A simple investment of making sure your gutters and downspouts are in good working order will greatly benefit you, your horses and the environment over the coming winter months. Fall is the right time to clean as well as make needed repairs or additions to your roof runoff system for all barns, sheds and outbuildings. Diverting clean rainwater away from high-traffic areas reduces the amount of pollutants (from mud, manure and urine) that’s washed into surface waters. It has an added benefit of substantially reducing the amount of mud created on your horse property.

From a chore efficiency standpoint, diverting water away from barnyards, paddocks and high traffic areas avoids creating mud problems and nagging horse health issues.  As an example, in a state such as Illinois annual rainfall is about 40 inches per year. A modest two stall run-in shed, sized 12 feet by 24 feet, will have over 7,000 gallons of water run off its roof in a year. You can imagine that capturing 7,000 gallons of rainwater in a roof runoff system and diverting it away from your horse’s paddock will make a huge difference in the amount of mud created.  Determine how much rainwater comes off your barn roof or horse shelter with this simple formula:

_____# of inches of annual rainfall X _____# of square feet of roof surface X 0