Pea Gravel - Touch It Up for the Winter

We touched up our pea gravel this weekend. Put down about 4 more inches on top of our old gravel. The area is 48' x 6' wide and only took about 3 yards of gravel. It is located under the overhang of our barn, so the horses have to walk through it to get to water, and in the winter, they spend a lot of time in the pea gravel to get out of the wet weather.

Why pea gravel? Because it is malleable, it fills in the voids in the hoof where healthy tissues would be and increases blood circulation by 90%, which in turns speeds up healing and new cell growth dramatically (study by Dr. Robert Bowker, MSU). It supports the coffin bone of the hoof and relieves peripheral loading by distributing weight over the whole hoof. Pea gravel makes great footing for areas horses spend a lot of time standing around in. It gives the horse a malleable area to stand or lay and gives the hooves a drying out time during the winter and wet season. Standing on pea gravel is like a good foot massage for the horse. It's like standing on foam pads for horses!

Interested in reading more about pea gravel, peripheral loading, and the effects it has on hooves? Read this: http://www.thehorseshoof.com/Art_Pad.html

If you have a horse with "flat soles" and would like to develop more concavity, start an area of 4-6" of pea gravel and see if that helps!