Deep littering

[jo1]

At the yard I am wanting to go to I will have to have straw bedding. I am thinking of deep littering during what will be left of Winter. However I havent deep littered before. Can anyone give me some pointers etc????

Thanks

Jo

 

[MillionDollar]

I deep litter on straw. I just clean out all of the poo twice a day and then add fresh straw whenever it needs it. It never gets smelly and i much prefer it. TBH i really don't know why more people don't deep litter, but thats just my opinion. Its a lot less wastful, nice and firm, horses don't get to the concrete and all of the urine goes to the bottom. I clean it out completely prehaps once or twice a year.
Oh and it is soooo much quicker!

 

[evsj]

I really like deep-littering - if it's well managed it's a nice dry and cshioned surface and much warmer than shavings.
Just remove poos daily and surface wet. Don't be tempted take all the surface straw up just put fresh down to keep the top dry. I bank up straw from the new bale and take down bits of it at a time each day to add to the bed. This way clean and not so clean straw rotates (so the banks never contain old straw)

I find that I only need to top up with one bale of straw per week with deep litter and horsey has a lovely snug bed which takes only 15 mins to set fair.

 

[kibob]

Hi, same as Clare, I always deep litter, just pick out the poos and muck out maybe once or twice over the winter. I find always adding fresh straw every day is the secret, even if you don't think it needs it. The liveries that don't deep litter their horses always have loads of stable stains on their rugs and the rugs stink. My beds are so deep that the rugs stay lovely and clean.

I have found though that with horses who don't settle well indoors it doesn't always work so well as they tend to churn up the wet stuff!!

 

[sleepingdragon10]

[ QUOTE ]
I really like deep-littering - if it's well managed it's a nice dry and cshioned surface and much warmer than shavings.
Just remove poos daily and surface wet. Don't be tempted take all the surface straw up just put fresh down to keep the top dry. I bank up straw from the new bale and take down bits of it at a time each day to add to the bed. This way clean and not so clean straw rotates (so the banks never contain old straw)

I find that I only need to top up with one bale of straw per week with deep litter and horsey has a lovely snug bed which takes only 15 mins to set fair.

[/ QUOTE ]

I use more or less the same system as you except I use hemcore as a base with straw on top. Works brilliantly,takes minimal time to muck out,and ponio always has a lovely warm bed at night

And at 1 bale of straw a week(costs all of £1.25!!) it's very cheap too

 

[JustKickOn]

im not an expert on them, but i know you need to skip it out atleast once a day, add fresh stuff on top when needed and fluff it up each day.

 

[Tats]

Hi Jo
My Grandmother always advocated deep-littering, and she'd been doing it since the 1920s so can't be too bad a system!
We use straw now, although in the past have used shavings too, but living on an arable farm and not using straw would be unforgivable!! I reiterate what's been said above, skip out when poss, remove surface wet and keep topping up with fresh straw, with a full muck-out once or twice a year.
Are you serious about wanting a 16hh+ horse? I may be able to help. You can email me on playgroupcookbook@hotmail.com if you are and I can tell you more.

 

[WishfulThinker]

I have been considering deep littering Beau this time, and not been really sure what to do, but this has cleared it up! Except, when I muck out at the mo I basically lift and tip/toss out the poos, and lift the wet bit he leaves in the middle, then kinda fluff the bed up, and re lay it with the dirtiest stuff going back down where he pees. I only take out about half a barrow as he is quite clean and has a pattern to his poo - lol - around the edges so he can lie in the middle, and up near his haynet is clear as he lies down and eats what has fallen from it (and they are tied up so he can reach them but not get feet near them)

Am I sort of deep littering already?

 

[zizz]

I deep litter on wood chips very similar to easy-bed. remove dung twice a day and put in one bale every two weeks. takes me half an hour to muck out three stables. beds have been down for nearly two years in wooden looseboxes and no signs of rotting wood!!

 

[jo1]

Thank you for all your replies.
As the horse will be turned out at 8am and then brought back in by me about 6pm, was thinking of taking poo and wet out on a night before redoing bed and banks then putting the horse back in. Was thinking about doing a full muckout on a weekend - didnt even think that it could be mucked out fully a couple of times a year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is only in winter by the way - I have 24/7 turnout in Summer in rotating fields so wouldn't really have bedding down in the stable. I would however have a couple of bales available just in case!!

 

[alsxx]

I deep litter on shavings - during the week I skip out in the evenings before bringing them in as I have to commute into London from work and just dont have time in the mornings to muck out too! What I find helps is at the weekends to actually pull back the 'clean' bed on top and bank it up to expose the wetter stuff underneath and it dries it out really well...

 

[Allykat]

How deep do you all keep your shavings deep litter beds??

 

[jemima]

Most important thing about deep littering - IMHO - is to bribe someone else to do the infrequent complete clean outs. It gets to be back breaking work!

 

[Weezy]

Ours our cleared out using a JCB LOL!!!!

Another thing I would recommend is do NOT use a fork to lift the droppings - get a handheld skip and fork - one of these http://www.derbyhouse.co.uk/ProductDetai...rksRakesShovels

then you are not tempted to start digging LOL!!