TBs and Stables!

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C&C

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Hi. Really sorry if this a mass repeat conversation but........

i have recently got a new horse, a TB (ex racer) and he is lovely, he has his quirks but overall he has a good temperment, amazingly clean legs, AMAZING feet which are barefoot and hard as nails (even the vet was shocked!) good to do and ride, intelligent and i am very pleased with him. he has also been accepted by my old boy Chance which is a HUGE bonus :D

The downside is his stable cleanliness.....or lack of!!! I have never had, or known, such a dirty git of a horse in my life :eek:

My stables have always had full deep beds. Gave up on that as he trashed it. Made it 3/4 bed and gave up on that to. Spoke to the owner (have him on loan for 6 months WVTB, and defo gonna be buying him), she said she gave him small bed in corner and the rest was concrete. Tried this and have given up again! I have left him this eve with 1/3 off bed and will see what happens when i get there in the morning. He is on elephant grass, which is very much like aubiose or nedz bedz. I dont particularly want to change it as ive just spent £180 on a whole pallet of the stuff! :(

He box walks which is what is causing the problem as he is trashing it and kicking it all over the place. He doesnt have any 'neighbours' as such altho we are on a big yard. He has stables opposite but the other horses do not start coming in til mid Nov. My old boy comes in with him every night but he is out of site as they are at opposite ends of the straw barn. Chance is on the same side and only a few feet away but Khans stable is set back in so he cant see him.

I am hoping when the others start coming in he will settle a bit more and KEEP STILL!! ha ha

Anyway i wondered if anyone else has nitemare TBs in the stable and what your secrets are for keeping them as clean as possible??

I have toyed with the idea of rubber and just banks (which goes all against my stabling beliefs) but im worried about the smell and his rugs getting absolutley disgusting :(
 
lol yes they are stinking beggers if they boxwalk ! my old tb was like this -really messy so i put him on rubber matting with just a sprinkle of shavings on top every day so everything got swept up in a morning,it was also enough to soak up the pee so his rugs didnt stink! also have plenty of haynets so he doesnt run out in the night .:D:D
 
Can highly recommend a Stable mirror, mine worked wanders for my box walking mare! I paid about £30 for mine of ebay, it was money well spent!
 
My TB is filthy, I do about 3/4 bed and deep litter. You need to stick with it for a bit, until the bed settles it looks dreadful. I just pick the poos I can see, level the rest and top up. Now the bed has been down for nearly 2 months, it's looking fairly decent.
I think I know now where the phrase ''pissing like a racehorse'' comes from :o :D
 
Dont use stable rugs-just turnout rugs on in the stable.

First give a very deep straw bed-Deep litter on straw-just take out daily wot you can see and set fair the bed/put more straw on as and when.Once a week or month take the whole lot up.

Its easy and you not wasting loads of time and money on the bed per day-pay a kid a tenner a month to help you lol.
 
Martlin - LOL :D I would try the deept litter thing but where he moves about he kicks it all over the place so it doesnt have time to 'bed in' :(

3Beasties - That is a great idea :D and a cheap one to! :D:D will defo give this a go. Thanks ;)

archiepoo - this may be the way i go if the mirror doesnt work! ;)
 
I agree with the earlier poster who suggested a mirror ,and I would also consider gastric ulcers the last one of ours that was a total disaster to muck out every day became almost normal after ulcer treatment still messier than the others but not that bad
 
Hi, my TB is also a dirty beast in his stable. He has a large stable fitted with thick rubber mats. I bed him on a straw bed which comes forward to half the depth of the stable. I do give him a good bed because he loves to roll and lie down. I'm sure when the other horse come in, he will settle more. Mine is on a small yard and we tend to bring them all in and turn out at the same time. My horse has been on this yard for a year and can still be very upset (box walking, bucking, squealing etc) if things happen out of order. Routine can be very important to some TBs. Some can be as happy as Larry whatever happens, others can react as if their world is about to end if somenthing i out of the ordinary. My advice would be to try and get into a routine of doing stable duties at a similar time to those stabled around your horse, or perhaps agree that you will turn your horse and its fieldmate out in the morning and the other owner will bring them both in at the same time
 
My mare was boxwalking last week and I managed to stop her by giving her a load of hay so
she never runs out, a treat ball, a big horselyx likit and a likit that alternates between one of the fruit ones and one with seedy stuff :) All this combined with making her the first out in the morning and one of the first in at night has stopped the box walking and her bed is lovely :D
 
Kirstyl - he does have a good routine as i am a great believer in routine. They get fed, turnout and bought in at roughly the same time each day or as close as damn it. No goer with turning out and in at same time as others. Its a huge yard and 90% of the horses stay out in the summer fields 24/7 until they come down to the winter fields in mid Nov and start coming in at night. mine are coming in as they are clipped and there is bugger all left in the fields for them to eat. Chance comes in at night all year round as he is a porker and i have been told that Khan can be to so will have to watch him as well.

Golden Star - this is very intersting that you have mentioned this. The podiatrist i had out to him (for the first time) the other week mentioned ulcers as he is very grumpy when touched towards the rear end of his tummy. She suggested a course of a supplement by Hilton Herbs - is it GastriX??
 
My OTTB is also filthy in the stable, not because he boxwalks, he just is! Poo's everywhere including his feed bowls and water bucket. Horse next door does a big pile of poo in one heap unlike mine who does it any and everywhere. He also lays in it.

I've just accepted it now and find he's better when out for longer (not poss during the winter) and on a deep shavings bed with the wet taken out every other day.

When I first had him he was clean in that he did little goat pellet droppings but that was because he wasn't used to having ad lib forage. It goes in one end and comes straight out the other.
 
tonitot said:
My mare was boxwalking last week and I managed to stop her by giving her a load of hay so
she never runs out, a treat ball, a big horselyx likit and a likit that alternates between one of the fruit ones and one with seedy stuff :) All this combined with making her the first out in the morning and one of the first in at night has stopped the box walking and her bed is lovely :D
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I feed adlib hay/haylage so this is never a problem. I think having a treat ball would make things worse as he will be kicking it about even more! Maybe a likit would be good tho ;)
 
the mirror thing is meant to work but i have herd or one lady who put a nice bed in but in the middle like a big circle with edges bare so they walk round the edge you might want to consider rubber as if he is bare foot and walking round on concrete might hurt his feet
 
stacie21 said:
the mirror thing is meant to work but i have herd or one lady who put a nice bed in but in the middle like a big circle with edges bare so they walk round the edge you might want to consider rubber as if he is bare foot and walking round on concrete might hurt his feet
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I thought the same thing as barefoot is all new to me - but apparently they need some concrete to stand on. I was informed by owner that this is what he needs and the podiatrist i had out to him the other week said it was fine ;)
 
OP you need to talk to your vet as ours was grumpy about being touched there to , they put a scope into the stomach and then you know for sure if it's ulcers I would not give any herbs etc until you have done this for a start if has none that's not a good idea and also they need proper treatment and management the one that we had that sounds a bit like yours did really well after treatment and loads of funny little things it did stopped .
 
Can he not stay out until the others start coming in at night? Being in without others in adjoining stables must be quite stressful for him and probably increases the box walking.
 
TGM said:
Can he not stay out until the others start coming in at night? Being in without others in adjoining stables must be quite stressful for him and probably increases the box walking.
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He could and probably will next year, he is fully clipped now and actually looks to come in at night, the others will be coming in in the next 2 weeks so he doesnt have long to wait. Someone has suggested a stable mirror which worked brilliantly with her mare who box walked, i am definately going to buy one, looking for one as we speak ;) worth a try ;)
 
Goldenstar said:
OP you need to talk to your vet as ours was grumpy about being touched there to , they put a scope into the stomach and then you know for sure if it's ulcers I would not give any herbs etc until you have done this for a start if has none that's not a good idea and also they need proper treatment and management the one that we had that sounds a bit like yours did really well after treatment and loads of funny little things it did stopped .
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Ah right o, he is due vaccs soon so will get him checked at same time ;)
 
C&C said:
Kirstyl - he does have a good routine as i am a great believer in routine. They get fed, turnout and bought in at roughly the same time each day or as close as damn it. No goer with turning out and in at same time as others. Its a huge yard and 90% of the horses stay out in the summer fields 24/7 until they come down to the winter fields in mid Nov and start coming in at night. mine are coming in as they are clipped and there is bugger all left in the fields for them to eat. Chance comes in at night all year round as he is a porker and i have been told that Khan can be to so will have to watch him as well.

Wasn't suggesting your routine isn't good! It just needs to fit in with what the others are doing on the yard which is easier said than done. I am sure he will settle down when the others in stables around him are in at night
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to be honest i'd be tempted to put rubber down. we did in our stables - my sister srated it first as her horse is rather messy and it is just an effort to muck out when so much straw. She got rubber matting. I got somefor mine last year too. Basically we give them about half a stable layer of straw with bit so banking (debatable whether you need to bother with banks though) and the front half of the stable has no straw on. Couldn't really do this as they were with concrete as they could slip a bit.

It seems to have worked well - makesmucking out easier yet I don't worry about them getting rubbed on the floor when lying down as they get plenty of bedding to lie on, just not a whole stable! I know some people put hardly any bedding on rubber floor but I don't agree with that and someone we knew did this - their horse ended up with sores on his elbows etc from the friction of lying down.
 
Some very good advice here re;ulcers,minimizing stress etc.Does being clipped really mean he has to come in early?
Also bear in mind that a horse standing/walking in its own urine/poo/wet bedding is not going to have fabulous feet for long.
Rubber matting in a well drained stable is probably your best bet for now and make sure you do lots of roadwork to keep those hooves stimulated.

He sounds a fab horse BTW.:)
 
My tb was like this when I first got him. Moved him to a yard where he is in a barn with horses next door, opposite and backing on to his stable and now no box walking, clean bed & he poos in a pile!
 
Agree with the "not changing into pyjamas as night" but highly disagree with the straw suggestion - yuck, cannot think of anything worse with a mucky one.

Personally, I would suggest rubber matting the whole stable and then using wood pellets - HUGHELY absorbant and SUPER cheap. If you can get past the "I must make a nest for my horse" issues some people have and just understand that they are not nesting animals and are happy to sleep on bare damp ground outside (wood pellet beds are not bare or damp!!) then they are the way forward!

Love em - though I think you might have guessed!
 
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