Does anyone "deep litter"?

grandmaweloveyou

grandmaweloveyou

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I have never tried this before but it is being recommended / discussed for winter i.e. warmth and layering etc etc and I am sososo fussy with my beds I am hesitant to try it BUT if my OH thinks its good enough for my boy then I am sure it must be. Any advice . thoughts please?
 
I used to partially deep litter on shavings e.g. would only take poo out during the week and then do a full mucking out on the weekend.
This worked well for me and saved a lot of time during the week.
 
I used to deep litter my 17.3hh horse because he would go through to the concrete no matter how deep a clean bed I put in there. When I mucked out I would take out all the droppings and take the bed up, but leave the wet on the bottom, as if the floor was a few inches higher, if you see what I mean? After a while it levels off so you get a solid 'platform' of wet straw and can put a nice clean bed on top of it.

I found that mucking out wasn't much less work than a normal bed, but then I'm fussy about my beds too! The worst bit is cleaning it out after the winter!
 
I deep litter my boy on belvoir bedding which is like flax/hemp. It works really well, I skip out 4/7 days and then throw up the bed the days between, leaving the base. If wet comes to the surface of the base, i will take the top of it out, and it stays manageable and clean looking and smelling. When you first leave it down, use more than usual; bedding, and just skip for the first 10 days to let a base start to form
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2 on rubber mats no bed and one deep litter, the 2 on mats is because one allergic to everything and rolls all the time, except straw and she eats that and the other as he is a total hooligan
 
I do similar but I take out all the wee once a week rather than leaving a few inches in as a base - must be something about big horses and the about of
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they produce
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I have just started doing this with George as the wee is always cascading under the door every morning, I am taking up all the clean straw and picking out all the poo but leaving the wet in the middle where he pees to see if this helps.
 
nooo... i used to work at a yard where the owner made us deep-litter, and it ended up being more work, not less, plus very smelly for the horses, and wet for their feet. we used to dread the day we had to muck out the disgustingly filthy stables... an hour and a half one day of the week, or ten mins every day?
if your horse goes through to the concrete, the answer is rubber matting, imho.
it depends which bedding you're using, but i use cardboard (same price as shavings, much warmer, cleaner, doesn't break down and go dusty with use) on top of rubber matting, and it takes me 4 mins per stable in the mornings.
 
I semi deep litter, with hemcore as a base and straw on top. I find with straw alone the pong from the ammonia is just too strong, so the hemcore works well at soaking up the wet leaving the straw top nice, warm and virtually dry.
I just take the droppings out each day and add more straw if necessary, as that's what works for me and the ponies.

Beth
 
We deep litter at my yard because we have one full time member of staff to muck out 22 stables
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Managed properly it is very labour saving over the winter and not dirty at all. In fact if the stables were left 'not mucked out' for a day the deep litter beds were still quite nice wherease the non deep litters looked bloomin awful.

You have to take out the poo and skip the clean/midly damp straw to the side. Leave the wet on the bottom and then put clean straw over the top and mix it all in. You need the right kind of stable though, it should drain to the front or the side otherwise you end up with a massive mountain at the back. You have to be careful not to put in more straw than you take out and if you have a horse that box walks or digs then it won't be suitable. You need to keep the wet bed 'flat' as well so sometimes you need to take a bit out to level it off.

TBH if you are fussy about beds looking perfect, you will hate deep litter because it never looks 100% like a clean straw bed. But it is very warm and managed nicely the wet straw acts like a warm rubber matting which is nice for the horse. I usually took out a max of one wheelbarrow per day - each stable so it is much quicker than regular beds. digging it out in spring is a b*tch tho!
 


You probably wont believe this but 5 of my beds have been down for 3 years
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I deep litter on shavings and only use one bale per fortnight each. Providing you take the poo out and bring the bed forward, level it and bring the banks in bit by bit, it will work. It takes me 15 mins per night, but it has to be done right or it will just get very wet and messy. My beds dont smell and they are about 6/7" deep and dont move
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Can be very smelly (attracts flies/midges, if we get a mild winter) and loads of hard work clearing it once finished with it.

I personally would not deep litter a horse that may be prone to thrush or sweetitch.

Knowing how clean and tidy you are I would not expect you to like the look of this, but if OH is doing the do, I guess it is whatever suits OH.
 
I deep litter on Auboise. I take the poo out everyday and the wee once midweek then do a proper muck out at the weekend and top the level up again. Ours are on rubber matting and it works really well. It saves us a lot of time in the winter when the nights come in quickly. We only have solar lights so its not easy to see when mucking out in the week!
 
I deep litter Jess - shes only 14hh as she digs up her bed and i dont want her laying on concrete. If its looked after properly you dont have to empty it out after winter if you maintain it. But will agree that mucking out a deep litter bed properly takes just as long as a normal bed and you still have to sift through the top layer.
 
ok everyone thanks, interesting mix and i am think i am going to stick with my current system. whilst i think it would work in my particular stable, being as it is so big that the bed is at the back, even when left fresh and down the boy does not need to touch it until he chooses to lay down as he has his clean, straw free area to stand and walk around whilst eating and resting. so, he would not be stood in anything wet at all so this would not cause the return of thrush. also he does have drainage at the front BUT i just dont think, noting the comments on cleanliness and fussiness etc that it will work for me. tempted to try though but it doesnt sound like it would save alot for me personally in time or straw being as i only get through one barrow of muck a day, he is quite clean luckily (especially considering his white bits and showing!). unfortunately the oh does 2 or 3 days per week but thats about it so it has to work for both of us and smelling of wee (horse not human) in work clothes (altho i suspect i do a little bit already) wont win me any friends when i get to work!
 
I think it comes down to personal preference and the type of flooring, bedding and drainage you have. I don't deep litter but i can see why some people do and if it's done correctly and managed well i can't see a prob with it.

We have thick rubber matting with shavings on top (not a full bed like i would use on concrete). i pick out the poos everyday and then chuck up all the clean shavins and scrape the wet into a pile and remove it. I then leave the matting to dry over night (they are in for 5/6 hours during the day at the mo) and then put the bed back down in the morning. i use half a bag of new shavings each every couple of weeks. this suits me and the horses, it' quick and easy and they are very clean horses most of the time anyway
 
I do and I wouldn't do it any other way. My 25 x 15 stable is deep littered with straw and the wet hasn't been taken out for over a year now. I'm having 5 12 x 12 stables built and I shall have rubber mats and then deep litter with Flax bedding, taking the wet out once a week.
 
the showing yard I work on deep litters all their horses and it does make mucking out a lot quicker. Not smelly and no flies, unless you get one that digs its bed, thats not pleasant. Mucking out at the end of the season when they are on holiday is a mammoth job.
 
I deep litter both my boys, i put in one bale woodchip approx every two weeks and take out the poo every day, not smelly and works very well for them both.
 
In the winter I deep litter Baron through the week and take it out at weekends. He is on straw.

The reason is he is so dirty and deep litter seems to make his bed an awful lot cleaner and quicker to do. I just take all the poos out and neaten it up then chuck the clean straw on top.

If I didnt I would get around 2 heaped barrows out a day at least. With the deep litter I usually take 4 out at the weekend then just half a barrow of poo out a day.

It also give a nice base on the floor as even though he gets a really big bed I have seen him push the straw out the way when he lies down revealing the concrete once or twice, with the deep litter he never does.
 
yup - I deep litter my mare when she is in as she is a manky moo!

Poo gets taken out daily with clean straw going in every couple of days and then the wet is taken out at the weekend. Works well with her. My gelding isnt as dirty and only has the wet removed every few days.
 
I do! In the summer I semi deep litter - she has straw walls and a shavings base and so I just remove the really wet patches after about 10 nights/days in (she doesn't come in that often in the summer) and take the droppings out each time. Then come the winter plenty of straw goes down on top of what will probably be around 8"-12" of (dry) shavings and the wet won't get lifted until the spring (though the droppings come out daily!).

I find its a much more ecconomical way to do it, I have very deep, cosy and warm beds and it saves hours! Obviously if any really big wet patches develop toward the surface then I'll lift them but usually you'd never know!
 
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