Which Bedding v.wet/dirty box walker....Please Help!

GemBav

GemBav

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My boy is a serial box walker and every morning when I go to sort him out his bed has been trashed and his poo has been walked into the majority of his bedding. He is also a very wet boy.
Currently he is bedded on straw (as all my horses have been in the past) but I am finding that this is not soaking all the wee up and having to throw a lot of bedding away each day through being dirty with the mixed in poo.
I always keep him on a deep bed, as this is what I prefer (and the fact that with him being young he loves to roll about and lay down a lot) and he has rubber matting down too.

I have tried to keep him occupied at night when he is stabled which has reduced the box walking quite a bit but I am thinking that a change of bedding might be an idea too.

Do you have any recommendations on which bedding could work better for us, any experiences that could help? Maybe experiences with wood pellets or high absorbency bedding. I am open to any ideas/bedding suggestions.
Many thanks
 
My boy is like this and it is a nightmare so i feel for you! I dont have matts so i keep him on a think straw bed like you but now i use the wood pellet bedding underneath as it is absorbant and soaks up all the pee. The poo mixed into the bed cant be helped really unless you want a really thin shavings bed which is wouldnt advice because your horse will stink if he like to roll lots. Ive resigned myself to the fact that i will always have to spend lots on bedding.
 
I don'd have an answer for the bedding being so wet but i do use a fork called 'multi mucka' which is great for picking up the poos and shaking them off in the wheelbarrow whilst keeping the cleaner straw (if that makes sense) it is much easier to use than a normal 4 pronged fork, especially if the poo is tossed all round the stable! i use this and straw, have used them for about 10years and would not be able to live without it now, also really good for poo picking in the fields!
 
Ginger_Nut said:
now i use the wood pellet bedding underneath as it is absorbant and soaks up all the pee.
Click to expand...

I have heard a bit about the wood pellets and have been tempted a couple of times to try it out but haven't been sure if it works well or not - some say that it looks dirty really quich and other say that if kept thick and mucked out properly works really well.

So I've not been sure whether to take that leap and try it.
 
They work really well for cleaner horses but i tried with mine and it just ended up a brown mess i find it works really well under the straw though and use a bag of them a week and a bale of straw which works out cheaper than a bale of shavings a week. straw is a large bale though (almost 2 normal sized bales)
 
The thing that made the biggest transformation in my big stable trashing gelding was building him a bigger stable! now no mess at all!

But the other thing thats helped was moving from shavings (awful and expensive) to a mix of wood pellets and Aubiose. The pellets give structure and soak up the wee, and the aubiose makes the bed much cleaner and sweeter. because the pellets are cheap and I use about 3 of them to one Aubiose, the cost is a lot less than the masses of shavings too!

The horses really like it, the poo sits in a lump on top and isnt all little bits through the bed, and it all smells like a woodland clearing and also rots down v quickly and well.
 
This was a problem I had with a young TB. He used to trot round his box. We tried everything then put him in a pony stable and he was happy as a pig in S***. Wood pellets are good especially if you have rubber mats but you need to really keep on top of them or you end up with a huge smelly mess.
 
Have you thought about turning him out more over night especially this time of year as he seems quite stressed out to be boxwalking?

x
 
If he was mine I would get him turned out as much as poss. But I would keep with straw bed. Other bedding is so expensive compaired to straw and for what I pay for straw £2 a bale I can use 4 or 5 bales to 1 bale off any other bedding.
 
I have always used straw (it was free because my Pops made it on t'farm :p ) and continued right through when my disgusting youngster was on box rest last year :o His box was totally vile and we were taking out 3 or 4 barrows of straw a day and switching him from one box to another to allow the floors to dry :eek: so I feel your pain :)

When I moved Bentley back down to me in February this year it was more convenient to store and transport bags of shavings (and I had lost my free straw source anyway) so I switched over to shavings what a revelation :D His bed is less messy and dry- I would honestly recommend it!! :D

ETA I went the opposite way and give him a HUGE bed instead of a tiny one :)
 
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If he were mine he would be living out 24/7.
However if that isn't possible I'd be looking to have him in the biggest stable possible, with the best drainage possible and would be laying the fieldguard rubber mats (the ones that drain and are designed to be used without bedding at all). If you can't stomach using them without bedding then I would keep to straw although with less in than a full bed, it's cheap and quick to replace
 
Snowlake soft chip bedding is great for my mare who is so so wet and smelly, but to be honest at the moment she is out 24/7 so im enjoying no mucking out!:):)
 
Rubber matting and wood pellets every time. I had similar prob and the box always smelt of pee even if just mucked out (20 ft by 16ft stable). Now he has matting and wood pellets where he lies and also where he pees and result, no smell, 10 mins max muck out (could be 1/2 an hour on straw). Simples!!
 
Thanks guys,
I have definitely been given some food for thought from you all.
I would love to leave him out 24/7 but with him being a very fine skinned Arab I find that he doesn't enjoy being out in the windy wet conditions (but loves being out the rest of the time - which he is).

I will be looking at all the recommendations so far (I haven't heard of some of the beddings named lol) but keep any other experiences/ideas coming in though - I just want to give my boy the best, so with your help I'm hoping to do this.

I will keep you updated of what I decided to go with and how it pans out
 
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