Shavings without rubber matting?

hanna1983

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Hi everyone,
just a quick question. Money is a bit tight at the moment and I would have to save about 3 or 4 months to afford the rubbermatting. I dont like the idea of straw and find it unhygenic.

So my question is, can I put the shavings directly onto the concrete floor in the stable for now?

Thanks!
 
yes!

It is very common to put shavings directly onto concrete floor, everyone at our yard does
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yes!

It is very common to put shavings directly onto concrete floor, everyone at our yard does
smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

brilliant, thanks for letting me know!
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I bought rubber mats for the front third of Sunny's stable and I deep litter with shavings at the back 2 thirds. Overlap of a foot or so. Works a treat. Deep litter bed been going for over 2 years now without me having to do anything to it. YO's have been going over 6 years.
 
I've just put down mats but before that I deep littered shavings and pellets (they all mix together) on concrete. Works fine, in fact I'm not sure I didn't prefer it to the mats! I may yet end up deep littering a bed on top of them....
 
of course you can! just make sure your bed is deep to prevent horse going through to concrete. buy a mat when you can afford it till whole stable is done. thin beds are false economy as the wet travels through faster. i only matted my yard out last year .. still a couple of boxes to go, but do have broad old conveyer belt rubber at the front about 2 foot wide, 2 strips at front of boxes and full i mean full beds! the ones with fully rubbered floors are bedded down the same and mucked out properly finished by hand picking any nuggets! spend another 5 mins mucking out carefully and you will save on bedding.
 
My messy mare is on a deep littered bed of shavings, she is best this way - doesn't dig it up or walk it in...before this i took wet out everyday - she was going through to floor and beginning to cap her hocks...i swear by deep littering if you can't afford matting!
Infact each week or so I scrape back the top of the bed and skim the wet just to make sure it's not of of hand....move it around a little as my mare tends to wee in one spot...thus making bed uneven so I shift it around to make sure rest is level too.
Good Luck!!!
 
Yes i do this, i semi deep litter so that he doesnt spread his bed everywhere and lay on concrete, bed looks lovely, use 1-2 bags a week and he is in every night atleast.
 
Yes absolutly, have aleays had deep litter bed on concreat. Just make sure its deep enough so your horse isnt standing on concret to look out of the satble ot eat etc.
 
I have both mine on shavings with no rubber mats underneath - have found the best way is to just skip them out everyday and once a week take the wet out, this way I only use 1 (ocasionally 2) bales a week to top them up. Skipping them out takes me 10 minutes in the morning and my mare who was absolutely gross when she was on straw, is so much cleaner now.

I found it took me about 6 bales in each box to get it started though and took a week for the bed to settle.
 
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