I am in the midwest where we just had well over a foot of rain in ten
days. I am on a farm where I have horses. In front of the barn I had
2 horses in a 30X60 foot paddock. That has always been a muddy spot,
except in the real hot weather when there is little rain. But it's
never been this bad......

I had these horses sinking in up to 2 feet deep in some spots, so I
finally had to move them, which they are now on fairly solid ground,
but have no shelter except trees until I build something. Anyhow, I
have decided to abandon this paddock in front of the barn because it's
always been muddy and because of that, I cant get wheelbarrows and
especially my tractor inside to clean manure. Its so bad now, I had
to remove a sheet of the tin siding in the rear just to get hay in
there to the indoor animals. Of course that means crawling between
the horizontal boards.

To solve this mess, I plan to pour a concrete pad in front of the
door. The problem is I dont see this mud getting really dry anytime
soon. There is still water seeping out the edges of it and running
down the hill next to it. Another farmer told me it probably will not
dry at all this fall, and I will have to wait until we get another dry
spell next summer. Well, I cant wait that long. I need to be able to
get into that barn in a normal manner again.

My plan is to drape a tarp over the area in front of the door so that
it wont get rained on again, and run a few large livestock fans to
blow under that tarp to help it dry. Then as soon as it firms up,
pour concrete over it. But can I pour concrete over semi firm mud? I
know the concrete will harden, and if I put some rebar in it, it
should remain a solid pad. It will be about 10 x 16 feet.
Will this work? I wont drive any heavy tractors on it for awhile, but
right now I can not even walk across it without losing my boots.
I dont see any other way to do this. The only other option would be
to get some heavy equipment to scoop out all the mud about 2 or 3 feet
deep truck it away, and bring in loads of dry soil. But that is not
affordable, and pouring concrete over fresh fill seems like it would
be worse than the mud because the fresh soil would not be settled.

(The remainder of that paddock will become lawn after it dries enough.
I cant forsee using it for horses anymore, other than just letting
them mow the lawn for me when the weather is real dry.

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks

Gary