Help please! Depth of bedding with no rubber matting?

[FestiveSpirit]

Yes, this IS for real

I have been at a livery yard for about 8 years now and have always had a stable with rubber matting in that time. Now I am moving to a new livery yard with (at the moment) no rubber matting in my stable, and I am having a stress about how deep my bed needs to be

The stable is very approx 12 ft x 12 ft (no way of measuring it tonight) with a drainage channel (covered by narrow strip of rubber matting) about 2 feet from the front of the stable. This leaves an area of about 12ft x 10ft to be covered in bedding.

Tonight I put down 5 bales of Bedmax, which left a bed approx 3" thick all over (although I realise this will settle once the horse is in there!) Is this deep enough if there is no rubber matting?

At the moment the 2ft or so at the front of the stable is bare, so will be getting rubber matting to cover that ASAP

 

[teddyt]

Simple test- Turn your pitch fork over and drop it on the bed, if it touches the floor the bed is too shallow

 

[FestiveSpirit]

I use a shavings fork not a pitch fork - so drop it with the 'back' of the fork towards the ground? Didnt try it but I know without having to try that there is no way the fork would touch the ground

 

[Jane_Lou]

Joe just has mats at the front, I put 10 bales of excel bed-down in when I recently moved him, his bed is about 10 inches thick! I do deep litter Monday to Friday so need it deep to stop the wet coming to the top. It doesn't move much but is "fluffier" than bedmax as it has chopped straw in it as well. Mind you, Baileys has full mats and still has an enormous straw bed so I probably over do it anyway

 

[Tinypony]

If there are no mats underneath that sounds a bit thin to me. It needs to be thick enough so that when he lays down he won't go through the bed and have his bony bits resting on concrete. I don't know if I'm soft, but I think my shavings bed would be about twice as thick as that.

 

[FestiveSpirit]

Ohhhhh - do you think I should put some more in then

I could get some on Sunday before I move him over...

I cannot believe I have no idea about this, just shows how you get reliant on a certain thing!

 

[FestiveSpirit]

[ QUOTE ]
If there are no mats underneath that sounds a bit thin to me. It needs to be thick enough so that when he lays down he won't go through the bed and have his bony bits resting on concrete. I don't know if I'm soft, but I think my shavings bed would be about twice as thick as that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cool that is the sort of thing I need to be told, thanks

As I keep saying, I have no idea

Off to Countrywide for more Bedmax on Sunday before he goes anywhere near the stable then

Think I might be changing to straw, I now suddenly see why everyone else is on straw at the new yard

 

[Jane_Lou]

I would think you would need more but then I do like deep beds! Have a look at the bed-down excel if you can get it - fab stuff, smells really nice as well, much more absorbant than bedmax as well as it has eucalyptus added! I changed to it when Joe came back off loan and I love it.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

I would say a min of 8-9 bales in total. The pitchfork test I do is vertical ie holding by the handly with spikes down thud it firmly down into the bed.You shouldnt hear or feel or see any concrete floor, if you do, your horses joints will!

 

[Steeleydan]

What I would be tempted to do seen as you got no rubber matting is do a semi deep litter, take all droppings out but leave all the wet in to build up a firm base so all the wet stays at the bottom and compacts therefore the horse wont be able to roll down to the concrete otherwise no matter how much you put in they will go down to concrete I worked at a showing yard(top class well respected people) they used this kind of system and it worked well and no smell at all, or thrushy feet.