Bedding woes...

[spotty_pony]

What does everyone else keep their very messy horses on that doesn't cost them an arm and a leg?!

I am currently paying £30 per week just for bedding for my very messy and wet Appy. I've tried everything - straw is cheapest option but he makes so much mess I still use a lot of it and it takes ages to muck out. Megazorb on it's own deep littered to give it a 'base' was still not absorbent enough so I've mixed it with shavings which is better but he is still having either 2-3 bags of Megazorb per week and 1-2 bales of Shavings! He does have rubber matting but I still like him to have a decent bed as he likes to lie down.

What does everyone else do?

 

[Mule]

Mabey a bottom layer of shavings for absorption and straw on top for a bed.

 

[mandyroberts]

Megasorb base with straw on top with rubber base.

 

[ester]

similarly I like a bottom layer of woodpellets in the pee spot. Have one this under straw, bliss and miscanthus with success.

It depends a little on how he generates the mess though, if he digs that won't work!

 

[spotty_pony]

similarly I like a bottom layer of woodpellets in the pee spot. Have one this under straw, bliss and miscanthus with success.

It depends a little on how he generates the mess though, if he digs that won't work!

He doesn't dig it up, he just walks it in a bit bit mostly it's just the fact the wet soaks all the way through to the top.

 

[DabDab]

I have two who are very wet and wood pellets are a godsend - though you do have to adapt your strategy with how to use them for each horse. Mine go through two bags of those a week.

 

[Theocat]

He doesn't dig it up, he just walks it in a bit bit mostly it's just the fact the wet soaks all the way through to the top.

How deep are you keeping it? Deep litter can work brilliantly in these situations but you do need a fairly beefy bed.

 

[ihatework]

My one absolutely minging one would go through 4 bales of premium shavings a week!

She was a different animal semi deep littered on a deep base of wood pellets and the deep straw over the top. Saved me going bankrupt! I too won’t bed on minimal bedding.

 

[terrierliz]

Megazorb mixed with wood pellets has worked for one of mine - bag of each a week added. I don't soak the wood pellets

 

[meleeka]

I have two who are very wet and wood pellets are a godsend - though you do have to adapt your strategy with how to use them for each horse. Mine go through two bags of those a week.

Another fan of wood pellets. You have to have a deep bed though but my boy is truly awful. It doesn’t help that his stable is quite small but with any other bedding it just all ends up mixed together.

 

[Gloi]

Is there a reason she is so wet? If she is drinking an abnormal amount it might be worth testing her for Cushings

 

[SEL]

I started using easibed for my draft when Countrywide ran out of wood pellets and it's been great - he's filthy. I sort of deep litter it adding 2 x bags a week and digging the worst of the base out when a new bag goes in. Soaks up wee well and he's lying down which he only does when comfy.

Still mixes his poo in everywhere tho.

 

[Nasicus]

I'm having good luck at the moment with my wet, messy, foot dragging mare on a deep base of NedzBed Pro. I'm usually a wood pellet person, and my tidier mare is on them, but the mucky mare has been in most nights and some days and the clean up has been minimal. I put 4 bales down on concrete and it seems to be working.

 

[milliepops]

I have two who are very wet and wood pellets are a godsend - though you do have to adapt your strategy with how to use them for each horse. Mine go through two bags of those a week.

yeah my gang are all minging in different ways and wood pellets are my bedding of choice for all of them. 2 pee in one place, so I put a sack of dry pellets in their pee spots and dig out as the wet comes to the top. The rest of the bed is a mix of fluffed up and dry pellets.

One does all her poos in one gigantic pile so that is easy, the other drags hers around a bit but it's so easy to sift out. Millie used to pulverise her bed, she was terrible on anything other than pellets. I can't afford another pallet at the moment so I'm on chopped rapestraw for now - better than shavings IMO but not a patch on the pellets.

 

[SpringArising]

I use wood pellets too. Took me a while to get the hang of them but I really like them now, and I love that they're dust-free.

I use on average three bags per week (about 35 quid a month), but I'm quite fussy with his bed and keep it very clean and dry - others at the yard like to churn in the wet with the dry.

My horse always wees in one spot so it's very easy for me to just take all the wet out, and churn all of the dry up nicely to make it fluffy again!

I find it's best to not soak the pellets fully - his bed seems to stay cleaner and drier for longer when you have one bag of actual pellets kicking around in there to catch the wet.

 

[JillA]

Is there a reason she is so wet? If she is drinking an abnormal amount it might be worth testing her for Cushings

^^^ This

And if the drainage is fine, rubber topped EVA matting under a thin layer of something like miscanthus on top. Initial outlay but will save in the long run, my messy horse uses a third of a £6 bale a day

 

[Kate23]

I have recently moved my absolute filth bag of a colt on to this: https://www.cavierabedding.co.uk/caviera_products/raviera-pro/

It has transformed my mucking out life!! It i s a bargainous £6.00 a bale, they are tightly packed and one bale really goes far, its incredibly absorbent, and the lavender takes away any stinky pee stench, the wee seems to stay in one sort of clump almost as it falls, he is a pathological bed stirrer and still this is easy tp pick the poos from etc .... I love it!!!!

 

[sport horse]

I find rubber matting makes the beds wetter. Where I have removed it from stables it is much better. Rubber is totally non permeous and even concrete does permit some of the wet to soak away.

Other than for safety reason, I will never put rubber in again. We originally did 12 stables and I am gradually removing it all just keeping odd mats for doorways etc.

 

[Leo Walker]

He doesn't dig it up, he just walks it in a bit bit mostly it's just the fact the wet soaks all the way through to the top.

Sounds like mine! I deep litter him on a deep pellet bed. That keeps it firm and stable so it doesnt get turned into mush. I take any wet out that makes it to the top, which is about once a week and then I chuck a bag of dry pellets in. Its made a huge and dramatic difference!

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Wood pellets as others have said. I don’t deep litter because mine is an excavator. I find if I take his first pee out after he comes in from the field and before he can stir it around it makes a massive difference. But he’s a creature of habit always a poo and a pee when he comes in so it’s easy to get.

 

[OldieButGoodie]

I use flax bedding. Having used all the other types (shavings, straw, wood pellets, shredded cardboard etc) I really do think its the best I've come across. It copes well with my chronic box walking weeing pooing monster and 1 bale a week is all I need for him. He is in the stable at least 12 hours a day and trust me this horse pees for Britain.

 

[Street_Skill]

Mine's the same, totally disgusting! I used to deep litter on straw which worked well for him, I just had to make sure that the bed was really deep and add plenty of fresh straw daily. In the last year he has been diagnosed with RAO which is triggered by ammonia (a reason not to use a minimal bedding system!) so now I have to be dust free and super clean because the slightest whiff of ammonia sets him off. I have tried loads of bedding combinations, but I now have him on lightly soaked pellets in the wee patch and a mix of large flake shavings for drainage (such as Bedmax) and chipped wood (Softchip) or chopped rape (Rapasorb) to help with absorbing the wee. I deep litter and just take out poo daily and a few handfuls (with gloves!) of wee when it comes to the top then dig it all out once a week. I use a bag of pellets and half a bag of shavings and half a bag of chip/chopped rape a week, the stable never smells and it is pretty easy to look after. Works out at about £15 per week.

I tried Megazorb too but it just wasn't good enough!

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

What does everyone else keep their very messy horses on that doesn't cost them an arm and a leg?!

I am currently paying £30 per week just for bedding for my very messy and wet Appy. I've tried everything - straw is cheapest option but he makes so much mess I still use a lot of it and it takes ages to muck out. Megazorb on it's own deep littered to give it a 'base' was still not absorbent enough so I've mixed it with shavings which is better but he is still having either 2-3 bags of Megazorb per week and 1-2 bales of Shavings! He does have rubber matting but I still like him to have a decent bed as he likes to lie down.

What does everyone else do?

I have given up with my mares bed as she wont pee outside and does it all inside and using 3 bales a week. So now she can have 2 that's it and if bed goes thin well so be it, wood pellets did not work so gave up with them.
She sees me in am and straight away pees, then after breakfast she pees again before going out. 2 barrows at least a day ...............................................

 

[Mule]

I have given up with my mares bed as she wont pee outside and does it all inside and using 3 bales a week. So now she can have 2 that's it and if bed goes thin well so be it, wood pellets did not work so gave up with them.
She sees me in am and straight away pees, then after breakfast she pees again before going out. 2 barrows at least a day ...............................................

She sounds a bit like one of mine.
He marches straight into his stable, immediately after I've cleaned it. He stares at me, pees, then marches out again. I'm not sure what he's trying to tell me but it's too deliberate to be a coincidence

 

[JillA]

She sounds a bit like one of mine.
He marches straight into his stable, immediately after I've cleaned it. He stares at me, pees, then marches out again. I'm not sure what he's trying to tell me but it's too deliberate to be a coincidence

It's the splash back - usually when that happens the outdoor surface is fairly impermeable, resulting in ammonia filled pee splashing onto their legs. Bedding stops that, which is why a lot of horses prefer in their stables, and hence the thin layer needed on top of rubber mats

 

[meleeka]

It's the splash back - usually when that happens the outdoor surface is fairly impermeable, resulting in ammonia filled pee splashing onto their legs. Bedding stops that, which is why a lot of horses prefer in their stables, and hence the thin layer needed on top of rubber mats

My boy won’t pee on hard ground at all. When I dropped him at the vets for a day I did explain that he needed some bedding on the mats. They didn’t provide it and when I got him home he’d done the biggest wee ever in the trailer (which had a small amount of bed) and has been slipping because of it. I’m guessing he’d held it in all day. I wasn’t happy

He goes in the stable just for a poo too which is infuriating.

 

[Mule]

It's the splash back - usually when that happens the outdoor surface is fairly impermeable, resulting in ammonia filled pee splashing onto their legs. Bedding stops that, which is why a lot of horses prefer in their stables, and hence the thin layer needed on top of rubber mats

Very interesting. You're right about the ground surface. Strange how he isn't concerned about rolling in his own poop..