# Best substrate for horse yards



## OoLaurenoO (Sep 23, 2014)

Hey guys I'm after some tried and tested methods for keeping horse yards dry in the wet weather. I have some beautiful stables with small yards attached. At the moment they are lovely and dry but with large amounts of rain they turn into muddy nightmares. Every day when I pick up the poo I've been taking a bit of dirt as well to try and slowly dig them out in preparation for adding something else to fill them in a bit. I'm just not sure what exactly to add. They are relatively small yards so having grass isn't really an option as it's pretty much demolished after having them in there for one night. They only get used for night time yarding, (mostly for the youngsters to get the benifit of daily handling and leading, or the Jenny Craig lock up for the fat ponies), injured horses or handling the kids really as I have large paddocks which the horses live in most of the time. The obvious choice would be gravel.. Good drainage and will pack down relatively hard however I'm worried that will be uncomfortable for them to stand on or lie down on. I was thinking sand but I'm worried that will just turn to slop and mix in with the mud when it rains.. So at this point I'm thinking a load of gravel in the bottom with a finer gravel/sand on top but I'm really after some advice on what you guys have used and found works well. I can dig them out and replace with new stuff but can't build them up to much above the current ground level as the stables aren't that high up and I'm worried it will backfill into them if I have it up much higher. 
Any advice would be great!


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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

I'd probably start by digging down about a foot to maybe 6 inches (30.48 to 15.24 cm) and look into sloping the land just a tiny bit maybe 1% and installing french drains at the end of the yards. Then fill it in with something like Hoofgrid and add some gravel over that then sand to fill it in completely.


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

Yes, you need to remove the topsoil then add traffic crushed bond or crushed stone. A sand pile would make a nice bed & rolling spot.


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## Kay Armstrong (Jun 28, 2015)

There are several manufacturers of a product that is meant to manage the mud and muck for small spaces...
Hoof Grid...and more...here's a pic.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=horse+footing+for+paddocks&id=16D07657D4EEBCF34F44FB4FDF678E9B23DEDDBC&FORM=IQFRBA


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## OoLaurenoO (Sep 23, 2014)

Thanks for the great advice.  I'm a vet nurse so working off a bit of a budget but in saying that I don't want to waste my money on something that's no good either. I've got a guy with a bobcat and excavator here at the moment doing some other work and he's actually going to dig the yards out for me which is fantastic! Will save me hours and hours digging it out by hand. There's a quarry down the road from me that sells crusher dust for $18 a ton. It's effectively very very fine gravel, (it's usually used for road base to set the road before they put in the tar/gravel on top). I was thinking it might make a good substrate. It will pack down hard, but no harder then the clay does out in the paddocks. I can take the ute out there and they will load it for me so would only have to shovel it out into the yards at my end. I'd estimate 12 loads would do all four yards and I could fill them over a few pay checks so wouldn't have to pay a lump sum. I think I'll get some and see how I like it. In some of the paddock shelters I've been filling them with gravel with plans of putting the crusher dust on top. The staff at the quarry say that's what a lot of the local people use to build them up out of the mud so I'm hoping it will be perfect.


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## OoLaurenoO (Sep 23, 2014)

Forgot to add - love the idea of the French drains. I might get the excavator guy to dig out a trench and run one long one down the walk way at the end of the yards all the way out. It's the lowest point of all the yards and would help them drain a lot I think.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Do talk with that quarry about the material you are interested in.
_By me, road base turns solid and does not drain water through it but off the top_... 
Road base is meant to stabilize the ground...
Ask your quarry if they have different sizes available and maybe mixing that would stop the "packing" and solidifying that can occur...:shrug:
3" sizes is what is commonly used by me for a road base material I was told....for a point of reference.

If you use french drains remember you need to put a material barrier of some sort so you don't have seepage of sand and dirt filling the drain....it doesn't work if it gets clogged.
:runninghorse2:....
_jmo..._


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## H0RSEL0VER (Apr 6, 2016)

I like how you have the board at the bottom of your fence. A barn I used to board at had the same setup and used sand with a little pea gravel added to the top. I'm about to do the same thing! I don't know where you live, but a load of sand in my area is reasonably priced, and I figure a few added bags of pea gravel will help. Not to mention, I've heard pea gravel is good for circulation in the hoof.


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## OoLaurenoO (Sep 23, 2014)

I was thinking about laying the French drain at the bottom of a trench and then filling it with gravel. Would that be enough? Otherwise I'll source some kind of material to go on top then fill with gravel and the smaller stuff on top. The trouble with my property is its relatively flat, and lots of clay. So when it's dry there's large cracks in the ground but when it's wet-it's very very wet. I thought something that packs down hard will be wet but at least not muddy. But I could definitely put gravel down underneath whatever I end up putting on top.. I might ask the excavator guy on Monday what he would recommend.. I'm not sure how experienced he is with horses though in regards to what would be best for their feet.


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