Disgusting Mare....

[yaffsimone1]

Is it only my mare who's bed every morning is revolting and disgusting?

I have been spoilt, all my geldings have been so clean i would quite happily sleep in their bed myself, my mare however is so far at the other end of the scale i'm beginning to wonder what it is she does at night!

She cannot live out, we don't have enough grazing so she must be stabled at night during the winter

I know she rolls in her bed which doesn't help, i've tried minimal bed, i've tried deep bed, i've tried deep littering and all on straw. I daren't spend more on shavings, but somehow without fail she manages to whirl it all up into a mushed up mess. Honestly her rugs are covered in s**t every morning, she cant have nice stable rugs because of this.

I'm having to remove literally a whole bed everyday and put a whole bale back in.

Maybe this is normal and i'm lucky i'm only doing 1 bale of straw a day??

 

[yaffsimone1]

I forgot to add, she is on wall to wall rubber matting and i have stopped short at only putting a sprinkling of bed down to soak up wet.

I would feel so mean providing no bed given how filthy she is

 

[DuckToller]

I have a mucky mare - I used a breathable turnout day and night, which helped as at least if it rained it got some of the muck off, and the pee didn't soak in so much.

Have you tried rubber matting? Mine are all on mats and they usually have a small bed on top, but I gave up trying to give her a nice bed. Instead she got two shovels of shavings to soak up the pee, and half a bale of straw on top. The whole lot came out every day - I didn't even try to sift it! At least she got a totally clean bed every night. The only time it wasn't a mess was the night she burst her door open (probably trying to savage the elderly pony that roams the yard) and she'd spent the night marauding up and down the barn, tipping out all the buckets and grooming kits etc, and pulling rugs off the rug rack. She was delighted with herself but I was less so...

Ah sorry, just seen you have mats...

 

[Wizzkid]

My gelding is the same it's so annoying nothing helps! If you find a solution please share

 

[Polos]

My gelding is also the same so again I would be interested if you find a solution! The amount of straw he goes through is ridiculous. Luckily our straw is provided free if charge but If I was going to be paying for it I'd probably be broke!

 

[PoppyAnderson]

Defo not a mare thing. My mare takes 5 mins to muck out, she is so clean. The boy, on the other hand, is a tramp.

 

[TequilaMist]

My geldings disgusting- you squelch when you go in to stable. What isn't in his bed he seems to rub his neck in!! He just stinks of pee.
Currently on rubber matting, pellets and shavings.
Thinking of clipping him just so its easier to clean him as has quite a furry coat at mo so too cold to wash.

 

[yaffsimone1]

Like you DuckToller i want her to have a nice bed but she just goes through it like a whirlwind, i will do anything for her but trying to sift broken up poo through straw is doing my head in (where i can i will leave the wet in and take this out once a week).

Its not so much her wet, she wee's in one place and doesn't churn that up, its the poo's. She does one and kicks it around like a football!


Also i have been keeping her turnout on as it is more robust than her stable rugs and like you say the rain washes it down, oh and kept her mane ultra short, i find poo in places it shouldn't be.

I might have to be tough and go with just a sprinkling to soak up the wet and sweep it all out everyday.

 

[Jazmyn101]

Your mare sounds like mine has a disgusting bed, mine also has rubber mattings on the ground and on all the walls. I have only just this week that giving her a big bed helps her stay clean, it's like mucking out a clean horse. I have been giving her a smaller bed thinking this would be easier but am now giving her a huge bed with banks which keeps her cleaner (I use bedsoft, the pink bag) she also lays down every night and pees ALOT!

 

[tabithakat64]

My mare box walks so much that she grinds shavings to dust and poo into tiny pieces, I use wood pellets over rubber matting. Also make sure you have your water bucket, haynet and door on the same wall then leave a gap before the actual bed starts.

 

[yaffsimone1]

With the water activated pellets, can i put them down dry along the back wall where she pee's and allow the urine to soak them up? or do i have to mix them with water first?

If i can put them down dry i'm thinking a sprinkling of dry pellets at the back wall for the wee, and a bit of straw in the middle for comfort. The poo's will just go where ever she decides to kick them

 

[yaffsimone1]

Your mare sounds like mine has a disgusting bed, mine also has rubber mattings on the ground and on all the walls. I have only just this week that giving her a big bed helps her stay clean, it's like mucking out a clean horse. I have been giving her a smaller bed thinking this would be easier but am now giving her a huge bed with banks which keeps her cleaner (I use bedsoft, the pink bag) she also lays down every night and pees ALOT!

Funny you should say that, a mate of mine is on hols i went up to do her horse yesterday and someone had already done him for me. He is mucky too and the other person had put a straw bed down which was about 3ft deep, my jaw hit the floor when i saw it, HOWEVER, when i went up this morning he was the cleanest i've ever seen him

 

[ebonyallen]

This did make me laugh, every day Ebony comes in covered in mud looking like a Hippo, I clean it off she goes in her stable overnight and comes out the next morning covered in Poo. Bum, back, belly, neck and even the side of the head, so she really is a ***** head lol. goes out and it starts all over again.

 

[yaffsimone1]

My mare box walks so much that she grinds shavings to dust and poo into tiny pieces, I use wood pellets over rubber matting. Also make sure you have your water bucket, haynet and door on the same wall then leave a gap before the actual bed starts.

Oh yes her haynet, water and door is on the same wall, there is usually about 4-5ft of space between that wall and the beginning of her bed. Come morning her bed will be up against that wall and in her water.

If she box walked i wouldn't mind so much but she doesn't, but she does love a good roll

 

[yaffsimone1]

This did make me laugh, every day Ebony comes in covered in mud looking like a Hippo, I clean it off she goes in her stable overnight and comes out the next morning covered in Poo. Bum, back, belly, neck and even the side of the head, so she really is a ***** head lol. goes out and it starts all over again.

YES!! side of the head, in her ears, tops of the back legs and belly...oh i'm so glad i'm not the only one x

 

[Jazmyn101]

yes it really works for my horse! she was so disgusting before, mix the poo, wee and bedding into one so it all had to go! so much easier now

 

[Tarte Au Citron]

My mare is the same! She is the most messiest horse on the yard by a country mile! I've tried everything, straw (humongous and tiny bed), shavings(large and minimal again) and currently pellets with a couple of rubber mats. She is horrid on everything! You can start with a huge big clean bed and within a week it will be tiny and without taking utterly everything out a bit dirty, others would still have a large clean bed...not oreo. Im not sure what she does as she's not big on lying down, i've come to the conclusion she randomly dances amongst it to piss me off!

I have given up now, she gets a small bed of pellets to soak up the worst and rubber mats so she can lie down. There is no point in wasting money on trying to maintain a decent bed as she would go through about 4 maybe 5 bags a week on pellets or shavings (my only choices on the current yard).

So sorry no advice im afraid, if you find a solution please let me know

 

[Echo Bravo]

Could it rats or mice as my old mare use to roll on them, mess her bed up trying to kill them, put poison down and she didn't make so much mess.

 

[ROMANY 1959]

Sasha walks poo all over stable!!! Big lad hides it in shavings and sometimes makes a nice poo pillow for his head!!

 

[p87]

My shetland mare pees for Britain. They do live out year round, but on some occasions when they need to be stabled at night (like fireworks week) she literally drinks an entire bucket of water and spends the rest of the night soaking her bed.

I've got them on wood pellets, so what I do is take a couple of barrowfulls of her wet bedding and put them into my geldings bedding. He is really dry, so I mix a couple of barrows of his dry bedding into her bed and this works quite well.

No smell either, his bed is so dry it dries out her wet stuff!

 

[Emma_H]

You're not alone and I was going to ask this question about my boy this morning.

Every day his stable is like a teenagers bedroom.

I currently have him on straw with wood pellets underneath but I'm thinking of changing to just pellets. It's my first winter with him so I don't know his habits yet.

 

[Embo]

My gelding is vile. I've tried minimal bed but this just makes it worse! So now he's on deep-ish litter. He has a moderately sized bed with no banks. Banks = more mess!! I dig out the wet once per week then add one bale of Bedmax. His poops are still messy and still takes about 20 mins to skim the bed and remove it all, but it's working. He tends to poop in the same places, but it does get churned up - at least I know where to look so can get most of it. The wet is usually in the middle so easy enough to dig out. I'm considering putting pellets in the wet area to see if that makes any difference. But this is the only way I know to keep my horse clean-ish!

 

[loisb501]

My mare is filthy too.

I've got her on straw but have wood pellets under the areas she wee's. Seems to be working so far and I don't turn up to find a stream leaving my stable and a puddle at the door (stables are on a slight slant)

 

[Mince Pie]

I'd honestly just sprinkle a small amount of shavings just to soak the wet up - I don't think pellets would work well in this case

I know you want her to have a big bed but if she lived out she wouldn't even have rubber mats, let alone a bed!

 

[Hawks27]

It was the other way for me my filly was a spotless grey in and out my now predominately white paint gelding is a muck monster quite clean in field but he has rubber mats and a deep straw bed and he shoves the bedding up the walls does his mess in the middle and proceeds to spend the entire evening wiggling around in it. I've stopped using stable rugs as they smell so bad he has his breathable turnouts on and I just have to deal with the fact that he usually has a s**t stained face and legs every morning that need sponging off, whats worse is he actually smells really bad its getting quite gross!

 

[khalswitz]

My attitude is that rubber mats with a small layers of shavings is more than enough. My lad lives out most of the year, with only the worst nights in, and he just gets mats with a small layers of shavings. He lies in mud in the field, so even mats that are pooey aren't going to be bad compared to a muddy, or worse frozen, field that he lies on regularly. Then I can take the whole lot out each day, and skipping out is super quick.