Across the West, many horse properties are experiencing the repercussions of extreme weather conditions, including excess rain, flooding, mudslides, and historic snowfall amounts. As these storms subside and the snows melt, we horse owners are left with muddy paddocks and miserable horses standing knee-deep in filth—a situation that is no fun for horse owners to manage.

While there are many things that can be done in the early fall to prepare for increased winter chore-efficiency and reduced mud, sometimes winter just gets ahead of us—or extreme weather patterns can defy our best made plans. Let’s look at some options for emergency solutions that might act as a band aid until present struggles subside.

First, if you haven’t already, move your animals to a high, well-drained area, either on your property or on a nearby, trusted friend’s property where you know they will be adequately cared for. Be sure this area is secure, safe, and fenced in. Hot tape, step in posts, and a temporary fence charger will work well as a short-term solution. If you don’t have shelter for your horses, you can improvise: water-proof turnout blankets will help keep them dry. Wet animals that can’t fluff up their fur for insulation are at risk for hypothermia.

Next, determine whether you can get deliveries of gravel for footing in high traffic areas. Runoff from driveways, parking areas, hillsides, and even slight slopes can add significant sheet flow, compounding existing problems with increased erosion and mud in equine confinement and high traffic areas. If delivery trucks can safely access these areas, “slow the flow” with gravel. Each small piece of gravel helps to deflect and slow down water traveling downslope towards your barn or shed. Simply slowing the flow of water is sometimes all it needs to infiltrate back into the ground, so that alone may be enough to solve a drainage issue.

You might also consider diversion techniques to intercept and redirect surface water runoff away from confinement and high traffic areas, thereby reducing mud. These measures can be implemented relatively quickly and with minimal expense, and include:

• Temporary diversion ditches – Shallow ditches dug with either a shovel or a backhoe, used to reroute the flow of water.

• Dry wells – A pit dug into the ground and filled with large, round rocks. During heavy rain, rainwater fills the well and slowly percolates back into the ground water system. Note: Dry wells are only useful with dry, well-draining soils.

• Water bars – Used to divert running water away from an area, like a speed bump for water runoff. Often used on backcountry trails to help reduce erosion. Lay an old tree or log (or even jump poles) on the ground at an angle to intercept surface water flows and redirect them toward less erosion-prone areas.

Use these techniques uphill and outside of confinement areas, barns, or other high traffic areas so that surface water is intercepted before it creates more mud.

In cases where water needs to be diverted to another area of your property, utilize vegetated areas like an unused corner of your pasture or a well-vegetated woody area. Never divert surface water directly into an existing water body (such as a creek, pond, or wetlands) as the amount of added water can drastically and unnaturally change water levels and cause more flooding issues for properties downstream. In addition, when water levels go up quickly, it increases turbidity and can ruin or destroy important fish habitats.

Continue your current manure management regimen as well as possible. A horse creates 50 pounds of manure per day. When this is mixed with rainwater, it quickly becomes 50 pounds of mud per day. Picking up manure on a regular basis will greatly decrease the amount of mud that develops on your property. Furthermore, to keep your manure pile looking like a pile of compost and not a pile of mush, place it in a high, well-drained area and as far away as possible from streams, ditches, or wetlands. If possible, cover your manure pile with a tarp to preserve vital nutrients and prevent them from being washed out into the surface waters, where they can cause significant pollution.

For more ideas on how to prep your property in the dry season before mud happens, see:

• Mud Management Solutions

• Dealing with Springtime Mud on Horse Properties

• Setting up Your Horse Property for Maximum Chore Efficiency

• Emergency Evacuation Planning Checklist for Horses (This was written primarily for wildfire evacuation, but the principles are applicable for flooding events as well)