Well, my grand ambitions for the perfect barefoot environment didnt exactly come to fruition!
A hard standing has been a plan for some time now, and with the incredibly wet summer, the time came where it could no longer be avoided as the poor horses were almost wading
Being so wet, we had no access available to the field, and so began the epic adventure of moving 13 tonnes of aggregate (40mm scalpings) down to the field, by hand, by wheelbarrow
when the load arrived it was utterly intimidating, but 5 days later, and with some serious help, we were done, and an 80ft square area was done, plate compacted, and looking pretty nice
Next up, pea gravel, or not as it turned out! It seems that in Cornwall, pea gravel means something different to everywhere else in the world. I think over the past week or so, I have seen every type of stone known to man. Small 5 - 10mm, smooth, round pebbley stuff however just doesnt exist here. Apparently until about 4 years ago, you could buy tiny pebbles from a beach off the Lizard, and indeed, we have some in the garden, but they are no longer allowed to take this.
As it is, pea gravel here means small, horrible, gritty crushed granite, or I found one place with 10-15mm closish stuff (red), but certainly not that smooth round stuff for massaging barefoot hooves with that I dreamed off
Anyway, my trimmer came to advise, and he was absolutely happy they could go straight onto the scalpings, and that in fact it's just perfect; I was intially dubious, as there are some pretty big rough bits, even though we compacted it
But they are absolutely fine on it, a tad ginger on the odd occasion, but already I can see that Giddys hooves are rounding off really nicely on the edges ;0))
So, next step, another full load of scalpings, and am going to run a track down the side of the field so that we can now get some more movement over rough surfaces; it's not exactly going to be a paddock paradise, but as close as i can get with the space and budget i have
Going to go with 20mm scalpings this time having been to the quarry to have a look, and these look like they will be easier to shift too
Now the "crisis management" of getting them out of the mud is over, can do this 10 barrows a day or so, and it'll be done in a few weeeks
A section of this, am going to move the nice round pebbles in the garden onto a section of this, and replace this with something locally, as long as quite attractive, it doesnt really matter too much
Should have taken some pics of giddys feet before all this began really :0((