Really Sorry- Question About Deep Litter?

ShowJumperBeckii

ShowJumperBeckii

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Hey Sorry For another question about bedding but ebs is on straw and i was thinking of deep littering it, but is the the same as for shavings? leaave the wee and take it out after a week, shes a very wet horse so would it work for her? any other info would be helpful
thanks alot :)
 
Im interested in this too - my boy is on box rest so would like to build up a big ish bed. But he is not that wet.

Poor Boy

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Personally wouldn't deep litter straw for a whole week, my gelding is very clean and i don't leave wet in for more than a couple of days. It definately wouldn't work for a very dirty horse.
 
I deep litter my straw bed, taking out the wet once a week, means she has a lovely thick bed.

She's a clean horse and I put one bale down when I take the wet out and sprinkle half a bale over the week to top up so my weekly bedding bill is £3 :)
 
ooh no poor boy whats he done? hope hes better soon
oh really? i thought i read somewhere you could deep litter straw just that when the beds REALLY thick its hard to move about it get all the wet out and just takes a long time :)
 
You can either take it out weekly or a true deep litter you leave to build up a base then just scrape the surface for loose stuff off the top. With straw you can either deep litter the straw or put a layer of shavings or easy bed or something similar and put the fresh bedding on top. Straw deep litter can be good in the winter but can be stinky in the summer. If i was to deep litter with straw i think id put shavings or something underneath as it seems to soak up the wee better.
 
I think straw does deep litter well. We have a few open barns in the field that house 3/4 big youngsters each. They are on straw deep litter and the barns are mucked out once a year!! Once a nice thick base has developed, we just take out the poo and any wet patches that the messy youngsters have managed to scrape up to the surface...top up with clean straw when required.

I'm not sure about taking it out weekly, should work..your could always just try and see. If she is especially wet then putting down a sprinkling of shavings should work well. It won't be as absorbent as shavings, however I have never had a problem with mess/smell and it makes the bedding nice and warm :)
 
I'm not a massive fan of straw deep littered. It can work if the horse is clean and the bed regularly skipped out with enough fresh straw added, but otherwise it just goes into heavy mush with a really strong ammonia smell. I actually find that when we have tried deep littering, I have wasted more straw than if the do the bed completely each day as the nice fresh straw gets walked in to the wet.

The best bed we have ever had was when we had out own yard and there was a 6-8inch deep litter shavings underneath that was hardened, and then fresh straw on top. the straw never got very wet as the shavings absorbed most of the urine, and it was always a pleasure to clean out.

Deep litter shavings works far better than straw in my opinion. If your horse is very wet I just don't see it working for your mare. It is always worth a try I guess, but you may find your going through more straw trying to cover the wet daily.
 
TinselFaerie said:
I think straw does deep litter well. We have a few open barns in the field that house 3/4 big youngsters each. They are on straw deep litter and the barns are mucked out once a year!! Once a nice thick base has developed, we just take out the poo and any wet patches that the messy youngsters have managed to scrape up to the surface...top up with clean straw when required.

I'm not sure about taking it out weekly, should work..your could always just try and see. If she is especially wet the putting down a sprinkling of shavings should work well. It won't be as absorbent as shavings, however I have never had a problem and it makes the bedding nice and warm :)
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I forgot about barn type beds, in which I suppose would be deep littered on straw as the bed is deep and the wet underneath would help the bed stay still. But I think in this case the base really estabilishies itself, where as if the wet is only left in a week, the base has to start from scratch each week, and never really gets past that "yuck" stage.
 
RudolphsRider said:
thanks you :D
btw did you daughter enjoy olympia? :D xx
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I didnt take her in the end cos of the snow, i was supposed to be getting the train as my cars not good in the snow. And didnt want to get stranded in London with the trains the way they were with a 6 year old. I wouldnt have minded if it was just me but didnt think she'd appreciate it too much!!! I get the tickets given to me every year for free so ill try and take her next year, goona try for puissance night!!!:D:D Take it you had a good time?:)
 
ok thanks alot next time i top up ill try it, nothing to loose :) thanks

ahh we nearly didt go cause half of the trains werent running and the last train was like 10? so would have to leave at 9 :( but we drove up the motorway too 50mins and yes it was great apart from i wore heels and nearly died walking around all day!! lol
but we are thinking of trying for HOYs too :p if i dont make the newcomers :p
book early for that ;) x
 
sami4971 said:
I forgot about barn type beds, in which I suppose would be deep littered on straw as the bed is deep and the wet underneath would help the bed stay still. But I think in this case the base really estabilishies itself, where as if the wet is only left in a week, the base has to start from scratch each week, and never really gets past that "yuck" stage.
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Yes I agree, it does work well in the barns once they have developed a nice deep base that doesn't move, however it does take a few days to get past the yuck stage. Perhaps mucking it out weekly may not work, especially if ebs is very wet. You could have a try and see what happens....but shavings would work better if you are to muck it out weekly.
 
no we went off shavings as they get so wet and they used around 3 bags a week :o
just an idea really, just wondered what everyone thought about it :) thanks alot :D ill give it a go and see what happens
do you mean longer than a week or shorter tinselfaerie? :) x
 
RudolphsRider said:
no we went off shavings as they get so wet and they used around 3 bags a week :o
just an idea really, just wondered what everyone thought about it :) thanks alot :D ill give it a go and see what happens
do you mean longer than a week or shorter tinselfaerie? :) x
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I have never deep littered straw in a stable and mucked out weekly, but in a small barn of 3/4 youngsters....it usually takes a week or 2 for a good base to develop...and then we muck it out once/twice a year! :)

If you went off shavings as ebs was too wet, then straw may not be much better...but give it go at least :)
 
I tried this a few weeks back on a straw bed. Mine is on concrete underneath so I wanted him to have a thick, deep bed, plus to save time mucking out wise.

Before I deep littered I mucked out full everyday and took 1 or 2 wheel barrows out (He can be very messy!). When I tried deep litter I took out 1 wheel barrow, but found all the wet straw was being dug to the surface, his droppings were been mushed into the straw making it difficult to pick them up and it look dirty and was quite smelly.

I use 2 straw bales per week (the square small slice ones). On deep litter I topped it up daily. On a full muckout I put a full bale in on a Monday then another full bale on a Thursday.

I found that if your horse is dirty and has quite a wet bed it probably won't work so well on straw so maybe shavings??

I didn't save money wise and felt like I wasn't getting a thicker bed just a dirtier one. It didn't work for me but you could trial it and see how you get on :)
 
ooh right sorry :o
hmm cause it was xmas mother wasnt too happy about spending £200 on mats
cause her old owner said she had mats and a little bit of shavings in the corner for her to wee on so maybe ill try that in the spring/summer :)
thanks x
 
milesjess said:
I tried this a few weeks back on a straw bed. Mine is on concrete underneath so I wanted him to have a thick, deep bed, plus to save time mucking out wise.

Before I deep littered I mucked out full everyday and took 1 or 2 wheel barrows out (He can be very messy!). When I tried deep litter I took out 1 wheel barrow, but found all the wet straw was being dug to the surface, his droppings were been mushed into the straw making it difficult to pick them up and it look dirty and was quite smelly.

I use 2 straw bales per week (the square small slice ones). On deep litter I topped it up daily. On a full muckout I put a full bale in on a Monday then another full bale on a Thursday.

I found that if your horse is dirty and has quite a wet bed it probably won't work so well on straw so maybe shavings??

I didn't save money wise and felt like I wasn't getting a thicker bed just a dirtier one. It didn't work for me but you could trial it and see how you get on :)
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didt work on shavings that why i asked about straw :o but oh well ill give it ago and if its gets too dirty ill just take all out :) thanks alot x
 
True deep litter works best with a wet horse, as you get a springy, firm base through which the wet drains. Mine is on deep litter and has had healthier frogs and a nicer, drier bed this way. On a full muck out, unless her bed was mega deep, she was always standing in a wet messy puddle in the middle where she'd walked it all in, and was prone to thrush. This was with being mucked out twice a day when she was in, and with a variety of beddings tried!

On straw it's slightly messier to set up, but essentially you only take out the droppings each day, and top up with a layer of clean bedding on top. What you MUST do is make sure you remove ALL the droppings. At first you need a proper deep bed for it to work, as it takes time for the wet straw to start to firm up and decompose. It's hard to muck out to start with if your horse buries their poo, as you need to leave the wet pretty undisturbed, yet find those elusive droppings. After a few weeks, you'll start to get a firm base, and eventually will get a nice springy 'mattress' with a thin layer of clean on top, so you only need to sift through the top layer for the poo each day. If it starts to build up too deep on one side, you just skim off the top to level it with the rest of the bed. You can muck it all out completely once a year (usually in summer), or just level it right down and keep going. It does take time to set up - my girl moved to her current stable at the beginning of November, and she's v wet - I'm only just now getting a proper springy feel to the deep litter bed, and the middle still hasn't 'set' properly as she pees round the sides mostly.

ETA: If you want to come see how mine works so you know you're doing it right, you could - I'm only a few miles away - PM me if you want :).
 
What people at my yard do, is put wood pellet type bedding underneath the straw, and then big straw bed as normal :)

The pellets soak up all the wet, so straw stays as dry as possible :)
 
Right i think iv got it :D shavings would help but iv only got bedmax as we not allowed to take in other shavings only can use the yard ones :o
and thanks alot mystiandsunny, ill have a think about what imma do and ill PM you :D thanks guys x
 
Bedmax would work the same way as shavings. I managed a semi deep litter on shavings when on DIY but it did mean starting off with a really really thick bed, then weekly removal of wet and daily skipping out (really thoroughly). Put down on average 1 bale a week then every 4 weeks or so, 2 bales. Meant my horse had a really thick bed. When I was growing up I used to muck out next doors horses who were all on deep litter straw and had amazing thick beds. The one awful thing was.... the spring muck out. Compacted straw is blooming hard work to get out!

And you did make a comment about rubber matting with a small pile of shavings for your horse to wee in - I have never seen this work properly. All that happens is that the horse seems to be in a dirty stable with filthy rugs and the shavings get "used" very quickly. I know it is supposed to be warm/comfortable but logically cannot see how that works. I have mine on matting with half an ordinary bed on top (as in half the stable) which he lies down on. Stays clean on that and never has any bumps or scrapes. Also when nosing around top professional event yards, never ever seen a box with just matting and a handful of shavings.
 
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TinselFaerie said:
I think straw does deep litter well. We have a few open barns in the field that house 3/4 big youngsters each. They are on straw deep litter and the barns are mucked out once a year!! Once a nice thick base has developed, we just take out the poo and any wet patches that the messy youngsters have managed to scrape up to the surface...top up with clean straw when required.

I'm not sure about taking it out weekly, should work..your could always just try and see. If she is especially wet then putting down a sprinkling of shavings should work well. It won't be as absorbent as shavings, however I have never had a problem with mess/smell and it makes the bedding nice and warm :)
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I agree. You need to persevere and get that good base and then it's easy. Once the base is there all the wet soaks down and the bed is lovely and dry and smell free on top. The only problem I have ever had is with a 'digger'.. def not good :o
 
If you want to deep litter I'd advice using that wood pellet bedding that you soak. I've been doing some peoples horses and they're on it, its SO easy to do, the are in oevr night and it takes me 5mins to skip out both boxes (a lot less than mucking out two 'normal' beds of the same size), it looks clean and isn't ever wet like a shavigns deep litter bed can be. I'd def recommend trying it!
 
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