Bedding for a messy horse!

B

BabyA

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 November 2011
Messages
129
Location
Hertfordshire
Visit site
Wondered what your recommendations were for a messy horse in the stable? I have rubber matting on a concrete base. He mainly walks around and gets the wet & droppings everywhere. I'm using 2 hunter shavings a week at the moment which are excellent but hard to get hold of and over £10.00 a bale! Skipping out at 9 pm and being turned out by 7.30am helps but I've got two stables that take me 10 mins to do both then this one takes over half an hour! I'm picky and like it clean so not sure if I'd be happy trying a wet bed but any recommendations/opinions would be appreciated!
 
hi there, i used to have a 16.2 tb who i kept on shavings, he was a box walker, he would trash his bed even when i had put a new bale of shavings down, so i moved him onto straw and problem solved. i don't know how, but somehow the straw didn't seem to churn up like the shavings. i kept him on deep litter and did a full muck out once a week. hope this helps. ta,
 
Where is the haynet tied. I'm going to move my mums horses tie ring to by the door. I'm convinced he mashes because when he here's a noise, he does a circuit of his stable before looking over the door.
My theory is that if he's by the door, he's less inclined to box walk when he hears something as he's already there - may not work, but may be worth a try
 
Wood pellets here...

One of ours is disgusting... Fresh shavings bed trashed in two days and a total empty out needed... Straw no good as it never soaked up the urine - it was running out of the stable and smelling less than sweet...

The pellets aren't as pretty as a shavings bed but they absorb everything, don't smell and are easy peasy to muck out... He needs about 4 bags a week - way cheaper than shavings and a lot less to throw out every day...
 
Another vote for wood pellets, he doesn't do it any more but my TB used to box walk and wood pellets were the only thing i've ever found that doesn't move, I think its because they're heavier so they stay still. Its really quick to muck out and much cheaper than shavings, I was using 2 bales of shavings a week for him at £7.50 a bale, then I swopped to wood chip and was down to 1 bale at £5 per bale now i'm on wood pellets at 1 bag every 2 weeks (20kg) at £5 each. I love them!
 
Another vote for wood pellets. I tried my mare on chippings, straw, paper and finally wood pellets. I have done a full bed before but now I just have pellets in a corner of my huge stable. I have very good matting (equimats). Once or twice the messy mare and foal have been known to just use the pellets. Foal is tidier than the mare!

When they are in at night I use one bag every other day at least.
 
i use comfybed on my box walker. doesn't move about because its a bit heavier, no dust at all and best of all its cheap...about £6 a bale which lasts about 10 days even on a messy horse.Brilliant stuff
 
Sara Stanley said:
hi there, i used to have a 16.2 tb who i kept on shavings, he was a box walker, he would trash his bed even when i had put a new bale of shavings down, so i moved him onto straw and problem solved. i don't know how, but somehow the straw didn't seem to churn up like the shavings. i kept him on deep litter and did a full muck out once a week. hope this helps. ta,
Click to expand...

This. My boy Kali is a bit of a box walker and his bed is so much easier to manage now that he's on straw . . . I can actually find whole piles of poo (although he does like to bury them) whereas when he was on anything else (Easibed, Supreme, Rapasorb, Equisorb, Aubiose, cheap shavings, Hippofan . . . you name it, we tried it) his bed would be uniformly brown by morning with the poo well and truly mixed in.

Like SS above, I deep litter during the week (although I dig out the wets during the week if they're coming to the surface or the bed gets smelly) and then do a proper dig out, lift bed and leave floor to dry on the weekend.

I've been managing this bed this way since we moved to our new yard (a little over two weeks ago) and this is the first time since we've owned him that he hasn't exposed the concrete floor with his walking - the straw forms a lovely, stable base (possibly b/c it's really deep).

Hope that helps.

P
 
Pellets all the way - used to use 2 bales of shavings a week for my big lad and take up to 20-30 mins to muck out, now on White Horse premium wood pellets, we use maybe 1 or 2 bags a week (under £4 a bag) and muck out in less than 10 mins.
 
I have (or had) a messy boy like the OP who just mulched his bedding by walking around the stable.

I recently bought a trickle net to put his hay in to help slow him down as he either just pigs it all (if in a normal net or double netted net) or mulches it into the bed (if in his haybar or on floor).

In giving him the trickle net it has meant he has a steady supply of hay throughout the night and in turn has made him cleaner i.e one wee patch and all poos done along one side of the stable, as I guess he has entertainment all night and doesn't need to move around as much!
 
i'd avoid straw at all costs :O

My mare pretty much needed a new bed every day she was so grimey :( I put her on "bedsoft Bio".... (google Bedsoft) It's really absorbent and made my life so much easier :D I think the most expensive bale is £7.00
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top