# One word: Mud.



## SammyAnn (Feb 15, 2012)

Every winter I dread the coming rain because once it's here my barn turns into a swamp. The whole area around it turns into ankle deep mud and everything and everyone slips and slides through it. Someone told me that regular grass hay is really good for getting rid of mud so, I spread hay all around my barn and guess what! It doesn't work, and I waste three bales of perfectly fine hay. I'm sick of sliping and want to get rid of the mud! Please if anyone knows how to get rid of it I would be extremely grateful! Thanks.


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## sierrams1123 (Jul 8, 2011)

SAND! It has worked wonders for me.


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## busysmurf (Feb 16, 2012)

I've been trying to solve that problem for 15 years! Good luck, LOL
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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

We have the same problem; Ohio is notorious for mud. We're currently getting quotes from a few different contractors to see what the cost would be to put down g10 limestone in the sacrifice pasture.


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## yadlim (Feb 2, 2012)

I learned the hard way, nothing that biodegrades!! No straw, no wood chips (unless they are four or five feet deep), no sawdust. Sand or gravel is the only way to go - and lots and lots of it!!

The stable we board at puts down four inches of course gravel in all the walkways every winter - makes it very nice.


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## busysmurf (Feb 16, 2012)

My mud pit is at the top of a small hill. And lucky me it's hard compact clay:O so everything we put on it runs down, Grrrrrr. But the bottom of the hill is nice & solid, haha
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## CLaPorte432 (Jan 3, 2012)

We are dealing with this same thing. I hate spring just because of the mud.

This summer, we are digging down about 2 feet, laying down rocks, probably pee gravel, and then sand over the top. It's going to be a lot of work, but we have dirt ontop of clay. Water doesn't soak into clay incase any of you didn't know that! Grrr!


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## sierrams1123 (Jul 8, 2011)

Trust me, we deal with good ole Georgia Red Clay down in these parts so I feel ya.....the only thing that has worked is sand....and most of the time we have to do what CLaPorte says they will be doing.


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

I saw a place that uses tons of wood chips. Seems to work well.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

yadlim said:


> I learned the hard way, nothing that biodegrades!! No straw, no wood chips (unless they are four or five feet deep), no sawdust. Sand or gravel is the only way to go - and lots and lots of it!!


Yes. Anything organic will just make it worse in the long run. Sand and gravel work, but you will be doing it forever as it eventually disappears into the mud quagmire. The only real long term solution is to scape it all out and replace it with a good base that drains well....or do what we do and accept the fact that owning horses means that you always have mud, too.


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## Maple (Jan 10, 2012)

We have mud all winter long.. the paddock we have for simba is now complete slop so we're moving him to where Bandit lives today. I heard a bunch of girls complain at the last yard I was at that their horses were coming in with muddy legs... that's what a hose is for ladies! mud is a pain, but that's part and parcel with the horses unfortanetly


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## GhostwindAppaloosa (Jun 3, 2011)

We are in Ohio also. I swear it has rained like washington state here this year. we just had a downpour YESTERDAY! You need drainage. If you are on dead flat ground you probably wont have any options but you need to make sure your building is guttered properly and it is draining to the best place for not puddling up. pipe it away if you have to! youd be amazed at how much gutters can change the area around your building.


We have a pond in two pastures that havent drained all year bc everytime they get close it pours and we are solid mud everywhere. We will hopefully have in a sacrifice turnout this fall that will double as an outdoor. They are hella expensive to put in


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

Ghostwind, Ohio actually just broke our own record for most rainfail since they started recording weather in the 1800s. I think we'd be better off on the sodden Olympic Peninsula right now!


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## CLaPorte432 (Jan 3, 2012)

We got 6-9 inches of snow the past 2 days. (southwest michigan) so Ohio must have got the rain from our snowstorm.
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## yadlim (Feb 2, 2012)

GhostwindAppaloosa said:


> We are in Ohio also. I swear it has rained like washington state here this year.


Hey from over here in WA state :lol: - our next door neighbor's horse field is currently under two FEET of standing water! My goats won't get off thier built up wood shelf because the rest fo the pen in under water. It is raining againg today...

I am also going to go out to the horse stable within the next hour. Why is the horse at a stable? Because I couldn't handle all the mud that one horse made on my little half acre. Where he is at now, he has a dry stall to go into at night. During the day he is turned out into a paddock that only have about six to eight inches of muck. As of last weekend there was still an area in his paddock big enough for him to lay down and by dry, but with all the water coming down the last few days, I doubt it is there any longer. 

The new filly - well, she gets stupid and will pace the edges of her paddock so she has two foot trenches full of water she is galloping back and forth through... she may be herd bound, but at least she is getting her exercise!!!

Thank goodness for indoor arenas!! otherwise we soggy western washingtonions would never get to ride!:lol:


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## SammyAnn (Feb 15, 2012)

Trust me I'd love to do what CLaPorte is doing but sadly can't afford it right now. I will try the sand though thanks!


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## caseymyhorserocks (Apr 5, 2010)

About how many inches of mud do you get on average? In summer when it is all dried out, add once inch of gravel for every inch of mud you have had, a 1:1 ratio.


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## Sis (Mar 14, 2012)

I've been to a few barns where they use wood chips. That seems to work well enough, but you need to get a lot, and then keep getting more loads as the wood chips biodegrade. We use stone dust, which is really cheap where we live (about $1 a ton!) but the delivery fee is a lot more than that, unless you can pick it up yourself... stone dust is like ground-up gravel (I think thats what it is) and when you pack it down it gets pretty hard and solid. It doesn't wash away too easily, and its also great to make driveways and roads for tractors, etc. It's pretty commonly used around where I live.


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## SmallTownGypsy (Dec 17, 2011)

We need a sacrifice area so badly, but unfortunately we lease the land and are to leave it the way we found it or better. Killing a chunk of the field for the sake of the rest is not an option.  However, one of the horses is going into training for three months. The other will be confined to a quarter of the field, stalled over night, and hand grazed on some well-grown lawn area.


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