Re: corral surfacing?

["BE" <betndez@budget.net>]

With your proposed plan, I'm not sure how long the sand will last before all
sifting down into the 3/4" gravel.

This is the second winter for my *remodeled* paddocks.  I had all the
decomposed granite dug out, corrugated plastic drains were strategically
placed, then about 6 inches of 1-3/4" ballast rock, then landscape fabric,
then finally the 4-6" of arena sand, which is half reject sand and half 4x8
mm mixed.


OK, the GOOD news is that there is no mud now at my barn, and each horse has
his own private sandbox to roll and sleep in and they absolutely love it.
Their feet and pasterns stay clean and dry and there's no caked mud and
manure to scrape off.  My pasture is much too boggy to let them out on it
during the winter so they must be confined to paddocks (25 x 65) running off
the stalls.

The BAD news is that in order to preserve the integrity of the drainage of
this investment all manure needs to be picked up twice a day.  And they
track it into the stalls when it's wet--just can't get them trained to wipe
their feet <bg> The other bad news is that sand creates incredible amounts
of dust in the summer and requires some watering down.  My set up is such
that they come in off the pasture thru the sand paddocks to get to shade and
water in their stalls.  Also, they're put into the individual paddock/stall
at night for feeding in the summer.  It should be obvious that you cannot
feed on the sand--you need to have feeders in stalls so they won't be
ingesting sand.

Betty E.
So. Oregon
-----Original Message-----
From: Michelle Rowe <michrowe@frontier.net>


>Help!  We have sticky clay, and it's gotten incredibly slick and muddy in
>the horse corrals.  I'm considering surfacing our corrals with 6" of
>roadbase gravel (3/4") and then 6" of sand on top of that - around $2k to
>surface 36' x 75'.