To deep litter or not to deep litter - that is the question?

Birker2020

Birker2020

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I have a large stable approx 14 x 12ft with rubber matting for my 17.1hh 620KG WB gelding. I have free shavings which my father collects for me from the timber yard. My horse never has a dust problem with the shavings as I mix the new pine shavings in with the older bedding. He is currently on turn out at night and in, in the day but we are turning the horses around next week and he is going to be in during the night and out in the day. As he will be in his stable from approx 3.30pm when he will be brought in until 8.30am the next day I would like to deep litter him for the first time.

Does anyone have a large horse like mine that they deep litter, in particular does anyone do this with non conventional shavings, ie free shavings which are of a different grade to bought ones, whereby they are smaller flakes?
 
When you say deep litter, do you mean cleaning out the poo then just adding more clean on top continuously? If so, be prepared to break you back and be rendered unconscious by the smell when you come to clear the stable out totally in 6 months time, or pay a contractor to drag it all out with a vehicle. I kid you not. I once helped someone empty her stable and it was like digging concrete with a table spoon and once the lower levels were exposed to the air she was sick and I was gagging.

Never again!
 
I deep littered half way through last winter, started with straw then when it got a bit squidgy put sawdust on top.However had a straw bed on top. Was easy and worked might try wood pellets instead of sawdust this year. I haven't dug this out from last year as there wasn't much. Other years i have got on with it or pleaded bad back to OH. This is in big airy stable though, not sure i would deep litter in a stuffy stable
 
I do a semi deep litter with both of my boys, big (17h) and small (10.2h) When I say semi I remove droppings each day but only remove the wet when it comes to the top of the firm layer which is about 4" thick, I put a new bag(s) of wood shavings (which are non standard type but not dusty) in each week, one for small pony and two for big messy boy, I do remove all the wet each summer which is a bit of a job.
hope this helps
 
I used to deep-litter my ponies but stopped because of the digging out of the bed at the end of the winter. The smell is unbelievable and it is very heavy, my OH eventually refused to help me do it. Since stopping I have found that the shavings last longer if you take the pee out every day (the ponies are on shavings on rubber mats) but this might not be an issue for you. With your horse being so big, you might end up with a huge bed to lift come the end of winter, maybe deep-littering and lifting the bottom out every other week would be an option for you?
 
We deep litter with a timberyard mix of shavings and sawdust, taking out the droppings only and putting new bedding on top. They are cleared out fully approx every year. We've not had any problems with it and have 8 stabled this way, from 14.2hh ponies to 16.2hh hunters. It makes capped hocks etc less likely as the base is very soft, and also the wet goes down in to the base, keeping it dry on top.
 
I find deep litter extremely smelly, I can't imagine what it must be like for the horse to inhale all that amonia every night. As others have said, emptying it out is a nightmare. I once had a DIY livery abandon a deep litter stable and I had to pay 3 men for a whole day to dig it out - disgusting!
 
We deep littered our 16hh TB on shavings last winter... never again! It took 5 people to dig out and took the whole day. We went through a phenomenal amount of shavings as the surface was constantly getting wet through the layers of damp underneath and all her rugs stank. Never, ever again.
x
 
We deep litter ours on straw from Mon-Fri. The droppings are taken out daily, and new straw put on top. It works very well. On Sat we take out all the wet and dirt, and put a new bed down. We have a groom on Sundays, who mucks out normally, then we start again on the Monday.

Proper deep litter, left all winter, is really hard work, especially on shavings. I'd rather get rubber mats, and put down a thin bed of shavings that you can sweep out daily than deep litter.
 
A deep litter bed should never smell when its laid - I loved the big straw deep litter bed my youngster had.

Now both have mats & shavings as it was quicker than playing 'hunt the poo' in the mornings.
 
I semi deep litter on shavings. Sun - Friday she's deep littered - I take the droppings off the top, then skim down a layer, so remove all the "loose" wet from the surface, leaving about 3 inches of compacted shavings (wet and dry) at the bottom. Then I pull my banks down as normal to cover the wet areas, remake my banks, level off and sweep the fron. Saturday is dig out day, takes me 2-3 wheelbarrows, sweep the floor, leave bed up to dry, then put a new bale of shavings in and start again. Seems to work well as she likes a deep bed and I just don't have time to do a full muck out every day.
 
I'm not keen on deep littering, sorry! much prefer to take the wet out every day and still have a deep bed- I don't think it's good for their respiratory system to be breathing in the Ammonia, and also not good for their feet when deep littering.
 
K27 said:
I'm not keen on deep littering, sorry! much prefer to take the wet out every day and still have a deep bed- I don't think it's good for their respiratory system to be breathing in the Ammonia, and also not good for their feet when deep littering.
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Totally agree. A haven for bacteria too. I would never deep litter for these reasons, sooner or later it will cause problems for the horses health
 
Sorry to be another unhelpful poster, but can not get my head around deep litter.

Ammonia is a gas. A fresh layer of bedding is not going to stop lung exposure.
 
Totally disagree - have both my lads deep littered and only ever remove the droppings. I top up 2 x a week and have lovely, warm, deep clean smelling beds.

I clear them out in the summer and although it is hard work, saves a huge amount of time and labour, which is always at a premium, at this time of year.

I would suggest to anyone that deep litters and can smell ammonia are doing it wrong, or have a horse that doesn't suit that system! However I am lucky as both mine are very tidy in the stable, and appreciate it may not work with an active horse that likes to disturb it's bed.

In terms of the shavings to use, i have only ever used shop bought flakes so couldn't comment on what you are using, but imagine they would be fine.
 
We deep littered a stable last winter, it was foaling box size so huge, was deep littered for 3 months or so with straw and took 3 of us the best part of a day to dig it out, absolutely disgusting and the smell was horrific, never again!
 
Hi there

I have a big boy who when on shavings absolutly must be on deep litter or he get injuries.

I do it on a 2 layer system top layer I muck out as normal and bottom layer I leave to compact down and just remove the wee patch every couple of days. I found it harder work than having a normal bed down but it worked for him.

He is now on straw when he is in and the bed is as deep as my knees at the thinest then I put up banks up to my shoulder height that are really deep and thick. His stable is much bigger than your mind so I have more space available to do this without it "cramping" him.

I have to do this because he now loves coming in and literally throws himself into his bed! I test the bed by letting myself fall backwards. If I don't want to fall and feel happy that I will not get injured its not deep enough! Daft but he likes it and is happy!

Good luck.
 
We had a whole yard on deep litter shavings, and it worked well. It does have to be managed properly though!

The top 2 inches has to be kept loose and clean. We took the droppings out, threw up the remaining loose bed and removed any further droppings found. When you get down to the solid base, remove any "squidgy" bits (not needed very often!). Pull the banks down, then remake the bed.

Saved a good few minutes per stable, and the beds were always clean and looked good. never smelt! Doing it this way means you can keep check of the size of the base, and it should never be "wet". It means there is still a sizable amount to dig out, but you can do it in stages :D

I now use mats and shavings though, which gives the same benefit of always having a base down. :)
 
I use a deep litter system in the old cow barn (really good drainage) with a mixture of straw and shavings, I can never make up my mind which to use. lol. There are 6 horses and ponies and they have access to this 24/7 in the winter but are never shut in. I don't find it smells at all and the horses rarely smell of pee as they do with conventional beds.
It is a big job emptying it which I do alone with a barrow... takes from four days to a week depending on my back and energy level. I leave it concrete in the summer and only bed in winter when the horses are yarded.
I don't have any stables just barns, I'm considering using an earth floor (smaller lol) barn this winter for the bed.

Oh it does smell when I dig it out each year.
 
I love deep littering - very cost effective and definately labour saving and also provides a lovely deep warm bed - heat generated by the decomposition of the bedding low down by the floor.

Important to start the bed well with a clean floor and a layer of garden lime - this keeps the smell down.

I prefer to use a mixture of 10cm shavings then add straw on top then just remove the droppings only. Found that the straw contained the droppings better than the shavings. Then you just top up with more straw when needed. We also had beds that were entirely shavings and to be honest they were rarely dug out.

The dig out can be a bit smelly and hard work but the garden loves it - I get the best roses when they've had a bed treatment.
 
KatB said:
We had a whole yard on deep litter shavings, and it worked well. It does have to be managed properly though!

The top 2 inches has to be kept loose and clean. We took the droppings out, threw up the remaining loose bed and removed any further droppings found. When you get down to the solid base, remove any "squidgy" bits (not needed very often!). Pull the banks down, then remake the bed.

Saved a good few minutes per stable, and the beds were always clean and looked good. never smelt! Doing it this way means you can keep check of the size of the base, and it should never be "wet". It means there is still a sizable amount to dig out, but you can do it in stages :D

I now use mats and shavings though, which gives the same benefit of always having a base down. :)
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Basically how you have described above is what I have been doing. Today the horses have turned around and are out during the day and in at night. By the middle of this week I will know if the deep litter idea is going to work for my boy. Unfortunately after keeping him in Saturday night as I had a show yesterday morning I arrived at 8am to find he had dug his bed and had mixed all the clean with the dirty deep littered stuff underneath!! How annoying. This is why I don't think deep litter will work for him but I will keep plugging away this week and give it a chance.

As for the amonia problem some posters have said, I don't believe there will be one as I have rubber mats in my stable which have not been taken up for over three years (due to my slipped disc I dare'nt move rubber mats around) and there is never any smell.

Some of the other posters have mentioned deep littering is dependent on stable size and I could possibly agree with you about that. I'm lucky in that my horses stable is about 14 x 13 and has grills on three sides with breeze blocks on the back wall in a large barn with approx 26 other stables and he is on the end of the row by the big sliding door which remains open about 350 days of the year so there is always plenty of ventilation and he always stands in the one spot when sleeping which is in the driest corner of the stable.

Thanks for all your replies it is much appreciated xxxx
 
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I work on a professional yard and half of the horses are on deep litter /semi deep litter. I find it depends on your horse and the size of the box etc.
Our deep litter boxes are quite large and straw. We take all the poo and some wet out daily, basically as much as we can fit in a wheel barrow. Then when we think its reaching a level we take out a bit extra. Our boxes NEVER smell, and i find if done correctly deep litter doesnt smell, its only when people dont do it properly.
This is a quicker method, and also it has a few benefits besides time saving.
You save money on bedding (although yours is free). However the beds tend to be thicker, which is safer and more comfortable for your horse, less chance of injury, and also in the colder months these beds are far warmer for the horse than a box that is fully mucked out daily.
However, i do say my own horse is on a personalised semi/full muck out as she has quite a small box and insists on churning it up daily and burrying her poos. For her i tend to take out as much wet as i can once a day then, once a week do a full muck out and throw it all back. Id rather build her bed up to be thicker but she likes to live like a pig.

Good luck, its a very individual decision depending on your time , stable size and the type of horses behaviour.
 
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