Paddock Grading & Drainage

Mud season is hard on hooves, fencing, and your patience. We grade paddocks and install drainage for horse farms around Plainfield and throughout Eastern Connecticut — Windham and New London counties are our home range, and wet paddocks are one of the most common calls we get from late fall through spring. Standing water at gates, run-in sheds, and feeders creates the deep mud that pulls shoes and wrecks hooves, and it almost never fixes itself.

The fix is usually a combination of things rather than one trick. We regrade so surface water sheds away from high-traffic areas, cut French drains through the lowest points, and install drainage stone layers under gates and run-in shed entries where hooves churn the ground all winter. A slight crown on a paddock or dry lot keeps water from pooling in the middle. Most paddock drainage jobs run one to three days depending on how much regrading the site needs.

We work around live farms every week. That means scheduling around turnout routines, keeping equipment clear of occupied paddocks, and sequencing the work so no horse group gets cut off from shelter or water while we dig. Roberts Excavation has been owner-operated since 2010, is CT licensed and insured, and estimates are free — send photos of the wet spots and we can usually tell you what the fix looks like before we come out.