TB Management Advice

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PercyMum

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Hi All

I have just bought a little TB mare. She is an ex-racer and such a poppet. I absolutely adore her but I have a couple of small concerns. Just hoping someone might be able to give me some pointers to make sure I am doing the right things for her! I have 2 main probs with her:

1 - Her stable is REVOLTING in the morning. She doesn't box walk, she just produces the most vast amount of poo and wee I have ever seen from a horse (and most of my horses previous to this have been 17hh+ monsters!!). Anyway, I have her on mats with 1/4 bale of shavings which i take out every day but she does like to lie down and she is just getting soaked in pee. I can't afford to give her a whole bale a day so is there anything else I can put her on that's absorbent, cheap and comfy to lie on!?

2 - I am a little worried by the amount of dung she is producing. She is on as much haylage as she wants, a Stubbs scoop of Spillers Conditioning chaff and a mug of Top Spec Feed Balancer twice a day and good turnout. She needs weight putting on and I am concerned that the goodies I am shoveling in one end are coming straight out the other end (and I am shoveling alot of that too!!! :eek:) and its not doing its job in the middle. Is there a way to slow her digestion down so she gets the benefit of what is going in? Her poo isn't particularly loose, and she has been wormed and teeth are fine.

Thanks in advance!:D
 
re 1: welcome to the ownership of a TB :D Now you know where the phrase ''pissing like a racehorse'' comes from, lol. Mine is revolting, too. The best way I found is to deep litter on woodchip, I personally use Laysoft, but Easibed or Cushionbed or whatever is equally good. I started the bed (3/4 of a 12x12 stable) with 6 bales and use between 1 and 2 bales a week to top up, remove all the poo daily and any wet that comes to the top. You do need to bare with your deep litter for a bit, to start with it looks awful and it seems absolutely pointless, but once it settles it works really well.

2 - I tend to mix haylage with hay to slow them down a bit and firm up the poo. Make sure she has good pre and pro biotics and enough calories.

And most of all, congratulations and good luck with her :)
 
My TB was filthy on a small bed with mats, she needs a good deep bed almost to the front to prevent it mixing with the poos. I tried 1/2 bale on mats briefly and needed about 4 bales a week whereas with a big deep bed I only need one a week.
The weight gradually improved when she finally settled down into her new non-racing life rather than due to any particular feed.
 
i would suggest yuo make her a nice big bed with banks (a 12x12 stable will take 8 to 10 bales to start) skip out as often as poss, leave to settle, and take wet out when rises to top. add half bale wed and half bale sat. when mucking out get all the nuggets of pooh, reshape and pat the bed down. do not turn or stir the bed. i would also change to feeding hay, and add in a pre and pro biotic. turn out first thing and bring in as daylight is falling. a mirror may help, but given time she wil settle. small beds really are false economy, as you end up taking it all out every day, smelly stable, stinking rugs and smelly horse. not nice.
 
Welcome to Thoroughbred Truths!:D

I am 100% certain they poop and pee more than any other breed. Most that I've had over the years are very particular in their habits.... the moment they enter their stable at night they poo on the nice fresh bed I've just made them, pee on top of that, then stomp on it for half an hour. Just in case you find it too easy to pick up!

My only suggestion - and it only works if you keep your horses at home - is to do a late-night clean up, which reduces the muckspreading and makes the mornings slightly more manageable.
(I've just done my late night check; 4 hours produced a full wheelbarrow of poo and wet hay per stable :eek:)

I am sure your TB mare will bring you plenty of joy and pleasure, that will make the initial shock and awe of the poo volume fade into insignificance. Best of luck!
 
Keep her out!
My TB mare was disgustingly filthy when she was in overnight. She has lived out for the 24/7 since 1997 and although she is still a fairly filthy animal, at least it is mud now and not poo!
 
Hi,
All thoroughbreds that I have had have always been pretty disgusting in their stable!

They can some how produce far more coming out than what goes in and then spread it all the way around the stable and then dig it into their beds.

Doesnt seem to be any different from mares to geldings either.

But the smile factor they can give you when on board makes all the extra work worth it.

I have used a wood peeling as a bedding for the past few years, it is not as good as soaking up wee as shavings, so you have to dig out a bit more every day, but I only pay £20 for around 3 tonnes from a local wood yard, so make a HUGE saving.

There has never been any health issues with the peelings (I have been on a Racing/Pointing yard were all the horses are bedded on it), it just doesnt came in fancy plactic packaging with a brand name on it.

As another post here has said, Thoroughbreds can be turned out 24/7. My Thoroughbred mare lived out all last year well rugged up, including the hard winter, after years of racing and long stabling she was much happier living out. I also have a thoroughbred gelding that much prefers to be out 24/7, so is only stabled on nights before hunting.
Thoroughbreds are tougher than people think!

In regards to feed I tend to stick to an oil based chaff (i.e Dengie alfaoil or similar) and a good conditioning cube, high fibre cube or barley rings (finding Dodson and Horrell Conditioning Cubes to work very well).

But obviously all horses are different, will be a bit of trial and error until you get spot on.
Mine are on a very fresh haylage that I put out in their field in a large net to slow them from wolfing it all in one sitting.

Hope you have a great time with your thoroughbred, they are worth the extra work.

Have fun.
 
LynH said:
My TB was filthy on a small bed with mats, she needs a good deep bed almost to the front to prevent it mixing with the poos. I tried 1/2 bale on mats briefly and needed about 4 bales a week whereas with a big deep bed I only need one a week.
The weight gradually improved when she finally settled down into her new non-racing life rather than due to any particular feed.
Click to expand...

second this ^^^

mine is filthy on a little bed and the combination of a deeper bed that doesnt move and calming down (most of the time:rolleyes:) in general he is much cleaner.
 
Mine isn't a TB but she is disgustingly messy in her stable. I started out with her on mats with about the same amount of shavings down that you do, but the whole stable was bogging by the morning so had to ditch the mats and go deep litter shavings instead. I tried upping the shavings gradually to see if that made a difference but it didn't so deep litter is def the best option IMO for a messy horse!
 
My young tb was very messy in stable and school. Couldn't believe how much she'd produce in there!

She has now moved from where she had to be stabled and lives out 24/7 as do all of ours. One thing we do on all our horses is a mix of hay and haylage - wouldn't feed haylage alone on the advice of a vet (haylage goes straight through without hay). The mix has worked brilliantly on them all and we don't have to feed half as much haylage and no hard feeds.

Pan
 
Yep, my TB is filthy in the stable, I definately found it easier with a bigger bed but it still felt like he was on a dirty protest some days! Now he lives out 24/7 year round, and has done for about the last 3 years. No more fat legs, respiratory problems, less stressy horse & no mucking out! :)
 
I've got 3 TB's (bet you couldn't guess that, lol!), 2 are on rubber matting and straw, one is cleaner than the other, but neither are too bad.

My new ex-racer however, is a whole different story! He is so wet it's untrue, he's on cow mats and shavings. I tried a nice thick bed, mucked out fully every day, I tried just a thin layer of shavings so I could chuck it every day, but I was still getting through bales of the stuff. He's now finally on a good, established deep litter and it seems to be working. He's on restricted turnout in the winter, but when he's out all day long his bed is much better, in fact I thought he was very clean when I first got him last summer :rolleyes: (he can't go on straw as he's at the yard next door, hence the turnout issue).

On the plus side, he doesn't poo much :D
 
soloequestrian said:
Keep her out!
My TB mare was disgustingly filthy when she was in overnight. She has lived out for the 24/7 since 1997 and although she is still a fairly filthy animal, at least it is mud now and not poo!
Click to expand...

i agree with this!!
take it all TBs r messy pups then coz mine *****s for england 2! but happily lives out! by his own choice imight add!! :D
 
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