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mud management advice needed horses

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funchy
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 128 north eastern corner of Maryland
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2005-02-19          106467


I moved horses onto my property last fall. This winter has been nothing but rain, so the ground is saturated. The horses winter sacrifice paddock is one big mudhole.

I've heard of "drainage tile" being installed in muddy areas. How can I find out more how to do this?

I also saw a way to drain wet planted fields using a machine that cut really deep grooves into the soil in lines about 15" apart (theory being it got the rainwater down into the soil faster). Could this be used for a horse area?

The soil type here is rich-but-mucky topsoil over heavy clay. Sand should help drainage, right? If I added it, how deep should it be mixed in?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.




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mud management advice needed horses

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2005-02-20          106477


funchy; Yes farm field drainage tile are commonly used in our aeria to take away excess water. Long as you have a creek or ditch low enough for the outlet tube a tiling contractor can likely help you out. Depending on the type of soil they are usually about 3-4 ft. deep spaced in paralell lines from 50 to 80 ft. apart. Check with your county extension office, they'll help you finding the people you need. Frank. ....


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mud management advice needed horses

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denwood
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 542 Quarryville PA
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2005-02-20          106507


Sand will not help your drainage at any rate that would be useful for you life. In order for sand to help drainage, it must be added at such a high concentration that each sand grain touches others and the remaining topsoil cannot fill all the voids created by the sand touching. This concentration is huge and not realistic. think of it as dropping marbles in a glass of water. Until there is not enough water to cover the marbles, no more pore space is created to aid drainage. ....


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mud management advice needed horses

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2005-02-27          106938


I do this a lot for people in your situation. Around here we can usually drain to a creek. No creek--no problem. Easiest and cheapest way: Decide where to dig a big, deep hole---say, 10 feet across and about as deep. Like spokes on a wheel and the hole as a hub, trench outward as far as necessary and about 18" below ground at the farthest point from the center. At the hole go down as far as necessary to get the trench to pitch down to the center hub. Install 4" perforated drain "tile" in the trneches and cover with crushed stone or gravel to about 6-8" below ground (the less earth over the crushed stone the quicker it will drain. Fill the big hole with crushed stone to about the same level as the trench (this is called a "dry well") Backfill everything. Trenching can be done by renting a 4" chain-type trencher from Home Depot or a have local do it, or even a backhoe with an 8" wide bucket.
A variation of the covered-over dry well is drop a 6" perforated pipe horizontally in the hole before you backfill with stone. In periods of really wet weather you can drop a submersible pump down there and suck out water to increase storage capacity, sort of like a drinking water well. ....


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mud management advice needed horses

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tw-20ford
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 20 yankton
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2005-06-02          111879


Tiles will get get rid of water but not mud. if you put a tile in let the mud dry. if that don't work get some concrete clumps or lay there and let it dry. then next time it rains it'll hold the soil together. ....


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