Stabling a dirty horse....

[L&M]

My youngster, who came to us last winter, is a real bed trasher - very wet, and grey just too make life more fun!

My question is would he be cleaner in a bigger stable? He was in a 12 x 12 last winter but have the option of a 12 x 16 for this winter.

The thought is to mat the front half, where he will given his hay and hard feed etc, then put a deep litter bed of pellets on the back half (had him on straw last winter and ended up having to take out most of it everyday as he is that mucky).

Or will I just end up with a larger 'messy' bed to muck out and even more bedding wastage?!

Any experiences?

 

[Goldenstar]

Defiantly get the bigger box .

 

[Goldenstar]

Stable ! I mean stable this lorry hunt is taking over my life .

 

[Dizzle]

My tb was a bed trasher, he was VILE in the stable. I used to have some large EVA mats for cushioning and had these all over the stable apart from the front couple of feet. I then had wood pellets on one of the mats (3ftx6ft) this gave him a rectangular area to pee in.

When morning came it was a case of just brushing as much of the wood pellets back into the rectangle and removing any poo that had remained intact from it, possibly adding a bit more if running low or very wet. The basically everything else, a mix of mulched poop and wet mushed pellets were swept to the front of the box and popped on the muck heap.

That was the cleanest and most cost effective way to stable him, straw, shavings and wood chip were no-go’s as they weren’t absorbent enough and it was too difficult to effectively separate the bedding from the muck.

A larger box made no difference to him, in fact I used to find it worse as he could get up more speed whilst moving about. American barn stables were slightly better as he had a ‘view’ from all around, normal stables the worst as he would be launching himself at the door every few seconds to look out and check that he wasn’t a. missing anything and b. left alone.