What bedding should i use form my wet and messy horse

[AnnaPK]

Hi,
I know there are a few threads on this but they al seem quite old and I just wanted to see what else there was.
My horse is 17hh in a stable overnight which is on the smaller side for a horse of this size.
He is currently on hunter shavings however his bed gets absolutely filthy in about 2 days as he moves around and burns his poo. I have also been really struggling s he is so wet I feel im wasting allot.

I will not use wood pellets ( or anything similar )
because i love the idea of him being cozy and i want banks. Any other ideas?

 

[meleeka]

Aubiose would be my choice, just for it’s absorbency.

 

[dottylottie]

i struggled with my messy mare, went through so many shaving’s because she’s such a scruff! she’s on wheat straw now and i can finally keep a nice bed, literally just straw and mats underneath

 

[Red-1]

Some horses simply need more bedding and care.

BH is a bigger horse but fine on one major muck out a week, 2 bales. The bed looks immaculate. I just do droppings and square up daily.

Rigs is a much smaller horse, has to be bottomed out every 2-3 days and takes 3-4 bales a week. Even so, his bed doesn't look as good.

I use chopped rape straw.

 

[NeverSurrender]

I tried shavings, pellets, chopped straw, etc and have found that I can keep the nicest bed for my Highland with plain straw - it was far more palatable to throw a lot out and add fresh a lot more often when it's only £4.50 a bale delivered

 

[Jellymoon]

Big deep straw bed, so nice for them, and much cheaper for you. You could try a layer of something very absorbing underneath, like pellets or rape straw. I’ve tried this but i did find I was going through a lot of it, so I just use straw now.

 

[Surbie]

I use miscanthus, and put straw pellets in the wee spot. Tried without pellets for a while to see if it was making a difference and very quickly went back to putting them in!

 

[seriously festive equine]

personnally I use shavings for my wet mare. straw doesnt cut it. alternitively I have used sand which I would not reccomend! And another option is shavings with straw on top. Really great alternative.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Any chance of a bigger stable? Wood pellets in the patch where he pees, and deep shavings over everything. Stamp them down to make a firm bed, as this helps the horse to grip when getting up, and makes skipping out a doddle. Nice fluffy beds are for people - horses like to be able to bounce to their feet in case of a predator and a loose bed may make him slip. I worked this out by trial and error, and wondering why my cob preferred sleeping on the bare rubber mat instead of the fluffy bed.....

 

[Wishfilly]

I would put shavings or miscanthus (which I find slightly more absorbent than shavings) over wood pellets- then he still gets to have a comfortable bed with banks, but he's got an absorbent layer underneath. If his bed is very messy, he won't be that comfortable sleeping on it anyway.

 

[WBGG]

Another vote for straw pellets under a nice thick straw bed. My mare is extremely wet but this system keeps the bed dry, saves me tons of time and is lovely and comfy for her (she loves to lie down). I just skip out poo daily and dig out the wet pellets/replace about every 3 weeks or so. Another advantage is it traps the wee smell so the bed stays fresh. The trick is not to disturb the base layer.

 

[ecb89]

Aubiose. Expensive to set up but worth it in the long run

 

[Sprogladite01]

I use megazorb as a base with aubiose on top. It's the only thing I've found absorbent enough to stop wee leaking out of my gelding's stable!

 

[Birker2020]

Pellets mixed with a bit of water and spread thinly on the floor with a decent layer of shavings on top.

 

[Siobhanelizabeth]

i struggled with my messy mare, went through so many shaving’s because she’s such a scruff! she’s on wheat straw now and i can finally keep a nice bed, literally just straw and mats underneath

How do you muck it out? I’m finding it overwhelming. Big bed is cleaner but there’s just so much straw to move, they bury their poo, the poo is sloppy and wet and I’m moving 2 full wheelbarrows out of each stable. Deep litter till the weekend is a no, I’ve just put out my back digging it up (have 3 to do).

How on earth is this sustainable?

 

[Siobhanelizabeth]

Another vote for straw pellets under a nice thick straw bed. My mare is extremely wet but this system keeps the bed dry, saves me tons of time and is lovely and comfy for her (she loves to lie down). I just skip out poo daily and dig out the wet pellets/replace about every 3 weeks or so. Another advantage is it traps the wee smell so the bed stays fresh. The trick is not to disturb the base layer.

How thick is thick?

 

[MuddyMonster]

I semi-deep litter my straw bed for my very wet, dirty boy.

It has a layer of straw pellets underneath & then I just take out poo along with any wet that is visible and then add new straw daily.

Once a week the bottom layer is dug out, fresh straw pellets put down and straw bed put back.

The bed is thick so is never smelly (and if you want a cosy looking bed, everyone comments on it!) but crucially for me, it doesn't take forever to muck out daily.

 

[Birker2020]

How do you muck it out? I’m finding it overwhelming. Big bed is cleaner but there’s just so much straw to move, they bury their poo, the poo is sloppy and wet and I’m moving 2 full wheelbarrows out of each stable. Deep litter till the weekend is a no, I’ve just put out my back digging it up (have 3 to do).

How on earth is this sustainable?

Straw smells so much, shavings on pellets make the bed so much drier as the urine is drawn down into the pellets. I must admit I was very lucky with Lari when I had him as he was very clean in his stable. I hope the next one will be as clean.

 

[tda]

I think you've answered your own question, 17hh horse in a normal 12x12 is tight, and your stable sounds smaller. Can you rearrange water/hay, is she walking around from water/hay/door.
She obviously isn't truly settled of she's pacing all night.

 

[criso]

Those who use straw over pellets, don't you find it gets mixed in together. I've just moved back to wood pellets after straw went up in price, is horrible quality and already in short supply in November.

I like the idea of putting straw where he sleeps but when I tried it before, the two got mixed in and was impossible to muck out.

 

[MuddyMonster]

Those who use straw over pellets, don't you find it gets mixed in together. I've just moved back to wood pellets after straw went up in price, is horrible quality and already in short supply in November.

I like the idea of putting straw where he sleeps but when I tried it before, the two got mixed in and was impossible to muck out.

I found it difficult when I was trying to muck out fully daily but taking the base out weekly (sometimes fortnightly) seems to work for us - I presume as the base isn't being disturbed all the time.

 

[Siobhanelizabeth]

I semi-deep litter my straw bed for my very wet, dirty boy.

It has a layer of straw pellets underneath & then I just take out poo along with any wet that is visible and then add new straw daily.

Once a week the bottom layer is dug out, fresh straw pellets put down and straw bed put back.

The bed is thick so is never smelly (and if you want a cosy looking bed, everyone comments on it!) but crucially for me, it doesn't take forever to muck out daily.

How thick?

 

[criso]

I found it difficult when I was trying to muck out fully daily but taking the base out weekly (sometimes fortnightly) seems to work for us - I presume as the base isn't being disturbed all the time.

It was in the sense that I had a mix of pellet and straw so some of the base is disturbed. I couldn't ignore it as there were poos in that needed to come out. I use the special Aquamax fork which I find brilliant for picking up scattered poos and sifting out the clean pellets but it couldn't cope with straw mixed in.

He is a poo burier though, even on straw, it will look clean and there's a poo underneath.

 

[dottylottie]

How do you muck it out? I’m finding it overwhelming. Big bed is cleaner but there’s just so much straw to move, they bury their poo, the poo is sloppy and wet and I’m moving 2 full wheelbarrows out of each stable. Deep litter till the weekend is a no, I’ve just put out my back digging it up (have 3 to do).

How on earth is this sustainable?

i have a medium size bed - if it’s too big i have the same problem and spend my entire morning just moving straw around, but if it’s not deep enough she churns the whole thing up and it’s impossible to pick through! probably 3 ish bales of straw in at once, but i find the wheat straw isn’t very fluffy so it’s quite a flat bed lol.

i’d give straw pellets a go underneath, i find shavings are just a pain because if you don’t time it just right to get it out they all mix in with the straw

i definitely empathise, before i moved to this yard she was in a bigger 12x14 stable, but it was wide not long if that makes sense - had i not moved yards, i was going to try her in a smaller but square stable because the layout just did not work for her no matter how i had the bed! i’d love to go back to shavings but it just wouldn’t work for her. thankfully my other poos in one corner in a pile and wees in the other, takes me 5 minutes at most!

 

[Highmileagecob]

I remember being told in my younger days, that if you can spike the bed with a fork and touch base then you need to add more and tread it down. I'm using Purebed over pellets and it makes a nice thick pad.

 

[Annagain]

I would definitely put some sort of pellet under another form of bedding - although I think that is more for us thinking they look comfy and fluffy, I don't think the horses really care. I prefer wood pellets - I tried both straw and miscanthus pellets last year and, despite all the claims being that they were more absorbent, found them much less absorbent and smellier. It might have been that particular batch but I've had no issues like that with wood pellets. I'd put a really good layer of wood pellets down and cover with a decent layer of shavings that you can bank up - the wet should soak down to the bottom and keep the shavings dry. You can then lift and replace the pellets as necessary - I do it once a week with one of mine, and every 5 days with the other - but that's on pure wood pellets, if there were shavings on top I'd probably manage to do it less often.

 

[ihatework]

Those who use straw over pellets, don't you find it gets mixed in together. I've just moved back to wood pellets after straw went up in price, is horrible quality and already in short supply in November.

I like the idea of putting straw where he sleeps but when I tried it before, the two got mixed in and was impossible to muck out.

Never had an issue - my go to has always been a thick straw bed over wood pellets and managed on a weekly semi-deep litter basis.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

I was on a full wood pellet bed and they were fairly deep with small banks and quite cosy. As the price of pellets rocketed last year I now use rape straw with wood pellets on the wet area. I started out with about 4/5 bales of straw over 2 partially soaked bags of wood pellets. I now add about 1 bag of rape straw and half a bag of dry pellets to the bed once a week. I only fully dig the wet out once a week. I generally find a bigger deeper bed is more economical than one too thin.

 

[Shoei]

For my dirty youngster I tried all sorts but what worked for me was.... bag of straw pellets in wet spot under a very thick, large straw bed.... basically the whole stable is bedded. I skip out in the week and remove wet at weekend.

My other gelding is just on straw and the wet is removed daily.

When lifted, floor is disinfected and left to dry.

Big, thick beds made the difference to mine

 

[criso]

I was on a full wood pellet bed and they were fairly deep with small banks and quite cosy. As the price of pellets rocketed last year I now use rape straw with wood pellets on the wet area. I started out with about 4/5 bales of straw over 2 partially soaked bags of wood pellets. I now add about 1 bag of rape straw and half a bag of dry pellets to the bed once a week. I only fully dig the wet out once a week. I generally find a bigger deeper bed is more economical than one too thin.

Round here pellets are starting to come down. The ones I use (snowflake)were £7.10, went up to nearly £10 but recently have come down to £7.70. Well timed as just as straw has rocketed.