Deep Litter? Who does it?

My stables have dirt floors which means the wet drains away leaving you nice composty stuff underneath and no smells.
Would never have concrete now as they are non slip. warm draining floors ideal for deep litter :)
 
I do with shavings! The horses come in for the winter end of November and go back out march time! I deep litter until they go back out on the spring! Then dig the lot out! It's back breaking but worth it for the time and money you save through the depths of winter! I only put a bale of shavings on every 3-4 weeks :).
 
YUK not me, did it once, I didn't know any better copied a friend

All I can say is EWE and YUK no way would I do it again, think it causes other problems, amongst others, thrush, COPD
 
NOISYGIRL said:
YUK not me, did it once, I didn't know any better copied a friend

All I can say is EWE and YUK no way would I do it again, think it causes other problems, amongst others, thrush, COPD
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There should be no smell of ammonia to interfere with breathing and it should not cause problems with thrush because the wet is held well underneath, that is part of the point of deep littering as CuriousYellow says none of that should be a problem if done properly!
 
I used to swear by deep litter shavings as I'm a sucker for white beds. However, due to expense and the fact that we now have two ponies in each stable (very large stables), I've moved to deep litter straw. They are in at night and have access to their respective stables during the day.

Does mean I smell after mucking out, but boy do they party during the night and so straw is much easier as I can use loads.

I also generally keep the bed going until the spring. Much warmer to deep litter.
 
We deep litter a 16.3 mare on straw. Complete muck out every weekend. Just take poohs through the week and any odd bits of dirty straw which may have been scraped to the top. The bed is very deep and the wet doesn't come to the top. It doesn't smell and we don't have a problem with dust.

Mare lies down everynight and as the bed is so deep and cushioned you can see her complete outline. We don't get wet smelly rugs either:)
 
My two are deep littered on straw. One - a big cob mare refuses to lie down unless she has a thick bed, and is just too wet for me to contemplate mucking out fully every day on the depth of bed she needs to be happy.

Every 3 weeks I take out some of the wet leaving a good layer behind and chuck a whole load more straw in. Every day I take out the poo, rebuild the banks, agitate the dry top layer to create an even covering and put in 2 sections of clean straw and pat down with a fork.

The beds are warm, neat and don't smell, stables have good airflow, horses happy, me happy, bank balance happy, everyones a winner. In the spring/summer, horses get turned out full time and I dig the whole lot out.

I tempt other half with a pub lunch and armed with two wheel barrows we take it in turns to dig and shift, he fills one up while I empty the other one. Its hard work, and we stink at the end of it - but we usually have both beds dug out in just under 2 hours.

I'm not on a livery yard, but yes, have had the usual sneering down nose from other horsie people when I say I deep litter. I just figure if they are hell bent on leading a punitive life then well its up to them isn't it?
 
I have always deep littered my beds, both shavings and straw beds, at the moment my boy is on straw and its just so much easier. think i would have to take his whole bed out if i lifted it every day. i tend to remove the top of the base every week or so (to stop it getting too thick) I basically play it by ear and if it looks to be getting a bit mingy the i tidy it up. my problem with him is that he takes to digging every now and then which basically destroys my base lol
 
I do. Have done so for years with different horses and it has always worked.Takes a bit of time to get the bed just so but it's warm. I take out bits of really wet every weekend and back fill and just put clean shavings on top. Then as weather improves (ahem) I take the bed back down again until Spring when it all comes out.
 
I deep litter my boy on wood pellets which works brilliantly.

He's really wet and walks about a lot and churns everything up. The bed is on a concrete floor and I have mats at the front. I remove the poo and fluff the banks up daily then every few days, or as needed, I chuck the top layer up and level the base out (I get a bump where he pees and the pellets soak it up) and then put then bed back down. I put the pellets in dry and get though about 4 or 5 10kg bags per week - which is much better than the 3 bales of shavings that I was using before I discovered wood pellets!

Might not be everyones cup of tea but it works really well for him and it means the bed doesn't move when he has a party so I never have to worry about him getting down to the concrete.
 
I've done it for years with straw, shavings & now flax (jopak) - I love it - soo much quicker in the mornings & with the flax I take the whole bed out about every 12/13 weeks so about 4 times per year as my mare is VERY VERY wet but thankfully she's pretty tidy & doesn't churn her bed up much. We just get a hole dug think where she gets up/down so just fill it in each morning !!
 
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