How do you manage really messy horse’s boxes?

[Ladybird L]

My new mare is a disaster!! She’s destroying her box!!

At the moment, our only option for bedding is shavings. to First, she poos, then pees, paws it all over the place and rolls in it. Then she does walk her box a bit, but mostly she enjoys digging and pawing the bed. It’s killing me!

I have no idea how to manage, help??

 

[ChipsChaps]

Do you have mats? We have a few like this on matting, and we gave up on big, fluffy beds - they get a quarter to a half a bale of shavings daily, after we shovel everything wet out - often the shavings by the walls (though perhaps not the back!) are clean enough to be mixed in. If they can't keep their room clean, they don't get a fluffy king size bed!

 

[TPO]

I had one that was so disgusting I'd literally sit in the car and have a wee weep before getting out to deal with her. Working long hours and renting a private yard that was a dilapidated farm yard made winter exhausting.

I had sloping concrete floors and had tried every method with straw and shavings. This was ~2008/9 when pellets were a fairly new idea.

I bankrupt myself matting all 3 stables and buying pellets in bulk. Absolute game changer. I could muck out all 3 in 30mins and with one barrow. Before it was nesrly 3 hrs and countless barrows (that then had to be shovelled into the byre).

2 had big deep littered beds. Took poo out daily and any wet that rose to the top. Then dug wet out weekly and topped up the bed.

The feral, wet, box walking beast got a fairly thin bed. Still an inch or 2 deep and the whole stable. I just swept it out every day and soaked new pellets in spare barrow. After other 2 stables were done I'd empty the new pellets into her bed and job done.

I'm not much of a fan of pellets these days and find them dusty, but I no longer have a box walking Bog monster.

It was a literal life changer

 

[meleeka]

Both the above methods worked for me. Minimal shavings on rubber mats might be your best bet OP. I changed to wood pellets, because my filthy cob used to also lay down and I was fed up of him smelling of wee/poo, but just enough shavings to soak up the wee was fine from a practical point of view.

 

[SEL]

Deep litter on aubiose!

 

[scats]

I feel your pain. Polly is a nightmare.
I’ve just accepted that nothing is really going to help and just give her a smallish bed at the back. It’s big/thick enough to lie on but doesn’t come that far forward in the stable.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Any chance of moving her to a bigger stable? Some horses do not like to poo and pee near to the feeding area. Otherwise, the deep bed system with a super absorbent base might be worth trying.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Keep them in the field

Sorry that's not helpful

 

[ponynutz]

We also have a relatively thin bed on rubber matting for the messy one. Makes me feel awful but she does lie down (or there's evidence) and she has almost her entire stable shovelled out every day, let it dry, and new shavings put in. We rug her up a bit more than we might the other one to help her out without a big bed.

 

[canteron]

Mine was like that - 24 hour turnout was my solution, though appreciate that doesn’t work for a lot of people and has its own challenges.

 

[dottylottie]

another who just emptied and replaced daily, but with straw. since we moved yards and have year round turnout shes loads better and has a nice thick bed, but i still know about it if i don’t muck out twice a day!

couldn’t pay me to put her on shavings, id never financially recover

 

[Jambarissa]

If they churn you can either go thin and chuck it all out or go for pellets so it stays you can sieve all the bits of poo out.

You might find she gets better once she's settled, my newest was awful for the first winter but better once settled.

 

[poiuytrewq]

If they churn you can either go thin and chuck it all out or go for pellets so it stays you can sieve all the bits of poo out.

You might find she gets better once she's settled, my newest was awful for the first winter but better once settled.

Agree. Ziggy was absolutely disgusting at first, He's now the cleanest horse I ever muck out and I've been doing a lot of that! We have bad days still occasionally- when the hunt is very close or something just really winds him up but 99.9% of the time he's the easiest ever!

 

[SO1]

The messy ones on our yard have pellets underneath micanthus and use a couple of bales of micanthus a week.

Homey was really tidy only in one pile and Bert is also normally the same. Both medium sized NF ponies in 12 x 12 stables. Only need one micanthus a week. I am on part livery so don't need to muck out but the messy ones have to pay for extra bedding as only one bale of micanthus included a week.

 

[Mrs G]

I too have cried while mucking out a messy bed! When my lad digs up a dirty bed he is relentless - it takes twice as long to muck out so I’ll prob be late for work, it will cost me more in bedding and I know it will wreak havoc on my bad back so I’ll be in pain for days afterwards. I also by now know what might cause him to do it - he doesn’t like the others horses leaving him so I try to be there first to turn him out. Hopefully your horse will just settle OP but keep an eye out for a pattern of behaviour just in case there’s something specific upsetting her.

 

[Ladybird L]

Wow lots of replies!!!

So she has to be on shavings because she has heaves, and that’s the only size box we have.

I think she’s finding it boring after being out in the field. I mean, I don’t blame her. I was thinking of getting a Parallax hay ball, has anyone had good/bad experiences with them? Or any other suggestions? She tends to be pretty rough so it would need to be sturdy…

 

[SEL]

Wow lots of replies!!!

So she has to be on shavings because she has heaves, and that’s the only size box we have.

I think she’s finding it boring after being out in the field. I mean, I don’t blame her. I was thinking of getting a Parallax hay ball, has anyone had good/bad experiences with them? Or any other suggestions? She tends to be pretty rough so it would need to be sturdy…

How long is she in for? Mine are mainly out but around Feb there's usually a week when I have to suffer overnight stabling and forage bricks from simple systems are a bit of entertainment

 

[Ladybird L]

She’s in all the time I hate it but we have no option. We should have a dry lot by Christmas time, but it’s rained for 2 days and there’s fetlock deep mud in their exposed paddock already so keeping them in is the only thing I can do.

 

[Exasperated]

Oh dear, I think that’s exactly the problem - could you find riders to help exercise her, so she’s out and actually working (as opposed to mooching in a turnout patch) for a couple of hours each day? Or at least most days?
Preferably hacking; changes of scenery, up and down the gears, plenty of trotting / ‘jogging’; so she comes back ready to eat her hay and settle. With ad lib hay to occupy, if getting enough activity.
I would have suggested serious deep litter on about 8 or 9 bales of straw to start (like wintering livestock), probably another 2 (maybe 3 if the blighter eats it) per week, and only remove visible droppings. Warm and soft, little smell or wet provided you keep adding plenty of fresh straw, VERY quick to deal with daily - until finally high rise!
But deep shavings stink, cost a fortune, real killer to remove, take years to rot down - can feel your pain!

 

[Barton Bounty]

She’s in all the time I hate it but we have no option. We should have a dry lot by Christmas time, but it’s rained for 2 days and there’s fetlock deep mud in their exposed paddock already so keeping them in is the only thing I can do.

Get her some toys to play with in the stable, Orbi has tons hanging up, he likes to have a little chew on them. He also has a few cuddly toys he likes to chuck about too

 

[scats]

She’s in all the time I hate it but we have no option. We should have a dry lot by Christmas time, but it’s rained for 2 days and there’s fetlock deep mud in their exposed paddock already so keeping them in is the only thing I can do.

No horse should be stuck in 24/7. It’s not even winter yet. Can you move yards?

 

[Ladybird L]

Unfortunately I can’t change yards
We’re at home and all the local yards have long waiting lists..

Forgot to say, she is usually hacked for about 2 hours a day, hunted 1 to 2x a week, and we have one lesson a week. So she’s not in ALL the time. But no turnout.