Latest trends - bedding in stables

[Sussexbythesea]

Haven’t done a corner one but current beds have a clear strip at the front. It’s fully rubber matted, the water trug sits on a firm floor and the hay falls onto matting rather than bed until bed gets kicked forward. Plenty of bed to lie down on and pee until their hearts content. Helps prevent it getting kicked out the door too.

Years ago I did minimal bed on rubber matting for awhile due to time and money pressured but it just made everything stink of pee including rugs and my yard coats so never again.

 

[Alibear]

The small pee patch bedding will have me moving yards faster than anything else; in a standard stable, then it's the rectangular bed with the strip at the front that I require. I get things move on but I've looked into alternatives and so far found not found a better alternative.
Some studies a while back showed that it is important for horses to lie down to sleep fully, and full beds enable/encourage that. I do see the irony when Amber lives out for 6 months of the year but she happily lies down in the field but will on lie down in a stable with a decent bed.

 

[nikkimariet]

I think there’s a difference in having a big bed and enough bed. The bed should be dry enough it’s still got capacity to absorb more and yes enough space for them to lie down.

I’ve been lucky with super tidy horses but having recently had a messy hysterical box walker pass through my yard there’s no way I’d subject myself to providing a full bed if it didn’t make sense to. The time let alone the cost…

That said did know of someone whose horses wee was regularly coming out from under the door as not enough bedding which I thought was vile and unfair.

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

Mine always had a proper bed with whatever bedding I was using at the time, with banks as well. I wanted to make it cosy! I did have the strip of concrete at the front so his hay didn't get all mixed up with the bedding but he had plenty of space to lie down

I can't stand seeing rubber mats with just a sprinkling of bedding on top it looks so bare and uncomfortable. Smelly as well.

I had rubber mats for about a day before I flogged them (floor was so uneven and bumpy they just didn't work and the wee pooled underneath I despised them) but I still put a full bed down

 

[Exasperated]

This was Lari's bed, was perfectly acceptable for a 17hh WB.
Adequate room for him to lie down, on top of rubber so no chance of hurting himself on bare concrete.
Stable pictured is actually 14 x 12. The bit from the bed to his net was when he had an abscess and I was trying to help with his comfort as that's where he stood with his front feet!
Bed had a bag of pellets which I'd replace every fortnight and a bale of shavings x 1 per week. The bed used to go along the long side of the stable at the back but it got to cost prohibitive to maintain with Bailey.

I think you are referring to a little sprinkle of shavings which I know some yards like to use.

View attachment 151254

Can I ask why all the gaps between your mats and around the borders?
Genuine question - would send me crackers having to clean and sweep so many bare channels for manky shavings everyday, also tripping/ catching on so many exposed mat edges when moving about the stable.
In consequence, the past thirty years - have insisted all our stable mats fit flush like carpeting, yet seen many other examples like yours and often wondered why / what the advantage of having isolated mats might be - do you lift them each day or something? ( this is a query, not a criticism!)

 

[ihatework]

Can I ask why all the gaps between your mats and around the borders?
Genuine question - would send me crackers having to clean and sweep so many bare channels for manky shavings everyday, also tripping/ catching on so many exposed mat edges when moving about the stable.
In consequence, the past thirty years - have insisted all our stable mats fit flush like carpeting, yet seen many other examples like yours and often wondered why / what the advantage of having isolated mats might be - do you lift them each day or something? ( this is a query, not a criticism!)

My worst ocd nightmare too … corner bed and gappy mats

 

[scats]

Mine have a bed that covers at least 2/3 of the stable. A decent size bed over rubber mats. The big girls are pretty dirty but in different ways but they both like lying down. Millie spends a huge amount of the night flat out and Polly needs to be encouraged to lie down or she gets narcolepsy-like symptoms and collapses, so I give her a decent bed to encourage this.
Costs me a lot in bedding, but such is life.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I went to a friend of a friends yard this morning to drop something off, I could smell the stench before I saw her horses.
Not only are they all 3 with a ridiculously tiny patch, about 6ft x 6ft, the shavings are great big thin flakes that dont look absorbent, just horrible to see and smell.

I cannot see the point in having a stable and not putting down enough bedding for the horse to lie on, all of the horse, not part of it

Neither of mine would lay down unless they have a big thick bed, I know that because of when they went for training at a yard that had mats with minimal bedding, they didn't lay down the whole time they were there so they never got sent there again.

 

[spotty_pony2]

I have one that currently has a corner bed (sort of) but with a bit of old hay and stuff on the one side - he has two windows and trashes that sort of the bed when looking out of each window. He lays down, and does most of his on the old hay (it does have rubber on this strip anyway). It makes mucking out easier and doesn’t seem to bother him - he still lags down and has a cleaner bed this way.

 

[JenJ]

Can I ask why all the gaps between your mats and around the borders?
Genuine question - would send me crackers having to clean and sweep so many bare channels for manky shavings everyday, also tripping/ catching on so many exposed mat edges when moving about the stable.
In consequence, the past thirty years - have insisted all our stable mats fit flush like carpeting, yet seen many other examples like yours and often wondered why / what the advantage of having isolated mats might be - do you lift them each day or something? ( this is a query, not a criticism!)

I hate mat gaps as well - so much so that mine are flush to each other, then have gorilla tape over all of the seams, and tape where the mats meet the wall. Gaps are bad. I don't like gaps

 

[JenJ]

I have an anti corner-bed!

 

[Peglo]

I didn’t realise this was a thing. It looks annoying to build too

I have a strip where my water bucket, haynet and straw chaff bucket sits and the rest is a thick straw bed on a fully matted floor. I want them standing on dry bedding while eating too so their hooves and legs can dry out. I feel lucky my girls are clean and leave their stables easy to muck out.

 

[Exasperated]

I have an anti corner-bed!
View attachment 151281

Wow - is this for the horse or your Air BnB rental?! No difficulty believing there are no gaps....

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I don't understand how these incomplete beds stay in the 'right' place. Ime any kind of bedding will migrate into an empty space as the occupant moves around.

 

[MuddyMonster]

I don't understand how these incomplete beds stay in the 'right' place. Ime any kind of bedding will migrate into an empty space as the occupant moves around.

I think it depends on your bedding? Mine doesn't get that scattered but I find wood pellets offer a stable base so only the top layer gets a little scattered, but it only takes a couple of minutes to 'right'. Not exactly a hardship!

I think having read all the responses, I might use more bedding than some though as my bed although not the full length of stable isn't scant (I use circa two bags of wood pellets a week in winter) nor do my rugs or horse smell - I'm quite sensitive to the smell of ammonia, even after all these years!

 

[JenJ]

Wow - is this for the horse or your Air BnB rental?! No difficulty believing there are no gaps....

I'll admit that I've often been tempted to have a quick nap on it myself...

 

[JenJ]

I don't understand how these incomplete beds stay in the 'right' place. Ime any kind of bedding will migrate into an empty space as the occupant moves around.

Yeah, most of my bare front corner isn't bare by the next morning!

 

[TPO]

My stables are fully matted but it's an earth floor so there is sometimes movement.

Fat Cob rolls that much he manages to push mountains of bedding under his front mats

They all get a thick bed and there's a clear strip at th4 front for hay cubes, water and feed buckets. In winter they get massive banks, in my head that keeps them from the chill of the concrete walls

But yeah, my bed making is very underappreciated by the herd, especially Fat Cob (with summer banks)

Before

After

 

[Peglo]

I don't understand how these incomplete beds stay in the 'right' place. Ime any kind of bedding will migrate into an empty space as the occupant moves around.

A little straw gets pulled down but it’s still easy to separate from the hay compared to if it was directly under it. One of mine especially has a bit of hay under her net by morning and I hate it getting mixed up.

 

[Horseysheepy]

My three youngsters have been coming in overnight for a little while now.
They have deep straw beds with big banks and a strip at the front where water is and haynet is hung. They are fully rubber matted out too.
This morning, my 4 year old was lying down when I went out, it's always a lovely sight to see them happy to lie down. The other two have evidence with straw in tails or manes, but yet to catch them laying down - they are the sneaky ones!!!!

I do not like to see the rubber matted horses with a light sprinkling of shavings at the back.

 

[little_critter]

I think it's to save on bedding. Mine are bedded with just a two foot gap at the front (they are matted). A friend gives her horse quite a thick bed, but it's literally a strip, so not enough to actually lay flat out on. I'm not sure I see the point in that, she just as well do a thinner bed, but bigger.

That's one of my bugbears. Just a bank of bedding on the back wall. You might as well not bother, they can't lie on it or pee on it.
I admit that my beds are as described in the OP but the stables are massive and matted. My choice would be a bigger bed but I'm on full livery so the YO chooses how beds are done.

 

[SEL]

Doesn't everyone's horses just rearrange the bedding to their liking anyway? My much missed Ardennes was the master at spending the 30 minutes post tea sorting out just how he wanted his bed.

Mainly like a nest so he could sleep in the middle. Which was fine unless he'd wee'd in the middle

 

[Chippers1]

I moved yards at the weekend. At my previous yard I always had the biggest bed and the only one that ever had banks of any description, new yard after looking in a few stables it looks like I now have the smallest bed I love big fluffy straw beds but I am lucky as Buzz is clean, doesn't trash his stable and wees in one spot. I would probably do it differently if he was a mess!