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Hey Bob, the answer is a FRENCH DRAIN!!  I live in SouthWet Washington (misspelling intended!) and have put up with mud for the past 10 years!!  Yuk, yuk and more yuk!!! I've never been able to use a wheelbarrow in winter.  I've had to fill muck buckets and drag them away from the barn to dump.  A real pain in the @$$.  Boots getting sucked off, I can't pull my feet out of the 14" of mud, etc.  My husband put in a french drain in front of my stalls, just about where the gutter line of the roof/overhang is.  It's a bit of overkill but here's how we did it. Backhoe dug a 3+ foot trench, 18" wide the length of the barn, lined with road fabric, perforated 4 inch drain in the bottom, fill to the top with drain rock, fold the fabric over the trench, then I put laid road fabric over the whole thing, (16' x 60') bring in 1 1/4" rock over the whole area in front of stalls, this is apprx. 16' out from the stall doors and runs the length of the barn (60') the drain pipe is attached to a 4" pvc pipe that is trenched out a natural pond area in my pasture, keeping a slight downhill to the pond. I've put apprx. 2" - 3" of sand over the top of the 1 1/4" rock.  I can now use a wheelbarrow, there is NO MUD!!!!!! Soon the gutter will attach and send the gutter water out there too.  The horses feet are not rotting!  It's easy to pick, the only thing I have to be careful of is tracking sand in and getting it in the food area and having them eat it.  I have rubber mats and I just keep their food corner swept.  The sand is like an emory board and their feet look awesome!   I also don't feed out on the sand AT ALL!  This cost apprx.  $2000 but seems to be a permanant solution to an awful problem.  It was worth every penny.  My brother in law did the backhoe work, but we still paid him top dollar as he was working on his weekend off and provided the backhoe and fuel.  I did change my runs around a bit, so that the horses are not going from dirt to the sand/fabric area and tearing up the edge areas, they now have 16' x 20' runs, they just are sideways kind of.  (Hard to explain, but are working fine!)  You could make the initial drain trench not be so deep or wide, but I'm glad mine is that way, on the horse side of the barn anyway.  The other side we haven't done yet, it will have a shorter/narrower trench, fabric and rock, no sand, as the horses won't be on it, it will be an access route for the shavings truck and hay delivery.  We'll dig it with a ditch-witch probably and it won't take so much drain rock.

 

heidi

 

RHightshoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Rain and more rain. I started building an Ark but stopped because I would
> only be able to take two horses. I won't let my horses out on pasture when
> the ground is soggy because they would ruin what grass is available. I
> keep them in corals and everything works out well except the more it rains
> the deeper the mud gets. It looks like they are all standing in about a
> foot of muck and water and it will seemingly take forever to dry out even
> if the rain stops. I'll probably be doctoring for Thrush before it is all
> over. I'd be interested in learning how others deal with muddy corals.
> Logically, I would think mixing truck loads of gravel in with the soil
> might help but I have no idea if the gravel would do more harm then good.
> If you have had a similar problem and were able to fix it, I would
> appreciate the benefit of your experience. Thanks,
>  Bob
>
>
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Heidi-aerc#M20935  /\_/\~    http://www.synjinarts.com
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