The trouble with mud
Picking the lesser of two evils – turn the horse out into a muddy pasture or lock them inside?
Every equestrian’s nightmare.
If there is something that all equestrians can agree on, it's our mutual hatred of mud. I don't know about you, but I actually have nightmares of my horses turning their pasture into a mud bath. In a perfect world, the area where our horses live would be perfectly surfaced so it wouldn't turn into a muddy mess even in the wettest of times. But unfortunately, we live in the real world, and mud is very, very real. On a day-to-day basis, a lot of horse owners are faced with a tough choice during the wet months: turn the horses out into mud or keep them inside?
The cons of keeping horses inside are obvious. Whenever we restrict their movement, we are negatively impacting their health. It's not good for their joints and muscles, not good for their hooves and even worse for their mental health. The more the horse moves, the healthier he is. And vice versa. A lack of movement is responsible for many health issues that we see in the modern horse. So, locking them up in a stall during the wet months is not a good idea.
But on the other hand, turning horses out into mud has its downsides too. Walking through deep and potentially slippery mud is a big risk for tendon injuries and other soft tissue strains. What I often see in horses who spend a lot of time in mud is tension in their psoas muscles and around the SI area. This can cause back pain and general stiffness in the long run. Another problem that goes hand in hand with mud is thrush. Although it might not seem like such a big issue, it can potentially become very painful and even cause the horse to start landing toe first to avoid loading the painful heel area. A toe first landing changes the biomechanics of the entire front limb and can have a bug impact on the health of the thoracic sling. So, after three months in the mud, your horse might come out with feet issues, a dysfunctional thoracic sling and a panful back. Not exactly the recipe to success.
Surfacing the area around the feeding stations can provide some relief from mud.
So, what can we do? Horses that are used to moving on more challenging terrains will have an improved sense of balance and proprioception and will less likely injure themselves than horses who are only used to perfect footing. A little mud won't kill anyone. Mud becomes a problem when the horse's living space becomes a wet bog where he sinks down to his fetlocks with every step he takes. And spends days on end doing this. It's best to try to avoid the turnout area to become a bog in the first place. This might mean surfacing a small area of it and turning the horse out there when it's really wet. Even just surfacing the areas around the feeding stations can be better than nothing. Try to avoid turning the horse out to a very wet pasture, but try to avoid longer periods when the horse is kept in the stall too. Finding the right balance here is tricky. If you have no other choice than to have the horse turned out into mud, don't beat yourself up about it too much. When the wet season ends, make sure to have a bodyworker out to check your horse for any potential issues that might have occurred because of the mud.