How much of your stable is covered with bedding?

[Ladyinred]

The whole stable, apart from a small section at the front, for water and food. Lush deep straw bed nothing like it.

Exactly the same as this.

 

[Toffee44]

I always had my door on the side of the stable rather than central if that makes sense. So had an alley from door to back approx 2m wide and then bedding to the side. Bonus is she is mega neat like this. always have had mats down.

Now just put beds down in new stables quite large, at least 14x14 but doors central. Both matted out and just done half and half beds, but will semi deep litter them.

 

[acorn92x]

Pony has a 12x12 stable, 3/4 of it is covered with shavings and no banks. I don't use rubber mats and she is quite clean so we cope fine with this. She does have quite a thick bed of shavings though as she loves to lay down...lazy little rascal!

 

[EmmaB]

I only have enough matting for half a stable so I have it pulled forward so the matting and bed is up to 3/4 and an empty strip at the front. This way my horse lies on the mats and the concrete at the back is mainly covered by the banks.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Depends on the horse and its habits.

I am intrigued however, for those who have pellets and shavings covering the whole floor up to the door how do you stop them falling out of the door when you open it? I'm aware of the art of plaiting straw beds so that doesn't happen (although I'd be surprised if many do it) but have always been at a loss to keep pellets, chips and shavings in.

Plank of wood across the doorway. Bedding holds it in place.

 

[Tnavas]

When I stable the whole area is covered except for a small area at the door. If there is a board across the door to prevent shavings spilling out I will bed to the door. Sides are banked.

The horse has no understanding that you require him to spend the best part of his time in the stable standing/lying on the nice soft bed. He will stand where he feels most comfortable.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

I prefer to keep horses unshod where possible and find the hoofs do better if the front part of the stable is concrete, it keeps the hoofs tough and means less frequent trimming. Horses will go stand further back on the bedding if they want to rest their hoofs. If doing this I'll use chippings or straw.

If the stable isn't big enough to leave a concrete area at the front, I'll use Aubiose bedding to the doorway. Aubiose works better if the bed isn't disturbed and bringing upto the door helps with that. I don't like horses standing with the back end up on bedding and the front end downhill on concrete. I don't think it does their front legs any good.

 

[Annagain]

14x18 stable rubber matted completely. Medium thickness bed on the back 1/3. He has a haybar at the front right corner, door is front left. This is brilliant as he either stands at the door or his hay bar so doesn't poo in his bed. He's also very predicatble when it comes to weeing so as soon as he's finished his tea, he'll have a wee and I can catch it in a bucket with some shavings at the bottom (to prevent noise and splash or he stops!). He also has a wee at about 6.30am so depending on who's putting him out and what time they're there, you can get him out before he wees. It's brilliant for saving bedding. I only used one bale of shavings a fortnight last year!

 

[lhotse]

My stables are bedded right to the door, with a small area at the front clear where I put their hay. One is on shavings, the other two on straw. Shavings bed always clean as mare doesn't drag hay out of her net. I don't use mats, can't stand how smelly they get so mine have concrete floors which they will never go through to as the beds are all very deep.

 

[PolarSkye]

When I stable the whole area is covered except for a small area at the door. If there is a board across the door to prevent shavings spilling out I will bed to the door. Sides are banked.

The horse has no understanding that you require him to spend the best part of his time in the stable standing/lying on the nice soft bed. He will stand where he feels most comfortable.

Exactly, so he/she will stand or lay where it suits them - on concrete/mats or bedding. I don't bed the front of my stable because otherwise the straw would end up in his water buckets (he's a restless creature) and because I feed his hay/haylage from the floor and would rather minimize the amount getting mixed with his bed. He's not daft . . . he would much rather lay down at the back of his stable where it's nice and soft, there are comfy banks and he's off the draughty floor than at the front on the bare concrete . . . he also stands on the straw, simply because that way he is facing the door (which is why I have the stable up the way it is).

P

 

[godfreyy]

Ever since I started looking after horses at the local riding school and developing my knowledge from there on, I was always taught to cover about 3/4 of the stable with bedding and leave a little bit uncovered at the front for hay/water etc.

However I have owned my newest horse for about a month now, and whilst I started off by making his bed this way I now cover the whole floor with bedding (water goes in a corner with bedding pushed up around the bucket and I use haynets/haybar now anyway so that solves the bedding in the hay issue!). This is simply because on his first night in since I've had him, he moved all his bedding round so it covered the whole floor. If I ever moved it back whilst mucking out, I would come down the next morning to find it covering the whole floor again. Since I changed the way I bed to cover the whole floor, he's been much more relaxed upon entering the stable, as he used to pace and pace until the bed was how he wanted it.

 

[diamonddogs]

Mine's about 2/3 bedding (no matting; chopped straw) because I'm another one who doesn't want hay and water contaminating the bed!

The bed is at the back of the stable, and she doesn't have her top door closed at night. I've tried several times to put the bed at right angles to the door so she gets a bit of shelter if the wind blows in, but she won't have it - she'll just move it back to the back. Yes, she'll even transport the chopped straw, and I'd love to know how - it must take her hours!

 

[ljohnsonsj]

My stables are about 1/2 straw beds and they are on rubber matting. Hay at the front and water at the front

 

[BBP]

Big long stable for 14hh pony. Back half of stable fully bedded with pellets. Front half is chalk (so if hay is at front he isn't standing half on half off bedding) he then has a stable size of concrete yard outside his stable and another stable size bit of outdoor wood chip added on to that. Spoilt beast. Means that most of his hay goes in a trough outside where he can enjoy some patio dining without contaminating his bed, and then lies down to sleep in his stable.

 

[Merrymoles]

Massive but odd-shaped table which is part of an old dairy. Bed is currently covering about two thirds of the floor with a sort of crescent-shaped front. Rubber matting apart from about a foot at the front and where the wall suddenly swings out near the door.

I like my hay nets off the bed too but need to move one of them as the stable has great drainage thanks to sloping floor but the pee currently runs down right underneath the haynet so I can't reuse any dropped hay.

I am limited as to how I can orientate the bed, thanks to the weird shape, door in one front corner, drain in the other, hence the odd shape of the bed. No complaints from my horse though who uses the shorter part of the bed to pooh in and leaves a big imprint every morning where he's had a lie down on the longer bit.