I suck at mucking out

[Pippity]

Really, I'm dreadful. I end up going through about a bale of straw every two days, because I take so much out.

Anybody got any tips?

 

[Hoof_Prints]

I am an OCD mucker outer I've always said that If I ever run my own yard I will set up a mucking out course for my staff to make sure they get it up to standard .

I find that leaving any wet in does nothing but soil the new clean straw, I sift through all the clean stuff in layers (not just digging straight through the middle), chuck it up the corner and then make sure I removed all the wet without mixing the dirty and clean stuff together while mucking out and clear the floor area. If I do this, I only take out a small amount each day and I use less than any other method such as deep littering (which I hate).

Does depend how much of a slob your horse is. I have one that poos and wees neatly in one area and another that just does it everywhere then tramples it in for good measure and he's a good reason to leave out 24/7 !

 

[its_noodles]

Really, I'm dreadful. I end up going through about a bale of straw every two days, because I take so much out.

Anybody got any tips?

get someone else to do it...

 

[Pippity]

get someone else to do it...

Sadly, I am the other person doing it...

 

[sandi_84]

Be methodical about it, start from one side and work your way back and across obviously throwing all your wet/dirty to the front or into your barrow.

I used to dig out the left bank all the way to the back and then start working across to the right making a pile of clean along the left wall. If you take it in layers like Hoofprints says it does make it easier so lift a small amount, move to clear area of ground and give it a jiggle on the fork I find that the poop falls out and the clean stays on the fork. The wet stuff is obvious so chuck it too but make sure there is no clean on top first.

I would chuck all the dirty stuff to the front to be put in the barrow after so that I could do a quick last check because I sometimes got a bit over zealous and chucked some clean in there too, so any leftover clean gets thrown back on the good pile and the rest is trundled up to the muck heap

It took me a good bit of daily practice to get my system down, at first it was taking me nearly an hour to muck out 1 stable! (painful amount of time!) and I was throwing away a lot of clean too but by the time I moved off the yard I was down to about 7mins per stable and hardly any clean in the muck heap I was sad and timed myself because I was determined to get faster ha ha!

It just takes practice, we were on straw so if you asked me to do a shavings bed I'd be back to square one I didn't deep litter because my dodgy back couldn't have handled it so it was a daily job for me

 

[PolarSkye]

I agree that layers in the key . . . and use a decent (metal) shavings fork rather than a straw fork . . . makes it easier to separate those layers and find the renegade poos. I work through the layers, anti-clockwise round the stable, piling the clean straw up around the walls . . . I don't turn the banks (if a straw bed) very often - about once a week) but I have a gelding and he doesn't poo in them. Once you know where your horse wees, that makes it easier too . . . you can work through the known non-wee areas with more confidence.

As an example, I know that Kal wees either on the far left or far right hand side (sometimes both) and never in the middle and his poo patterns are pretty predictable (although he does tend to pulverize those in the left side of his stable due to where his haynet is) . . . so I know where to look.

I will say, though, that I had mucking out his straw bed down to a tee and then I switched him to Bedmax over the summer . . . had to relearn how to muck out all over again .

Hope that helps.

P

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I muck straw beds everyday a good way to waste less is remove the droppings by hand with gloves off course or I find the shavings forks pick them up easier without picking up all the clean straw, then fork back all the clean on one side and remove wet, I think if you pick up the droppings without mixing it all in the bed you will not throw out so much, my mare is filthy and in winter I only use about 4 bales a week and its a lovely thick bed.

 

[kaiserchief]

Ditto Pinkvboots; I pick out the poos by hand (gloved, of course!), then using a metal shavings fork, scrape the layers out from the middle to the outside. The clean straw comes easily, anything wet stays put. After about 1 minute, I have a little island - wet in the middle, clean around the outside. I scoop out the middle, sweeping the remains to make sure I get everything, then re-lay the bed.

Once a week I shift the whole bed to the opposite side of the stable and leave it up overnight to let the floor thoroughly dry, before putting it all back down again (also means the banks don't get dusty from being left stacked all the time).

 

[Boulty]

My tip is that your bed does not have to be spotless! Obviously take out the wet, smelly stuff that's starting to go brown but that doesn't mean you have to also throw away the clean and semi-clean stuff sat on top of it. Also if you're taking poo out try and scoop the straw under it keeping the poo on top and then tip the poo off into the barrow keeping the straw the poo was sat on. Also if you end up with a decent chunk of clean straw in your barrow don't be afraid to scoop it out again! Another tip is not to dig right to the bottom of your bankings every day as that does waste a lot of bedding, gonna admit mine only get dug up every few months (probably to the horror of some people!) I am obsessive about using as little straw as possible and I can normally make a small bale of straw last a week (I say normally cos if we have really bad wet weather my stable does have some leaks). This does not mean that I have a small bed (in fact I tend to favour quite a decent one). Does help that my stable drains to the door (although I do need shavings to prevent it flooding the rest of the stable block when it does that annoyingly). If you try all the tips people are giving you and it is actually all dirty that you're getting rid of it could just be that you have a very messy horse! Maybe play around with how big / thick you make the bed but could just be that this particular horse isn't really suited to having a straw bed (a few people I know use shavings for this specific reason!)

 

[Kaylum]

After I have mucked out I leave the floor bare until the horse comes back in and then put the floor back down. It gives the floor a chance to air out.

Although this week we have jet washed the stables and painted them.

 

[NaeNae87]

Don't use straw? I much prefer sawdust/shavings.

Easy to clean, easy to maintain, absorbant, cheap...

 

[CaleruxShearer]

I muck out my straw beds with a shavings fork, all the poo out first, then go through the layers, forking the clean stuff up and wet into the wheelbarrow. Then I use left over water from his buckets to slosh over the floor and sweep out (once the floor has already been swept clean), then leave the bed up for the floor to dry out. Just keeps it all a bit nicer and cleaner.
When I'm at uni he's on shavings and rubber mats and I have pretty much the same routine. With my straw beds I replace whatI take out each day, so generally one barrow of clean straw goes in a day, then at uni he has a clean bale of shavings added and banked up every Sunday. Banking the clean shavings up when you put them in allows you to save more then keep adding clean to the bed through the week.

 

[dunkley]

I use a long handled, two pronged pitchfork, and find it much, much easier than shavings forks or 4 pronged forks. You will soon learn where the wet patches are. Take out obvious poos first by hand, then follow the same pattern every day. If you take out all poo/wet daily, it becomes a very quick, easy job

 

[arizonahoney]

Don't use straw?

^^^ this. Straw is stinky and back breaking! Go for wood pellets or shavings...you won't look back

 

[CBFan]

First thing I do is remove all buckets, feedbowls and haynets - Stable looks instantly tidier!

Then park your wheelbarrow right up against the stable wall (inside the stable) this means you can heap up the barrow much squarer, preventing any loose stuff from falling off.

I then go round and get any visible poos first. Fork well under the straw under them and scoop them up then TIP them off said straw ino the barrow, throwing clean straw into a pile / on a bank. Do this until all visible poos are in the barrow, then start forking obviously dry bedding onto the banks (a little prod with the fork will soon seek out any hidden poos!) I too, tend to work down a layer at a time and sort of scrape the clean up with the tip of the fork... there actually tends to be a relatively thin layer of wet in their wee patches unless they are big wee-ers! the wet and sweepings should be the last to go on the barrow, use the back of your fork to flatten it down and the tip of the fork to tuck it in the edges of the barrow. Job done.

1 bale of straw every other day isn't that bad though. Particularly for a big horse...

 

[PolarSkye]

First thing I do is remove all buckets, feedbowls and haynets - Stable looks instantly tidier!

Then park your wheelbarrow right up against the stable wall (inside the stable) this means you can heap up the barrow much squarer, preventing any loose stuff from falling off.

I then go round and get any visible poos first. Fork well under the straw under them and scoop them up then TIP them off said straw ino the barrow, throwing clean straw into a pile / on a bank. Do this until all visible poos are in the barrow, then start forking obviously dry bedding onto the banks (a little prod with the fork will soon seek out any hidden poos!) I too, tend to work down a layer at a time and sort of scrape the clean up with the tip of the fork... there actually tends to be a relatively thin layer of wet in their wee patches unless they are big wee-ers! the wet and sweepings should be the last to go on the barrow, use the back of your fork to flatten it down and the tip of the fork to tuck it in the edges of the barrow. Job done.

Are you me? You have just described exactly how I muck out - right down to parking the barrow right up against the wall and tucking in! I am so anal, that I even clear a space for the barrow first . . . partly, as you describe, so that I can park it against the wall to make it as square as possible, and partly because I don't like to have the dirty bedding up against the (stable) rugs on his door.

How funny .

P

 

[Pippity]

Thanks for the tips! I'll be putting them into effect and hopefully mucking out will become a lot more efficient.

 

[CBFan]

Are you me? You have just described exactly how I muck out - right down to parking the barrow right up against the wall and tucking in! I am so anal, that I even clear a space for the barrow first . . . partly, as you describe, so that I can park it against the wall to make it as square as possible, and partly because I don't like to have the dirty bedding up against the (stable) rugs on his door.

How funny .

P

Hehe! How funny! I have to say, I often choose the clearest part of the stable (which is usually somewhere around the doorway to park my barrow) Stems from YEARS of having to walk a long way to muck heaps and or sweep up after me on said journey to the muck heap. Doing it this way, I rarely have any spillages and even rarer have to make more than one journey to the muck heap I use the same method for shavings / chopped straw beds too

 

[CBFan]

Don't use straw? I much prefer sawdust/shavings.

Easy to clean, easy to maintain, absorbant, cheap...

Not sure the last bit is true... over here straw is considerably cheaper than shavings (even going through a bale every 2 days, because you can guarantee that a horse who goes through a bale of straw every two days will more than likely need more than one bale of shavings a week)

I love a nice straw bed but shavings are a bit easier to handle and generally tidier and smell less...

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Not sure the last bit is true... over here straw is considerably cheaper than shavings (even going through a bale every 2 days, because you can guarantee that a horse who goes through a bale of straw every two days will more than likely need more than one bale of shavings a week)

I love a nice straw bed but shavings are a bit easier to handle and generally tidier and smell less...

Straw and shavings both suck IMO, stick to everything, get wet and stay wet, get dragged round the stable. Wood pellets or Aubiose every time, stays where it's put, pour out of the bag, much more natural forest floor type bed and hardly use any. When shavings were cheaper there was more to say for them but now they are often 2/3 the price of Aubiose.

It used to take me an hour to do a straw or shavings bed to look really nice, I can do the beds now in 20 mins for both and they are cleaner.

So worth considering OP, I thought I was bad at mucking out until I changed what I was mucking out!

 

[somethingillremember]

I have a pellet base and straw on top . Straw beds dont soak up the wee , so it spreads across the floor and wets everything in comes into contact with , so pellet/shavings base will soak any wee ( like in a cat litter box) and your bed stays cleaner . Poo pick and a usually a small patch of shavings/pellets to lift and thats it ! Easy . I leave the base well alone and only lift whats wet or dirty , that way it compacts down so the wee stays in one place, and if your horse lies down then its as good as rubber mats . If you dont want a base then if its clean leave it alone so the bed doesnt constantly shift . sift throught the top layer of straw for poo and wet , lift those , then older straw from banks on the base and any fresh straw on to the banks for future.(also the pellets/shavings dry any wet or damp straw so less to take out )

 

[bethanwhamond]

yeah I would agree with 'somethingillremember'. That's what a few of the people do at our yard and it proves to be effective as rubber mats can be extremely expensive. I just do the usual straw bed and deep litter in the winter, as we have free straw in our yard.

 

[mandwhy]

I find shavings or pellets much easier and nicer too, so would never have a fully straw bed again. I do think straw beds look quite cosy in winter though especially if the horse lies down a lot so might do a mix or layers.... You'll work up a technique over time though OP! I don't have any beds as mine live out - even easier! I won't lie I do feel a bit sorry for them when its really cold and wet, and kind of miss having stables to do!

 

[putasocinit]

Agree with others but i make a clean space in the middle at the front of the box, where i tip the dirty and if any good straw falls aswell from the fork then i just lift that out with the fork and add to the sides, when finished you have a pile of dirt then shovel it into the wheel barrow saves lots of walking back and forth and also you get tempted to let the good go with the bad when you have to keep walking backwards and forwards to the barrow.

Gelding pee in the middle, mares pee to the sides, but either way no difficult if you get the knack.

 

[Shadow the Reindeer]

These two girls can show you how to muck out, Jo and savannah style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpvjTY7qeAA

 

[Shadow the Reindeer]

But here's an expert, who can show a better example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmwOYAGu9j0

 

[Cortez]

See, I absolutely HATE shavings, whilst acknowledging that they are a very good bed if kept properly and not left to be turned into a paté of poop and wee. I can do a straw bed in 10 mins, and I'm extremely OCD with my stables (they call me the Princess and the Poo....). Shavings take me forever as I will hunt for every last tiny bit and it all has to be perfect. Sad, me.

 

[Shadow the Reindeer]

See, I absolutely HATE shavings, whilst acknowledging that they are a very good bed if kept properly and not left to be turned into a paté of poop and wee. I can do a straw bed in 10 mins, and I'm extremely OCD with my stables (they call me the Princess and the Poo....). Shavings take me forever as I will hunt for every last tiny bit and it all has to be perfect. Sad, me.

Takes me 20-30 from start to finish, that's muck out, haynet, water and feed.. And that's with all the droppings taken out, though my Boy is really clean. When he was 17 months old, he was shocking, 2-3 wheelbarrows a day..

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I used to be so picky at mucking out. Some liveries were till they mucked out 8 every day now they are not so fussy. I muck out 8 a day on my own. so I am less bothered about a perfect bed

In the winter when in I leave bed down, find the wet patch and scoop out the wet patch with the snow shovel then fill in with clean shavings. So the rest of the bed is not disturbed and is less likely to move around with the horse walking. Skip out pellets this is the quickest most effective way I find for me.