Well, it’s not currently “mud season,” but we appear to have made some serious headway on the mud situation. We’ll know for sure when winter comes – when it’s never warm enough outside to dry out the mud – but for now I’m cautiously optimistic. The entryway to our barn, formerly a quagmire of hoof-sucking, boot-stealing, horseshoe-swallowing mud, is a nice flat expanse of plain old dirt. The winner in this fight: SAND.
Originally, we tried two different techniques, straw and sand. We used straw exclusively in one section, sand in the other. When it became apparent that sand was having the most effect, we expanded the area in which were were using sand. Now, the best way to have done this would have been to buy a dump-truck load of sand and shovel it over the whole area; but since we didn’t know for sure it was going to work, we just periodically bought 50-pound bags of sand and put them in the worst areas. Over time, the whole barn-entry area was treated, and it is so much better. We’ll keep adding to it as winter approaches; in fact, we will probably go ahead and get that dump-truck load now that we know how effective it is, and probably expand the treatment area to include where their water trough is.
One cool thing we did, that combined mud abatement and our unabashed sentimentality: last time I went to visit my family in Arizona, I drove back here with my dad and The Kid. We stopped in the desert on our way out and filled two buckets with Arizona sand. When we got home, we spread it over the remaining muddy spot by the barn. Now our pasture has a little piece of Arizona, AND it’s helping with the mud. Yay, sand!
The entire mud abatement series:
Mud Abatement, Part 1
Mud Abatement, Part 2 (this post)
Mud Abatement, Part 3
Mikki’s right, sand seems to be the key for us here with our clay soil. I’m also going to put gutters on the barn for a rainwater collection system I’m designing (we’ll use the rainwater from the barn roof to wet down the compost pile and for our garden). That might help some. And since sand is kind of expensive here in Tennessee, someone told us to look into manufactured sand as an alternative. I’m still doing research on that.
Greetings!
Didn’t you try kitty litter once to? We have our 1st 3 horses and sheep and 3 donkeys to protect the sheep. And it’s mud/fly battles 24/7. Did the kitty litter work? I thought long ago I read an article you wrote about it.
Is sand the way to go? I so appreciate you finding an answer! I loved the article on flys! I hate them! Horse flys are the WORST!
I’m going to try everything that you mentioned….
Right now the paddock is a mud mire does winter make things worse? (say it’s not true!) If so, it’s September now maybe we should have sand delivered in the first part of October…??
Thanks for all your tips! We love your blog!
Sincerely,
Jule and Family
Rose Hill Farm
Rhineland, MO
Hi Jule,
Sand is definitely the way to go. We had a dump truck load of sand delivered in late spring, spread it out over the barn entry, and sat back and watched even our experienced horse friends marvel! It’s wonderful. As I write this, it is POURING rain out, and most of our pasture is mud…but the barn entry is smooth and un-sticky!
And yes, it gets MUCH worse in the winter. The summer sun dries out the mud between storms, but in the winter it’s pretty much wet all the time. We’re curious to see how our “miracle cure” will work once it’s not warm anymore.
Good luck, and thanks for reading!
I am totally amazed (not really), —–not one of you mentioned drainage, or surface water control, grading away from barn or area you are concerned with-
myself, I use large wood chips in a carefully graded paddock area, water seeps thru below chips, comfortable on top for horses,
here in the great North West, in the wet/dry conditions/ it itself is very hard on horses hooves , yet my horse shoer compliments me on the condition of (my horses) hooves, ” I can re-set your horses shoes if you would let me” he says-
I am at the present doing a 40 ft x 40 ft paddock at a horse farm, I ran a 6 inch smooth wall, heavy duty, drainpipe thru it, transfering water from up above, and on thru, if you think 6 inches is too much, I have repaired too many 4 incher’s-
am going to lay a heavy duty geo-textile on next, 2 inch rock topped with 5/8 minus, after compaction, 6 inches of heavy wood chips-
WITH instructions to the owner—-maintain maintain maintain–
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