Losing the will to live!

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LankyDoodle

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So the new boy has been with us for 5 nights now. He's on straw because his old owners, our 'friends' said he was fine on straw. What they meant was that he doesn't eat it unless he's starving and, because they run a yard, it's the cheapest option for them!

Anyway, we arranged for our farmer friend to deliver a big bale of straw at £12. They are equivalent of 8-10 smaller bales. Set up a nice big bed for him. It's on sealed mats so he was only given a half bed as no need for more than that. Got there the first morning and he'd pooed all at the front and a bit up the middle. There was wee from the back to the front in the middle. He had then stirred it all round and was standing in it to look over the door. Absolutely minging! I got rid of all the minging stuff and replaced some of the bed with about 2 fork-fulls of straw, again with about half a bed. The next morning I got there and the bed was even worse, wet more spread out and the poos were stirred in even more but still towards the front.

Yesterday I decided I would give him a 3/4 bed instead of 1/2 and spread the straw more thinly so that less is lost; and I got there this morning to almost the whole bed wrecked! Poos all over the front of the stables and mixed well into the straw, most of the straw soaked with wee, poo on the wall mats. He doesn't just do poo in one place either: he does some in one corner, some in the other and most of it at the front where he stands.

I've tried one more thing today. I've covered the whole bed in straw. This is probably going to end in disaster as he will wreck even more bed. I really don't want him pooing at the front of the stable as he stands there and will also mash it up more there. 2 days in a row I have had to clean the stable with jeyes fluid. I want to put him over to Aquamax when the straw is used up, but I really don't think it will make a difference to how he mashes the stable up or where he poos!

Before he came along we thought George was a messy horse, but 5 nights in George's Aquamax bed is still dry and clean!

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I'm so fed up.
 
Oh, and apart from anything else: because the bed is SO wrecked and mostly unsalvageable, I am at the yard over an hour and a half in the mornings and that doesn't even include riding! When I am working, this is going to be a big issue. Most of that time (at least half) is spent on Lanky's bed.

When we had George and Sparkle (who died), granted we did it together, but we'd be there, turn them out, feed, hay, water and muck out in 20-30 minutes!
 
Eeek! That's why my horse doesn't have a straw bed! I do think they can learn to be tidy though, my mare used to be dreadful in the stable and even on shavings I was taking out most of the bed. She's now in a stable that she is really settled in, (so no walking through everything). She has half a bed and is so tidy that I deep litter and can just scoop the poop off the top.

She's even neater when she's in season and does it all in one pile on the rubber matting.
Not sure how you train that though!! Think mine just decided she preferred it that way
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I think he sounds like a deep litter straw bed would suit him!! I don't rate straw much on mats unless you have a full bed... which kinda defeats the object of having mats to save on bedding!!
My gelding is pretty messy and he is non deep litter, he was a nightmare in a smaller stable doing what your chap is!! Now he's in a bigger stable he's a lot tidier!!
 
Maybe he hasnt settled in yet? When I moved my horses they completely trashed their beds for the first 2 weeks and I actually cried. It took 1 hour to muck out each stable and 4 bags of shavings each for the week.

One of mine also box walks when he is upset and mushes it all in. He is much better when he is settled and I find that if I skip out in the evenings the next day is so much easier. Dont know if that is an option for you?

Although I have always found straw to be worse for a box walker/messy horse than shavings.
 
i use 7 to 9 small bales to set up my bed.useing less is a false ecomony.prob top up with 1 bale every 5 or 6 days.when the bed is made and flattened it is as deep as the prongs.
a couple of fork-fulls is a waste of time.
 
Have you observed him to see exactly what he is doing during the night, was he like this before? could he be box walking and perhaps a little stressy through the night hence why he is pooing all over the place and mixing it all up?

just a random thought
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Thanks guys.

When I made up the bed I used more than half the big round bale. The next day when I took loads out I replaced with 2 forkfuls; but then I decided that if he was just going to trash it all and waste it, I could not justify continuing to put in new bedding every day. All of the bed was used in half the stable and the rest was just mats.

I had to put more fresh in today and covered the whole stable. If I put the fork to the floor I think it covers about 3/4 of the prongs in most areas.

I just imagine that the way he mashes up the poo and the place he actually poos (which is where he stands to look out), no matter how much straw is in there it will get wrecked. I started with alot of straw and I've tried the thin 3/4 bed. Now I am trying a medium thickness bed across the whole stable. I can't justify spending the same on straw as I do on Aquamax because Aquamax is better by 1000000000 miles!
 
Thanks Kenzo. He has always pooed near the front of the stable - I had him on 2 week trial when I was on holiday in Cornwall with our friends. He was not as messy as this, but he was still messy. I actually think the mats don't help a messy horse because the poo kind of mashes INTO the mats, which is why I had to clean them.

In Cornwall he had a half bed on concrete (they cut corners because they run a yard), and while he did poo near the front and stand in it, he didn't seem to do as much poo. However, this was when he was still out at night and in during the day; he's now in at night as she swapped him over!

He definitely isn't settled yet, and doesn't like it when George goes out to the field first, leaving him with the other horses (belong to the YO and don't share a field with ours), he gets really stressy. Even if I take him first he gets stressy. Some of the poo is quite runny as well, so yes he is definitely stressed. I'm doing everything I can to settle him in but realise that will all take time.

Thinking back to what he was like when he was at his other yard, he probably wasn't as bad as this to be honest. I will just have to wait and see. It's doing my back in at the moment, though, and like you, CBAnglo, I have shed tears!!!
 
i used to have one who made a poo-track around the outside of the bed and had a clean `hill` in the middle.lol.
my new little foaly does all his in a little area and i haven`t had to touch his bed since he came saturday.i like him very much!!!!
i do sympathize with you.
 
It sounds like he is box walking a bit, and just still a bit unsettled in his new home. This is compounded by using straw, as when they drag their feet through a straw bed it really makes a mess. Of my 2 mares, one is v relaxed in her stable and poohs in the same place, the other one likes to wander so tends to kick her pooh around a bit more - I know she would be the same as yours if I kept her on straw.

Are you going to use the straw up, and then swap bedding to something else? This might be better at least in the short term, and when he has completely settled in then re-evaluate.

Good luck.

FIona
 
I'd be inclined to either give him a full bed over half the stable, as Cahill said, straw on matting and only thin is a complete waste of time and money, or change him over to something like Sundown yellow, your Aquamax or shavings. You could either do a full bed over the half box again and see how that works out but I would be more inclined to just put a couple of buckets of the stuff in to soak up pee and sweep the lot out every morning; far quicker and more economical.
 
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I'd be inclined to either give him a full bed over half the stable, as Cahill said, straw on matting and only thin is a complete waste of time and money, or change him over to something like Sundown yellow, your Aquamax or shavings. You could either do a full bed over the half box again and see how that works out but I would be more inclined to just put a couple of buckets of the stuff in to soak up pee and sweep the lot out every morning; far quicker and more economical.

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Thank you. Do you mean to have the absorbant bedding in the area where he wees/poos a lot, and nothing everywhere else, or straw everywhere else? I've seen people use a straw bed and use sawdust or somethng else in the wetter areas... Our other friend has one messy horse and she is the one who recommended the thin bed, as it wastes less and gets stirred up less, but this proved to not be the case, as I found this morning!! She doesn't have mats, though, and her horse is also actually a pony!

I hate straw myself, but my husbands a bit of an economist on the sly! I would rather just use Aquamax all round.
 
""Do you mean to have the absorbant bedding in the area where he wees/poos a lot, and nothing everywhere else?""

Yes! Doesn't look pretty (which he isn't at the moment anyway is he?!) but is extremely practical. This method worked well for me with a mare I had who was very messy and wet. She didn't actually box walk as such but she'd never cut a corner, she'd walk all around the box to get from her manger to hayrack (both on same wall, opposite corners!) I actually put a whole bale of Sundown Yellow in but in the middle of the box only so she had somewhere to lay on (as she was a youngster and lay down a lot), not just pee on. This soaked up the wet so I just took droppings out daily with a broom then rake bed over to let some air at it and dry a bit; in the evening, I'd put a fresh bucketful in if it was needed so I'd only use two bales a week at the most; I would have used less if I only put a bucketful in each day and swept it all out. I tried her on straw and she was a nightmare!
Only thing if you do it that way, it's better if they stay in their turnout rugs overnight as they don't soak up the pee, it just runs off them.
 
QR..... Has he got more than one place to look out for a view of the yard???

Merlin will walk from door to window to window to door etc... he has got 1 proper window looking to outside, an internal door and two more glazed, long, tall windows which look down towards the fields
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He will walk round in circles to see which has the best view..... by the time he has gone round them all, he has forgotten which was best
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If it were me and there were full sealed mats in place, then I would go for a sprinkle of shavings and replace daily
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Horses do not build nests, they couldnt care less if there is a forks depth of bedding or not.... the bedding is there for our benefit.... it looks nice and the horse generally smells better.

How many horses worry about sleeping on the floor in the field??? Rubber mats will be far more comfy than the field is.
 
Thank you
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He has a large door leading to outside which he can look over. He also has a wall on one side which looks directly into George and he can also see to outside and beyond through that large gap. Then he can see over the rear wall because he is just so big. The one thing I can do is shut his top stable door but that just seems mean. Hehe.

He does drag his feet around, but that's because he is huge. His stables at his old yard only had one lookout and that was over the door into an American barn.

I think I will put his hay and water on one side instead of opposite sides and once the straw is used up I'll go onto Aquamax most probably. I also think I might develop some kind of rug hanger on George's side of the bars so that Lanky can't see out too well.

Failing all that I think I might just chop off his legs
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I've got a couple of VERY messy horses and I use some stuff called Envirobed PLUS flax. The stables have thick EVA mats (which don't need bedding for warmth or comfort) so the messy ones get a sprinkle of Envirobed (which is incredibly absorbent if a bit dusty - but cheap!) and a sprinkle of flax on top for appearance.

That mops up all the mess - just sweep it out and put down fresh. The messy ones probably use one bag of Envirobed (under £3) and one bale of flax (£5,50) a week.

The less messy ones get the same thing - just a bit more - as it doesn't all have to be turfed out. Easiest and most economical solution I've found (and with 20 odd horses stabled I NEED easy and cheap!)
 
Phew, he was much better today!

1) We put an exceptionally deep bed in there, flattened it. It covers the whole stable.

2) He seems to have settled a bit now.

There was no mash in there this morning; it was all in neat little piles around the edges of the stable (mainly at the front, granted). I am going to deep litter it to save on time, and because it is a thick bed it can take it!
 
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