Shavings bed with rubber matting

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Overgrown Pony

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Hey guys

My new yard supplies shavings and my stable has wall to wall rubber matting.

What are your tried and tested ways to deal with such a bed? I've never used shavings before.

Would you say deep litter or a full muck out daily? If deep littering do I literally leave the wet in each day and just lift the poo out until I get a nice base going? At the moment his bed is covering the back 2/3 of his massive stable (about 16x16 - 17.3hh WB) and isn't very thick (probs about 2") with small banks round the 3 edges (just how the yard staff initially set it up for me starting to use the box). I'd say he's moderately messy. I want to encourage him to lie down, keep mucking out time and bedding usage to a minimum (doesn't everyone haha).

Any tips would be much appreciated :)
 
It depends on your horse to some extent I think. I've tried all methods over the years.

If deep littering leave the wet in and skip out poo. But I think you'll need a thicker bed to allow the wet to settle and form a base. Once you have a base this is a clean and easy to do option and you won't need much new bedding. Lots on our yard do this successfully.

I tried this last year but wasn't too successful as my boy box walks and drags his hay everywhere. Also never picks up his feet. Most days half the bankings are pulled down and kicked over the front of the stable. I just couldn't get a base to form on half his stable and then he'd mix wet and dry together. So he is on a few inches of bed and it's cleaned out everyday. I use approx 1 bale of shavings a week this way though.
 
Personally I would have a normal bed with no banks and just muck out properly daily. I dont see much point of having banks that are tiny apart from to keep a bit of clean bedding at the sides! and I couldn't bare to deep litter after it taking me so long to empty out his stable last time i tried it lol
 
I have shavings on matting and I couldn't deep litter. It gets mixed in everywhere and that's in a field shelter. Apparently it works well if you use wood pellets underneath, but I've never tried that.
 
My boy has a 7-8" deep shavings bed on rubber matting, no bankings. He is mucked out daily (poo and obvious wet) and then the full bed is dug out once a week/every few days depending on what is required.

He's on full livery so I don't actually do any of it, but I think he gets 2-3 shavings bales a week again depending on what is required. Obviously in winter they're stabled more (not turned out in dark) so will make more of a mess in the stable.
 
I'd leave it as the yard staff have with a thinnish bed (maybe a bit more than 2", but not much) and muck out every day. He will still lie down so your biggest problem will be having it thick enough to absorb all the wee so his rugs don't stink.
 
We have had our boy on shavings/rubber matting for a couple of years now and agree that the management of the bed depends very much on the horse.

Our boy is very wet and not particularly tidy so for him it works best to deep litter so takes a week or so to settle a new bed in. We take out poo and obvious wet everyday and then take out all the wet weekly. Generally he only needs 1 new bale a week, but occasionally needs a second to keep the bed a decent size.

For us shavings is the best option and I would never go back to straw again!!
 
touchstone said:
I'd compromise and semi deep litter with a deep bed, remove droppings daily and wet patches weekly.
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I did this more or less with my old boy, but removed the wet when it was too wet, rather than weekly. Thus turned out to be about every 10 days. I used bedmax and he was pretty tidy do I only used 1 bake a week.

My new pony arrives tomorrow and I've set the bed up to do the same. Whether that works we'll see!!! It suited me before and I'm hopeful she's tidy as she's grey. Not greyed out yet but will be at some point!!!
 
I use shavings without rubber matting and I only use about 1 bale a week on my girls bed!! To be fair, she is is a 13.2 pony and is actually relatively clean. I don't bother with banks and muck out fully everyday. I don't think I could do deep litter, it'd save me a bit of time but I prefer her to be mucked out fully everyday.
 
We have full mats and shavings beds ,we muck out daily remove all wet and leave the bed up when the horses are not in the stables .
 
amymay said:
I still put a good bed down on matting. But I don't deep litter, so wet is taken out more or less daily.
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Same. I tried deep litter on shavings/rubber mats and it was disgusting. I then tried just a small amount of shavings on rubber mats and it was also disgusting lol

I just put a full shavings bed down, clear it out fully every day, leave it up to dry during day and the mats are more like a nice bonus underneath.
 
Thanks for all your replies guys :)

I spoke to one of the yard staff and she said they keep a good 4" bed down and keep them fully mucked out daily with the full liveries. The banks will just be a place to put the clean shavings and pull down a wee bit daily to freshen.
 
hate deep littering....

my horse has rubber mats and has a smallish bed...with banks - and a full muck out/dig out daily.... banks need turning once a week [due weekend]...which i plan to do...but plan is on matting to have a little amount of bed.......
 
I skip out the poo daily and do a full muck out every 7-10 days adding a bale. My boy is very clean, so it works for us. I don't bother with banks but I do have 'system' where I put the old bedding down where he poos and pees and the new stuff goes round the edges.
 
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