we had a snow drift that melted directly into the barn aisle then the temperature dropped to -10 and stayed there. The whole aisle was a sheet of ice about 2 inches thick. I didn't dare even get the horses out of their stalls, as walking on it was treacherous even to feed and muck out. In desperation, my mom dragged out the old roll of carpet she'd had in the basement, we cut it into 4-foot-wide strips, and put it on top of the ice. It provided great footing for the rest of the winter, even if it got soggy and refroze. It was a messy job to pull it up in May but only took an hour or so to get it dragged out of the barn, we let it dry in the sunshine a couple of days, then rolled it up and took it to the dump.

A bit red-necky but hey, it worked and no horses fell.


Crushed limestone/road bed/diamond dust doesn't work well here even when it's compacted and put over fabric. The ground heaves when the frost comes out of it in the spring, and there's such thick topsoil that it won't hold more than a year. You either have to keep dumping more on yearly, concrete the worst of the areas, or deal with the mud.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

I live in a cold climate where snow and ice are a fact of life. I avoid like the plague putting anything down that will soak up more water, and be a nightmare to shovel out in the spring. 

Because we are usually well below freezing most of the winter, with several feet of snow down by the end of it, we can usually make do just clearing most of the snow with a blower (my husband has an attachment for the farm tractor, so it's doable for us), or breaking up icy crusts with my pasture drag. 

If things get really slippery, my preference is to use sand for traction. But be careful you don't get sand that has chemicals in it, or salt, just in case they end up ingesting it. I usually get a couple of bins filled with sand in the fall so I can shovel it out into the paddock as needed. 

I do think you'll want to consider adding something to improve the footing once spring rolls around. I see a lot of people shovelling bedding, even manure out into their paddock for footing, but after a winter or two, that gets old. When spring comes, you have to spend hours shoveling web, absorbent material out of there, and it only makes the mud worse. You want something that will improve drainage, not hold in the moisture. Ideally, a layer of larger pebbles, then something finer on top is good. We just went with a few loads of sand which we spread around with a box blade. It works for us, and was quite cheap.


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## countryguy (Jan 8, 2019)

so where's 'middle of nowwhere' ;-) yeah, sounds like you get our same weather more-or-less. OK. I was considering calling Mich-State equine & Ag school or maybe our ferrier to see what's worked well. Carpet would be good. Always on craigs list.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

Northwest Iowa. Similar climate to yours.


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## showme1946 (Nov 21, 2016)

We have had good luck with what the quarry here calls lime waste - it's basically what's left over when they crush up limestone into the various sizes they sell. It compacts well. The last batch I did I spread over landscape cloth, and so far that is working well. I wish I could afford to put it over the entire dry lot, and I may just bite the bullet this spring and do that. 



I'm in central Missouri, the soil is pure clay. It gets wet, it's deep mud that doesn't dry out through draining but only through evaporation. We're having a wet winter, so when it's above freezing the whole place is a quagmire - except for graveled roads and the areas where I've spread lime waste.


Winter is wearing me out!


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