Shavings bed help!

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Hippoloosa

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I haven’t used shavings in years but I’m moving to a yard that requires them.
Back in the day, we used to deep litter and only dig the stables out once a year in the summer. Is this still a done thing? How is everyone else doing it? And how many 20kg bags of shavings will I need to start off a bed.

Thanks!
 
You will need 6-8 to start off with and should take the wet out daily and turn the banks too to prevent them going funky.
If your horse is very wet , you might want to sprinkle either wood or straw pellets in the pee spot underneath the shavings too.
 
I’ve never known wet being left in for a year. Mine have always been clean so I’ve taken small amounts of wet out daily, but if semi deep littering skip out in the week and take wet out at the weekends.
 
I have never left it a year, I have big deep beds on concrete with a narrow mat at the front and I put wood pellets down where they wee before laying the shavings, mine mostly live out so I remove the wet every few weeks but if they are in I would take wet out once or twice a week and add more shavings.
 
Not a year no ….. I deep litter in week and remove wet at weekends and add another bale. Start with 5/8 always have banks you can pull down In week. It would stink if you left it a year
 
In terms of smell it depends what you use - some bedding types are more absorbent than others. Easibed, aubiose both deep litter well as does whatever brand those large shavings are.

If you deep litter then never disturb the base - that's when the smell will hit you! If you remove the poo, any wet that's made it to the surface and top up with fresh it doesn't smell.

We only had deep litter when I was a child so I still have that horror of seeing barrow loads of bedding heading to the muck heap. But appreciate that's not common in the UK.
 
I think the yards that don't like deep littering is because it's been known to cause rot in the sides of the walls if the stables are wooden. I've never deep littered to that extent, more removing pee once a week.
 
Sossigpoker said:
You will need 6-8 to start off with and should take the wet out daily and turn the banks too to prevent them going funky.
If your horse is very wet , you might want to sprinkle either wood or straw pellets in the pee spot underneath the shavings too.
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This but I use Auboise for wet bits and remove every few days as needed
 
SEL said:
No it isn't the done thing! Mainly because I like to deep litter and livery yards get a bit snotty about it.

I paid child labour to dig mine out.
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That’s funny as that’s my exact memory - being the child paid to dig them out during summer holidays! I remember it would stink when removed but not otherwise, it just became a firm base. But yeh must have caused a lot of rot 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think I’ll give the weekly idea a go first and see what he’s like. He’s not the messiest so fingers crossed.

Thank you all!
 
I use mats with a thin layer of blue frog shavings, remove the droppings and take the wet out each morning use just over a bale a week
 
Out of interest, those that deep litter longer than 1 week, what do you do if horse accidentally kicks up the base/wet? Or if wet is in the one spot, wouldn’t it end up a bit higher when it solidifies and the rest is normal? Just musing.
 
Hippoloosa said:
That’s funny as that’s my exact memory - being the child paid to dig them out during summer holidays! I remember it would stink when removed but not otherwise, it just became a firm base. But yeh must have caused a lot of rot 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think I’ll give the weekly idea a go first and see what he’s like. He’s not the messiest so fingers crossed.

Thank you all!
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I was also the child labor nearly 50 years ago. Beds were deep littered and dug out once a year. There were 5 of us kids at the yard and got about £1 per stable we dug out. It took ages to do - particularly the ones that were bedded on peat.
 
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holeymoley said:
Out of interest, those that deep litter longer than 1 week, what do you do if horse accidentally kicks up the base/wet? Or if wet is in the one spot, wouldn’t it end up a bit higher when it solidifies and the rest is normal? Just musing.
Click to expand...
My big mare does that - she has a wee spot and she can wee for England 🙄 if I needed to I'd take a barrow of bedding out around that spot and backfill. Nowadays they're out as much as possible but on livery I did find I'd have the odd weekend tackling the top left corner in her stable.

I've never had a problem with a bed being churned up once it's settled. Depending on the bedding it sets pretty solid - it's hard work to dig it out after winter.

Aubiose is interesting. I dug out a year old bed and used it to fill in an annoying dip in the paddock expecting it to rot away. After a week of drying in the sun it looked just like aubiose - not as pale as a new bale but definitely looked like I'd dumped bedding in the hole rather than anything half rotten.
 
When I still used the stables, I used to deep litter and take the wet out every 3 months. I do not get the modem obsession with ultra clean beds which sees large quantities of unused and part used bedding going onto the muck heap. Whatever the bedding my rules were used on the heap, part used starts the new base, clean on the top.
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