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A couple of our stalls and the barn aisle have "dips" in them. We have a tractor in for some yard/pasture leveling and he is going to even up the stalls and aisle plus a run in shed for us. We've pulled all the mats and taken the wall down between the stalls. To fill/level outside, he got many yards of well composted horse poop which is terrific for those areas. In the barn aisle/stalls/run in shed, he wants to use the remaining compost and mix it with gravel. I'm having trouble with this. Everything is covered with mats, but it makes more sense to me to use topsoil (more "mineral" dirt) + gravel VS. compost (more organic dirt) + gravel. Am I overthinking this? We no longer have horses, to some degree it will be "cosmetic", as we're putting the place on market, but I'm not sure I want to create problems for the next owners, either. It also seems like a waste of good fertilizer!

I agree with you to avoid the compost. It is about good drainage. Over the years, DH has recycled a lot of our compost to our paddocks (which are very sandy) - then drags mixing it. One time he applied the compost too close to the barn doors and it resulted in muck after heavy rains or snow melt. He had to back blade away from the building afterwards. Our stalls are hard packed sand gravel mixture covered in mats - perfect level after 25 years with no issues. The center aisle is rough brushed cement with stall mats. IMO, if the future owner uses the building for horses they would appreciate the good drainage.

Thanks for your experience. Our soil has a lot of sand in it too, and if you dig down deep enough, quite a bit of clay. My concern is that compost has no "binding" capacity, broken down to its finest, it's more or less "dust". Our topsoil (at least) has sand/mineral in it, where the pieces can pack/interlock to some degree. Water drains through the tiny spaces vs. compost which will, at worse, even if mixed with gravel, just over time be washed through until it hits some impenetrable layer. I'm thinking it is particularly inappropriate for the run in shed, the barn/stalls might be OK for a while with the gravel packed in. Argh.

The day just got better. Dear husband spoke to him last night about our concerns and he showed up this morning with a trailer load of gravel w/fines. He's going back for another one later. Said he thought about it last night and we were right..................... I'm sure the estimate just got blown, but I'm OK with that.

Good call! While my barn aisle is concrete my stalls are rock dust with mats over it. Have had horses in the barn for 19 years now and it holds up very well. I’ve had to replace a few mats but very little work done on the rock dust. Slight leveling on a couple of stalls.

Agree, best to keep compost/organic materials in the pastures or gardens. My setup is exactly as Khall's, although now minus the horses. Never had problems with my materials. Hope your eventual new owners will appreciate the 'shoring up' of these areas....