Big straw bed or smaller straw bed?

Spyda

Spyda

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I've switched from using deep-litter shavings since moving yards, and am now bedding down on straw. Can someone please enlighten me as to which method is best to keep the bed clean and to reduce the amount of fresh straw I am using?

My horses are in at night and out during the day. At the moment I am using straw from one of those large oblong bales. I started the beds with about 3 or 4 sections from the big bale, making a corner bed of about 8 x 8 foot square and about 1 foot deep. I do a full muck out daily, re-lay whatever clean straw is left and then add another big section of clean straw over the top to provide a clean top layer (my horses do not eat their straw).

Seems to me that the beds are pretty grim each morning and careful as I am to pick out all the clean, I am still taking a couple of barrows of wet and dirty straw from each stable. Plus I am using 1 big bale (costing £20) per week per two horses.

Looking at some of the other beds at the yard, with larger amounts of straw laid, I am wondering if using more straw to create a deeper bed with banks, would actually work out better in the long run. My thinking was, more straw = more digging about in the morning when mucking out = slower.

I don't want to deep litter or use rubber mats. Any suggestions?
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I have found with most bedding materials, the bigger the bed, the cleaner it stays.

My mare is in each night, her box is 15 x 15 and bedded down for 15 x13 of that. She has huge banks. I only use a small bale of straw every 6 - 8 days.

Jo x
 
I have a 15 x 12 stable and my horse is on straw I have a big bed and take about a barrow load out a day (maybe 2 if in early) I use a small bale every other day if in 24 /7 or 1 bale every 3 days if out during the day. However I pay £1.25 a bale. I do have a deep bed and find it helps but I also have rubber mats so not sure if thats a difference
 
I tend to keep a bigger straw bed, I use 2 bales a week at a cost of £5.40.
I put on a full bale every 3-4 days, depending on how the bed looks, I don't do small top ups.
I do find that as the bed decreases in size I seem to take more out. I skip out in the morning, taking a flat barrow out, in the evening I do a full muck out and get a heaped barrow out.
So, in answer to your question, I think a larger bed is easier to manage.
 
One of mine is on straw, I use the same large oblong bales at £20 each. I put in 2 sections each weekend, his bed is banked all the way round (3 sides) and covers most of his stable (12x12) apart from a strip along the front. However, I deep litter him as I find this is the only way I can stop him churning the whole lot into a mess by morning. Having a base really stops him dragging it all around!!
 
WOW!

I used to keep really huge straw beds, with good deep banks all round, but always found the banks got yukky after a while. No matter how conscientious I tried to be to turn at least one over per day! Mind you, if it saves on straw maybe I'll switch one horse back onto that system and see how it works. Dunno why I didn't think of doing that before now. Duh.
 
Definitely the bigger the better, the wet needs to drain through to the bottom. Also, if you only bed part of your stable it is easier for the horse to spread the bed further, thus thinning it out!
 
Big beds all the way! The stud is all bedded on straw, and we find that even with the messy ones, the bigger the bed, the easier and more economical it is. If something is REALLY dirty, then we semi-deep litter it to save straw.
 
Mine's on straw. Her bed is approx 1.5 feet deep, with banks approx 1 foot higher than that, covering all 4 walls, except for a tiny section at the front where I put her buckets. She's much cleaner with a bigger bed, and I notice the difference for a day or so before she has fresh bedding. On a deep bed, I take out 1 barrow a day, but on a less deep bed, I take out up to 3 barrows a day.
 
Yes I agree, big fluffy straw bed with huge banks keeps a lot cleaner than small. Here is mine, as you can see, I do NOT suffer from OCD
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Right! All your answers have convinced me - big beds it is tonight. I cleaned all my boxes right out this morning so can start afresh today. Fingers crossed I've enough straw left
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One of mine is on straw, shes v.messy! & she has a big straw bed, with big banks, iv found that the bigger the bed the cleaner the stable & also i dont tend to put as much clean straw in due to the size of her bed.
 
A big deep bed. stays cleanerlonger. the other alternative is rubber mats with a thin bed and throw it all away every day.
 
I have a moderately deep bed, muck it out every day and get about a barrow out- I use about 2 bales a week of wheat straw, I only pay 75p per bale.....ponio fairly clean but tramples it a bit so I have to pick though it....on weekends I do my 'big muck out' - get all the little bits out I may have missed and leave the bed up to dry off....

Other horse is on shavings still- use a bale a week on him cos he is very clean - cost me £5.65 at present....
 
The bigger the bed, the less it gets kicked about so it tends to stay cleaner. Personally, I deep litter mine and he's really clean, needing only 1 small bale a week. His bed always look immaculate, I think I'm lucky I have a particularly tidy horse though!
 
HUGE straw beds, I use one of those oblongs in 9/10 days, to bed down 5 horses (6 actually as one big stable is shared by 2 ponies), 3 of which are dirty so and so's.

I find shallow beds get 'knitted' and very dirty, and with my big bed I don't have to take out all of the wet every day, but do take it all out of 1 on fridays and 2 each on sat/sun. You could lay down in my beds and sleep very comfortably.

Works out at less then £2 per horse per week for bedding.
 
[ QUOTE ]
WOW!

I used to keep really huge straw beds, with good deep banks all round, but always found the banks got yukky after a while. No matter how conscientious I tried to be to turn at least one over per day! Mind you, if it saves on straw maybe I'll switch one horse back onto that system and see how it works. Dunno why I didn't think of doing that before now. Duh.

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Spyda, when you take the wet out (middle for geldings, towards the edges for mares) pull one bank out conpletely, and use the stuff from the bottom to repace the hole you've made, stamp it in. I take out some wet most days and do that, obviously rotating the bank you use. At the weekeend I pile it all up in one corner and use the old banks to make the new base.

My beds are huge, with large banks, I flatten the bed itself with the fork (pat it down hard) so the horses stay on top of it to a certain extent rather than wade through it. Mine go right to the doors to pervent draughts, I do have very big stables though which gives me room to do it like that.
 
You know, you've hit the nail on the head!

It's having mares which makes them so dirty to muck out. Geldings naturally pee towards the middle of the bed, so it must be pretty easy to 'find' the wet stuff. All mine are fillies and mares, and they all always ensure they only pee in their stable (first thing they do when they come in of a night
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); and, of course, they only pee on a bank (and never on the same bank twice in a row, of course
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) Then they mill about and mash all their dung into what ever is left clean. Grrrrrr......
Filthy, dirty, rotten beasts that they are
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I'll try the big bed in the yearling's stable tonight. I know it will be a doddle to muck out tomorrow. Always is after a fresh bed has been put in. It'll be a few days down the line when I'll really discover whether I can save on trips to the muck heap and on straw. Thanks
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Just thought of something else. All of my horses have their 'furniture' arranged to suit them.

Salad has to have his hay to the right of the door and water on the left. If it's the other way round he will actually walk a circle from hay to water/door, but his way he steps back and forth. Don't ask me why, because I'd assume if it was a stiffness thing he'd still circle when he needed to go back to one or the other, he simply doesn't do it with things the way he prefers them.

Both mares are the other way around and need their hay on the left.

I suggested this to someone who's horse was making a right mess of the bed, she thought I was mad and only tried it to humour me - and it worked.

Significant difference to every horse I've tried it with, worth watching and seeing the eat a mouthful of hay/look out door/ go back to hay routine and see if you can or need to change the position?
 
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