Mucking out a very dirty mare. Help required.

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mandy4727

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I am at a bit of a loss now on the best way to muck out Calli. She has to be the dirtiest horse ever, and other yard members agree she is by far the dirtiest they have ever seen.

Her stable is 12 x 12 with full rubber mats which all fit perfectly with no slipping. She has a haybar in 1 corner so can't use that to put her bedding down and opposite the haybar on the other side is the door at the back or her stable to her tack room, so no bed can go there. We can't have straw on the yard - cos of mess and size of muck heap - so we are limited to shavings (7.25 per bale), Liverpool Wood Pellets (3.50 for 15kg bag).

I have tried just about everything with the exception of leaving the plastic wrapping on the bloody bales of shavings!!!! Tried complete empty bed and 2 full bales down on a Saturday, only by Tuesday it all to be a mush of dark brown mess. Tried 1 bale on a Saturday, to put the 2nd down on a Wednesday. Dark brown horrid mess 2 days after. Tried LWP, dark brown mushy mess after 4 days. Chatting on the yard and the suggestion was I was mucking out too much and let her bed build up. So this weekend I tried this. Left the old bed in, new bale on Saturday. You have guessed it. Dark, brown, mushy mess today and only 2 days later and that wet you can hear it squelch under your feet where she wees!!!!

I don't really want to go down the no bedding at all and just a sprinkling of shavings and neither do I want to use more than 2 bales a week of shavings as can't justify spending more on bedding than haylage!!!

Short of not feeding and not giving her any water (joke) can anyone think of any other suggestions that have worked for their messy horses. We have no winter turnout so stabled day and night and in all circumstances have put her bed up during the day and left wet in as throwing it anyway with the exception of the current method.
Cookies and a glass of wine for getting this far. But help appreciated and
ps does anyone have a wide fitting brown saddle looking for a good home - dressage style?
 
I too have a very dirty mare although it seems a liitle less so than yours but basically I use one bag of shavings per week, for the first couple of days i just take out the poo and try not to disturb the bed underneath at all, then when you can start to see brown bits i carefully scrape the surface to expose the really wet bits and take them out a bit each day then mix the good stuff in a little from the sides to keep the bed looking bright. By the end of the week there is hardly any bedding left so I take all the crap out and start again. Hope this helps!
 
My sister uses flax which is super absorbant and she only has to take out a small patch of wet. Takes a bit of getting used to, as it's heavier than shavings, but you use far less.

I know how you feel, we have a mare that could pee for ireland, where she gets it from i've no idea.

I've also read that concrete floors actually absorb a bit of wet and it leaches down through it i think, so you could try removing the mats???

Does she pee all over the place or just in one area? Do you bank the bedding up a lot and leave just a little in the middle?
 
There is concrete under the mats and they aren't actually sealed between the joints so wee can get undereath but they are all fitted so they don't move at all. She seems to pee mainly in one area towards the centre back. So where she walks round at the front (near haybar) this bedding just gets disturbed and walked all over her stable as it is loose. The back has started to compact but is squelchy under food. Plus (coloured in siggy) is getting really dirty now ie legs and neck, where as in the past she has always stayed lovely and white. Also have use of Easibed but £7 a bale and doesn't seem much more absorbant than shavings.
 
Is she unsettled in her box / does she box walk? I know many people swear by stable mirrors which may be worth a try if this was the case. probably only for the price of a few bales of shavings at moment!
Other than that I have a messy mare and have been experimenting with diff beddings recently given massive shavings shortage / expense. Quite like dust extracted rape straw as seems easy to separate from the poo and don't get as much waste. With my mare I give her a decent half bed and banks (she is on rubber mats all round too) at the back half of her box. The area she fidgets around on the most - ie by door and haynet / water buckets - is just the rubber with no bed on. I use just over a bale a week.
 
I wouldn't say she box walks as in a vice. I have seen horses that do and they just walk round and round and round and even try and trot. But she does mooch about a lot and has a ball with nuts in, so moves around a lot with this as she eats this before her haylage. But as she is a bit horse and does wwander round I would suppose some say she does box walk to some extent. She does weave at feeding times, so yes maybe the mirror might be worth a go, but she has contact and can easily see her neighbours on either side as the have windows with bars between them. And plenty going on round the yard.
 
i would start the bed off with 5 or 6 bales then add 1 a week.dont take too much out at the begining just the poo,let it firm on the base.
the idea is for the wet to go down and the surface to be dry.then when the bed is established you can dig out wee patches once a week.

i use loads to start a bed but it stays good for ages.it is expensive to start with but i think worth it.
 
You have my absolute sympathy, one of our mares is exactly the same. The dirtiest, filthiest horse I've ever had to muck out.

We have her on rubber mats with a layer of shavings on top and then straw and we fully muck her out every day. But you can't have straw so I don't know what else to try.

How about shredded paper or cardboard? Might be cheaper than shavings and equally as absorbent?
 
I only put a small bed down at night for my horses on rubber, and leave the bed up during the day. As has been said numerous times on this forum, horses lie down in the hardest part of the field, they don't make nests! By leaving the bed up during the day, it is easier to sweep the rubber clean before I put their beds down for the night. I have 2 mares on Aubiose and the boys are on straw - the mares have a new bale every 7 - 10 days.
My old mare that I lost last month had cushings, and used to wee LOADS (she was drinking about 12 gallons a night, and then more during the day) - the system I use worked really well for her.
Hope you find the solution for your girl!
smile.gif
 
Just wondered what you feed her? Only ask as when I was feeding my mare a bit too much protein she was very obviously drinking (and peeing) far more than usual. I switched her to a low-protein, high fibre diet and stopped feeding haylage, and reverted back to meadow hay; the difference was a dramatic reduction in water consumption and wettness in her bed.

If the horse consumes an excess of protein, it's body will attempt to excrete this through urination - therefore horse drinks more and pees more. Just a thought as you mentioned feeding her haylage and some can be relatively high in protein?
 
I would suggest building up a decent base first with about 5-6 bales of shavings and skip out in the week as mentioned above and then you can do a full muckout and leave bed up at the weeekend. This can help to keep the bed cleaner as having a decent base means they cant kick the bed around everywhere and you can keep the white shavings on top and on the banks and pull them down when you need them.

Rubber mats are great but dont work for everyone just having a sprinkle of shavings on top.Some still need a base bed.
 
Put her on flax (Equisorb or Jopack)...........you won't regret it! Start off with 6 bales and DON'T dig any wet out for at least a week. You should only need one bale a week after this.
 
I agree.

The trick with a dirty horse is more bedding and semi deep litter, take out poo every day and wet patches once a week - or when they come to the surface.
 
QR - one of my mares is a right dirty minger so I know where you are coming from!

I too have a 12 x 12ft stable with concrete floor, rubber matting and hay bar. She sort of "box walks" too, too nosey for her own good and got to peek out all the time. She goes to the toilet where she's standing, not neat in one place like my other mare!

I've only had the rubber matting for about a month but it's the same yours - not sealed but fitted snuggly and doesn't move. I put down a very thin bed of wood pellets in the back half of her stable and lift the dung and wet every day. It takes max 10mins and I put in a new bag of WPs roughly every 2nd-3rd day.

In nearly 2yrs of trying just about everything with her this is the only thing I've found that's worked. Previous to this she had a full straw bed and mucked out fully daily which took roughly an hour. Wood pellets and matting have been a life saver.

I get 10kg bag of "brites" pellets for £1.89. I'd try looking to source a different supplier as nearly £4 per 15kg seems a lot.
 
I had the same problem and tried everything, i did master it in the end though. 1 bale a week is all i needed in the end. As you have the rubber matting a large bed is not needed so split the bed in 2 push a very thin layer of the dirty bedding to the back of the box for her to wee and poo on, then leave the middle empty and put a fresh bale down at the front of the box. You said she always tends to wee in the middle at the back so this should work for you as well. Just take the poo and worst of the wet out every day, seperate the clean and push it back to the front the the very thinest layer of wet and dirty spread out at the back again. Give it a try it really worked for me.
 
Im glad you posted this mandy, coz im losing my mind with Harvey too!!!! He's filthy. And Liz suggested i stop fully mucking him out too! but ive noticed if i do that, i end up with a mountain of wee in the middle of his bed and its all squelchy, and like you said, its virtually black within two days. I may try LWP and see how he goes on that i think.
Good luck finding something with calli! sorry i have nothing constructive to add :P
x
 
Our pony mare would be pretty dirty but we have found the only way to keep her stable environment clean on rubber is to have small, say 12" high bankings and about 1" of bedding on the floor. The wet is taken out twice a day and the bed kept clean but it's relatively easy as there's not too much bedding on the floor. She goes through about a bale and a half of shavings a week and that's her in 23 hours a day as she hates being turned out. There's no smell and the stable is clean.
 
Spyda. You may be right about the feed. She has 2 x massive haylage nets. Usually a bit left in the morning. And 2 smallish feeds of herbal mollichop, speedibeet and coarse mix. That is it. She doesn't seem to drink excessively - but will make a note of how much she does drink. Changing to hay is an option but is obviously more expensive than haylage, but will check this out too. The idea of leaving the dirty at the back and clean at the front sounds good too. So does the idea of the LWP just 2 bag every 2 or 3 days. Will let you know which method if any, works for us. Toast - we will have to beg Liz to let us have straw!!!!!! - worth a try eh?
 
Mine are tidy in their stables, but would be dirty if they had their 'furniture' arranged as you describe. Problem isn't so much the bedding as the size and layout.

I have to use nets for mine, gelding likes his on his right by the door, and water by the door on the left. If they are anywhere else he takes a tour every time he moves.

Both mares are the other way round.(water on their right, hay left) One has a net and other the floor.

I get neat arcs of poo from 2, and a pile from the one with hay on floor. Wee is round the edges at the back for one girl, edge at the side for another, and middle for the boy.

If you can move things around, I think you'll be suprised.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I agree.

The trick with a dirty horse is more bedding and semi deep litter, take out poo every day and wet patches once a week - or when they come to the surface.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have an extremely large wet mare who tends to 'move around alot' in her stable.

I have tried nearly every bedding you can think of and the only one which I have found works, and currently use is wood pellets.

I have rubber matting only at the front of her stable and a very thick bed at the back. I remove all the droppings every day and just take the wet out when it surfaces.

When I used cardboard bedding, I was using a baled every 2-3 days, straw a bale every day, shavings a bale every 2-3 days. You get the jist.

Wood pellets - 1 bag a week (2 on extremely rare occassions)

I do also find that by sprinkling a small amount of shavings on top also helps for some reason, not sure why, but this seems to work.

Good luck, its taken me 13 years to find the perfect solution for her and even still, I sometimes get an extra messy bed to muck out!
 
Maybe try her without the ball? I found when mine was on box rest that though he loved his snack ball, he was walking all over the place shoving it about and that was what caused a really messy, mixed up bed... could she have some hanging toys instead to encourage her to stand still instead of walking round and round?
 
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