Do you have a straw bed? Banks Poll!!

[tye_bo]

I spend time making my horses bed just so and putting banks round the edges. The first thing she does when she comes in at night is to sort through the banks to find tasty straw, pretty much flattening them in the process!! In the 20+ years I have had horses I have always had banks and this is how I was taught as a child but I'm just wondering why I bother as she flattens them. I know why you should do banks to prevent them getting cast but in the days where people have rubber mats with just a sprinkling of shavings or bedding I wonder if I should bother?

So, to bank or not to bank that is the question!!

 

[Selkie]

I even made banks with shavings but now have straw and have huge banks

 

[Geraldine]

I always do banks - but then Bob likes to sleep on them as if they're pillows!!

 

[Tiarella]

i sometimes do and sometimes dont. depends how im feeling

doug just flattens them all anyway!

 

[Eira]

Yes always !
Sol has about 3ft square banks

 

[Ziggy_]

I do, but my mare does the same as yours so I don't know why I bother.... somehow if she knocked the bank down and got cast, it would be her fault, but if I didn't put the bank in the first place, I'd beat myself up over it if she got cast.

 

[Nailed]

I have banks at the moment, solid and big.. but if for some reason i dont have banks i dont get stressed about it. They are pretty useless!

Lou x

 

[Nailed]

pished!!!! how big is your boody stable if you taking up six foot of it wtih banks?!

Lou x

 

[Lordy100]

Used to have massive banks as my boy used to roll and get cast. As he is now old and relatively sensible! don't bother, however they do have big thick beds

 

[Eira]

Its only 14x14

She's well packed in

I have an obsessive thing with banks

 

[tye_bo]

Do you think it's dangerous not to have banks? As I say a lot of people just have rubber mats and a sprinkling of bedding?

 

[arwenplusone]

Seriopusl, banks would have to be about 3 - 4 ft high to actually make any difference to a cast horse.

I do them though

but only out of habit.

 

[popsicle]

I have just started to use shavings and at the mo, with the extra bales of shavings, i am using these as banks, but when we use them down, I will not bother with banks. I do have wall to wall rubber matting, but I guess that won't help stop them getting cast.

 

[Rollin]

I only bank new horses once I know they are Ok I don't do it any more. I have never had a horse cast in the box. I ticked other.

 

[sachak]

always bank but only for convenience purposes ... can pull em down when bed getting thin at end of week lol!

 

[Silverspring]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you think it's dangerous not to have banks?

[/ QUOTE ]

You only need banks if your horse is prone to casting. I would prefer to use an anti cast roller as they are far more reliable than banking anyday. I don't bank, used to but it was out of habit rather than need. I realised you save straw not doing it

 

[Chex]

I used to do banks, but don't anymore since moving to a bigger stable. The wall is so lumpy he can use that if he ever gets cast! I never did banks big enough anyway, and he's never been cast.

 

[Loubiepoo]

I ticked other, I always used to have banks but since moving to a new yard where my stable is not a conventional square shape I have not bothered, without them it makes the stable seem bigger

 

[Tuppence88]

Does no one do it simply beacause its snuggly for them?
I like the way they cut out any draught from the dividing patrition and they can lean against them and it makes the stable like a nest for horses.

 

[Cahill]

a nice warm bed with banks(and extra bed if you are in a hurry some days)

 

[Persephone]

My stable is 15 x 15. I bed down 15 x 12 and have 3' banks all round. They are really solid and I turn one over a day.

Jo x

 

[Spyda]

I maintained meticulous banks for about 25 years, but recently have stopped.

It's a lot quicker mucking out now! I don't have all that extra straw to sift through hunting for those hidden- poohs and, always having kept mares, they'd always pee into the banks and I'd be taking out lots of wet straw. Much prefer not having them.

Must admit, I do feel like my beds aren't properly made without the lovely neatly stacked banks all round - but I'm saving so much time and bedding these days that I'm forcing myself to grin-and-bear it!

 

[lilym]

my little sec c doesn't get banks, she just digs then up and makes a holy mess so i don't bother!! she does have a deep comfy bed though!

 

[RachelB]

I voted "other" - at the moment my horse has no banks because she is sharing her 12x12ft stable with a stack of straw (four bales piled two-by-two but it takes up a lot of space!) and her rug rack hung from the rafters takes a lot of space as well (won't do when we get our new rug rail in the tack room!)
So there's no room for banks. She is also box walking like a maniac at the moment and would just trash them and make life more expensive for me

Hopefully when I... 1) get rug rails set up in tack room and can take rugs out of stable, 2) get some sort of straw storage sorted, and 3) get her a stable mirror... then I might re-instate her banks. Only because it looks nice though, and there's something satisfying about squaring off nice big solid straw banks

 

[H's mum]

The reasons for big bankings is to encourage the horse to lay in the middle of the stable as opposed to physically stopping them from getting cast (anyone who has dealt with a cast horse knows that a banking won't help the horse they just ge squished! - they are also an aid to warmth and prevent draughts

Kate x