My Mud Management Odyssey

My Mud Management Odyssey

(or “How I Built the Taj Mule Hall”)

by Sarah Bulgatz

By the time I realized the paddock I'd created in October 2017 for my mule, Tyrone, was less than adequate, it was too late. The rainy season in northern California had begun and was well under way in December and January, but the unusually dry, warm weather we had in February had hardened most of the deep mud in the 2,000-square-foot paddock and turned it into a rutted mess. The run-in shelter and adjacent hay/tack barn sat on six inches of compacted road base, which we'd sloped slightly for drainage purposes, but our efforts were woefully inadequate. Rainwater had accumulated in front of the structures since both sat at the low end of a grade, resulting in a fetid, standing pool of water and muck with nowhere to go. To make matters worse, Tyrone suddenly began exhibiting some lameness -- what would eventually be diagnosed as a stifle injury -- likely the result of his having taken a bad step in the uneven, hardened mud. I knew we had to do something drastic to remediate the situation and create a healthier, safer environment for the poor guy.

My online search for "mud management" solutions yielded several potential options (including selling our property and moving elsewhere), but what seemed most feasible was installing a system of flexible plastic panels consisting of cells that would be filled with crushed gravel and compacted to form a base of decent footing. A neighbor had created some beautiful footing for his arena using a product called TrueGrid, which consisted of rigid cellular panels; I would ultimately decide on a comparable product called Light- Hoof, whose distinguishing feature was more flexible panels. The price seemed comparable for both products, but the flexibility of the LightHoof product seemed to be a better fit for the unevenness and slope of my paddock.

However, before we installed the LightHoof, we knew we had to create some better drainage to eliminate the problem of standing water. We consulted with a local excavation and construction contractor, Dan Joyce of Petaluma, whom we had used before for a couple of other projects on our property, and together we put together a plan to get the work done. Unfortunately, however, it would have to wait until the rainy season ended and the ground dried out -- so we set our sights on April, a long two months off. In the meantime, I moved Tyrone into another makeshift paddock on higher ground adjoining my round pen. While muddy, this alternate location offered somewhat better footing and a drier place for him to be.

April finally arrived, but to our great chagrin, a period of extended rain during the early and mid part of that month pushed the start of our project out even further. It wouldn't be for another several weeks, until mid-May, that we would finally get to begin work.

In the meantime, we placed an order for 21 of the 6' x 12' LightHoof panels. They arrived on a big wooden pallet, which we had delivered at the lower end of our driveway, across from Tyrone's paddock. We would also need an ominous amount of crushed angular gravel with fines to fill the cells in the panels -- between one and a half and two cubic yards per panel.

At last, the big day arrived. On May 15, Dan arrived at 8 a.m. and unloaded two of his impressive machines -- an excavator and a bobcat. The first step would be preparing the ground for the installation of a French drain that would run the length of the tack/hay barn and run-in shelter, wrapping around them and feeding out under the gate into our lower pasture.

Excavating the trench for the drain, then laying the fabric and installing the drain rock, drain pipe and then more drain rock on top of that took several days. We had approximately 70 feet to cover! My husband, Chris Berkov, and I were amazed at the skill and dexterity with which Dan operated his equipment, alternating between the excavator and the bobcat to dig, scrape, push and move mountains of earth, and then carry gravel wherever it was needed, maneuvering each machine through and around what seemed impossibly tight spots. Dan also brought in all the gravel we'd need, a quantity of over 30 cubic yards of the crushed angular rock in addition to the dozen or so yards of drain rock.

By Wednesday afternoon, we were ready to begin laying out the landscaping fabric and then install the LightHoof panels over that. This was a painstaking and laborious process, whereby we'd first tack down the fabric, then stretch out a LightHoof panel and fix it in place with rebar in multiple places along the edge. Then we'd stretch out the next panel and tie it to alternating cells along the edge of the first panel. Dan would then fill up his bobcat's shovel with gravel, drive it over and pour it on top of the panels. We would rake it into the cells to the extent we would then be able to walk on the panels, then repeat the process with two new panels. By working this way, we succeeded in laying out and filling roughly three to four panels per day. We used four-by-fours and two-by-fours to create a border for the panels along edges where we knew we would need to create a raised surface to keep the gravel in. In other areas, we excavated several inches of the bordering earth in order to tuck the panels in against it.

Once the panels were in place and completely filled with gravel, we rented a plate compactor and compacted the gravel-filled panels. Following that, we spread another inch or more of loose gravel all over on top of the compacted base. From start to finish, the entire project took us two weeks.

Our Learnings

One might wonder why we didn't install a French drain in front of the structures in that paddock from the get-go? We've wondered that ourselves. Of course, hindsight is a marvelous thing, but there was no way to predict how or where water might accumulate and the extent to which the earth would turn to muck and mush once a mule starts walking around on it.

The LightHoof installation experience would have been easier had the paddock been a uniform rectangular or square shape (so that we wouldn't have had to cut any of the panels) and had it been level rather than sloped. However, we are very glad we did it, pleased with the result, and relieved that it's done. And with respect to the next rainy season, all I can say is: "Bring it on."