Are Mares Cleaner Then Geldings?

3Beasties

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 September 2008
Messages
15,574
Visit site
For the first time in a long time I had two horses in overnight last night. Both in for the same amount of time, both have a haybar, both have matting and both have the same bedding, only difference is that the geldings bed was freshly laid.

This morning this is what their stables looked like -

20121205_094835.jpg


20121205_094824-4.jpg


Guess who was in which stable ;)

So, do mares tend to be cleaner then geldings or have I been blessed with a very house proud mare and a not so house proud gelding?
 
completely individual in my experience! My mare is VERY clean, only poos along the back wall, and covers it up after she's done. makes mucking out a bit of a treasure hunt sometimes!

but my friend's mare is the messiest horse i have ever known!

i find that gelding's pee smells worse than mares, but other than that, I have never known there to be a gender trend!
 
You have a very house proud mare!! I'll swop you for mine, who likes nothing more than distributing her poo across all the matting..!
 
I think you have been blessed lol ;). My gelding is a pig in his stable, however it's nothing compared to one of the other liveries mares, she really is foul!! I think she's currently going through 3 bales of shavings a week...
 
Normally I have found mares to be much wetter BUT geldings only cleaner if the gelding has a big enough stable to both move around and do poos etc in a different location and not kick them everywhere. Otherwise they can be worse overall.
 
IME mares have generally been cleaner than geldings. However, I did have one mare here that would box walk and trash her stable. But at the moment I have three extremely messy and wet geldings, one house proud gelding, one reasonably tidy boy and girl and one extremely house proud mare. Despite being in for 21 hours a day at the moment, she poos all in one pile and one place for her wee. She's always been that way and she's mine. :)
 
Anyone who has ever seen my mare's stable after she has been in it for more than 10 minutes says she is the messiest horse they have ever seen, so no I don't think mares are cleaner.

I think both of those stables look lovely and clean, I normally have holes, big piles of bedding, mashed in poo and haylage and the lot is black.....

She's on box rest at the moment and I'm using half a bale of shavings a day. Normally I use 2-3 a week with rubber matting and her out all day everyday.
 
Last edited:
We have 5 mares & 4 geldings on the yard, the geldings are dryer but bury poo (all on straw), the mares are all very wet! (Id rather have poo than wet so am glad I have one of the geldings!) :)
 
Not in my experience. My filly is disgusting. I hate mucking her out. All the other mares seem much cleaner...

My gelding was relatively clean.

regarding smelly wees.... I'm not convinced it has much to do with gender. Excess protein in wee is what causes the stink. If the wee is cloudy or strongly coloured, it will smell. Look at the horses' diet and makes changes because smelly wee is definitely NOT a good sign of health.
 
Wow I want your mare :D

I had one mare that was quite clean (not as clean as yours) and my daughter's mare is disgusting and always lays in poo and poos all over her stable - she is also very wet.

My veteran pony is great poo wise - mostly in one spot, but he wees on his hay - most disgusting :(
 
My boy is very clean if i keep to his routine, he comes in approx 4.30 at night and is turned out by 7am latest every morning, his poo's are undisturbed apart from the ones he lies on, they are a bit squished and he pee's in the same place so makes for easy mucking out.

However if its the weekend and i am up later than 8.30am he will have trashed the whole lot!! :(
 
my old mare box walked so no she was not clean!! current gelding box walks so he's not clean either, mare is cleaner but a weaver, i don't stable them unless i really really have to;)
 
My mare is rarely stabled, but when she is she's so tidy! In fact, she's so fastidious about pooing in one corner that she backs her bum right up to the wall and in the morning, as well as a lovely neat pile in the corner, there will be a couple of poops on the little 'shelf' halfway up the wall above the kick boards! She's a darling, takes 2 minutes to skip out as I deep litter if I have to stable :)
 
My gelding is immaculate! He poo's in a pile on the concrete near his bedding and wee's on the very corner of his straw so it drains out! x I'll take a photo tonight, he loves his bed soo much, he would never think to poo on it!! x
 
My mare is rarely stabled, but when she is she's so tidy! In fact, she's so fastidious about pooing in one corner that she backs her bum right up to the wall and in the morning, as well as a lovely neat pile in the corner, there will be a couple of poops on the little 'shelf' halfway up the wall above the kick boards! She's a darling, takes 2 minutes to skip out as I deep litter if I have to stable :)

Liar!!! :D
 
I'd say its individual. Currently have one very clean mare, lots of wet, but everything in a nice neat pile by the door. The other is 11.1, produces less than a large trug of wet & droppings, but scatters it everywhere & stirs it up for good measure. A clean night is finding one or two buried ones that are complete.
 
Out of the 2 geldings and 3 mares I've had, the boys have been far tidier, all the girls were very messy! My current gelding is exceptionally tidy like, KAZJAZ's boy, and so quiet in the stable people don't even realise he's in there unless his head is out the door! Makes life so easy. :)
 
agree its individual really. My mare is fantastic on her fresh bed, but when its afew days old and lost that fresh shavings smell she gets worse and worse, even pooping in herfeed bucket, charming!! shes a dirty protester im sure :D
 
Mines horrible in a stable.
First thing she does is smash water trug around and then turf up bed, then proceed to go in every inch of it. while looking smug :rolleyes:

She lives outside 24/7 now. However used to happily put herself back in the stable while I was trying to walk her out, so didn't mind being stabled!

Outside the mares go anywhere. One gelding and one stallion will only ever poo in their own patches. Great for poo picking, not so for harrowing!
 
Even your gelding looks pretty clean to me!

Of my three the gelding is by far the worst, but then he's huge (17,2) and the girls are 15.1 and 15.3 so he stirs up the bed more, poos more and wees more!

The dirtiest on my yard is a 13.2 welsh x arab mare. As soon as she comes in she wees, and when i put her head collar on to turn her out in the morning, she wees. That's on top of what she does all night, and the gazzilion poos she does!

Interestingly my filly (now 3) used to be filthy as a baby, but each winter she's been cleaner and cleaner. This winter she now does exactly the same as her mum, poos and wees on the left hand side of the stable, lies on the clean right hand side.
 
Hubby's mare has a party in hers...she is disgusting! My mare uses buckets and nets as ammo as she hates being in and trashes the stable, they are all only stabled bare minimum. Old gelding is very clean, poos in one corner and pees by the door and will only pee if he really must!
 
Our mare is a minger. If its not been weed on, pooed on or trampled....then its been eaten:rolleyes:The geldings are much tidier.

My previous gelding was soooo tidy....he would poo in one specific area and nowhere else. So I scraped the shavings back to a small concrete square about a foot square....and he used to poo in that:) he had his own toilet bless him.
 
Top