Do you put bedding in the field shelter?

[Fjord]

Question in the title.

The girls don't seem to spend much time in the field shelter, apart from to eat the hay I put in it. It's got a hardcore/dirt floor, (mostly) covered with rubber mats and I wondered if they'd use it more if I put some bedding in it? Trouble is it's pretty big, so if I tried it I'd need to put a lot in!

I've got a few bags of straw pellets and a couple of bales of chopped rape straw, is it worth putting it down or will they likely still ignore the shelter anyway?

 

[Clodagh]

I used to put straw in mine (packed earth floor) and muck it out when I felt so inclined. Which wasn’t very often. They only used it when very hot/flies though.

 

[meleeka]

Mine tend to use it more with a bed down but also use it as a toilet. I tend to bed it in winter but just a quarter in the summer.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I want to but it’s not particularly waterproof and I think it will just get wet. It’s rubber matted and current pony is more than happy to lie down in it as it is.
I’m always tempted to stick a big bed in though.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I don’t think a bed will make them use it more if they don’t already. I think that may be a waste of bedding

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

We bed ours in winter, with shavings, but not in summer.

 

[Melandmary]

I do!, and it is about 20x12 in size . It has a concrete floor and I originally just put stable mats in it and bedded a small part but they do like to go and have a lie down in there very often together so almost all of it bar a couple of feet at the front is bedded out…..they are out for 12 hours at night and in their hardstanding area during the day but even at night they choose to spend time in their barn