Bedding, mouldy at the bottom of the banks ???

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Rocky01

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Hi, I just turned my boys banks and found a sort of grey mould on the bedding in the banks. It was new aubiose bedding and the mouldy stuff was mostly in the join of wall and floor (mainly up the wall). He's on part livery and they haven't been the best at mucking out (although not the worst I've come across either). My difficulty is obviously I don't want mould growing in the stable but he is due to go over to straw (although I'm thinking of putting a chopped straw layer in underneath to help with absorbency) in a few days and I'm concerned this mould is going to keep growing under the straw or worse on straw. Does anyone have any ideas??? They are block stables (about 13 years old) and don't obviously have a reason to be damp. Any ideas very welcome. :)
 
Rocky01 said:
Hi, I just turned my boys banks and found a sort of grey mould on the bedding in the banks. It was new aubiose bedding and the mouldy stuff was mostly in the join of wall and floor (mainly up the wall). He's on part livery and they haven't been the best at mucking out (although not the worst I've come across either). My difficulty is obviously I don't want mould growing in the stable but he is due to go over to straw (although I'm thinking of putting a chopped straw layer in underneath to help with absorbency) in a few days and I'm concerned this mould is going to keep growing under the straw or worse on straw. Does anyone have any ideas??? They are block stables (about 13 years old) and don't obviously have a reason to be damp. Any ideas very welcome. :)
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It sounds to me like it is less to do with the stables and more to do with the mucking out. I have yet to come across a stable where given the right circumstances (not rotating the bedding) mould does not grow. Its not the stable, its the fact that whoever is mucking out is mucking out the middle, forking it up onto the banks, then replacing the middle and leaving the banks as is. I know some people who do this as standard so the banks impact and become solid in a similar way to deep litter, but the key to avoiding mould is to keep the entire bed rotating fully. I find that shavings or pellets can turn mouldy faster in banks than straw tbh. Personally, I would have a little chat with the YO/YM and ask that whoever mucks out ensures that banks are fully turned regularly.
 
This is why I do not like banks. What ever bedding you have it will absorb moisture from the air. As the other poster has said, you put the banks in the middle of the bed when you take the wet out and put the fresh bedding round the edge.
When I use straw I muck out to different wall each time so the whole bed gets turned, put old straw in the middle and fresh round the sides.
 
I completely agree with you that it is mainly the mucking out; however it is tricky as every time I mention turning the banks, she says they do (even though I know they don't) and what's bothered me this time is it's only been 4 weeks since the bed went in :(. Straw being less inclined to go mouldy is useful to know, thank you. I'm currently thinking nedzbed with silver on for the base and then normal straw on top and then at least I can turn the base and the banks every week or so and clear them even if they don't do it normally. Aahhhh I hate livery yard politics. Thank you again.
 
Maybe I can suggest shifting the banks a bit more thoroughly for a bit. Unfortunately he needs banks as he has a habit of rolling in the corner right by the wall and I wouldn't want him to get cast. :)
 
Rocky01 said:
Maybe I can suggest shifting the banks a bit more thoroughly for a bit. Unfortunately he needs banks as he has a habit of rolling in the corner right by the wall and I wouldn't want him to get cast. :)
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I completely agree with Honeypot - I can't stand banks. As for rolling and getting cast, I can guarantee you that they will do nothing to stop your horse getting cast. They would have to be 6 feet high to even stand a chance. I would do away with the banks - go for the switch to straw and at least a couple of times a week turn the bed yourself even if they have already mucked out x
 
I have banks (shavings) they haven't been turned in 5 months due to pregnancy but they are usually degraded but not moldy when I get back to full form and dig em out (remember from last pregnancy). That being said I used silicone sealant around the box wall's to keep out external damp. Good luck.
 
I've always had banks, and never known them to get mouldy. When I was on shavings I used to take a bank out each time I added a bale, I'd replace the old bank with the new bale except for the very bottom layer which I'd dig out once a year, it would be damp and stale but never mouldy

Why don't you put him on diy if you're worried about it?
 
I don't do bank either unless you move them and stack them daily this is exactly what happens no point in paying for dust and spoor free bedding and then have a spoors breeding factory round the walls .
I think your straw idea will make it worse .
I can smell an unmoved bank as soon as I enter a stable one of the advantages of being very allergic.
 
This is the reason I muck my own horse out thoroughly once a week, even though he is on livery. The staff have 10/15 minutes to do each stable and they do a MUCH better job than I could in that time! But they don't have time to turn the banks and sift out every tiny scrap of poo in the OCD way that only an owner and occasional mucker out would have the patience for!

An alternative, if you're worried about him getting cast, could be to get rid of the banks and put up an anti cast strip round the walls instead. I also have a friend who uses unopened bales of shavings instead of banks so she can just do the middle part of the bed every day but the horse still has draught excluders. I knew someone else who bought these strange plastic fake banks, she had a back problem and really struggled with mucking out. They looked a bit odd but she seemed to like them.
 
I have a straw bed with banks and every time I muck out I just stick the fork into them from the floor and pull out the bottom into the middle that way they don't get solid or mouldy, I must admit it's one of my pet hates when people don't touch the banks, I had a livery here and the banks were black and disgusting the few times I mucked her horse out purely because the middle was only ever lifted.
 
I have a big straw bed with big (slightly excessive) banks. During the week I throw clean on to the banks, take out the middle and pull down, one day on the weekend I'll leave up to dry as I can muck out in the morning, the other day I will turn over the banks, put this in the middle and make new banks. That said, sometimes I wont get chance so my banks will go 2/3 weeks without being turned. At that point they're damp but not mouldy,
 
One of mine likes to use his banks as a pillow :D So although I do muck out onto the banks, I turn the banks too, fetching the underneath to the top. Or if the underneath is too wet, alternate which side the banks are on - both of mine tend to use one side for muck and wee and the other is relatively clean, so the banks on the dirty side get more attention.
 
My horse is the same JillA! I kind of dig into them each day to remove any wet, never had a problem with mold, but I probably could turn them more often than I do.
 
It's pretty normal if the banks don't get lifted.
Best way to manage is if your horse wees in bank then make sure you muck under the bank daily. When adding new bedding turn over a bank into the centre and put New bale as the bank. Alternate banks to turn.
 
At my old yard, they never mucked out the banks - they had 10-15 mins to do each bed, so concentrated on the middle, most were shavings beds.

I used to ask the girl that did my box to run down a bank to the ground each month and then top it up with fresh, so at least the banks were cleaned every three months.

When I did it myself, I used to do the whole shavings bed, banks and all, fork it up into a corner of the box for the day and then relay the bed at night. I would then top the banks up with shavings every 3-4 weeks. I had rubber matting, so the bed wasn't thick.
 
Sorry no help for your current situation OP but this thread has reminded me of a yard I was on years ago where they'd made their own rubber banks by attaching rubber mats to the walls. I thought it was a stroke of genius. Does anyone do this? I wonder if there's a reason it isn't a normal 'thing'?
 
I'm on 5 day livery so do mine at the weekend so I just do a side each time I muck out and over a month the banks get replaced.

It does seem to be common practice on livery not to muck out the banks.
 
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