Deep litter..

teamsarazara

teamsarazara

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I know these posts are probably done to death but can't find this specific question... Can deep litter beds ever look clean? Might sound rediculous, I have been asked to do one on the yard and maybe just because he is a dirty horse... The bed has been down around 2 months and there is a base but it just looks disgusting.. I'm finding myself putting in loads of shavings and I'm not sure that is the point...
 
Yes they can once the base has settled, I do take out a little of the wet though, I take out the soggy wet bits that tend to sit on top a couple of times a week, I find this helps keep the bed clean
 
My sister has her two on deep litter. They have a solid base with looser bedding on the top. The poop sits in the top inch or two and gets lifted every day while the wet goes down into the base so, unless you have an absolute nightmare of a horse, the top should stay pretty clean.
 
I think it depends on the horse. I've got one who has a very clean deep litter bed. I just pick up the poo and any really wet parts. Her beds always dry and clean.
On the other hand I've got two who looked like they hasn't been mucked out in about 3 months! They're on matting and small beds now.
 
I'm guessing its probably the horse as he is mucked out in the morning then skipped out at lunchtime then again at night.. Thanks
 
Mine always looks clean after a daily tidy up, but then I use straw. Not sure about shavings as can imagine having to use quite a lot to stop it looking dirty.

On straw I add approx 1-2 small 'slices' of straw a day sprinkled on the top of the bed after droppings removed and front area swept out. I try not to disturb the base at all and take out as little as possible.

Did take quite a few weeks for the base layer to settle though.
 
I used to have an easibed one that stayed down for two years - the top bit was completely white and lovely. The pony could nearly climb out over her door by the time I finally got round to digging it out though. I was doing my a-levels at the time so I obviously had nothing better to do all day than skip out and play at dressage. Also my parents were paying for the bedding so I had three bales a week. Bad child.
 
I agree straw is much better, this is the first time I've used shavings. Probably using about 2 bales a week atm, as I have a limited amount for yard until next delivery so don't want to go mad where I don't need to... I'd much prefer to use straw but we only have enough per week to do us, boss is trying to be economical so I have everything planned down to a T. How many scoops of feed I use a day, how many bales of shavings, straw, hay. The list goes on really... Why am I not an accountant or something? Why am I working with horses?...
 
I think it depends not only on the horse (i have one who could be deep littered easily, another who would be a nightmare), but also the person doing the bed - deep littering is an art & i've seen some wonderful deep litter beds, but also some really grotty ones with horses stood for weeks in very grotty wet beds.
 
I also think it depends on how much the horse is on it - you mentioned a muck out then two skip outs so assuming hrs in 24/7. Think its easier to keep a nice deep litter bed when they're only in at night.
 
Sorry haven't been online.. Yes in 24/7... When you say level out the base do you take some of the base out or just scrape it around to level it?
 
No, it really is an art form! The idea is to disturb the base as little as possible, once the bed is established. You remove all poo, every day, as normal, never leave it in but you aim to take as little of the wet out as possible, unless its saturated or comes to the surface. When you're establishing the bed, you just put more fresh bedding on top and keep packing it down.
 
I deep littered my mare once, big fail.. she ended up with a bed so massive it ended up about half a foot thick and you had to actually step up to get on it to muck out!! It still needed almost 2 bags of shavings on a week dispite never taking any out! :(

Moral of the story.. dont deep litter a box walker.
 
My semi deep litter looks gorgeous but I'm quite anal about it! I do not skimp on bedding either and has 2'3 banks to help stabilise the whole bed
 
I don't like the idea of deep litter, prefer to muck out fully every day.

I worked with horses that was deep littered and never want to clear out one of those beds ever again. I will stick to my daily full muck out and fully turned beds
 
I used to keep mine down and then just take out the wet at weekend, but a while ago I thought I'd try to keep the wet down longer and keep topping up with dry - it worked brilliantly and I only went through one bale of fresh Duobed per week between two horses (although the young one is very very clean). Then this weekend I took the wet out and it looks a mess again. So I'm going to let it get established again and leave it til late Spring to take it up again. It looked much better when it was deeper and was much easier to do.
 
I find deep litter best for box walkers.......

And yes they can look clean. My OH manages to get ours looking respectable despite our mare being filthy and another lady has a deep litter bed that always looks like she has put in a fresh bale of shavings.
 
I'm deep littering mine on box rest and it's working really well now that the base is established. Very easy to muck out and uses about a bale of shaving a week to top up. Pony also spends plenty of time snoozing on it, so everyone is happy. The only bit I'm dreading is when the time comes to take it all up for a full clean out...
 
I just really can't understand where I'm going wrong lol :/ maybe just depends on horse, I level the bed constantly as I find it all moves to the back
 
teamsarazara said:
I just really can't understand where I'm going wrong lol :/ maybe just depends on horse, I level the bed constantly as I find it all moves to the back
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure that's the horse .
I used to work on a deep litter yard with those horses we move all the clean top to the side and then levelled the hard bit underneath removing some if necessary.
And raked the loose clean stuff back.
 
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