Your shavings bed

Take out poo, rake bed, sweep back - done - 5 minutes at most. Top up twice a week with approx half a bale each time. I only take the wet out when it starts to come through to the top, so once a week at most.
 
Both our mares are on shavings:)
My mare is really clean and gets 1 bale a week if out during day or 1 1/2 - 2 at moment as she is on box rest. She is skipped out in morning and then has a full muck out every evening! I start her bed with 10 bales of shavings as I like a big bed and find it is more economical in long run as stays cleaner than small bed.
My daughter's mare is very wet and tramples her poo everywhere! She is on rubber matting and I start her bed with 6-7 bales of shavings. She has full muck out every day and gets 1- 1/2 bales added each week!
 
First take out all the poo. Then if there is a patch where the wet has come through dig up until you hit dry again (usually every 3rd day) and once a week take down a bank to use on the main bed and put a new bale to rebuild the bank. I use bedmax for three weeks then easibed for a week then bedmax For three and so on as I like how the little woodchip bits fall into the gaps to pack down the bed nicely.
 
Mine's similar to Holly Hocks as doing deep litter at moment. Poo skipped out by hand (with gloves!), take out any wet that has come to surface, use shavings fork to re-distribute/ level, then sweep back sides. Add a new bale once a week.

I'd love some rubber matting as I hear it saves loads of bedding, but can't justify the initial cost at the moment so am saving up :(

He's out in field from 7am-5 or 6pm at the moment and quite clean in his stable so it isn't much work :)
 
I have matting but still have a deep bed, take poo out everyday wet out once a week. Add a new bale every week. I have OCD where my bed is concerned, I pat it down level with my brush, very sad I know ;)
 
One of mine is on rubber mats and I pick up poor everyday and he has a very thin corner bed. I only pick up wet if it comes to the top. Probably use between a half bad and a whole bag once a fortnight. Very cost effective compared to other guy.

The other isn't on mats and I take poo everyday and wet when he needs it doing. I normally like to do once a week but he's veyr messy so often have to go shorter then will have to use a whole bag to fill up again.

I don't have banks either as they're pointless. Sometimes if I hav excess shavings I make small banks and pull them down when needed but unless they are about 4ft tall banks won't stop a horse getting cast.
 
Pretty similar to others, I take out all poo and any wet patches at the surface and sweep the bed back into place. He gets the bed topped up as and when needed, usually every couple of days and it tends to work out at about 1 bale per week. Thankfully even though my boy drags his feet about he usually manages to leave the poo piles intact so the bed itself stays pretty clean!
 
I have my filth-monster on a massive shavings bed as it's the only way his bed stays remotely clean... huge banks all round and about six inches of bed in the middle, on top of rubber mats.

Full muck out every day- pick up the solids with gloves, then 'rake and shake' to get out the worst of the little bits that he's mangled in, there is ALWAYS a wet patch showing, so I resuce as much as I can from round the edges and dig out the disgusting bit.

If I leave the wet in he walks it into the rest of the bed and I have to take more out in the end, and 'doing the solids' by hand saves a lot of clean bits ending up in the barrow.

Oh, and the absolute best way to avoid too much waste IMHO is to use small flake shavings- much more absorbant and you don't waste lots of clean flakes that don't 'sift' through the shavings fork!
 
EVA mats, Pellet base, shavings top for clean and tidy big lad. Skip out daily, sweep back and level the top. Turn all the banks at the weekend. Only take out wet when it's coming to the top. Get about 2/3 of a barrow per day. I use 1 bale of shavings a week, some weeks he needs no top up.

For the wet cob I've ditched the shavings and gone with a pellet bed on rubber mats. Skipped out daily, swept back and levelled, sodden patches removed at the weekend and topped up with fresh pellets (2 x 10 kg bags) Far less waste than his shavings bed, where i was getting through 2 bales a week and his bed was minging. I get about 1/3 of a barrow out on weekdays which is all poo, no wasted bedding, and a full barrow at the weekend and it's cheaper too :)
 
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I have rubber matting with about 6" - 8" deep small shavings in a 12 x 12 stable.

Pick poo (find poo that has been hidden!!), bank up clean dry shavings, find 2 x wet patches and dig these out. Return shavings to bed, keep nice banks. It's usually about half of a small wheelbarrow full.

Pony has a totally dry clean bed every night and I only add 1 new bag of shavings every couple of weeks. Takes about 5 minutes.
 
Suzie G said:
I have rubber matting with about 6" - 8" deep small shavings in a 12 x 12 stable.

Pick poo (find poo that has been hidden!!), bank up clean dry shavings, find 2 x wet patches and dig these out. Return shavings to bed, keep nice banks. It's usually about half of a small wheelbarrow full.

Pony has a totally dry clean bed every night and I only add 1 new bag of shavings every couple of weeks. Takes about 5 minutes.
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EXACTLY how i do my bed :)
 
I have a full bed, right to the door, Bedmax with Magazorb put underneath. I use rubber gloves to muck out, and lift the bed and remove the wet twice weekly. Then I put Megazorb down where she wees (use about a bag of that every two weeks) and put a new bag of Bedmax down each time I've lifted the bed. The bed is a foot deep and has deep high banks. You couldn't possibly drive a fork through it, so I don't have to worry that she will go through to the concrete. If the bed gets too big, then I just put half a bag of Bedmax in each time but she's in more now so a bit wetter.
 
Lift poops with shavings fork, lift any wee that's showing, pull down banks and re-do nice and neatly, level out and sweep :) pee taken out once a week-ish and I go through 1 bale per week .
 
I think you have to do the best to suit your horse. My horses are on matting but also have a good bed. I have 2 horses & one is messy. He poos where he stands & will wee anywhere. The other poos at the back of his stable & wees in the same place always. Both are fully mucked out every morning & wee is also removed. They are on matting & disinfectant is used on the wet area. The bed is then put back down. The clean horse has a bale a week & the other has 2 bales a week however if they've had to be kept in for some reason then more shavings will be used that week. Their stables rarely smell & neither do they.

I buy in shavings by the pallet. There are 42 bales on a pallet & work out around £6.87p per bale for large shavings.
 
I'm a bit precious about my beds :o

I find all the poo, fork up the clean shavings, find the wet patches and take all of the wet out, replace the shavings, quite deep even though on rubber mats with mich big thick banks. Banks must be totally straight and square and the bed covers the back half, maybe 3/4 of the stable, and the line must be straight at the front!
1 bale of shavings a week, takes 5mins to muck out and every week dig out the banks.
Bed is clean and dry every night and i generally find horses very clean doing it this way! :)
 
I've tryed everything with my old boy (he's very very wet) he's on rubber mats and shavings mixed with bedmax but not to deep or the lot gets chucked :( the 2 girls have deep beds and the banks are done once a week (this it where they pee) and i just skip out the poo and they also have rubber mats .
 
I have a wood pellet base underneath my shavings. To muck out I pick up the poo first then scrape back the shavings to expose the pellets. I remove any really wet patches before levelling. Pull the shavings back over the top - job done! I use approx 1 bag of pellets per week and shavings are added as needed :)
 
Gosh Im going wrong somewhere :( I recently moved yards and now have a smaller stable, 12 x 12. My horse used to poo in one place, wee in another and lie elsewhere. Now he poos everywhere, wees in the same place and lies in it all! Im using 2 a week and thats a struggle! Hes got mats. I try to pick the poo out first but its mashed in, I remove most of the wee as if not he would mix it all in. I do a proper much out, as in fork it up about once a week. I never did this before as I think it ends up mixing it all up and the bed ends up looking dark and dirty.
I have been considering straw mainly down to the cost of shavings.
 
Rubber mats, deep beds with banks. Skip out poo every day, rake and tidy. Wet out twice a week and bring banks down as necessary, currently in from 6 am to 5.30 pm and I use 2 1/2 bales of big flake a month, 3 max bed is always clean looking and dry and never turns from a nice clean shavings colour
 
I wont even go there I am a bit OCD with it.


Firstly I will hand pick the poo out, then get the shaving's fork and get the bit's I've missed then fork it up into the banks get wee out and the go through the banks again with the fork and hand pick the poo out. My boy has 2 bales on every week Wed's and Sat. I need to get out more :p
 
Thick layer of garden lime, then a good deep shavings bed.

Remove only the droppings, rake level and leave. May sprinkle bucket of new shavings on each day, basically replacing any shavings I took out with the dung.

Never dig into it so urine drains to the bottom and spreads underneath and generating heat dries it off. Bed may be down for a year or more depending on how messy the horse is.
 
Blimey I wish I had some of your horses mine gets through about 3-4 Bedmax a week :eek: at the moment! If I do it I skip out by hand and then take out the wet out it takes ages as I'm trying not to chuck out good bedding. I'm paying someone to muck out Mon-Fri and she gets through more bedding but she can't spend the time I do on it as she has more horses to do. Normally though its all churned up and sometimes he digs out all his banks. He also has some rubber mats underneath but as he is older I don't like to have too thin a bed.

I'm trying to get moved to a larger box that doesn't leak which I hope will improve things. Might change bedding but I've never found anything that makes a significant difference. Tried paper, aubiose and deep littering but he tends to churn or deliberately dig it up so that doesn't work. Thought about EVA mats but it's abig outlay and a risk if you are not on your own yard and have to move :(
 
I tried alternating Bedmax with shavings at my last yard, just to plump it up a bit as the quality of shavings has massively declined (in our area anyway) but found it more a hard wood and the bigger, crispier flakes didnt soak up wee half as good as normal shavings.
Anyone else found normal shavings have gone down hill. I was buying the dearest ones as the flakes were bigger and it went further but the bags are now lighter and less compact and they just dont seem to go anywhere :(
 
I use a hand rake and poo picking skip thing to take poos out. I find it easier than doing it by hand and I can lean on the handle of the skip (I have a bad hip). The hand rake is the sort on thin tined ones you get in the garden centres or from equine speed skips - you can just get the poos with very few shavings with it.

Then I use a shavings fork to flick the bed up, find the wet and remove it. Relay bed and use a brush (again, the sort from garden centres a bit like a flat witches' broom) to flatten and neaten the banks.

I do 3 horses a day 15.2, 16' and 17hh and it takes me about 45 mins to do the beds fill mangers and water buckets. They get through 2 bales of shavings each per week. They're on rubber mats too
 
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I must admit my lad is very clean on shavings, I used 5 bales to start his bed off and he has good banks and a nice deep bed with it, his stable is quite big too, I didn't take wet out for about a week as he is that clean, then I topped up with a bale and haven't needed to add anymore in since, and I changed him over at beginning of October.

I still have shavings ready to add just incase I need to, I always get a few bales in ready for use, but am quite happy that he is rather clean on them :D :D

I use marigolds and bucket for poos and I hate leaving little bits in the bed, I have a major OCD about shavings beds ha ha, then use my shavings fork to tidy and re fluff it up incl his banks that he uses as pillows bless him. :)

I always always ensure he has suffecient to lay on as I have no matting I need to make sure he doesn't cap his hocks or anything, but so far so good which is great for me.

Just depends on how your horse copes with shavings.
 
My ISH is fairly clean but wet so she's on rubber mats with a thick bed of Bedmax shavings. Underneath, in the area that she pees in (pees in same area every night) I have Megazorb. It works really well for me.

I pick out the poo by hand with rubber gloves then take out any wet shavings but leave the Megazorb untouched as it soaks the pee for a good few weeks before getting saturated.

Each week I put a new bale of Bedmax in - I bank it up around the stable and pull it down throughout the week as it's needed. We don't get through many shavings - all her poo stays solid and undisturbed so it's easy to pick up. Once the droppings are out I just rake the bed over and sweep it back from the door so it looks neat. Easy :)
 
Wood pellets on bottom as Cobby is deep littered, muckout as normal (as in poo out and shavings up the wall) until I get to pellet base. Make sure base is level and compact then all shavings into the middle, re lay the banks then level bed. I use 1/2 bale shavings a week and 1 bag pellets a month.
 
both large stables rubber matted.. banks left, I first poo pick with hand skip/fork then kick through bed with my boot lol picking out any forgotton bits of poo saving as much shavings as possible. also .sourcing the wet patches that get removed with shovel.. then I throw bed up with a snow shovel( too left and right side, never touching the back bank) much lighter to use than a fork.. sweep the mats, pull bed down with snow shovel.. and using it to level of my banks and pack them down .. then I rake it with a light garden rake to level it then bash it with snow shovel to flatten and firm it.. then using back of shovel I make the front of the bed perfectly straight.. ocd perhaps?? i put in 1 new bale every week
 
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