Feel like SUCH a bad mummy tonight =[

If you can't afford to properly bed your horse then I don't think you should keep her. Either that or turn out 24/7.

I have never known a horse to smell of urine and for you to wait until your horse has matted urine hair is disgraceful!

Have you tried bedding on straw? less expense and may make a bigger bed for your mare.
 
alligator40 said:
Enlightening.
Thank you.
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Don't you want to elaborate? We are always berated on this forum for not listening to your advice...so your advice is, in this case, it's fine if our horses are utterly matted with urine and whatever under their rugs? As I understand it, of course.
 
OP I think you are right to feel guilty about letting your horse get into this state. I had to deal with a gelding who had got like that a few years agon and the poor boy was very sore between his legs because of the matts which had formed.

I cut them all out and informed his owner that she needed to keep on top of things. I was a fellow livery by the way, not the YO and I had permission from the owner to help her horse because she didn't want to be bothered :eek: I have since left that yard for obvious reasons i.e. the YO didn't give a damn about the horses in her care and often wonder how the horse is doing and hope he's ok.
 
Well at the moment she has about half a bale a night (of bedmax, was more when it was that crappy stuff we had). I did get really cross one day when she was still kicking her water buckets over and dumped 5 in there.

The next morning, I had to take 4 and a half wheelbarrows out.
 
OP why don't you groom her more regularly and wash her down sometimes? One of my horses is dirty but I groom her daily and wash down her filthy leg (always the same leg that gets mucky) to keep her clean. I am not sure how your horse has got entirely covered in urine to be honest.

If you don't have time to give your horse basic care can you not put her on livery, get someone to help you or even sell her if things are getting too much for you?
 
Snowy Celandine said:
If you don't have time to give your horse basic care can you not put her on livery, get someone to help you or even sell her if things are getting too much for you?
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LOL! This is why it is so comical.... The OP has the horse on loan from World Horse Welfare (ILPH)!!
 
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skewby said:
Don't you want to elaborate? We are always berated on this forum for not listening to your advice...so your advice is, in this case, it's fine if our horses are utterly matted with urine and whatever under their rugs? As I understand it, of course.
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Not really, no.

I'm just really enlightened that susieT thinks that my ponies are on the receiving end of benign ignorance.
 
flamehead said:
Well at the moment she has about half a bale a night (of bedmax, was more when it was that crappy stuff we had). I did get really cross one day when she was still kicking her water buckets over and dumped 5 in there.

The next morning, I had to take 4 and a half wheelbarrows out.
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I used Bedmax, but didn't find it very absorbent & I used to have to remove loads. I now use Hunter Shavings ( I used about eight bales to start with as a base) and now top up with bale a week, thats with a daily, full muckout.:)
 
Goodness :eek: Are they happy about her matted coat and general lack of care :confused: :confused: :confused: I would like to think that anyone taking a horse from them would give it extra special care.
 
SC, I have explained now that I overreacted about the wee. She is crispy on the surface as she does lie down in it, but when you push your fingers under the hair shes actually pretty clean, just a bit dusty.

I am giving her a brush off every night now.
 
Ok. Please do devote more time to caring for your mare though. Surely she deserves a little bit more of your time than you are currently giving her? My horses mean the world to me and I'd hate to think that I was doing anything to detract from their wellbeing.
 
Er, the WHW bloke saw her like 2 days ago!!! And said she was fine, thank you.

And I do spend alot of time with her. Its just more teaching lessons and cuddling than grooming, mostly as its always pitch black. Even though we have lights the boxes are still v dark.
 
FH I found bedmax was very bad at abosorbing wee, we use it as our summer bed as horses are rarely in but doesn't work great for winter.

A friend of mine did an experiment and found that the cheapest and most abosorbant shavings are the Countrywide own brand. :)
 
If she was fine two days ago how come she's not been groomed and her coat is so matted? Sorry but either you have neglected her or you haven't. Both can't be true can they? :mad:
 
flamehead said:
Well at the moment she has about half a bale a night (of bedmax, was more when it was that crappy stuff we had). I did get really cross one day when she was still kicking her water buckets over and dumped 5 in there.

The next morning, I had to take 4 and a half wheelbarrows out.
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right, half a bale a night is a lot! Must be costing you a fortune! Water buckets kicked over will help make a bed wet, have you got this sorted? If not a tyre round the bucket or a clip/tie to secure if to the wall is a must.
What size is your stable? When starting a new bed I really make a big bed, allows for it to move and settle and the first week you will have to add more.
 
ok im prepared for a bashing but so be it
im a first horse owner - he is on rubber matting and it was my yo who told me i was going through far too many shavings, as he said - not to interfere but to help me on costs
I bought my boy 2 years ago knowing he was prone to mud fever - i have all the stuff for it in my first aid kit but havent needed to use it yet - all winter i have not touched his legs - my yo, a very experienced older man, advised me to leave well alone - i have, not washed his legs off all winter and no mud fever!
I think leave nature alone - my boy has enough shavings to soak up his wee but not enough (like i first thought) that you could put a pitchfork through and not touch the base
Also re mud - let horses be horses - ive learned, its the horses who are washed off everday and brought in to sit in their stables daily for hours who have the problems - let your horses build some resistance !
 
Ive not used shavings of any sort for many years now as i feel they do not soak up the urine well enough , i use Equisorb , or Aubiose and im delighted with them, and only use 1 bale per week to top up my very thick deep bed .
 
Bedmax IMO is pants.
LWP are slightly better....
but for a shyte machine/piiss monster i think aubiouse is tops....mega dear, but good stuff.
shavings, as a budget alternative are OK...but you seriously need at least 6 bales to start a bed..then 1 week minimum as a top up.

But I still stand by my earlier replies that Puzz will not melt by laying in p155 and shyte
 
Yes, she has grown out of her water-bucket-kicking-over-til-mummy-wanted-to-strangle-her phase thank damn god! I was ready to kill her!

Now she has a hugeeee trough in her day area so drinks loads, and at night has a bucket that she struggles to lift up unless its completely empty so even when she does send it flying it at least doesnt make the bed wet.

Our boxes are huge, 14x12 (ish, slightly wobbly walls).

xx
 
narkymare said:
ok im prepared for a bashing but so be it
im a first horse owner - he is on rubber matting and it was my yo who told me i was going through far too many shavings, as he said - not to interfere but to help me on costs
I bought my boy 2 years ago knowing he was prone to mud fever - i have all the stuff for it in my first aid kit but havent needed to use it yet - all winter i have not touched his legs - my yo, a very experienced older man, advised me to leave well alone - i have, not washed his legs off all winter and no mud fever!
I think leave nature alone - my boy has enough shavings to soak up his wee but not enough (like i first thought) that you could put a pitchfork through and not touch the base
Also re mud - let horses be horses - ive learned, its the horses who are washed off everday and brought in to sit in their stables daily for hours who have the problems - let your horses build some resistance !
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I agree with you about not washing legs , in 33 years of owning horses i have never washed legs when brought in at night , and none of my horses have ever had mud fever .i just brush the mud off in the morning.
If its not broke dont fix it i say .
 
SusieT said:
Lots of you saying your horses lie in their own poo. But I haven't seen any saying 'my horse wees in the field then lies in it'.
For those who asked-my rugs don't smell of urine.. They smell of horse. they have poo stains on them. They have mud on them. All of this sloughs off quickly as it is simply dry dirt. I would not be happy with rugs smelling of urine on a regular basis.
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Actually it would be far better if your rugs did smell of urine than were covered in poo stains! Urine is sterile and harmless when passed, poo is full of bacteria, it is NOT simply dry dirt, your position is untenable I'm afraid. There is no more danger to a horse lying on wee then there is them lying on poo.in fact poo is worse.
Horses and rugs do smell of wee, it is a perfectly normal side effect of stabled horses. Not grooming or giving a badly stained horse a wipe off is not good horsemanship however.
 
Couldn't be bothered reading after the first page but I have a youngster who is stabled over night, there was a period of time she was in for over a week due to fencing being fixed in fields. She spends alot of her time lying down by the sounds of it she only gets up to eat or mooch from me!
I keep her on rubber matts in a stable with poor drainage, her bed started with 3 bales and I put in roughly a bale a week, she is relatively clean in her stable but I've never had problems with matting that you describe and she doesn't get groomed every day either. I'm sure if you mucked out thoroughly every day, put in apt clean shavings and threw bed up to let floor dry as often as possible the situation would improve.
 
I have never had a horse smelling of piss, I deep litter with shavings and sawdust. I also have a stable large enough to have my horse comfortable and able to lie down in a clean place. I have big TBs and NEVER have they had ***** on their rugs and I would be ashamed if they did. Muddy horses are completely different, urine and ***** are not acceptable. To get to the state of matted, I think OP you need to take a look at you stable management.
 
haha! I have never laughed so much in all my life at this thread! do horses care really wheather they are clean or not?? NO! why do you think they roll after a bath and infuriate their owners?? because they like being dirty!! they are horses not Poodles
 
pastie2 said:
I have never had a horse smelling of piss, I deep litter with shavings and sawdust. I also have a stable large enough to have my horse comfortable and able to lie down in a clean place. I have big TBs and NEVER have they had ***** on their rugs and I would be ashamed if they did. Muddy horses are completely different, urine and ***** are not acceptable. To get to the state of matted, I think OP you need to take a look at you stable management.
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Another one who needs to get a grip!!
Good for you, you are very lucky that every horse you have had is so clean. Unfortunately not all horses are like this and some do genuinely lie on their own poo even when they dont have to, if you were that experienced you would know this!!!
 
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