Bedding advice before horse goes to Tesco

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Fat_Pony

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I have a 3 year old gelding who is disgusting. The only other horses who come close have been box walkers, but my horse is not.

My horses have to come in over winter as we are on marsh land, so unless I want them to drown/sink, they are stabled between 7 and 7 and turned out on a large area of hard standing with ad lib hay during the day with access to surfaced area to roll and run around.

He is totally chilled in his box, happily stands at his hay bar munching. It is a big box - at least 14ft sq. When i do late night checks he is either lying down or stood eating hay. I have never seen him fret or box walk at all. He has ad lib hay in his stable.

yet every morning I am greeted by a total mess - the whole stable is covered in broken up droppings scattered everywhere mixed with bedding. He isn't very wet; I get a small patch of wet to take out.

He he is currently on wood pellets, which is awful. Works well for my other tidy horse, but not for this one. I have tried a large full bed over whole stable and a small bed at the back, but either way it is a nightmare. So tomorrow I am going out to buy another type of bedding. - what do you suggest?
 
Move the haybar and his water to the front of the stable so he has a minimal walk from one to t'other, it's not the bedding that's at fault, he's walking through it and minimising his travel may well solve the problem.
 
My boy is exactly the same and cost me a bomb in shavings. For the past week i have started deep littering, i put 7 large bales in and am taking out the top layer then pulling clean shavings from the bank. I plan on now only using 1 or 2 bales a month rather than 2 a week! Its so much quicker to muck out as i was taking up to an hour sifting through, now it takes me 15/20mins to do bed, hay, water and evening/next morning feeds.

Im going to see how it goes but i so far so good.
 
My mare is super disgusting, i had a thread on here.

She is on straw and having tried most options i have recently forced myself to put an ultra big straw bed down, its about 3ft deep (for such a gross horse it felt like a complete waste of time).

Its only been two days but the mega deep bed seems to be working. It holds the poo's better in their little piles and she isn't grinding what is normally a thinner bed and poo down into a big pile of mush!
 
Old Mare was like this, and I put down EVA matting and put her back on straw because at 1.50/bale I could justify getting through one a day. Interestingly, she stopped being quite so manky - not sure if it was because she was clearly lying down more so was not comfy on the shavings bed (at the time it was bedmax so really large, hard flakes) previously, or because she was eating the bed so didn't want to dirty it as much :D

Nugz is cleaner on straw as well. I have been trying him back on shavings, but he is so wet and does box walk to a degree I just can't justify 2 bales a week. Even at the extortionate price of straw here (compared to what it was in Norfolk), it will still work out considerably cheaper!
 
Mines on straw, both hay and water at the front and he still feels the need to walk round and round! Find half the bed piled up behind the door :/ I have tried both straw and shavings, straw being much cheaper but an absolute nightmare to muck out! One of the girls on my yard has a sort of powder (wood chip or similar but looks like sand) that looks brill but she said expensive to set up and cheap to maintain but seeing as now my straw is included on his livery it'll have to do!
 
One of mine is truly revolting. We moved to one yard where one of the boxes I was given was a foaling box. Perfect, I thought, he won't trash his bed in this box. It was worse!
I have found he is much better the smaller the box. I'm also contemplating tying his hay up by the door too, although at our yard now he is really settled.
The best bed for him was deep littered straw, but he did get thrush a fair bit that winter. I now have them on woodchip, and finding that works best, but he is in a small standard box.
 
Another vote for having hay and water at front of the stable to minimize walking/travel - it really helps my ultra-messy boy. Also, another vote for deep straw bed - right up to the door. It seems like it would be more work, but actually I find my box-walking, nosy nightmare of a horse makes far less mess on deep straw (I actually find whole poos - which I never do in shavings, wood pellets, flax, etc.).

Oh, and Kal's stable is currently about 14 x 14 and I did worry that that would make him more messy . . . it hasn't - possibly because at 16.3 he needs more room (not sure how or why that makes sense, but it sort of does to me, LOL).

P
 
Mine is the same. He now has a rubber floor and a thin 4 foot square patch at the back to wee on. I sweep out every day. Hay and water at the front. He has been on this for 2 years now and it is much easier. I use a bale of flax bedding (Equisorb) a week.
 
Yes can be a nightmare, I would go with 'Domirati's' idea - I have rubber flooring in all my horse's stables and it's great. At least you will know you are trying your best .....
 
Water and hay close together may help .
Straw is often best if you can use it .
I feel your pain I have a bale of bedmax a day horse.
 
Unfortunately I can't use straw - I have filled my barn up to the brim with hay so have no where to store it, but also he eats it and don't want to risk a colic.

He is normally deep littered on wood pellets, but have tried a small bed this week with him. Tbh, the small bed is worse.

He already has rubber matting in his box.

The layout of his stable is - stable door at front left with window front right. Water on your left as you go in and hay bar in back left corner. Bed running front to back across right hand side of stable with grill looking in to next door stable in centre of right hand side wall.
 
My 2 horses are very dirty and pretty wet. I have always had them on shavings and more recently pellets but both were costing me a fortune so about 10 says sgo I had enough! They now still have their rubber mats then in the area they pee a thin layer of shavings/ pellets then a nice big thick straw bed. They are mucked out everyday and so far this is working gr8 much less mess, the pee is soaked up and it's much much cheaper. If us a bit smellier but I couldn't go on spending so much on bedding when even at that the beds were still not clean.
 
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