What is your mucking out process?

[Joyous70]

I feel like it takes me ages to get my stable done in the mornings. 35/40 minutes to turn out, full muck out, fill & hang haynets, fresh water and make up evening feeds.

I feel as though I need to improve on my mucking out process/technique, currently I scrape up all poos with a poo scoop rake, then move bed to one side dig out wet etc. and put bed back down, how do you do yours?

 

[Highmileagecob]

Mine has a deep shavings bed, with wood pellets in the pee spot. Skip out every morning, take out the wet when a dark stain comes to the top, and replace with more pellets. His bed is around six inches deep and well packed down.

 

[Nasicus]

Doing nets up in advance can save a good chunk of time, as well as hanging one directly outside the stable to put up in the morning shaves a few minutes off.

 

[Squeak]

I would have thought a poo scoop rake would have been quite slow purely because it's so small. I've always gone for shavings forks but that doesn't mean it will work for you

 

[meleeka]

If going a full muck out I pick up all obvious poo piles with a shavings fork then start at one side scraping the bed back and forking it against the wall, whereby the nuggets roll down to the ground. When I've scraped all the bed back to the edges, I remove the wet and put the bed back down. It takes around 10 - 15 minutes depending on the horse. I have a big shavings fork with sides so I can fit a lot on one forkful.

 

[SpeedyPony]

Straw or shavings? It's faster to take droppings off the top of a straw bed with a shovel, pop the edge of the shovel slightly under one edge of the dropping, then 'bounce' (can't think of a better way to describe that!) the shovel towards the dropping and it should pop onto the shovel leaving the straw behind.
You can get pretty quick (sadly it's mostly just a question of practice!) at casting up the clean to one side on a straw bed and removing the wet from underneath as it will naturally filter to the bottom. The weight on the fork will tell you if it's dry or not. This doesn't work if you have a box walker, AFAIK there's no quick way of sorting it when they've stirred it up like that.
No tips for shavings I'm afraid- I've always hated mucking them out!

 

[Peglo]

I use a poop scoop for the poo’s, lift the straw, dig out the wet straw pellets, add more and pull bed back down. I could do mine quicker by moving quicker but I quite enjoy the process so just dawdle. Its sweeping down the walkway I dislike

 

[Landcruiser]

I use wood pellets (aquamax) on rubber mats. Poop scoop the droppings off, then use a shavings fork to remove any wet patches. Then a quick mix through and level, with the fork. Feeds I make up several days at a time (I have lots of spare feed bowls) and just stack them up in the feedroom with a lid on the top one, so only have to make up feeds every 3rd day. A haynet filler makes doing the nets a lot quicker. I guess I do the lot in the morning in about 15-20 mins - only 1 stable, but that's everything left ready for evening.

 

[Daiquiri]

Just moving quicker is the main thing, I can do a stable in 8 mins if I get a move on or 30 mins if I'm dawdling.

 

[lynz88]

I pick up all of the obvious poos first and get the wet spot. Then I flick bedding against the wall to create a small mountain and take out anything else that falls down. I then rake it all away from the wall (picking up anything else that I missed) and top up as necessary.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I feel like it takes me ages to get my stable done in the mornings. 35/40 minutes to turn out, full muck out, fill & hang haynets, fresh water and make up evening feeds.

I feel as though I need to improve on my mucking out process/technique, currently I scrape up all poos with a poo scoop rake, then move bed to one side dig out wet etc. and put bed back down, how do you do yours?

I feel like it takes me ages to get my stable done in the mornings. 35/40 minutes to turn out, full muck out, fill & hang haynets, fresh water and make up evening feeds.

I feel as though I need to improve on my mucking out process/technique, currently I scrape up all poos with a poo scoop rake, then move bed to one side dig out wet etc. and put bed back down, how do you do yours?

I don't count it really as staggard work. feed yard- make up all feeds- change rugs- turnout early lot- put eve feeds out- do haynets . start mucking out, finish each stable as we got, auto drinkers so no water buckets
suppose 20-25 mins per stable. Pick up pellets, find wee spot dig it out, fill the hole back up - no touching banks

 

[Nari]

Depends where in the bed the old yard dog has put herself and whether I have the heart to move her

 

[Barklands]

Tap on slow so bucket is filling whilst doing other things but don't need to worry about spilling over! As others have said I also pre fill all haynets for the week at the weekend. We're on shavings and sawdust which is much quicker. 1 horse takes me 5-10 mins max

 

[Goldenstar]

When I am doing the yard my self I allow ten minutes to turn out two horses.
Then fifteen minutes per stable fully mucked out bedding stacked water buckets scrubbed and feed bowls and a wall brushed down each day this also includes stacking the muck heap
Then I do about twenty minutes sweeping the yard racking up and doing jobs.
So one hour to do the yard and keep on top of things .

 

[BSL2]

Rubber gloves and trug. Pick out all poops with gloves and bucket. Do this with straw and chip beds. Then decide whether due full muck out or top up of bedding. All haynets/builders bags full of hay and water buckets full for top ups/replacement. My motto, don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today, never know what weather is coming in

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Mine come in at lunch time so I do my lunchtime haynets the night before, ready to hang in the stables. Arrive at yard, feed both, do waters. Put hay in field. By this time they have finished breakfast, pick both horses feet out, do rugs for outside, take both out together to field. Turnout. Back to stables and sort feed for eve, fill treat balls. Hang haynets already brought round to stables previous evening. Much both out fully, both on straw . Empty barrow, bring night time haynets back on empty barrow. Both done in 45mins

 

[maya2008]

Takes me 45 minutes to do three, not at top speed. I have pellet beds on mats though.

That’s turn out all 3 together incl rug changes, muck out, add any extra bedding needed, make haynets, do water, sweep beds back in stables and sweep yard.

When I used shavings I either deep littered (quickest daily) or took the obvious poo off and chucked up against the wall at speed. Poo rolls down. Collect at end.

 

[MuddyMonster]

Like many others, I make up all my feeds & haynets for Monday to Friday in advance at weekends & that definitely cuts down time.

I use straw pellets & shavings on top of rubber matting and semi deep litter so generally just need to take out the poo, neaten the banks & sweep up. Generally takes about 15 minutes including scrubbing water/feed buckets, refilling water buckets, emptying feed into feed bowls, putting the feed and water bowl covers on and either putting hay into soak or getting hay out of soak to rinse off and drip dry.

At the weekend I'll remove the wet, disinfect the mats, put in dry new wood pellets as a base, put the existing bedding over that, wet the other half of the pellets to fluff up & add to bed and then put new shavings in if needed.

It takes longer but not entirely sure how long as usually dig out the bed, disinfect the floor & put the wood pellets into soak whilst I go for a ride! I'd say 30-45 minutes, most likely.

 

[Equi]

I lift the very obvious poos, flog the rest of the bed up the walls and lift that, lift the wet then pull it all down again. If there is any very obvious poo bits left I lift then but I don’t go overboard and lift every single tiny piece, it’s not necessary. I use allbed fibre and I find it is much much easier to muck out than shavings and lasts much longer.

 

[[69117]]

Mine is the same on either straw or shavings.

Start left front and start throwing clean bedding up into the banks, and making a pile of droppings and wet bedding at the front of the stable. Once all the clean is up in the banks, remove the pile of dirty, sweep out the middle of the bed, and then flip the banks, sweep out under the banks, then rebuild the bed.

If horse has a bucket, tip it into the barrow, and then scrub and refill. I won’t use haynets, so hay on the floor or in a hay bar that has been cleaned out.

Takes me 15 - 20 mins to do all of this depending on how filthy the horse is.

 

[Dave's Mam]

Mine varies so much depending on whether I'm skipping out or doing a full muck out.

 

[Joyous70]

Doing nets up in advance can save a good chunk of time, as well as hanging one directly outside the stable to put up in the morning shaves a few minutes off.

Unfortunately we are not able to make nets in advance

 

[Joyous70]

I would have thought a poo scoop rake would have been quite slow purely because it's so small. I've always gone for shavings forks but that doesn't mean it will work for you

Will shavings fork work on straw

 

[nikkimariet]

15 mins a stable and that includes everything. I prep 99% of stuff the day before and they are both very tidy.

Feeds in for both (incl Rooni dinner in for later as he’s only interested in scoffing his brekkie) then top up a water whilst I change rugs on non ridden one. Turn that one out. Muck first, scoop is easiest + takes least bedding. Take wet patch out, I take back with shavings fork then use the scoop to get it all up. Top up net + grab a slice for Rooni as he has a cube. Sweep up and use brush to level bed.

I take breakfast buckets out and get tomorrow’s pre made feed, splash of water then in the feed bin for the next day and at the same time I turn the tap on to top up Rooni water. Dinner for non ridden takes 2 seconds (1/3 scoop nuts + water). Usually I’m riding first thing so Rooni goes in the wash box whilst I do his stable but if not change rugs and turf him out. Again use the scoop to get muck then lightly scrape back to take wet patch out, level with brush.

Once I’ve emptied the barrow I’m done. It took me even less time when I was on livery - automatic drinker and the slices of haylage were huge so I only needed to top up every 3rd day or so. But the tackroom and his stable were further away from each other so I spent more time walking to/from etc and nowhere to tie up, mucking out a 12x11 around a horse is very stressful lol.

I prep feeds for 5 days at a time, I leave Rooni with enough haylage I only top up every other day. I can’t afford to waste it (he’s on the £££ horse hage styff) so I like him to eat it right down so there’s only ever a measly handful that needs to be recycled to the other one. My trick is that I’m always doing 2 things at a time, never wandering aimlessly etc and wasting time. Those things really help me save time. Even my rugs are ‘ready to go’ so I can just grab them and dump them outside doors.

If I need fresh bedding I do that on a morning I’m not riding or wfh/weekend. Non ridden has 1 a week split, Rooni has half a bale every other week. When I was on livery I would make a bank of fresh straw and pull that down over the course of a week so I didn’t have to mess about doing it before/after work when I’m in a rush.

 

[SpeedyPony]

Will shavings fork work on straw

IME shavings forks on straw get tangled up too easily, a shovel or an ordinary fork work best- you can scoop up the patch of straw under the dropping and shake the dropping off into the wheelbarrow then return the straw to the pile, although you might loose a bit more straw than you would usinga shovel.

 

[WBGG]

Mine takes 20 mins start to finish on a work day including turning two out/taking off stable rugs if it's been cold the night before(over the top of turnout, worn in stable to save time) my system is straw pellets in the wee patch under a thick straw bed.

I skip out the poos with a fork, shaking them into the wheelbarrow and putting any clean straw back. Lift any obvious wet straw that's come to the top and pull some fresh down from the banks. I wear gardening gloves to pick up any loose poo balls as I'm quite particular ...I top up my straw with a builders' bag on weekends/my morning off, make up loads of haynets at weekends and do feeds in advance the night before. Saves loads of time. I only do a big muck out, taking out the base layer, every 2-3 weeks.

Works for me!

 

[holeymoley]

IME shavings forks on straw get tangled up too easily, a shovel or an ordinary fork work best- you can scoop up the patch of straw under the dropping and shake the dropping off into the wheelbarrow then return the straw to the pile, although you might loose a bit more straw than you would usinga shovel.

I use a straw fork to get the bulk of the poops and pull any clean straw away to the sides. Then go back round with the shavings fork to get any stray bits of poop that have fallen through the straw fork.

 

[scats]

I’m quick- I do 3 beds in 30 minutes. All probed. But all have to be done differently.
The two big girls are fully mucked out. Polly’s is a case of throw everything at the banks and see what rolls out (box walker, so nothing to ‘see’ on the bed). I find hers easy to do.
Millie is a burier and very wet, so you have to dig around a lot. She’s the hardest to muck out. Hers usually involves a lot of swearing when I find yet another buried poo! Occasionally I’ll leave her wet in for the week and remove at the weekend, but it depends on the state of the bed that particular week. I have to play it by ear with hers.
Meg is deep littered so it’s just poo picking, taking out noticeable wet and laying the bed. Once a week hers is skimmed down a couple of inches.

They all get a bag down on Sunday and the big girls also get one mid-week.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I feed, and while they are eating clear out water buckets and nets. Put them to fill while i swap rugs.
Poo out, chuck beds up. wet out. sweep back and put the beds down. Shavings bed I dig all the banks over daily, the straw i do every now and then. New nets are generally done the day before so ready to hang or are in ready to steam or soak.
I add straw as needed and at the moment am adding shavings half a bag twice a week but the beds only been down a few weeks, I may have to do another half I think.

 

[sportsmansB]

I average 6-8 mins per stable on shavings, depending on the horse
Push the barrow right in the door so that you can fork from wherever you are in the stable without extra steps
Treat it like a workout, so high tempo movement
1) Piles into barrow
2) scrape back top to look for wet (I don't fork up all the base, just enough to look for the wet bits) - most horses you have an idea of where this will be anyway
3) wet into barrow
4) Pull back down
5) sweep and tidy

The only thing that holds me up is if they have hay through it, which is a nightmare
I don't worry about every little nugget of poo though.

I use a Fynalite multi mucker fork I think its called - strong, big enough for a full pile, no plastic joins to give, not too heavy. I dispose of them if the tynes get bent at all as this massively slows it down and time is precious and they are £36