Creating the Perfect Paddock, Part 2 in a 3 part series

Watch out for too much water
by Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water
www.HorsesforCleanWater.com

The perfect paddock is what we all want for our horses, right? Last month we began this series by discussing reasons for creating a winter paddock and where to establish it. This month we'll cover mud and manure control, fencing considerations, safety tips and chore efficiency ideas

Mud and Manure
Keeping your horses in a paddock area in the winter confines manure and urine to a small, manageable area where you have better control over it. Picking up the manure every one to three days will help reduce your horse's parasite load. In summer months it will also reduce flies and insects by eliminating their habitat. Regular removal of manure also greatly reduces the amount of mud that develops. Eliminating mud in the winter is your key to reducing dust in the summer, too. Reducing mud and manure will help prevent contaminated runoffs from reaching the surface and ground water in your area as well. The manure you pick up can be composted and reapplied to your pastures during the growing season, another plus for your pasture management program!

Footing is the next important consideration for paddocks. Using some type of footing, at least in the high traffic areas, will reduce mud by keeping your horse off the soil surface, thereby avoiding erosion. Hogfuel or wood chips can provide an excellent footing. These wood products can be good environmental controls, too. Through the natural composting process, they contribute to the breakdown of the nitrogen in the horse’s urine and manure. This process eliminates the urine smell often present in outdoor confinement areas. Gravel (crushed rock, no larger than 5/8”) works well, particularly in wetter conditions where hogfuel will break down too quickly. Gravel surfaces are very easy to pick manure off of. Sand is also a popular footing choice and is more available in some parts of the country. Avoid feeding on sandy surfaces, as ingesting sand (or mud and dirt) with hay can result in serious sand colic problems and expensive vet bills. Sand also drains poorly and is dusty in the summer. A good sand choice would be a coarse, washed sand.

There are many possible footing materials for different parts of the country. In choosing footing, some considerations include:

• Will it be a suitable, safe surface for my horse to run, stand and lie on?
• Can I easily pick up manure from the footing material?
• Will the footing material contaminate my compost pile in any way?
• Will it be very dusty in the dry months?
• What is the cost and availability?
• Is it in any way toxic to horses, humans or other animals?

You might want to try a combination of footing types, perhaps using gravel in the high traffic areas and hogfuel in the rest.

Water Control 
Install rain gutters and a roof runoff system on your barns and shelters and divert rainwater away from your horse’s confinement areas. This will seriously reduce mud and prevent manure and urine from being washed out of the paddock. In an area that gets 39 inches of rain annually, 8,125 gallons of rainwater will run off a two-stall run-in shed in one year. If you divert that much water away from your horse’s confinement area, you are greatly reducing the amount of mud you have around your horse. Divert clean rainwater to an area on your property where it can percolate back into the natural hydrology of your land – a vegetated area or an unused corner of your pasture.

As you choose the location and size of your paddock, keep in mind that there will still be some surface runoff. You can help control runoff by locating your paddocks so they are surrounded downslope by at least 25 feet of lawn, pasture, woods or even a garden. Vegetation in these buffer areas will act as a natural filtration system to help slow down runoff and reduce sediments and nutrients.

Safety Considerations
Use the very safest fencing you can for your paddocks. While wood fencing is attractive, in a confinement area it often offers the temptation for chewing. Whatever type of fencing you choose, you may want to reinforce it with some type of electric tape or hot wire as a psychological barrier. Horses are hard on fences and will test most types, but tend to respect electric fencing.

Building corners and walls should have no protruding objects on which the horse can get hurt, like bolt ends, nails, boards or the tops of metal T-posts. Also watch out for the corners of roofs and the bottom edges of metal buildings. There should be no wires or cords hanging in the paddock and absolutely no junk, garbage or machinery. Keep in mind that gates on fences need to be adequately sized for the types of truck deliveries you expect (such as gravel, hogfuel, hay, etc.).

Efficiency
A chore efficient aspect you can add to your perfect paddock is good outdoor lighting. This is best installed during the summer months, but most appreciated during the winter. Proper lighting helps you get your winter manure management chores done sooner and more efficiently, leaving less manure behind to turn into muck.

Chore-efficient equipment will also help with your perfect paddock. There is nothing worse than cleaning a stall and paddock with a manure fork with broken and missing tines – except perhaps working outside while freezing. Invest in a wood-handled (easier to grip in the cold) manure fork that will help you get the job done quickly and easily. A warm, insulated waterproof jacket, wool hat and insulated waterproof gloves with grips are also essential tools.

Next month we wind up this series by discussing how to integrate your perfect paddock into your management system, along with tips for dealing with horse boredom.