Rural Heritage August/September 2025

Rock and Dulcinea on concrete in the barnyard.

It turns out that standing on (or packing your hoof full of) straight manure was much better for a horse's hoof than the mud and gravel mixed with manure. It also turned out that transiting through mud or getting your hoofs wet didn’t have the same negative effects as standing in the mud containing the highest concentrations of manure. The barnyard (smallest enclosed area for horses in the worst weather) has a mix of outside concrete and an inside covered area. This is just enough area for horses to move around freely. While I usually only confine the horses for eight to 16 hours a day in this way; there are times, like now, where they will spend a few days in this paddock and then be led out for a brief walk in the rain. Over the years, I have experimented with ways to reduce how much concrete I use. I have had good luck making pads 2½ or 3 inches thick if I cut them into small enough squares. The smallest I have done

is 2-by-3-foot squares that are 2½ inches thick. That has worked great for at least 15 years. Outside, I scrape manure into a pile (somewhat under a roof) until the weather allows me to pick it up with a skid steer, and inside I have one deep bedded area where horses will lie down. I start this bedded area with shavings the horses can pee into and then add more bedding hay every day to keep the horses that want to lie down clean. I build up and then clean out this pack about once a month before starting over. So why do I turn horses out at all when it is too wet, or there is nothing to eat in the pasture anyway? There are a few important things to consider here. First, if you own any young horses, they need exercise – the more the better. It is essential for 1- and 2-year old horses and really any horse that is growing. To some extent, the opposite is true for older horses: they won’t go far or do much when there is nothing

August/September 2025

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