Wet mucky gelding, stable floor advice please

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maree t

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So we have a 16 year old NF x 13.3hh gelding. He is so wet and muckyin his stable that we are having to rethink his flooring. He is in at night while it is wet but out during the day and during dry spells. He is kept on deep litter straw bed at the moment on top of a dirt floor . We clear it out once during the winter and then when they go out in the spring . It is just too wet and horrid, it gets so thick trying to keep it dry on the top that we have got to rethink. We are thinking of putting a concrete floor in with rubber matting and then mucking out daily . i have read that some put sand down or crushed concrete ? any thoughts please ?
 
Yes, it sounds as if the first step is to put a proper floor down. Much of the wet is probably coming from the fact that you're deep littering on top of mud effectively.

I'd then use rubber matting and a good shavings bed.
 
I had dirt floors in my old stables for a couple of years, and they got pretty yucky. We put 3' x 2' concrete slabs in on top of a level sharp sand base, butted them close together and filled in any gaps with concrete, and they did 20 years good service using shavings as bedding. It was only meant as a temporary stop gap but worked remarkably well. I've re used those same slabs now on the area outside my new stable block (which is on concrete, being fully legit re planning, unlike the old ones). Rubber mats are excellent.

A friend put her field shelter down on earth, then a year or so so later put concrete down after temporarily raising the whole structure up on jacks! Bit risky, but it did work for her!
 
Thanks, the other stables are fine on dirt and no problems in years . We have just moved this lad over and already yuk !
 
I have a v mucky wet mare. She doesn't work on deep litter on a dirt floor either. I've put down crusher run/mot Type 1 compacted this down with a wacker plate until it was flat & level & then put rubber matting on the top. She is now mucked out fully every day.
This works brilliantly.
 
We dug out our field shelter, hardcore first, then sharp sand and then rubber matting...it really works, the pe just soaks away and it doesn't smell, bit of a faff but worth it :)
 
My 2 year old gelding is very very wet and we have him on rubber mats with a sprinkling of sawdust to absorb the pee then a good straw bed on top of that and that seems to be working better. Without the sawdust his straw was just soaking all the time.
 
Definately put a concrete floor down. My mare is super mucky, she is on rubber matting and straw. I put just enough straw down to make her comfortable / warm and catch the mess. Come morning she has mixed it all up to into one huge pile so i just scrape the whole lot into a couple of barrows. I've tried most bedding techniques and with her i find the least bed possible is the way to go
 
You could try using sawdust as the initial base to the deep litter then adding the straw on top. Probably a bit late to put down concrete this winter as frosts will prevent it from curing properly.

Make the sawdust at least 6" or more thick, pack down well and then top with the same of straw. The urine will then seep across the sawdust, spreading and drying in the process - straw is not particularly absorbent instead it is free draining which is why its great for the top part.

Before putting down the sawduct cover the floor with a layer of lime flour. You can get that from most garden centres. It neutralises the smell of urine.
 
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