Shavings,Rubber Mats and Messy Horse

Flibble

Flibble

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Have been trying everything to manage my messy horses bed.

I have Rubber Matting on an uneven concrete floor and am using shavings on top. I bank up during the day when he is out and bring it down at night. Basically he pees for Britain mooches around and poos then curls up for a kip on the mess he has left. I tried to take all the wet out and was chucking bales in like crazy then I tried leaving some of the damp mixd in one bank for a few days and it was minging.

Would it help if I mixed some wood pellets in to the area he likes to Pee?? I feel like I might as well shred up £10 notes and put them in.
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Lol! You and me both. FB is a box walking bed trasher.

I deep litter the bed at the back of the box, where there are no mats and then have shavings about a foot onto the mat at the front 2/3rds . I leave the bed down all the time - no banking up as bringing wee into contact with air is what makes it smell.

I originally had pellets at the bottom of the bed in a nice thick layer and then shavings on top. The pellets are much more absorbent than shavings so as a base they might help you. I take out wet shavings on the mats but leave any in the actual bed, sift it for poo and then chuck more shavings in on the top.
 
Use some megazorb or hemcore underneath your shavings .Its really absorbant and the shavings stay nice and clean and sweet smelling on the top.
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I have a 3 year old mare who also pee's for England (Wales, Scotland and Ireland as well). I have also been advised to layer in hemcore. Does seem to work. I am also deep littering. After to first 10 days it not so bad.
 
During summer I take out daily as she is only in during day for about 6 hours but its best if you deep litter to work properly.In winter it works really well if you leave bed down and add clean shavings taking out wet patches every 5 days.Im bit fussy so still like to move banks and have good clear out every now and again.If you can do good layer of hemcore or megazorb underneath it goes firm and absorbs urine .Only seems to smell when you disturb the bed to put in fresh and take out old. I have friend who leaves base down all winter .
 
I changed to wood pellets from shavings and the pellets were absorbent enough to cope with my horse who pees more or less in the same spot. It stopped the floods and also I've cut right down on how much I have to spend on bedding as a result
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i have a bed trasher too. he walks through all his poo and wee so its all mixed in and so his poo is in little tiny bits and it drives me mad!!!
I tend to take out the wet every day, put the dry bed back down and top up with clean shavings. Along with skipping out in the morning to make sure hes not walking LOADS of poo through.
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This has made me chuckle! I am glad my horse it not the only messy one. Another vote for hemcore here! Just started using it and have managed to get it down to using just one bale a week, when I was using 2/3 per week of other products like bedmax and hunters. It's nice and small so falls through the fork and doesn't stick to the poo as much so doesn't get wasted. I take out all the poo, and worst wet patches everyday, bank up the sides and through the week take the clean stuff from the banks (if there is any once she has trashed it!) to make up the base. I have found a thinner base is best, the hemcore still soaks everything up and you don't use as much and there is less for her to churn up. Only have the bed in the back half. (Rubber mats all round)
 
I find wood pellets work really well. As the poo stays on top, even with a box walker. To stop the bed being trashed by having the wee squished everywhere I find a thick bed works best with a box walker. With a thick bed I now only have rubber mats at the front of the stables, as I don't find them necessary under the bed.

For most of my stables I use 18 x 15kg bags of Five Star horse bedding pellets when setting up. (I find this brand good value as the pellets bulk up better than other pellets, particularly the cheaper ones). For my box walker I add another 3 bags when setting up the bed. This gives me a bed about 6 inches thick. If I start off the bed like this then I still only need to add one bag a week. When I started with a standard thickness bed, I was adding more pellets on a weekly basis, so a thinner bed is false economy with a box walker I found.

I also think that because the wood pellet bedding absorbs the ammonia so well that his box walking has reduced. I think before he was being irritated by the smell of his own pee. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has found the same?
 
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