Deep Littering - Help!

ashlingm

ashlingm

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Due to the awful weather I've been keeping my two in a bit longer than I'd like. Ideally I've have them out for at least 12 hours a day but with the weather being so bad lately there has been a few days where they've only gotten out for 3 hours...or not at all!

The problem is the two of them are quite wet. They are currently bedded on rubber matting and a deep layer of shavings. If I skip out last thing at night the bed lasts a bit longer but the past few days I've had to remove about 3/4 of their bed (banks are fine!). They are relatively good with poos and do them in a row at the back...well, one is better than the other!

I've gone on little horsey holidays where the beds have been deep littered and despite being in all day for 2-3 days the beds remained dry and warm. I'm now considering changing over to deep litter bedding in the hopes that I can cut down on my shavings ...and mainly that they have a drier bed!

How do I go about starting a deep litter bed? I'll be removing the rubber matts from their stables..is it just a case of fresh shavings over the wet spots and removing the poo? I've had them on deep litter shavings and straw - is one better than the other? I heard shavings are easier to establish? Is it more economical than traditional beds? What are the advantages and disadvantages of deep litter?

Thanks :)
 
We deep litter but with pellets rather than shavings...

Would that be an option. Makes a lovely bed for a clean mare and for a fairly clean pony gelding. Gelding gets dug out once a fortnight, mare about once every 5 days but then she pees in the same spot so most of the bed is left intact.

Fiona
 
I would consider using pellets, either completely or on the bottom as a base. I use them under bliss (chopped rape straw) and my mum uses them under straw for weekly/2 weekly deep littering.
 
I deep littered for years, with either chopped rape straw or miscanthus. The secret is keep topping up even if you feel it isn't needed - if it gets too thin the wet does spread and they are standing on damp all night, even if it isn't sodden. More recently I have topped it off with a layer of ordinary straw, to keep their feet off the litter and make warm dry banks. Worked fine, you can lift the droppings on the straw unless they are a real mixer.
I bought mats recently and discovered one horse is very wet and another is relatively dry so they do differ quite a lot.
 
I deep litter on a bed of sawdust under shavings with straw banks, i lay sawdust down to about a foot think and put straw banks in then top up with shavings or sawdust depending on what is avaliable.
whatever I have deep littered with in the past I have always started with a massively big bed
 
Deep litter with shavings works surprisingly well once it is established. Just make sure there is a good layer of clean bedding over the wet and once the base is established it helps to take out some wet, though not necessarily every day. I used to just scrape off the top layer every now and then.
 
I have a VERY wet mare and have struggled getting deep litter bases established as she has big feet and tends to mash her bed up :( - if anyone has any tips techniques for these sorts then Im all ears! It works well for my older boy though, I do as Hash Rouge says and scrape off a top layer of the wet every other day or so to prevent his bed becoming a mountain as their beds only come halfway from the back of the stable so I dont want him standing on something too thick at one end
 
georgiegirl said:
I have a VERY wet mare and have struggled getting deep litter bases established as she has big feet and tends to mash her bed up :( - if anyone has any tips techniques for these sorts then Im all ears! It works well for my older boy though, I do as Hash Rouge says and scrape off a top layer of the wet every other day or so to prevent his bed becoming a mountain as their beds only come halfway from the back of the stable so I dont want him standing on something too thick at one end
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my mare is like this and it is why I start with such a deep bed, for the first three weeks or so I just poo pick and level the rest of the bed, then just keep adding to it and scrape of any wet that comes to the surface
 
I have deep littered for years, I start with a deep bed of straw, just poo pick and sprinkle fresh straw, it quickly compacts down, the wet sinks to the bottom, leaving a warm dry bed, just keep adding a thin layer of straw, the worst bit is the clearout at the end of winter
 
georgiegirl said:
I have a VERY wet mare and have struggled getting deep litter bases established as she has big feet and tends to mash her bed up :( - if anyone has any tips techniques for these sorts then Im all ears! It works well for my older boy though, I do as Hash Rouge says and scrape off a top layer of the wet every other day or so to prevent his bed becoming a mountain as their beds only come halfway from the back of the stable so I dont want him standing on something too thick at one end
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I had exactly the same problem with my older horse - he is 16'3 with massive feet and tends to pee and poo where he stands and then stomp it all in and I ended up with a lovely deep litter bed everywhere except the middle of the bed - I ended up giving up and pulling it all up and hes back on shavings normal now - my younger horse however was fine on deep litter.

OP, to build my deep litter beds I gave them a nice big shavings bed to start, picked out the poo for 3/4 days leaving the wet in and squared off the bed each night - twice a week I scraped back all the clean shavings took out the poo and then spread the wet stuff across the bottom of the stable and pulled the clean shavings back down - took me about 3 weeks of that to build a decent base. I scrape off the top layer of wet twice a week so hes not standing on a mountain of shavings
 
I think I'm going to give this a go! Going to try it in one stable first before I commit to doing it in the two - just don't fancy hauling rubber matting out only to bring in again if it doesn't work!

Going to go get a few bags of wood chip to build up the base and will try use shavings once its established. Or I may end up using the wood chip the whole time? I'll see how it does - really hoping it works!

How many bags of shavings should I expect to use a week once its established? Or does it really differ from horse to horse?
 
HashRouge said:
Deep litter with shavings works surprisingly well once it is established. Just make sure there is a good layer of clean bedding over the wet and once the base is established it helps to take out some wet, though not necessarily every day. I used to just scrape off the top layer every now and then.
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God help you when you come to clear it out though. A friend had to ask someone to get a digger with a small bucket in to empty hers after the winter and the smell! I am absolutely not exaggerating when I say we nearly passed out after the first lungful hit and me and my clothes stank to high heaven.
 
I deep litter one of mine during the week on 2 bags of shavings and then every sat clear it all out and start again means i only go through 2 bags a week instead of what i was going through!! he's a box walker too which doesnt help! i cant say id want to deep litter properly all winter the clean out will be minging! its bad enough on a saturday!!!
 
ashlingm said:
I think I'm going to give this a go! Going to try it in one stable first before I commit to doing it in the two - just don't fancy hauling rubber matting out only to bring in again if it doesn't work!

Going to go get a few bags of wood chip to build up the base and will try use shavings once its established. Or I may end up using the wood chip the whole time? I'll see how it does - really hoping it works!

How many bags of shavings should I expect to use a week once its established? Or does it really differ from horse to horse?
Click to expand...

why do you need to take the rubber out? Mine is still on rubber mats.
 
ashlingm said:
I'm now considering changing over to deep litter bedding in the hopes that I can cut down on my shavings ...and mainly that they have a drier bed!



QUOTE]

I used to have rubber mats at the old yard and tried to deep litter one winter. I lasted about a week and it drove me mad. My horse moves quite a lot in his stable and being 17.1hh does a lot of poo's so I used to find the bed was rank after a week as he would mash all the poos and wees in.

At this yard I am at we have natural soil floors so we are not allowed rubber matting which is a pain. Last winter I asked the YO to muck out for me on weekdays as the horses are only out for two hours a day on the sandpit and spend the rest of the time in their stables. I asked her to put most of the bed forked up the banks so he was just stood on a small amount of bed. He never lies down during the day so at night after work I would bring the banks down a bit so he had a nice clean and deep bed on which to lie. This saved me a lot of money on shavings. This winter I am putting down two bales a week, one is done on a Wednesday by the y.o and the other by myself on either a Saturday or a Sunday. I go through my bed with a fine tooth comb, it often takes me 30-45 minutes to do but its worth it as I rifle through it and save such a lot. Sometimes I will pull a bank down and put damp (not wet and smelly) shavings and put the bank on top. Within a day or two it has dried out fine.

You might like to bulk buy your shavings too, it works out much cheaper if you do this. Mine are around £6 per bale of 25KG doing it this way.
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fatpiggy said:
God help you when you come to clear it out though. A friend had to ask someone to get a digger with a small bucket in to empty hers after the winter and the smell! I am absolutely not exaggerating when I say we nearly passed out after the first lungful hit and me and my clothes stank to high heaven.
Click to expand...

mine takes about 3hrs to clear out in the spring, it smells but not as much as straw
 
I deep litter my 17.1. His stable is huge and takes ages to muck out so for the last ten years through winter I have deep littered him. I use straw. I just take the poops out daily and top up with fresh straw. I usually clear the whole bed over Xmas, then again when turned out full time in the spring. Takes me 5 mins to do his bed.
 
OP, why not use aubiose or some other hemp bedding? I used to pick up exactly 3 poos every morning and just swept the bed back from the door and tidied it while my horse ate her breakfast. On Saturdays I would dig out the wet patch which was just a full barrow and took half an hour to do a "full" muck out. The bed was thick, warm, secure underfoot, banked well and the only thing I ever used that could cope with my wee-monster. Even when she rolled in the stable the bed stayed put. You get all the benefits of deep littering without the eventual hard work, and I personally believe that deeplittering isn't actually a healthy option for any animal (but that's just my opinion).
 
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