Estabilização de Solo para Equinos
Mantenha os cavalos na relva — e preserve a relva
Piquetes que resistem ao inverno. As grelhas IBRAN reforçam o solo sob o coberto vegetal, para que entradas, percursos e paddocks se mantenham com relva em vez de se transformarem em lama.
Por que razão o reforço é essencial
Os cavalos degradam a relva de uma forma que nenhum outro utilizador consegue igualar. Um animal de meio tonelada apoiado em quatro cascos concentra mais pressão por centímetro quadrado do que a maioria dos veículos, e ao contrário de um veículo fica parado no mesmo ponto durante horas, desloca o peso e regressa no dia seguinte.
A relva suporta isso no verão. No mês de janeiro, com o solo saturado e o coberto sem crescimento, já não suporta. O relvado cede, a zona radicular é empurrada lateralmente, a água acumula-se nas depressões e, em poucas semanas, uma entrada com relva transforma-se em lama nua que não recupera antes de maio.
É por isso que grande parte da gestão invernal é, na prática, gestão da lama: cavalos recolhidos mais cedo do que se desejaria, paddocks em repouso quando eram necessários, pernas lavadas todos os dias e uma ressementeira de primavera que volta a ser destruída no inverno seguinte.
Uma grelha alveolar altera a mecânica do solo. A zona radicular fica confinada em células fechadas, impedindo o seu deslocamento lateral ou a compactação em profundidade, e a carga distribui-se por toda a superfície em vez de a perfurar. A relva cresce acima dos topos das células, as raízes fixam-se num perfil que se mantém intacto, e o coberto sobrevive a condições que de outra forma o destruiriam.
O campo mantém-se campo. É esse o objetivo.
Onde esta solução se aplica
- Entradas e portões de campo
- Percursos de piquete e sistemas de track
- Zonas de bebedouros e comedouros circulares
- Acessos e envolvente de abrigos de campo
- Paddocks de piquete invernal e áreas de sacrifício
- Pontos de reunião e captura
- Envolvente de picadeiros e walker
- Corredores de pastagem entre paddocks
Resumo técnico
| Sub-base | 150-250mm de tout-venant de granulometria aberta, maior espessura em solos moles ou húmidos |
| Material de enchimento | Zona radicular de base arenosa, nivelada com o topo das células |
| Estabelecimento | Sementeira ou rolagem de relvado. Sempre que possível, permitir uma estação de crescimento completa antes do piquete invernal |
| Carga típica | Cavalos em estação e movimento, mais tratores, reboques de estrume e veículos de campo |
| Superfície | Relva natural. Firme, nivelada e bem drenada, sem lama acumulada |
| Permeabilidade | Totalmente permeável. A água infiltra-se em vez de se acumular onde os cavalos estão |
| Vida útil | 25 anos, sujeito a instalação documentada |
| Material | Polipropileno 100% reciclado, fabricado na UE a partir de polímeros reciclados |
Por que razão escolher relva em vez de pedra
Ambos os enchimentos funcionam na mesma grelha, e numa propriedade equestre a opção pela relva é geralmente a mais acertada.
A relva mantém uma superfície natural sob os cascos, que é aquilo para que os cavalos estão concebidos e o que a maioria dos proprietários pretende. Preserva o terreno como pastagem em vez de o converter em pavimento duro, o que tem implicações na classificação da exploração, no seu aspeto e na utilização futura. E evita colocar material solto em zonas de passagem de cavalos: a pedra pode mover-se sob os cascos, magoar as solas ou ficar presa num casco ou ferradura, pelo que, quando não é necessária, é preferível não a usar.
A pedra justifica-se em pontos específicos: estacionamento de transportes e atrelados, acessos ao pátio e aproximação ao estrumeiro, onde um veículo efetua manobras sob carga e a previsibilidade importa mais do que o aspeto. Quando se utiliza pedra em zonas frequentadas por cavalos, especifique uma mistura angular fina e calibrada, compactada ao nível da superfície, e não pedra grossa ou arredondada, para que a superfície se comporte como uma massa sólida uniforme.
Em todos os locais onde os cavalos passam tempo, use relva.
Qual a profundidade de grelha adequada?
A dimensão de uma grelha determina a profundidade da zona radicular confinada, e para relva sob cavalos essa profundidade é o fator que decide se o coberto recupera.
- IBRAN®-X50 é a nossa recomendação para relva equestre. A célula mais profunda retém mais humidade e oferece às raízes maior espaço antes de atingirem qualquer superfície sólida, pelo que o coberto recupera entre utilizações e sobrevive tanto ao verão como ao inverno. É também a escolha certa em entradas e em qualquer ponto onde os veículos efetuem manobras.
- IBRAN®-X40 para percursos de utilização mais ligeira e envolvente de abrigos onde o tráfego equino é intermitente e não diário.
- IBRAN®-X30 quando os níveis são condicionados ou se trabalha junto a um pátio pavimentado existente.
As células pouco profundas secam primeiro e mais rapidamente precisamente onde os cascos incidem. Em terreno utilizado todos os dias do ano, a célula mais profunda cumpre um papel determinante.
Zona radicular e mistura de sementes
Utilize uma zona radicular de base arenosa, não terra vegetal isolada. A terra vegetal retém água e compacta sob os cascos, e uma zona radicular compactada sufoca as raízes precisamente onde a relva está sob maior pressão. Uma mistura de base arenosa mantém o perfil aberto e bem drenado, permitindo que a água o atravesse e que o ar chegue às raízes após uma semana húmida de piquete.
Encha ao nível dos topos das células, não acima. A relva cresce sobre as paredes das células e oculta completamente a grelha, enquanto as paredes ficam prontas a suportar carga no momento em que um casco pousa.
Na mistura de sementes, especifique para tolerância ao pisoteio e para os cavalos que a vão utilizar. Uma mistura equestre ou de uso intensivo terá um aspeto menos cuidado no primeiro ano e consideravelmente melhor no quinto. Quando existem preocupações com laminite ou problemas metabólicos no efetivo, consulte o seu médico veterinário ou um técnico de pastagens antes de encomendar, uma vez que o teor em açúcares varia significativamente entre misturas e é muito mais fácil escolher corretamente do que alterar posteriormente.
How it goes in
- Work out where the water goes. Gateways, troughs and shelter doors are usually the low point of everything around them, which is half the reason they poach. Decide now whether you need a cross-fall, a drain across the entrance, or somewhere for it to soak away.
- Dig the mud out. This is the step people skip and the one that matters most: poached ground has no bearing capacity, and building on it just buries the problem. Excavate to firm subsoil however far down that is.
- Lay a woven geotextile across the formation, lapping joins by at least 300mm. On soft ground it is doing structural work, stopping the sub-base punching down and stopping soil pumping up into the rootzone.
- Lay and compact an open-graded sub-base in 50mm layers. On very soft or wet ground you may need more depth than you expect, because you are building a raft rather than a surface.
- Blind with a thin levelling layer and screed it flat.
- Push-fit the grids together, staggering the joints. Cut to line at gateposts, troughs and fencing with a saw.
- Restrain the edges, and run the grids wider than the opening so the restraint sits outside the line hooves and tyres actually take.
- Fill the cells with a sand-dominant rootzone, level with the cell tops, brushing in so no cell is left hollow.
- Seed or turf, water in, and keep horses off while the sward establishes.
Full step-by-step detail is in our grass grid installation guide.
Letting the grass establish
This decides how the ground looks in year three, and it is the hardest part to be patient with on a working yard.
The surface is only as strong as the root structure holding the rootzone together. A gateway seeded in spring and turned out onto in June will look tired by its first winter; the same installation left through a full growing season will carry horses for decades.
Where the calendar will not allow it, use turf rather than seed, and phase the work so some areas establish while others carry the traffic. Doing gateways in the spring rather than the autumn gives the sward the whole summer before it is asked to do anything difficult.
How far to extend a gateway
Further than the gap. The instinct is to surface between the posts and stop, but horses and vehicles fan out as they come through, and so does the damage.
As a working rule, take it at least a horsebox length into the field and wider than the gate opening on both sides. Where horses queue at a gate waiting to come in, extend it on the field side to cover where they stand, not just where they walk.
Surface only the gap and you move the mud two metres, then have to lead a horse through it to reach the good bit.
Troughs, feeders and shelters
These are the other places horses stand still, and they poach for the same reason: constant occupation, no recovery time, and water arriving from somewhere.
A reinforced grassed standing around a trough or ring feeder pays for itself quickly, because it is a small area doing a lot of damage. Extend it beyond the reach of the horses using it: a metre and a half around a trough, and the full footprint plus a margin around a feeder.
At field shelters, the doorway and the strip immediately outside take the worst of it. Reinforce the approach as well as the entrance, and get the falls right so water runs away from the shelter rather than into it.
Turnout tracks and track systems
Track systems concentrate horses into a narrow route deliberately, which is excellent for movement and terrible for the ground. A track that works beautifully in September is often unusable by December along its whole length.
Reinforcement makes the concept work year-round. Grass-filled grids along the track keep a natural surface underfoot while stopping the rootzone shearing, and the confinement means the track holds up under the repeated, concentrated traffic it is designed to create.
Reinforce the whole loop if the budget allows. If it does not, do the corners, gateways, water points and any narrow section first: those fail long before the straights do.
Day to day management
Treat it as grazing, because that is what it is.
Top or mow it with everything else; mowers and toppers pass straight over because the cell tops sit below the growing crown. Muck can be picked as normal, and a barrow wheels across a firm level surface far more easily than across poached ground. Harrow with care and keep tines set shallow over reinforced areas.
Feed and overseed worn patches at the end of the season rather than waiting for them to spread, and check levels after the first winter, brushing any settled cells back up. The grid itself needs nothing.
Get it right first time
The one thing worth knowing: dig the mud out first.
Every failed gateway on every yard has the same history. Someone tipped stone into a wet hole because it was quicker than excavating, it sank into the soft ground over one winter, and by the next year the hole was back and deeper.
Anything laid on mud becomes mud. Excavate to firm ground, get the membrane in, build the sub-base in layers, then let the grass establish. Do that and the surface will still be there in twenty years. Skip it and you will be doing the same job again next autumn, in worse weather, with horses to move in the meantime.
Ask our engineer
Questions about depths, rootzone, gateway sizing or reinforcing a track system? Ask below, or get in touch directly.
Design your surface
Set out the area, choose a grid and an infill, and see the finished surface. The schedule and the specification follow.
Permeable surface specification
Schedule
Assumptions
Specification
Common Questions
Why do horse gateways and tracks poach so badly?
A half-tonne horse on four hooves concentrates more pressure per square centimetre into the ground than most vehicles do, and unlike a vehicle it stands in the same place for hours and returns the next day.
Grass copes with that in summer but not in January, when the ground is saturated and the sward is not growing. The turf shears, the rootzone is pushed sideways, water fills the hollow, and the area does not recover until spring.
Will the grass actually grow through the grid?
Yes. The rootzone is filled level with the cell tops, and grass grows up over the cell walls so the grid is hidden completely once established. Mowers and toppers pass straight over because the cell tops sit below the growing crown.
What changes is underneath: the rootzone is confined so it cannot be displaced sideways or trodden into soft ground.
Should I fill grids with grass or stone on a horse property?
Grass everywhere horses spend time. It keeps a natural surface underfoot, keeps land as grazing rather than hard standing, and avoids putting loose material where horses walk, since stone can move underfoot, bruise soles or lodge in a hoof or shoe.
Stone earns its place at horsebox parking, yard access and muck heap approaches, where a vehicle turns under load. Where stone is used near horses, specify a fine angular graded blend packed level rather than large or rounded material.
What rootzone should equestrian grass grids be filled with?
A sand-dominant rootzone, filled level with the cell tops, not topsoil on its own. Topsoil holds water and compacts under hooves, which suffocates roots exactly where the grass is under most pressure.
A sand-dominant mix keeps the profile open and free-draining so air reaches the roots after a wet week of turnout.
What seed mix should I use?
Specify for wear tolerance rather than appearance: a hard-wearing equine or amenity mixture looks less like a lawn in year one and considerably better in year five.
Where laminitis or metabolic issues are a concern in the herd, discuss species selection with your vet or a grassland adviser before ordering, since sugar content varies significantly between mixtures and it is far easier to choose correctly than to change it later.
Do I need to dig the mud out first?
Yes, and it is the step that matters most. Poached ground has no bearing capacity, so building on it just buries the problem deeper.
Excavate to firm subsoil however far down that is, lay a woven geotextile, then build the sub-base in compacted layers. Anything laid on mud becomes mud.
How far should a reinforced gateway extend?
Further than the gap itself. Horses and vehicles fan out as they come through and so does the damage.
As a working rule, take it at least a horsebox length into the field and wider than the gate opening on both sides. Where horses queue at a gate waiting to come in, extend it on the field side to cover where they stand, not just where they walk.
Can grids be used for a track system?
Yes, and track systems are a natural fit because they deliberately concentrate horses into a narrow route, which is excellent for movement and hard on the ground. Grass-filled grids keep a natural surface underfoot while stopping the rootzone shearing.
If budget will not stretch to the whole loop, do the corners, gateways, water points and narrow sections first, because those fail long before the straights.
How long before horses can go on it?
Allow a full growing season before winter turnout where you can, because the surface is only as strong as the root structure holding the rootzone together.
Where the calendar will not allow it, use turf rather than seed and phase the work so some areas establish while others carry traffic. Doing gateways in spring gives the sward the whole summer before it is asked to do anything difficult.
Can I still poo pick, harrow and top the area?
Yes. Muck can be picked as normal, and a barrow wheels across a firm level surface far more easily than across poached ground. Top or mow with everything else, since the cell tops sit below the growing crown.
Harrow with care and keep tines set shallow over reinforced areas.
Will reinforced turnout help with mud fever?
Persistent wet, dirty conditions underfoot are a recognised risk factor for mud fever and thrush, so keeping horses out of standing mud at gateways, troughs and shelter doors removes one of the contributors. A reinforced grass surface stays firm and drains rather than holding water.
It is one part of management rather than a cure, and veterinary advice should guide the rest.
Ask our engineer
Questions about depths, sub-base, edging or which system fits your project? Ask below.
