How suitable is your bed?

[Persephone]

It never fails to amaze me when I see the condition of some beds!

I freely admit I am a perfectionist with mine. It's a 15 x 15 stable and 13 x 15 of that is covered in a foot deep of solidly packed sparkly clean paper with large banks (habit lol). My horse is 16.3 ISH, very clean, I can't bear it to start looking grubby lol and I get no fly problems as a result.

But take a wander around my yard and I find

1. A 10 x 10 stable with a concrete floor and right at the back 3 feet of sparkling white shavings

It's no more that 2" deep at the most. The horse that lives here is 15hh

2. A 12 x 12 stable 2/3 covered with shavings so dirty and damp that you can barely make out the droppings on the top

It's maybe 4" thick. The pony that lives here is 13.2hh

3. A 15 x 13 stable with a concrete floor and about half a bale worth of hay sweepings (and straw reclaimed from the muckheap) in the back left hand corner. The pony that lives here is 14hh.

4. A 12 x 12 stable with a paper bed approximately 6" thick covering 2/3rds of the stable. This pony is 14.2hh

I know everybody has different ideas about what is and isn't good enough, different budgets, ideas of cleanliness. Some don't see a problem if the shavings are black and think I am nuts for doing my bed the way I do.

All I know is my horse has never banged herself in the stable, been cast, got through to concrete or had thrush, so I'll keep doing what I am doing.

I muck out and bed down as I was taught to as a kid, you took pride in your bed!

Am I being black and white about this lol?

I don't expect my horse to sleep in a bed that I wouldn't want to touch without gloves lol!

What's the worst you have seen?

 

[Lollii]

The worse bed I have seen is mine!

I have a horse that trashes his bed every night, I have had to put him on rubber matting and straw, it just doesn't matter what I try .. deep litter with straw or shavings, every morning he has pooed and wee'd on every inch of it and it is soggy and smelly, so now I just put a bit of straw on the mats and clean the whole lot out in the mornings (although I have left him out the last few weeks to give me a break!)

My other horses are fine - rubber mats and shavings - 1 bale a week, no problem!

 

[jumptoit]

Mine are all 12 x 12 with rubber matting and a 6 x 4 ft area of 2 inch thick shavings.All the beds are clean and shavings are chucked out when wet. They also have access to a 12 x 24 ft area of concrete so don't make much of a mess in their stables. The horses are 12 HH to 16 HH.

Although I am dreading PC camp as we often get paper and have to have deep litter with all the floor covered and then have to muck out with the horse in the stable. I can;t stand the idea of wet bedding underneath that I'm told to leave in and the paper beds down so quick that it feels like nothing.

I haven't seen many beds of other peoples as I'm not on a yard!

 

[Persephone]

But that's fine though! It's clean and dry and not going to hurt him when you have finished!

It's the ones that look dirtier when they have finished than mine did to start with that I object to!

 

[Chico Mio]

My lad is on a bed of wood pellets,the bulk of which were put in in April! Yes they go brown but so what? The box is 3m x 3.5m more or less and the front metre is swept clean to the concrete when I make his bed. This is where his water bucket is and where I feed his hay off the floor. Everyday I remove his wee patch and skip out all the poo. Every other day I fluff up his bed with a fork, taking care not to disturb the bottom 'crust', which is part of the deep litter. It does not smell, it is dry, it is nearly 10" thick and he seems perfectly happy.

The mare on the other hand is a nightmare. We tried the same system with her but she pees so much that the bed was useless. She is on a mix of shavings, sawdust and straw all mixed together to stop her eating the straw. She has a thick bed of this in one corner (about 2m square) and then a thinner layer where she stands along the wall and poos. This is mucked out and replenished daily. She also has the 1m clear strip along the front.

They are only in at night.


The worst I've seen is at a RS where the horses were both bedded and fed straw and most would eat their beds leaving them on soiled straw and concrete.

 

[Vizslak]

I agree there are loads of very sub standard beds out there! I won't list the ones on my yard on a public forum! My main gripe is no banks....makes me cringe every time I walk past those boxes.

 

[Tiarella]

The worst I have seen is litrally a sprinkle of shavings on the floor, no exageration at all, the stable was 12 x 12 and must of been about 4 handfulls of shavings

And it hadnt been mucked out

The hay was on the floor meaning all the horses wee was mixed in with the hay

Doug has the biggest bed EVER the banks are about 3ft

and his actual bed is about 2ft probs more

I deep litter, but make sure there is plently of clean straw on top...

As you can tell... he likes it

I take ages and ages perfecting it and would happily sleep in it

 

[ester]

I thought you meant my bed, as in the one I sleep in which is very suitable because I sleep!

We have deep litter straw (muck out properly once a week in winter) on concrete about foot deep I spose, with big banks for the boy as he likes to roll. Less at this time of year as they are only standing in for blacksmith etc are out 24/7 though always make sure the boy has sufficient to not injure himself.

 

[Persephone]

CM.. I know, I'm sorry. Grubby coloured beds are just not for me.

I agree totally that it makes no difference to the horse or it's welfare to be bedded on dry bedding that has gone brown!


Temsik..I just wonder who taught them in the first place or if they have got slack with time. Honestly I put more shavings in my guinea pig hutch than some people use!

 

[ihatework]

I'm practical about mine - they have to be minimum cost and effort while allowing the horse to stale and lie down in comfort.

To that end I have rubber mats and a half bed of straw that is approx 2" thick.

Cannot be doing with OCD beds (although if someone else is willing to pay the costs and put the time in that is fine!)

 

[Persephone]

I see no problem with deep litter beds as long as there is a good dry layer on top, and , the ammonia isn't seeping through burning your eyes out!

Seriously some stable you go into, I think if they bottled a bit of the stinky bedding it would work better than Vicks!

 

[Annagain]

My 16.2 IDx has a 15x12 stable covered in the thickest rubber matting I could find, it's very bouncy and feels quite soft to me. He then has a mixture of shavings and shredded paper (from work) for the back 1/2 of it. A bale of shavings and same amount of paper (about 8 bags) goes in every month, I bank most of it up and drag down enough to cover the matting very thinly every day. I am very lucky as he never poos in his bed, goes to the front of his stable to do that, and the paper in particular is very absorbant so I only take a shovelful or two of bed out every day so my bedding lasts a long time and mucking out takes about 1 minute! Some might think it's not enough but he's perfectly happy to lie on it and apart from smelly rugs (he's only in overnight in the winter)I'm happy with it as well.

 

[Charmaine18]

At my RS the horses are all kept on a nice thick bed of shavings with rubber matting underneath, and skipped out twice a day (none of the horses are kept in all day, but often they will be in there for a few minutes between lessons and stuff). When I skip out (and this is how I was told to do it by them so I assume it's how everyone at the RS does it), I turn the bed right over and get out every bit of dirty stuff, then bank it all up at the sides so that the rubber matting can dry in the air. I've usually gone home by the time they put the bed down for the night, but I assume they add more shavings as necessary to make a comfy bed. I don't know the dimensions of the stables, but I'd say about 70% of the floor has the bed on it, then the other 30% is just concrete where the water bucket is and the haynet is hung there so they can eat what falls out without it getting mingled in the bedding.

 

[Gingerbird]

My beds are an OCD case and I'm afraid I will not apologise for that fact!
When James was on shavings his bed looked like this:

And my straw beds look like this (yes they are taken in different stables but I guess it shows its not a one off!!!)

 

[Gooby]

All the horses Ive had are very messy boys who trample their poo into their bed so every morning the middle of the bed is swept out and a new thin bed is put down, this way I only use 1 bag a week instead of 1 a day! (I have rubber matting) I cant stand having a messy bed with bits of poo and wet left in! Apart from anything if the wee gets left in it stinks and makes me feel ill.

 

[Damnation]

Poutu was deep littered on Nedz Bedz at the start of the winter. As you can see the bed was filthy

 

[LOZHUG]

Mine is another messy boy. He is in a stable with thick rubber matting and is on Straw with big banks and a really thick bed. I make sure each poop and any stray pooplets

(lmao) are all out and any trace of wet. Its hard work with him being so messy but I dont like a dirty bed! Yes I am OCD with his bed banks all level etc etc

Not very good pic

There is someone on my yard who drives me potty clean bed but hardly no banks!

 

[ester]

anyone who takes photos of their horses beds are IMO very odd.

 

[stacey_lou]

small beds annoy me! My boy bless him when he was about had a straw bed on concreate his stable was about 15X12 (orsomthing like that) and his banks stood about 3feet tall and his bed almost 2 (no exaduration) and was always big clean and fluffy that came about a 2 feet away from his door and I loved it you could dive in it and it was like heaven.
My new girl is on shavings same size stable again on concreate atm comes a good 2feet from her door and is about 4inch dead I would say.
I love my horses to have big soft beds espically on concreate to. Some ppl say I use to much bedding but its my money and my horse!
I always think if you want them to perform well they need to sleep well.

 

[Hullabaloo]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm practical about mine - they have to be minimum cost and effort while allowing the horse to stale and lie down in comfort.

Cannot be doing with OCD beds (although if someone else is willing to pay the costs and put the time in that is fine!)

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree.

My horse can trash a bed in seconds so there is no point in me being OCD about it, even if I did have the time or the inclination.

 

[chestnut cob]

I have a deep littered shavings base with shavings banks (which have been in a while so they aren't bright white). We're moving over to cardboard bedding so the top and front of the bed is now cardboard. It's really absorbent and he doesn't trash it like he does shavings. Also like the fact it doesn't go brown like shavings, so no one knows if the bedding has been in for a day or a week

I don't have time for an OCD bed. Horse is fairly dry and clean, though he's a big lad do does make a bit of a mess of the bed when he gets up, down and moves around. Cardboard stays in place better than shavings as heavy and only takes 10 mins max to skip out and tidy up.

 

[tabithakat64]

Pony is on thick rubber matting and deep littered on Megazorb, I muck out every three weeks and skip out daily.

The Megazorb is about 6 inches thick and nice and soft and compact, she is super messy as she's a box walker and can't have straw due eating her bed and having had laminitis in the past.

My horse is currently on a straw bed with a back bank only the bed is about 2 foot thick and the bank reasonably solid and 3 foot high.

When I only worked part-time I had perfect beds, these days not so much.

 

[somethingorother]

I was taught to muck out at a riding school. They did a full muck out daily but use the dirty as a 'base' so no matter how bad it is, they always keep enough bed to cover the floor. Then we used to be rationed as to how much straw we could put in each stable. The stables were all tiny too so it's not like they had to make a huge bed. I don't know where else i got it from but i never took to this way like a lot of the others. Yes it took me longer to muck out a stable and i couldn't do 5 full muck outs in 15 mins but my beds were always lovely. I used to sneak extra straw in them when no one was looking because i'm damned if i will be responsible for any horse sleeping on wee and concrete. Any bed i muck out will be fit for me to sleep on by the end, i really take pride in how nice my beds are.

What annoys me the most is that when i had mucked out a stable the day before there was always plenty of clean bed left in the morning, making mucking out easier in general the following day and it also made the bed nicer for longer rather than being alright for one day and then nothing left. You could clearly tell those which had not been mucked out properly the day before, even when the excuse of a 'dirty' horse was given.

Of course the owners daughters sj horses had massive beds and bankings in the biggest stables.

It's not so bad now a days from what i can see, the general standards of the people who help there seem to have improved although the stables are still the smallest ive ever seen.

Also unfortunately a lot of the people who helped out there and then bought their own horse still have filthy thin beds. This may explain the high numbers of horses with thrush, not that a lot of them realise what thrush is or that it needs treating...

 

[fatpiggy]

Hey somethingorother, I noticed exactly the same thing at my local RS in North Cheshire. Identical in every respect! A good deep bed is actually cheaper in the long run as you throw away less plus there is less liklihood of capped hocks etc.

 

[RachelB]

My horse only comes into her stable in really bad weather, so I can muck out as and when I want and take as much time as I want. As a result, Maiden's approx. 12' X 18' stable has 3' X 12' of rubber matting at the front (I can't afford the rest; she has to have her hay on the floor so I stick it on the clean mats by the door to stop her box walking while going to pick up some hay and look back over the door again) and the rest is concrete covered with 6-12" straw. The banks are approx 2' square and are only for show

There is never even a speck of concrete showing as I can't bear the thought of her standing on it all night without any straw or mats underneath... not good for her legs, especially a box-walker with an old but very bad tendon injury.
I do semi-deep litter, but only because she comes in once in a blue moon and she pees so much that it would be silly to take it all out every time. When I do take it all out (did it yesterday, first time in about six months, been used about 5-6 times) I make sure I shake up every single bit of bedding, sweep every inch of floor and leave the door open for a week afterwards to air it out with the bed up. Then the bed gets laid before she next comes in.
I would like rubber mats over the whole stable and that much straw on top, but I'd need to win the lottery to afford it!
I've never really seen a truly awful bed... I've seen a truly awful excuse for a stable (small old chicken shed, pony (13.1hh) had to be reversed in to fit, and wasn't given any bedding and was left standing in poo for a couple of days on the dirt floor...)

 

[Moggy in Manolos]

I have rubber mats so i need hardly any bedding if i so chose, but i tend to give a nice adequate little bed on top of her mats, the mats give the same comfort as grass which is what they would lay down on in the field.
In an ideal world i think all horses would have rubber mats

Also, I like a nice bed but am not OCD about it

 

[H's mum]

OMG - sorry to be off topic Rachel - but aren't you concerned that your horse will get his foot stuck through the railings if he rolls?

Lovely comfy bed though!

Kate x