Minimize mud by wearing boots?

My Equus magazine came yesterday and my man teased me, "Is it a flyer still or a real magazine again?" I looked to see if the words fit on the "binding" and they don't, the magazine is too thin, so I said, "Flyer."

I was excited to see an article about mud management. My man and I read it together because he is curious what Equus has to say. And I admit, I'm a bit of a mud expert cuz I'm from the wet side of the mountains and live in the We(s)t Germany.

Where I'm from we have 50 different words, based on type, for mud. I mean rain *lol*!

The first thing I thought as I looked the article's picture - this has to have been written by Horses for Clean Water. Because when I did my mud management research when we bought this place, I kept running into information from this agency. They are the Pacific Northwest's agency for environmentally sensitive horsekeeping. Some farms near Seattle who have incorporated their protocols into their property and have the little HCW sign in their pastures to assure the neighborhood of their efforts.

The article has 8 ways to reduce mud on your horse property. My man read them and said, "At least 6 of them are Quatsch!" (BS) I asked him why. Here is what he said....

1.) Minimize mud by choosing a good location. Well how many of us have the option to move our paddocks? Perhaps some of us. Or, perhaps she means we should buy a different horse property with a better location for a paddock. Reasonable, maybe.

2.) Minimize mud by stocking lightly. Try to allot one paddock per horse. Is this feasible for most horse owners? How many farm owners have extra paddocks to space out our horses on? How many horse owners would reduce herdsize for the benefit of less mud? I imagine this one is for boarding stables - cutting back your numbers of boarders. Is that a reasonable incentive for barn owners to cut their income - less mud?

3.) Minimize mud by providing ample room. This is another tip that, to us, implies that you should sell your home and move somewhere with more acreage. Is that possible for most of us?

4.) Minimize mud by picking up manure regularly. What? My mud would scale back if I cleaned up my manure even faster? I wanna see that! I have not noticed more or less mud depending on if I miss a day picking up manure. Sure, manurey mud is worse for the environment than clean mud, but I don't think your amount of mud changes based on how much poop is around.

5.) Minimize mud by creating safe footing. Oh yes! Finally, a good mud minimizing tip! But wait, the author doesn't go into detail here about how to install gravel or wood chips or sand in a way that makes it longer lasting ---- landscape fabric under your (gravel) footing slows its disappearance. You also want layers, coarser rock underneath. And french drains. And borders to help contain the footing as much as possible. She mentions concrete as a safe footing for feeding areas, with the warning that horses shouldn't spend too much time on it. Well, where does she think horses will spend most of their time if their feeder is on concrete?

6.) Minimize mud by installing a runoff system. Good idea, barns should have rain gutters and a drainage system underground. She mentions diverting this water into a vegetation area to filter it...hm, this sounds like the salmon protection agenda....

7.) Minimize mud by planting a vegetative buffer. There's the salmon agenda. I'm also from the Pacific Northwest, and I value our salmon, but this article is about mud management. She says to plant 25 feet of lawn, woods, or wildflowers to filter the water that comes off your horse paddock, so that nearby streams have clean water. We would like to ask her how planting a garden next to our paddock reduces mud in our paddock.

8.) Minimize mud by equipping yourself for efficiency. Invest in ergonomic manure forks and outfit yourself in waterproof clothing. Your boots should have good traction. Give it up, you live in the wrong area. Get some better boots. Haha.


Ah, here it is a mention of fish - in the sidebar! The perils of mud: Scratches (mud fever), West Nile virus, dirt ingestion, thrush, rainrot, abscesses, and many problems for fish and other aquatic life.

I'm not against Horses for Clean Water at all, I just had to laugh when my man found flaws in most of her mud management tips from his 1.5 year experience living in the country.

We have trout, and it is in our best interest to conform to HCW ideals. We don't let our horse get close to the water here, even though half of the creek belongs to us, and I'm sure he'd prefer to drink creek water. (I liked this photo better upside down.)

Oh, one more thing --- it would have been nice if she mentioned geotiles *instead of concrete.* Geotiles do not create runoff problems because they allow water/urine to pass through them. Geotiles are totally salmon friendly. Maybe I should let her know about this option.