Where are you located? Different regions, have
different soils / dirt available to put down in corrals. In So. CA we used DG,
or decomposed granite. Some folks mixed it with some sang, for better drainage.
We never did. It dries pretty quick after the rains. Is the property flat, or
have a slope? We placed rail road ties down in a huge rectangle, and then filled
it in with DG, and did a slight slope on the corrals towards the rear, for the
drainage to run off. Also, the rain that fell in the rest of the yard, did not
run into the corrals. This was a lot of work, but we did it ourselves. We put up
a mare motel. 4 - 12x14 corrals, with a cover over a center aisle, and covering
1/2 of each corral. We put gutters on the roofs, which cut down on the amount of
run off into the corrals. Also, we got better grade corrals than we thought we
needed, after I had horses bending cheaper, 3 rail corrals that I "thought" were
strong enough. Under the shelters, we placed the big rubber mats (4x6,
usually made in Canada) As I said, there are some regional
differences as to what folks do. See if you can go visit a few barns / corrals
in your area, and ask them about the dirt they may have added to the corrals,
drainage issues etc.
