Mucking out - before and after

I can usually muck out in the time it takes my horse to finish his morning feed so about 5-10 mins but he's fairly clean and deep bed means it all just sits on the top nicely! Thank god really as its all a bit of a rush in the morning. Tempted to time myself now though! Again this doesn't include fully sweeping up, water, hay etc

If I take longer than it takes him to eat he comes stands in the middle saying "enough now, take me out!!!" :D
 
Our three come into the barn together and share a big straw bed - about 30' x 12' and at least a foot deep with decent banks. Takes me about 15 mins to muck it out properly - throwing all the bed up and sweeping the floor - and I get one heaped barrow out. However I get another three barrows of poo and soiled hay from the rest of the barn.

When I worked at a livery yard it would take me between 12 and 20 mins (depending on the horse) to do a full muckout, including haynets and walking to and from the muck heap and straw shed.

I think it is completely different mucking out a deep bed on concrete to doing a much thinner layer at the back of mats. I'm not judging in any way - although I do prefer a full bed - but I don't think comparisons can be made in terms of how long it takes!

I am however, amazed when I hear people say a single stable takes 45 mins or more!
 
I used to have four horses, it took me one hour from start to finish to fully muck out, brush and bleach the floor, do all the water's (6 big buckets) and four haynets. but i wouldn't bed down till later on in the day..that used to take about 20 mins.. full deep straw beds :D i don't know how long it would take me now though i am out of practice and a bit lazier :o
 
If I am at the yard on my own I can do the whole stable in no less than 30 minutes - a full muck out of a thick straw bed (approx 1 foot deep with at least 3 foot bankings) and my stable is the foaling box! 2 water buckets, 3 haynets and 2 feeds. I couldn't do it quicker!

If the yard is busy it takes me at least 3-4 hours between coffee & cig breaks and chatting!

If my OH knew some people do it in 10 minutes or less I'm sure I'd be in trouble!
 
Alot of it depends on the actual bed.

Alot of people just have a layer of clean bed, no banks and bed not thick.
Literally the while bed is removed and new beding thrown down.

If the bed was to be banked with banks redone and bed sifted through it would take longer.
 
How many HHO members does it take to muck out a stable?

1 to muck out the stable and to post that the stable has been mucked out.

14 to share similar experiences of mucking out stables and how the stable could have been mucked out differently.

7 to caution about the dangers of mucking out stables.

1 to move it to the New Lounge section.

2 to argue then move it to the Stable Yard section.

7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about mucking out stables.

5 to flame the spell checkers.

3 to correct spelling/grammar flames.

6 to argue over whether it's "Muckout Stable" or "Muck Out Stable" ... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid.

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "Skipping out stalls"

15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "Muck Out" is perfectly correct.

19 to post that this forum is not about mucking out stables and to please take this discussion to a forum that specially deals with mucking out stables.

11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all muck out stables at some point and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum.

36 to debate which method of mucking out stables in superior, where to buy the best bedding and tools, what brand of bedding is best for this technique and what brands are no good at all.

7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different tyoes of bedding and tools.

4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's.

3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes mucking out relevant to this group.

13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too"

5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the Mucking Out Stables controversy.

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

13 to say "do a Google search on Mucking Out Stables before posting questions about Mucking Out Stables"

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.
 
cobgirlie said:
It's the water that takes me ages, I have to fill 2 big buckets cos he drinks loads and the nearest tap is across the yard and I can't carry a full bucket so it's lots of trips back and forth!!! I won't have an automatic water trough cos they keep leaking in the other stables so I won't risk it!!:rolleyes:
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have you tried carrying two buckets with the same amount in each, to balance yourself, it's much easier on your back. just a thought...
 
celia said:
I am however, amazed when I hear people say a single stable takes 45 mins or more!
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I take about 15 to 20 mins for a thick,normal straw bed.
Shavings (regardless of size and what is under the bed) take me forever :o
I think they are done in about 10 mins,but then my OCD kicks in and I become very paranoid that I have missed bits :o
 
Yunalesca said:
I think they are done in about 10 mins,but then my OCD kicks in and I become very paranoid that I have missed bits :o
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i am terrible for that. I do the bed then walk through it to get into the tack room at the back and when i walk back i leave shavings footprints- these then have to be swept up. But i always seem to be going backwards and forwards through my bed and loads of shavings prints and sweeping ensue!
 
I also fail to see how anyone could muck out a full star bed in 5 minutes. With the amount of bedding in the stable, it takes far longer than 5 minutes to sort through it properly (not to mention having to empty to the wheelbarrow 2-3 times!) I am a self employed groom and it takes me 20 - 25 minutes to do a full muck out including hay and water. This is the acceptable time allowed when working in the Equine Industry. This gives you enough time to do a thorough job.
 
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