Deep litter

[tinkandlily]

I know its a bit early to be thinking of it, but i was wondering how many people deep litter their stables. Personaly i dont like it and have never done it with my tbs as i see it that they are built to live outside and the stable provides enough shelter. I know some do it to save money however my tbs have a deep bed and banks which i lift every morning and leave it up with just a sprinkle of shavings to stop any splashes and it doesn't cost much more. As long as they have rugs on they are nice and toasty.

 

[AmyMay]

TB's aren't actually built to live outdoors. But that's a whole other discussion.

I deep litter half of my stable - the other half is equimats. You deep litter for several reasons, one is to provide a stable, thick layer that will prevent the horse from going down to the floor, another reason is to save labour. I wouldn't say it saves money.

 

[ThePony]

I don't personally. Mine have rubber mats, with a good shavings bed and banks over it. They are fully mucked out each morning. My mare also tends to be rather sensitive and sniffy so (although it is said to be a clean method) I would rather her stable was fully mucked out all the time instead just incase their was any irritation from the wee left at the base of the bed.

 

[Double_choc_lab]

We deep litter in the winter. We lift bed once a week but leave the banks in longer. Horsey doesn't wee on the banks. We do it to provide a deep and warm bed, to protect legs from bumps and knocks - we also have rubber matting so perhaps we're extra cautious. I don't know that it saves money but it does save time - also cuts down on dust if you're not throwing bed about twice a day. We don't have a problem with wee coming through - if there's a particularly wet patch we take that out.

 

[chestnut cob]

I deep litter all year round. My horse is very wet and if I took all of the wet out every day, I'd be taking maybe 2 barrows a time and having to put a new bale of shavings in every other day. Too expensive and too difficult! He is fairly tidy in the stable and doesn't hide dropping so it's easier to deep litter him. I take out any wet on the surface but I don't ever touch the base. No doubt I will be shot down by people on here for being a foul and disgusting owner but a permanently deep littered base suits my horse.

Using deep litter means I don't need to make the bed as a whole so deep as I would if it was a fresh bed every day. In the winter he is mucked out properly down to the top of the base, so the whole bed comes right up, all droppings out, and the bed stays up all day so the top of the base can dry as much as possible. He has 1 bale of new shavings most weeks, sometimes 2, and the wet base never comes through to the top (if that makes sense?). He is a big horse and I find that he moves the bed around too much, ending up with big bare concrete patches, if the wet comes out every day. I don't personally see the point of digging up your wet once a week, you may as well either take it out every day or do a proper deep litter and manage it correctly. I also level the base on his bed periodically - once a week in summer and more often in the winter. He tends to only wee in one spot so this area needs to be levelled off to keep the base the same height all over, otherwise it starts to look a bit like the Brecon Beacons in there! There are always plenty of clean shavings / clean bed over the top of the litter. TBH I've really just used the deep litter as a substitute for mats. He has arthritis and I'd prefer to give him a decent base to lie on rather than him scrabbling around on concrete (no comments about how if he's digging through a clean bed then he doesn't have enough bedding.. he is huge and always digs down through a clean bed, whereas he can't move deep litter).

In the summer he is only in during the day so a clean bed stays that way for much longer, plus obviously he isn't coming in with wet feet and wet rugs every day. ATM I'm only needing to put on 1 new bale every 3-4 weeks. Each day he is skipped out then I pull the bed up properly to the top of the base at the weekends and level off if needed.

It does save time and in the summer it saves a lot on bedding but in the winter I don't really think it's any different to having a normal bed. It takes quite a bit of managing to do it properly and stop the bed from becoming very wet. I use as many bales of shavings in winter as most people would do with a full muck out.