The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

dry lot help

9K views 38 replies 7 participants last post by  caseymyhorserocks 
#1 ·
Hi I was wondering how big a dry lot for two horses has to be? my one horse is on a 1/3 acre right now and it's awfully muddy and messy for a few weeks of the year and Dusty in summer. He only uses half right now. I would like to get another horse some time so I'd like to make it big enough for two horses now so I dont have to redo it later. It has to be big enough for them to live for days with out being turned out or ridden. I read 400-500 sq ft per horse but that seems a bit small for my situation. What kind of fencing would I need? i was also thinking of putting down some kind of footing so I need help with that and I would LOVE to see pics of other people's dry lots. How do you manage?
Thanks for taking the time.
 
#2 ·
We don't have a dry lot, but we have kept four mares in our riding ring for days. It's 100x200 (20,000 sq ft), so 500 sq ft/horse, and that's more than enough room without them being crowded for a corral/pen.
For fencing, I prefer corral panels. Quick, easy, and you can always move/rearrange them. They're not cheap, but sometimes you can find used ones that are still in good condition. Otherwise, I would use good, no climb wire horse fencing with a strand of electric at the top.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Corporal
#3 · (Edited)
We don't have a dry lot, but we have kept four mares in our riding ring for days. It's 100x200 (20,000 sq ft), so 500 sq ft/horse, and that's more than enough room without them being crowded for a corral/pen.
That's 5,000 sq ft per horse. 500 sq ft is only 10x50. I have runs on my barn that are 15x40 (600sq ft). They work but if they don't get out for days because of weather or my work schedule, they are climbing the walls. You only have about 14,500 sq ft to work with or an area about 100x150ft. What do you have to keep in that area? Only the horses? Dealing with mud is an ongoing problem when you have to confine them to a small area. One of the keys is to limit how much they can move around when there is mud. Walking stirs things up making it worse. I would look at making small feeding pens/holding areas at the high point of the pen. You can do as small as 12x12 (the size of a stall). Put down something like roadbase and slope it so the water runs out of the 1/3 acre (not into it). Covering the 12x12 area plus no water running into the pen and you won't have a mud problem there. The fencing has to be solid and able to withstand abuse. Panels, pipe or boards no wire or hot tape for the small area. You can use wire for the larger area to save money. Give it a day before you let the horses out of jail for the turnout area to firm up after it stops raining and even in heavy clay, there will be a dramatic decrease in the mud.
 
#7 ·
Is that additional or all they have? If you give them 1000 Sq ft each, that leaves you about 1/4 acre "pasture". That's going to last about 10 minutes to grazing. You can make it work but you will have to really stay on top of things and give them 2-3 hours of grazing a day tops weather permitting. That's plenty of out time for most horses.
 
#9 ·
I want my horse to be happy. right now, his paddock is a real mess and he's messy~ his coat is dirty and muddy- and in summer it(the paddock) will probably turn into a dust bowl and hurt his respiratory system if I dont do anything now. Sorry if I sound dramatic.

My dad and mom dont like how untidy it looks either.
 
#10 ·
We would all love for our horses to be out wandering in beautiful pastures 24/7 but the truth of the matter is just about none of us have that available to us. You've got to make do with what you have and your horse will adapt to it. Many horses have a lot less and don't suffer because of it. The first thing to do is figure out the mud part. Where does all the water come from? Is it coming off a roof? Is it the low spot so everything drains towards it? Does it come from the next property? You can divert and build berms and ditches to keep the water from getting into your pen. Creating a buffer of grasses, plants and trees will help keep the water back as well. Next identify an area that is higher than the rest of the pen. Where does it dry first? Build your small pens there. Add something like roadbase or pea gravel to help it drain. You can only do so much at a time but getting rid of the mud will go a long way.
 
#19 ·
Modern pressure treated wood is OK around horses. I'm not sure how close together you'll need to put posts to keep them from bowing with time due to their own weight.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#20 ·
My post are 10 - 12 ft apart and the pipe pens are 30 ft long and 18 ft wide.
the can hop and bounce around, roll, run up and down some.
When it rains its muddy. Only way to get them out of the mud would be a Barn with Box stalls.
1 1/2 acres of irrigated pasture with hay is fine for two horses. Depending on your area and what type of grass . I have two horses out on 2 and 1/2 acres and they get small flakes of hay and are fat. My pasture is irrigated and is the grazing bermuda pasto rico . This is also the type of bermuda that is used for haying. It is not just seed from the big box stores. I have 3 other horses out on a smaller pasture, and they are all fat (smaller horses that get along )
 
#25 ·
My post are 10 - 12 ft apart and the pipe pens are 30 ft long and 18 ft wide.
the can hop and bounce around, roll, run up and down some.
When it rains its muddy. Only way to get them out of the mud would be a Barn with Box stalls.
1 1/2 acres of irrigated pasture with hay is fine for two horses. Depending on your area and what type of grass . I have two horses out on 2 and 1/2 acres and they get small flakes of hay and are fat. My pasture is irrigated and is the grazing bermuda pasto rico . This is also the type of bermuda that is used for haying. It is not just seed from the big box stores. I have 3 other horses out on a smaller pasture, and they are all fat (smaller horses that get along )
dont you have footing?
 
#22 ·
Stone dust is basically a size in between pea gravel and sand. It will get dusty in dry weather, so therefore pea gravel is ideal if you don't live a moist environment year round. Pea gravel is also great for horses hooves, it won't dry them out and drains out the moisture.

I will go outside and take a picture of my dry/mud- lot area. It is about 110 feet long, with half the width being about 30 feet and the other half being about 50 feet in length, it is used for two horses in winter. We just put down a couple inches of dirty pea gravel in the front part, we had road base before with some dirt/mud. Road base is okay if it is compacted very well, so if it was an old road (which mine was) or you drive across it a lot, you shouldn't have to much of a problem. You would want a comfy dirt or sand area for the horse to lie down though. If you don't compact road base well enough, the big rocks will sit on top and the horses can get bruised from them. And my wood fence with 3- 2x6 boards has the posts spaced 8 feet apart.
 
#23 ·
Here is my dry lot. First picture is front road view, second picture shows the pea gravel on the left and road base on the right. There is a dirt rolling area down towards the end off to the side. We left about 20 feet at the end of the run just plain road base because that is where the horses poo and we ran out of gravel. Ignore the fence, a deer ran through it the other day and the horses haven't been in here in months so it is a bit neglected!
 

Attachments

#28 · (Edited)
Well, we had the gravel around an old play-set which we sold and spread some of it around the horse area. I believe its something like 18 yards or so for 2" deep in a 20x100 area. 2" is not going to do much, but since there is about 18" of road base under that (with a bit of dirt on top) it will hopefully be good enough for my horsies.

About how many inches of mud do you normally get? It is recommended to get enough gravel as mud plus one or two additional inches. If you get 3 inches of mud, you would want 4-5 inches of gravel. It is a good idea to put down textile fabric stuff to prevent the gravel from being ground into the dirt. I have heard of rock salt being spread across horse arenas and paddocks to help bring down dust, but I have never tried it. Unless you have very little mud in a poorly drained area, you will want to have footing and good drainage. Also, don't use any wood products that could decompose like wood chips, shavings, or straw as they will just turn into more mud.

Edit- yes, woven wire makes an excellent horse fence, as long as the holes are 2x4" or smaller. If they are any larger a horse could get his hoof stuck in the fence. Horses love to itch their butts on the no climb so it is a good idea to put up an electric strand in front of the fence. With no climb, you can use t-posts which are cheaper and easier to install than the wooden posts, but it is a good idea to put wood posts up around the high stress areas (corners, water troughs, etc.).
 
#29 ·
Well, we had the gravel around an old play-set which we sold and spread some of it around the horse area. I believe its something like 18 yards or so for 2" deep in a 20x100 area. 2" is not going to do much, but since there is about 18" of road base under that (with a bit of dirt on top) it will hopefully be good enough for my horsies.

About how many inches of mud do you normally get? It is recommended to get enough gravel as mud plus one or two additional inches. If you get 3 inches of mud, you would want 4-5 inches of gravel. It is a good idea to put down textile fabric stuff to prevent the gravel from being ground into the dirt. I have heard of rock salt being spread across horse arenas and paddocks to help bring down dust, but I have never tried it. Unless you have very little mud in a poorly drained area, you will want to have footing and good drainage. Also, don't use any wood products that could decompose like wood chips, shavings, or straw as they will just turn into more mud.

Edit- yes, woven wire makes an excellent horse fence, as long as the holes are 2x4" or smaller. If they are any larger a horse could get his hoof stuck in the fence. Horses love to itch their butts on the no climb so it is a good idea to put up an electric strand in front of the fence. With no climb, you can use t-posts which are cheaper and easier to install than the wooden posts, but it is a good idea to put wood posts up around the high stress areas (corners, water troughs, etc.).
Thanks. how thick should the posts be and how far apart? do i I need bracing? If yes what kind? Thanks again.
 
#30 · (Edited)
For t-posts with no climb? 10 foot spacing is ideal. I would use 8 foot t-posts pounding them 3 feet into the ground so you have 5 feet of t-post above the ground. I assume you are doing 4 foot tall no climb right? With the 5 feet above ground and 4 foot tall no climb you will have plenty of room to install a strand of electric on top. It is a good idea to cap the top of the t-posts to prevent a horse from skewering himself on the top, you can even get caps that have built in slots for the electric wire/rope like these-
T-Post CAPR Insulator Black
If you are doing a small paddock (like 20x20), I would recommend using wood posts. We used square 4x4s for our posts, we bought them in 6 foot lengths and dug them 2 feet into the ground, putting rock at the bottom of the hole, but this was a wood fence for big pastures. For the no climb in the small area I would have the posts be 5 feet above ground so you could either install a board or electric wire on top.

You should use an H brace in the corners, here is a how to. Be sure to put electric sticking out in front of the brace to avoid horses getting a leg stuck.
http://www.premier1supplies.com/img/instruction/36.pdf
 
#33 ·
Yes 4-5 inch would work for corners and the straight lines. 10 feet is for both t posts and wood posts.

Basically an H brace is a twisted wire that goes from the top of the post to the bottom of the post. If a horse was running around or pawing there or kicked out, his leg could get stuck between the brace and the fence or get twisted up in the wire. I dont get any frost or snow here which is why we sunk the posts 2 feet into the ground. Good luck!
 
#35 ·
The mesh is attached to the post by a special staple (driven in with a hammer for wood posts, and they have metal clips for t-posts. You will also need a fence stretcher to insure the no climb is tight-
SpeeCo Wire Stretcher - Mills Fleet Farm
You want to get the no climb as close to the ground as possible to avoid a horse getting a leg stuck- no set answer, but get it as close as you can.

Here are some instructional videos-
http://www.redbrand.com/InstallationVideos/Default.aspx
 
#37 ·
How much mud do you get? You need as much gravel as mud plus one or two inches. What do you mean by a load? An 8 foot pickup truck or dump truck load? The prices really varies by location.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top