Mud Management

Every horse person who lives in Minnesota knows that with the arrival of spring comes the thaw and mud season. We’ve been lucky this year that snow accumulations were relatively low this winter and we had a dry first couple of weeks of warmer temperatures.  This allowed the ground to dry out remarkably quickly thus far.  Although the forecast today calls for 3-6 inches of snow with more rain predicted for the week to come, the fact that the ground has dried out already probably means that the usual boot-sucking mud won’t happen this year.  Not that any of us miss mud that comes up to your knees and pulls your boots right off! 

It does beg the question: what can horse property owners do to prevent mud in their horse pastures?  Here are some tips:

1)      Don’t over-crowd horse paddocks/pastures.  When over-crowding happens, horses eat away all of the grass and without the roots to stabilize the ground and soak up excess moisture, the ground is susceptible to erosion. Horses are ½ ton animals and all that weight plunges right through soft ground.  They do prefer to stand in drier areas if available to them. 

2)      Put gravel or sand at high-traffic areas like by the gate, water trough, shelter, and hay feeder.  Horses often stand at the gate when they think it’s time to come in for grain or to go in for the night.  They also may spend hours standing at the hay feeder or in the shelter and they’ll have to get to the water.  Placing sand or gravel in these areas helps them to drain off excess water. 

3)      Remove manure as often as possible. Did you know that each horse contributes 50 lbs of manure a day? Organic matter contributes to mud – not to mention the ick factor when you have to plunge through the slop to catch your horse!  If you can’t pick up manure every few days in your paddocks, at least arrange to have your paddocks scraped by a Bobcat once the ground dries in the spring and as needed over the summer/fall. 

4)      Prepare a sacrifice area.  If possible, protect your grass areas from your horses when conditions are soft and wet by keeping horses in other paddocks during that time.  Often these areas are called sacrifice areas because they are expected to be a bit muddier due to being a smaller area in order to keep horses off of the grass pasture. 

5)      Assist run-off system to send water away from your horses’ feet. Install a channel in the ground or angle the ground to direct water away from high-traffic zones. Make sure your buildings, gutters, and drain pipes direct water to low-traffic zones and if possible to vegetation areas. You could even install a rain garden with horse-safe wildflowers, shrubs, or small trees to catch water.

Mud doesn’t have to plague horse owners every spring!  Take steps today to make your horse property mud free!

Interested in buying or selling your horse property in the Twin Cities metro area?  Contact Donvain at www.donavin.com