Best bedding for a messy horse that digs his bed up like a dog!

LFD

LFD

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 March 2013
Messages
186
Location
Edinburgh
Visit site
Hi, my very messy 6yo Irish Sports Horse is on full box rest after an unfortunately incident with some fencing.

He has 34mm rubber mats and a bed of shavings but he digs his bed up and turns it into a right mess. It means I can't deep litter as he mixes all the wet with the dry and am going through bags and bags of shavings a week. I'm in a wooden barn so am not allowed straw :-(

Any ideas for an alternative bedding?

Many thanks in advance.
 
Can I ask why you need to put a bed on top of the rubber matting? Not being funny, but I have these thick comft mats and only have one corner covered in "summer" where he will wee (most don't like splashing their legs) and if he's in, the rest gets swept up the sides. I only put a thick bed down in the middle of winter now that he's older but when he was younger, he would only get about 2-3" of shavings on top of the rubber matting when he was in at night.
My gelding digs his bed up too but as it was summer when I initially bought rubber mats about twelve years ago, I only put shavings in the corner for him to wee on when he was stabled during the day.
Hope this helps
 
muff747 - I have only just put the mats down so have found it hard to get use to them and break the habit of a big bed. They are the easimats so lovely and thick - I think I need to just bite the bullet and put a much lighter bed down - thanks.

turkana - it is so annoying, I end up taking the full bed out once a day as it's such a mess - talk about a high maintenance horse!
 
My mums old mare used to do this. She used pellets on the base and shavings on top. Once the pellets had moistened and settled they made a good base that she didn't dig into.
The other option is to just put a thin layer of shavings down in the day and bank them up until night time and make sure youv'e got god banks. Our other mare digs her shaving up if she doesn't have big banks and a deep bed as she's trying to make it more comfy!
 
Thanks SNORKEY, I think a thin layer in the day and bigger banks at night. If I put more in, he digs it up even more - it's like he is a puppy digging for a bone!
 
My welsh did this drove me crazy was spending a small fortune in shavings iv put him on woodpellets and he has stopped im not sure if its down to that :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top