Cost effective bed management and the messy horse

[HelenBack]

Mine sounds similar to yours and in his case it's because he likes to lie down and roll a lot and he'll have a good dig before he rolls so he generally just trashes the place. He also just poos wherever he's stood rather than actually going to the toilet so the poo ends up everywhere!

I'm currently trying aubiose and just taking the wet out once a week. On a daily basis I pick out the poos and can get most of them on the fork but then go through by hand with rubber gloves on to find the hidden and mashed up ones. Then I put the bed back together again.

It's early days so I don't know how I'll get on yet but I figure that although the aubiose is expensive, if I use less overall and it's quicker on a daily basis then it has to be worth it. If that doesn't work I'll probably admit defeat and put him on straw.

I do find bedmax to be the least absorbant of all the shavings, even though it is very pleasant when it goes down clean.

 

[ihatework]

I actually don’t think 2 bales of shavings a week is that bad?

But in answer to your question the way I like my beds is to semi deep litter straw with a pellet base underneath (was wood now straw pellets). Start with an inch or so of pellets, deep straw bed. Skip out through the week then once a week dig out the wet and fill the hole with fresh pellets.

 

[magicmoments]

My boy is disgusting most nights he is in, to the point its 3 barrows a day…. I use sawdust now and it definitely cut down how much I throw away, he just box walks and mushes it all in, ??‍

I used mats and wood pellets for my box walking TB gelding. Used one bag a week, and took a little wet out each day. He was horrendous on straw

 

[Barton Bounty]

I used mats and wood pellets for my box walking TB gelding. Used one bag a week, and took a little wet out each day. He was horrendous on straw

Im not allowed to use straw and he wasted 6 bags of wood pellets in one night! ?

 

[magicmoments]

Im not allowed to use straw and he wasted 6 bags of wood pellets in one night! ?

Blimey, thought he was bad, clearly not

 

[Barton Bounty]

Blimey, thought he was bad, clearly not

? he also ate a bliss bed in one night lol

 

[Boulty]

Might be worth trying hemp as a deep litter / semi deep litter as once it's compacted down it should be harder for her to turn into mush. Gonna be honest I've never rated bedmax as a shaving... Maybe see if there's a producer local to you as should be cheaper than the big name brands

 

[Caol Ila]

The hemp looks like an interesting idea (did I enjoy the marijuana plant on one maker’s bags? Yea, very much so!), but can’t find any obvious supplier near Glasgow. Don’t really want to store 50 bags in my garden. It’s not that big!!

 

[Sussexbythesea]

I found Bedmax to be one of the least absorbent and easily trampled bedding and wouldn’t use it with a messy wet horse. Wood pellets have been the most economical up until this year. I’ve now swapped to chopped rape straw and very happy with it. It beds down well to make a firm base that’s not so easily kicked about and it’s very absorbent. With a wet horse iME you e either got to go thick and deep or absolutely minimum with rubber mats. The in between size bed just doesn’t work.

 

[Cragrat]

. With a wet horse iME you e either got to go thick and deep or absolutely minimum with rubber mats. The in between size bed just doesn’t work.

Totally agree with this, and as I could never do the minimum, I always go deep. My daughters mare is a swamp monster, and I kept suggesting she just piled clean in on top of the wet, having taken out the droppings. Eventually she got brave enough, and within a few days the bed had really settled down. It did go through an ugly stage until it got deep enough, but once there was finally enough depth to withstand her rotavator tendancies, the amount she had to add drppoed from a bale daily to a bale weekly ( chopped rape straw). We had tried pellets underneath etc - she just dug them up.

 

[Surbie]

I found Bedmax to be one of the least absorbent and easily trampled bedding and wouldn’t use it with a messy wet horse. Wood pellets have been the most economical up until this year. I’ve now swapped to chopped rape straw and very happy with it. It beds down well to make a firm base that’s not so easily kicked about and it’s very absorbent. With a wet horse iME you e either got to go thick and deep or absolutely minimum with rubber mats. The in between size bed just doesn’t work.

I agree. It is just my opinion but I don't like the minimal bed on mats option. The horses stink as a result and I don't think it's nice on their lungs to be standing around in it either.

My horse is wet and heavy on his feet, but not too messy as long as the bed is deep enough. I've just switched off shavings because they're now £13 a bale to misanthus and straw pellets in the wee spot. I allow for a bale of miscanthus and a bag of pellets a week, but if it goes up to 2 bales of miscathus it's cheap enough (compared to the shavings) to not worry too much.

Out of interest, when you say a deep bed, how deep do you mean?

 

[Caol Ila]

This feels like a stupid question but how do you do a deep litter bed in a way that makes these layers and you’re not cleaning everything out every day?

Managed to own horses for over 25 years without learning this skill. My old mare was a very clean horse.

 

[Bobthecob15]

Deep bed on straw, our pony is filthy I've never known such a small horse make so much mess overnight! Thank goodness he's on straw I dread to think how much shavings he'd get through

 

[Sussexbythesea]

.

Out of interest, when you say a deep bed, how deep do you mean?

I usually have a solid under layer of about 3 inches and a loose top of about 3 inches. My banks are more storage to pull down during the week more than anything.

I never fork through the whole base layer. I only take the worst wet patch out every few days and fill the hole with the next worst bedding. If it is wet on top too soon I just take the top bit off. Clean bedding is always on top. I fork through the top layer for droppings. You have to resist taking every tiny bit of wet out every day. I have rubber matting covering the whole floor as well.

 

[atropa]

This feels like a stupid question but how do you do a deep litter bed in a way that makes these layers and you’re not cleaning everything out every day?

Managed to own horses for over 25 years without learning this skill. My old mare was a very clean horse.

If you're talking about doing it with straw, this is how I would go about:
Very large initial bed laid. Insert horse for the night.
In the morning, remove all visible poos by using a shovel (jiggle the shovel next to the poos). Carefully fork through the top layer for any rogues. Leave in wet, pat whole bed down and add a small layer of fresh straw on top.
Rinse and repeat for a couple of days and you should have a nice compact base at that point -just keep adding as much fresh straw as you need to keep the top layer clean and dry

 

[Caol Ila]

If you're talking about doing it with straw, this is how I would go about:
Very large initial bed laid. Insert horse for the night.
In the morning, remove all visible poos by using a shovel (jiggle the shovel next to the poos). Carefully fork through the top layer for any rogues. Leave in wet, pat whole bed down and add a small layer of fresh straw on top.
Rinse and repeat for a couple of days and you should have a nice compact base at that point -just keep adding as much fresh straw as you need to keep the top layer clean and dry

Cheers! Laid a thick straw bed down tonight. Will try this and see how we go!

 

[atropa]

Cheers! Laid a thick straw bed down tonight. Will try this and see how we go!

Good luck! Its soul destroying having a really messy horse...my oldest is awful as well

 

[Griffin]

I always had mine on shavings until this year when I tried straw pellets on rubber matting. It has made such a difference for some reason, I have gone from probably taking out a barrow and a half a day to half a barrow.

 

[maya2008]

Deep litter is horrendous to start - you have to ignore the wet and just remove the poo, adding a little fresh on top. It goes miserably wet for a few days then starts to firm up. If you stick at it and do not disturb the base, you eventually get a solid, well-draining porous layer that allows the wee through to drain away, and is warm and firm on top so the poo stays where you can find it. I find an older, well looked after deep litter base smells a lot less than a wet bed or a minimal bed on mats. You do need a stable that allows the wee to drain off somewhere for that though.

 

[Julia0803]

I had a swamp monster when just on straw- easily taking out two barrows a day.

I swapped to wood pellets underneath and just scooped out the poo and left the wet, then did a huge muck out every ten days or so, when the wet came up to the surface.

Unfortunately this year wood pellets were way out of budget. I ordered miscanthus pellets but they were swamped with orders and 5 weeks later they still hadn’t arrived so offered me straw pellets instead.

They’ve been fine absorbency wise but I’ve had to switch up my technique a bit.

Previously I’d fill the middle hole (where I’d removed the wet) with pellets and not bother wetting/mixing etc.

However, when I did this with the straw pellets it was a disaster- I came down in the morning to find he’d scraped all the straw back and eaten all the ‘mediocre pony nuts’ ?‍. Ffs!

I now take out the really wet stuff, but leave some that isn’t soaked, but still starting to clump. Then pour in new pellets, and mix it all up.

Even the dog was sampling the straw pellets when I was trying to do his bed yesterday. (Despite what they claim I do feed my gannet animals!!)

 

[Caol Ila]

Thank you atropa and others.

Followed advice with deep littering a straw bed, and we are not burning through bedding anymore. The horse seems happier as well. There are more intact poos and everything is a bit less mashed up. I don't think she will ever be one of those horses with a poo spot and a pee spot- she just goes wherever she happens to be standing - but this still seems like a better system.

Sometimes, this forum really works, lol.