Swamp Thing with Horses

If you’ve been around this part of Virginia for a while, you know we’ve had above average rainfall recently.  I saw a TV weather report a couple of weeks ago that said December was the wettest ever.  Like …EVER!  As I looked at January and February, we got dumped on even more.  The 3 month total, according to those who keep track of this stuff, was 14.67 inches of rain.   It’s no wonder my wife’s horses are sinking.

I had the bright idea of using the stall mats we bought as something to keep them from sinking in their pens while we got the barn ready.  For a day or two, that was a great idea.  Then the mats vanished in the mud.  No problem.  My wife had just read that a lot of people throw down straw to give the animals something to stand on.  That too worked for a few days but vanished in the swamp that is made of clay and a stunning amount of water.  What a swampy mess.

Finally the barn was ready for the stall mats.  We bought 10 mats, 4 of which were ready to go but 6 mats were gone.  They’d sunk under the mud and (now spoiling) straw.  There’s a smell that doesn’t really enhance the experience.  So, I finally went digging and found all 6 of the mats I had to dig up.  I set my wife up with my power washer to get the swamp uck off of the mats while I continued to dig and prep the deck of the stalls.  Then we cut the mats to size and put them in the new horse stalls.  They are on a layer of gravel and obviously protected from all sides so they should finally have something dry and solid to stand on.

Now when the horses look at me, I don’t hear them saying, “Good idea on the mats in the mud Dummy”.  They might soon be saying, “Thanks for the new luxury accommodations”.  More rain is coming Friday so I’ve got to get a couple of things to get done and these guys will be able to enjoy a few days out of the rain.  Everybody likes a spot out of the rain.