The Barn Parking Area

(Click image for pictures)

Horses are curious creatures.  If something is near them, they will investigate it.  This is what makes training horses so easy.  This is also what makes keeping horses so hard.  Typically horses will chew on almost anything to see if it taste good of feels good.  They will rub against almost anything unless they are trained not to rub against an object.  Horses will remove the windshield wipers from a car as well as all of the molding or anything they can get their teeth (or lips) on.  For this reason the horses and vehicles should be separated.

Since The Farm is a horse facility, the horses have the right of way and the vehicles will have to be placed out of the way.  To do this is simple, build a parking area.  One that is large enough to hold all of the expected vehicles and placed out of the direct path of the horses.  The parking area is for vehicles but it should be horse friendly.  The top layer of material should be easy on a horses hoof but strong enough for any vehicle.  It should be easy to maintain. 

The Barn Parking Area is located on the west side of the barn.  This makes for an easy access to the parking area by vehicles approaching the barn.  The parking area is sixty feet by seventy-two feet.  The first layer of material is the natural earth.  This is a sandy soil.  The next layer is four inches of number 57 stone.  This is the same stone that was used as the third layer for the road.  The number 57 stone was moved in place and rolled to compress the stone.  The compression of the stone will cause it to distribute the weight of an object across a larger area.  Four inches of Crush and Run was used as the next layer.  This stone was also moved in place using a skid steer with a four in one bucket, then rolled.  The top layer consist of four inches of Stone dust.  This will be rolled each time one inch of stone dust is put in place and smoothed.  Once the stone dust is rolled, it will be as hard as asphalt to a vehicle but soft enough that a horse will not slip on it when it is wet.  This surface will give the horse enough traction without stones large enough to get wedged in their hoof.  The stone dust can be dragged with a chain harrow and rolled again to smooth out any areas that become uneven.