Mud = yuck! At this time of the year mud becomes a common occurrence in many horse paddocks until summer when things dry out. If mud is an issue on your horse property you may be under the impression that it is an unavoidable part of having horses. But it doesn’t have to be! There are simple changes you can make to reduce or even eliminate mud on your property.

Before footing addition
In a previous post, Mud Management 101, I talked about gutters and downspouts as your first line of attack in reducing mud Ð keeping clean rainwater clean and not allowing it to mix with manure and dirt in the confinement areas. The next step for getting a handle on mud issues is to use some sort of footing in paddocks and other high traffic areas such as watering points and gates. The purpose for the footing is to build up the area to keep horses up out of dirt and allow rainwater to drain through. Less mud equals less chance of nutrients and sediments running off and polluting surface waters, too. Footings, such as hogfuel (chipped or shredded wood products), gravel (crushed rock) or coarse sand can go a long way in reducing mud. Gravel and coarse washed sand are probably the most useful and most available.
Gravel (crushed rock, no larger than 3/4″) anything larger will be uncomfort
For most arenas, topsoil, footing, and base layers all become compacted over time. This is because the more often the area is used, experiences difficult weather, and simply ages over time, the more different layers of your arena bleed into one another. This makes all layers less effective.
What is the largest comfortable size? All I see in Windows, on a MAC, on my phone is “no larger than _”Ñanything larger”.
Hi Tim, thanks for your question! It looks like the measurements weren’t displaying correctly, but we’ve corrected that in the text above. // Jennifer Whittle, TheHorse.com Web Producer
re: Mud Management 102: Paddock Footing
We are having a major MUD problem in the corral. I noticed one person mentioned using "Landscaping Fabric" beneath the coarse sand, after removal of the mud. How does the fabric hold up to hoof prints, thru the sand?
My need is immedia
re: Mud Management 102: Paddock Footing
This cracks me up! Look at the pictures..mud equals a warm up. frozen mud equals frost cold 20 degree morn. I live in Michigan and we have some mud issues too but not as bad as some places I’ve seen. We made sure our loafing shed was on the highe