Bedding Woes

Balibee

Balibee

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Please can I have your help with my bedding problem!

I have a big 17hh very dirty gelding. He isn't particularly wet but by morning his bed resembles a current bun. he is lazy in the stable and doesn't pick his feet up so the whole bed just mashes into one big mess!

Snowflake shavings are a huge No No! He was better on Bed Down Excel but still taking too much out everyday simply because I would be there hours picking the poo out of the clean stuff.

I need to find something that doesn't move too much which will hold the dropping s together better.

Any ideas?

Thanks
 
does he have to be on shavings...i have a minging mare and she does the same thing so i just keep her on a huge deep straw bed...it works outa lot cheaper
 
I don't have that messy a horse but when shavings were like gold dust last year and couldn't get any I tried Easibed for a while, very woody like broken up tiny bits of matchstick which you deep litter. It's quite heavy in itself so the main bed doesn't move much though the front does. I think all beds with horses that like to amble around of a night get mushed up a bit. I'm on Aubiose now - it's lighter in weight and depending on what my horse has been up to in the night I sometimes find a tide of it at the stable door of a morning!
 
Agree with the above, I've tried shavings and Easibed but have gone back to Aubiose, it's great stuff. I found Easibed broke the poo up too much as it is quite a bit heavier
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If you have a lad like mine, who's droppings are quite dry anyway, anything that is absorbent enough to soak up wee also draws all the moisture out of the poo which means, when they start their whirling dervish cake mixer act, the poo just breaks up into tiny bits and mixes in.

You cannot win, I feel your pain as I spend at least fifteen minutes a day sieving poo out of his bed with a shavings fork! I use a mix of shavings and sawdust because I find the sawdust coats the poo 'buns' which makes them easier to pick up - if he hasn't actually trodden them to smithereens. I freely admit that I am not desperately pernickity about taking out every last fibre of poo as I deep litter and the whole problem is because the poo is so dry in the first place, so it just disintegrates into the bed! I take out all that I physically can and then add more shavings/sawdust on top.
 
Another vote for straw, it takes a bit of getting use to and your bed has to be deep but it works really well for my big horses. If you full muck out everyday (which i don’t) then you just throw all the clean straw up the bankings and you are left with the poo on the bottom that falls through the folk, easy.
 
Ha ha I think we have the same horse Balibee
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I have found wheat straw is infinitely better than shavings or barley straw, particularly when chopped shorter and put into square bales (round bales give you big swales of straw which get dragged about by their lazy feet)

I also noticed a massive improvement when Bentley was put into a bigger box that happened to be with a neighbour he adores, it seems to have given him the space (and the incentive?) to order his bed and he now poos in one corner
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I have found wheat straw is infinitely better than shavings or barley straw, particularly when chopped shorter and put into square bales :

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I much prefer wheat straw too - apart from the fact that I like the smell, some horses do seem less inclined to eat it than barley straw!
 
I'm on the same yard as Balibee and we would love to use straw but it's not allowed! Stables are in a big barn and we've bee told that straw is too dusty.

Out of interest, do you have to deep litter aubiose?
 
Thanks for all of the advice.

I love straw beds and would change in a heart beat! BUt we are not allowed straw on our yard
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My heart just sinks when I walk into his stable in the morning!

He is on Rubber matting and I would love to just put a sprinkling of bedding down every night and just sweep out the whole stable, but he is so dirty and he loves to lay down and I can't bear the thought of him laying in wet and muck or worse not wanting to lay down at all!

Does Aubiose need to be deep littered? I prefer full muck out.

Thanks
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Ohhh I know how you feel, you could be describing my horse there!

I have tried: Deep straw bed & deep shavings bed - still every morning it is like a poo war zone! I now have him on rubber matting with big straw banks and a 'sprinkle' of straw on the mats.
It's still not nice in the morning but it doesn't take me so long to shovel it all out (one barrow) rather than taking the whole lot out every morning and starting again!
 

Thanks,
Just done a search and Aubiose varies quite a lot in price!

If you do use is as a semi deep litter and take out wet once a week, how many bales do you get through a week?

My biggest problem is the amount I use. At £7.20 a bale for BedDown Excel, I am using between 4 - 6 bales a week!

Aubiose seems more expensive initially but If I can reduce to 1 - 2 bales a week, it would be great! As he is not too wet, I could have a go and deep litter through the week and just lift at weekends.

Anything is worth a go to make my weekday mucking out easier!
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My gelding is the same - I'm trying out wood pellets this winter. It is much cheaper than other bedding out there (it's working out at 2.30 per 10kg sack) so I hope it's going to be a good option. It's not great for mucking out daily though - apparently!
 
the other thing is a mixture of straw and shavings Sundown do a lovely one which is good for dirty nags easy to work and should'nt be a problem with yard owner as not at all dusty they also do there own hemp bedding and half the cost of auboise
 
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