29/11/2025
Anyone with an unsurfaced track knows the struggle of winter. Even though we spent a scary amount of money on surfacing we still haven't entirely surfaced our track. This investment surfaced only half of the current track length. So we still have to work hard to not make conditions worse by driving unnecessarily on the unsurfaced sections. This make daily chores take longer than usual. Running a track livery is not for the faint hearted.
The truth about track systems
We’re champions of the paddock paradise and have been since we first flipped our way of thinking, doing and managing over 15 years ago. We’ll never go back to keeping horses on paddocks, and we wholeheartedly believe that natural horse care, tracks and horse centric management is the way forward for the equine world as a whole.
With the popularity around tracks continuing to build, horse owners are beginning to recognise the benefits and resonate with the desire to respect our horses as a species and meet their needs accordingly. You can now find track systems of all types, sizes and shapes. Some unsurfaced, some surfaced, both beneficial and valued.
Speaking as a commercial, unsurfaced track livery in the UK, there’s a stigma that lingers around track systems that seems to build each winter.
‘Unsurfaced track systems don’t work’.
The truth is, yes. Unsurfaced track systems don’t work… without planning, compromise and careful consideration.
Every winter, our biggest obstacle is admittedly the mud. Some winters the mud is barely anything, no issue at all and the tracks do well. Other times, it pours and it pours and the ground becomes wet and unmanageable.
The truth is, if you don’t go into having an unsurfaced track system with the understanding that it does get muddy, then you’re not going to get very far.
Every horse we have rehabilitated, every horse that has benefitted from our tracks and every horse still in our care is evidence, proof, that unsurfaced track systems can work.
The key word being ‘can’.
The reality is that paddock or track, having horses go over the same area repeatedly whilst it rains is always going to cause mud. Unsurfaced track systems need to be managed so they CAN work through storms, relentless rain and mud.
Unfortunately, you can’t go into it without a back up plan or without considering how you can make it safe and comfortable for your horses despite any mud.
Our winter plans and considerations consist of:
🔹 ️Hard coring gateways
🔹️ Putting Mud Control Slabs down in areas that are frequently used, like shelters or water stations
🔹️Taking advantage of patio slabs and other temporary surfaces in small, high traffic areas
🔹️ Using equipment that reduces the amount of mud or waste created, such as hay trailers that are portable and keep the hay off the ground
🔹 ️Having back up tracks ready, aka tracks that are only used in winter to provide more dry space
🔹️ Growing multiple paddocks to standing hay throughout the year, in the event that the tracks are unsuitable to use (paddocks must be brown to the ground and only used at a specific time of year, short term only)
🔹️ Changing our entry and exit points to decrease the amount of mud caused in certain areas
🔹️ Keeping machinery off the tracks as much as possible
🔹 ️Having an access road that runs up some of the tracks, so the tracks themselves do not have to be driven on
At the end of the day, our tracks are what we make them. Mud isn’t pretty and often or not, neither is having horses. But, as long as you have ways to work with it and your horses are healthy, happy and safe, then I will take the muddy track system any day because I understand the benefits are very much worth it.
Track systems are brilliant, but as anything, they just require some thought. We're proud of our track for all it does, mud and all.
