Muck out once a day

It won't matter in the slightest to your horse.

Personally if mine are in (which is rarely now, but I did 21 years at a yard with minimal winter turnout so I'm no stranger to having horses in during winter), then I muck out twice a day without fail. I like horses on as clean a bed as possible. Horses, I imagine, couldn't give two hoots!
 
If it were mine it would cost me more in bedding as she would stir it all in if left that long and dirty the whole bed. so personally I would pay someone the £5 to muck out for me, don't think it would bother the horse though.
 
I'm pretty sure my horses don't care what state their stables are in but I had a similar situation where a friend rode in return for mucking out 3 stables. I do the stables around 5pm and she'd come early the next morning so would get about 16hrs of poo to do and then when I mucked out the next day at 5pm I'd get 32hrs of poo (mine are out with constant access to their stables). It was always much more work to muck out the day after she did them than if I did them myself everyday. Although I got a day off it wasn't worth it as I was too ill to leave that much mucking out for one go. I assume you feel the same that you are getting a disproportionate about of mucking out. It then just depends on whether you have time and energy to the extra and if you want her to change her hours or one of you pay for a skip out the evening of your day.
 
Th e only issue for me would be if I had a 17h horse stood in a 12 x 12 or even worse a 10 x 10 box. I do think the majority of horses try to lie in a clean spot if they can.

If the horse has a big area i cannot see a problem with a once a day clean out.
 
AdorableAlice said:
If the horse has a big area i cannot see a problem with a once a day clean out.
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that's the unknown here isn't it :) Mine are in 12 x 12 boxes, one poos all over the shop, the other makes a giant mound right in the middle. Both appear to aim for the muckiest spot when they lie down :o
 
milliepops said:
that's the unknown here isn't it :) Mine are in 12 x 12 boxes, one poos all over the shop, the other makes a giant mound right in the middle. Both appear to aim for the muckiest spot when they lie down :o
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Bless the little S H one T's.

Ted is tidy and never sits in poo. Alice is a mucky tart and the maxi cob is immaculate. My old show horse poo's and looks behind himself, wrinkles his nose and carefully steps aside before reaching for his mobile to ring me and demand I arrive with a shovel immediately. He has stable rugs that are 10 years old and spotless.
 
During the week mine are mucked in the morning and then skipped in the evening but at weekend it's only done once.

We have huge stables - 14 x 18 and one does all his muck at the back of the stable and then uses it as a pillow, one does all her muck on the rubber matting at the very edge of the bed and then lies on the clean (she doesn't like to lie on dirty bedding) the other one mucks everywhere, eats her clean straw and doesn't lie down!
 
one of the other liveries at my yard has one of those sickeningly clean horses - I admired his box this morning before she had been up to him. Half is undercover, and the other half is a big outdoor pen... all poos in a single pile outdoors on the matting, bed indoors is perfect white fluffy shavings. SOOO jealous. You could probably leave his box untouched for a week.
 
milliepops said:
one of the other liveries at my yard has one of those sickeningly clean horses - I admired his box this morning before she had been up to him. Half is undercover, and the other half is a big outdoor pen... all poos in a single pile outdoors on the matting, bed indoors is perfect white fluffy shavings. SOOO jealous. You could probably leave his box untouched for a week.
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Is it wrong to add that to the list of 'must haves' for the next horse I buy.
Current one is minging.
 
ihatework said:
Is it wrong to add that to the list of 'must haves' for the next horse I buy.
Current one is minging.
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See, you joke but wouldn't it be great? My boy is just filthy - you have to do a full muckout every day he is so disgusting. Think of all the time and bedding we would save if we had clean horses!

ETA - he's just awesome in most other ways so wouldn't want to swap him, but occasionally on a particularly bad morning I do question my sanity.
 
aperchristmastree said:
ETA - he's just awesome in most other ways so wouldn't want to swap him, but occasionally on a particularly bad morning I do question my sanity.
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One could say the same thing about ones husband at times too...............The floor is not a wardrobe, the washing machine has that hole thing in the front - use it, the door on the dishwasher has a hinge, the ash pan does not have legs it won't make it to the bin without assistance and if I find another open tin in the fridge, you dear husband, will need a tin opener to remove it from where the monkey keeps his nuts.
 
I'm one of those lucky people. My horse isn't particularly clean in that he poos and wees a lot but he's very easy to muck out. He has a 14x18 stable with rubber matting and his bed only covers the back 3rd. He spends all his time either at his hay bar or at the door so he doesn't poo in his bed at all. He does wee in it but he has wood pellets on deep litter so every day I just sweep the poo into a pile, pick it up and pull some clean bedding over any wet that's showing through. Whole thing takes about 2 minutes - making up his feed takes longer! Every Saturday I take out the wee and put a new back of pellets down so that takes about 10 minutes.

Share horse is the opposite - poos in his bed but won't wee in his stable so just a quick pick up of the poo and a little bit of sorting bedding and you're done. His takes a bit longer, maybe 3-4 minutes. He only needs new bedding about once a fortnight as very little gets taken out with the poo.

I dread the next horse, anything from here on in will be downhill. I can't be that lucky 3 times.
 
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aperchristmastree said:
See, you joke but wouldn't it be great? My boy is just filthy - you have to do a full muckout every day he is so disgusting. Think of all the time and bedding we would save if we had clean horses!

ETA - he's just awesome in most other ways so wouldn't want to swap him, but occasionally on a particularly bad morning I do question my sanity.
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Mine is the same! He likes to lie and roll in his muck as well, he used to be much cleaner and take pride in his presentation but now it's like he knows he can get as mucky as possible and I'll still end up cleaning him until he's sparkling :(

re. mucking out once a day - I do a full muck out every day. Sometimes he is left longer than others, but then I just do a more thorough muck out. If you're very concerned about how dirty/wet he gets, you could try him on another bedding? I have mine on pellets (now have no shavings, but if he needs a bit more bulk and pellets haven't expanded will add shavings in) and he is much much cleaner and not as wet. He also seems to have more bed and it seems to be much fluffier and thicker! He still poos and lies and rolls in it, but it seems to now be I have at most 1 and a half wheelbarrows when he's very wet, and before I was taking out 3 wheelbarrows of wet and muck every day.
 
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