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emma
Gold Member
816 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 09:09:05 AM
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Ok so there have been many threads on bedding but i still can not decide what to do this winter, you thoughts please:
I have 4 to muck out and start work at 7.30am. While i could muck out after work i just prefer to have it done in the morning. I do not have rubber matting and i have one yearling who likes to dance overnight and push all her bedding to the back.
My options are
a) Use straw which is free (OH is a farmer) probably deep litter as it would take too long to do it fully in the morning. But each year when digging it out i swear i never want it again!
b) Use a wood fibre bedding at £4 a bag, now do i muck out fully or deep litter or semi deep litter just remove wet at weekends. My experience of semi deep litter normally leads to me removing so much that im having to put in a new bed each week. This stuff is super absorbant, more so than hemp and fairly heavy so perhaps my yearling wont push it around so much!
Sorry for being so indecisive but any thoughts greatly appriciated.
Thanks
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Emma
Fulmer House Arabians
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Kirsty5278
Platinum Member
England
2682 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 09:19:51 AM
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I think you have chosen yourself.... you keep reminding yourself every year that you don't like mucking out the hay bedding!!  |
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jacki
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
1988 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 09:25:05 AM
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| i would stick half a bag of the abosrbent stuff down once a week and deep litter straw on top! that way its warm dry and fresh once a week plus its easy to get pooh out and the staw wont be soggy so it wont matter if it gets mixed up you just pooh pick then tidy it! |
sittingbourne kent |
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Marie-Molly
Gold Member
United Kingdom
929 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 09:26:28 AM
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Easy solution (that's mine): can they live out all year round? Hay in the field at night when the grass is no longer fullfilling their needs, well rugged and they are as happy as Larry!
Straw: free. If clearing the deep litter bed in the summer, why not hire some muscles for the day to do it for you?
Wood shavings: Cost for 4 stables, 2 bales a week each: £1,664 for the year (ouch!)
I stick with the easy solution
Marie |
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Karon
Gold Member
England
1411 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 09:59:33 AM
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I'm with Marie-Molly for option one! Far easier 
Option two for me would be the straw and bribe/blackmail helpers at the end of winter to help clear it out (BTW anyone fancy clearing out one of my stables which I've had to keep bedded down all summer?). When I deep litter on straw, at the end of winter I just remove a barrowload or two a day and it soon goes. The most I've had in was 5, two sharing a huge stable so I know it takes forever to clear out. |
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pat ww
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
3459 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 10:13:54 AM
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| Looking at the cost implication I would buy some rubber mats! |
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emma
Gold Member
816 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 10:40:04 AM
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Unfortuneately i can not keep them out all the winter, although i try to hold out for as long as poss, but the winter grazing is with our cattle and shires and so i really need the youngsters and my old mare to come in and then Galero likes to come in and sleep!
I do like a nice warm and dry straw bed. I have tried Jackies suggestion of mixing the 2 before but did not get on too well with it. Pat i have old stables with an even older very unlevel concrete floor so rubber mats would not work as there would be pools of urine collecting under them. |
Emma
Fulmer House Arabians
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polly
Platinum Member
2183 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 12:10:54 PM
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Option 1101;
for the same amount of labour it would take to dig out at the end of a deep litter season, ...I would have the concrete floors screeded with a fall of 1/10, then I would buy good rubber mats ( not cow mats, or pVA lightweights)and I would have them fitted by pro people , so that no urine gets underneath, and then I would do what we do.Drop the breakfast down infront of the horse, sweep out the door, tip what ever is left in the water bucket over the stains,.....finish mucking out before they have eaten their breakfast !! WE wash out every few months and use a good disinfectant. this form of beddingless -stables has proved invaluable to us when we have had injuries/illnesses needing a dust free environment. And as your muckheap contains no( or very little) bedding it is tiny and rots down quick.And the space used for storing bedding is then free to be used . Just an idea.........polly |
   
Photos1and2EricGJones
pollywells@.live.co.uk |
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delly-b
Gold Member
United Kingdom
1107 Posts |
Posted - 01 Nov 2007 : 9:20:58 PM
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Hi,
I know its expensive to start with, but I have converted to Megazorb bedding (pulped wood fibre I think) I think it is great - just have to take out droppings daily, and the wet once a week. I dont use rubber matting. Again, very little ends up on the muck heap, and so easy. A top up is done when required - which has not been often as yet, but may change as winter drawing in.
I have also read somewhere, someone's megazorb bed lasted 6 months before being taken out and changed.. |
       
Adele
Batley, West Yorkshire |
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geegee
Platinum Member
England
3682 Posts |
Posted - 02 Nov 2007 : 09:53:20 AM
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Hi, I use Megazorb with rubber matting. I take out the wet every day. It is brilliantly absorbant.
Please bear in mind that deep littering isn't good for horses. Ammonia is an irritant to the lungs, which can cause horses to cough and increase mucus production.  |
Edited by - geegee on 02 Nov 2007 09:55:41 AM |
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pleasures
Gold Member
United Kingdom
781 Posts |
Posted - 02 Nov 2007 : 1:17:54 PM
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I Love my straw beds but I have changed to megazorb and good quality mats even though I have a slightly uneaven floor. I am more that happy and it takes less time and is kinder on my back.
I found that if you can afford to order a larger quantity of megazorb you can usually get a better deal on the price. Mine worked out at £5.10 per bag which when I compare that to using at least a half a bale of straw each day to refresh the beds @£1.70 per bale (at the mo) is just as economical. There is less chance of the horse getting breathing problems and it take up so much less room on the muck heap and not so much sweeping when it windy etc.
Sue |
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Havenbeech
Silver Member
Wales
427 Posts |
Posted - 02 Nov 2007 : 7:29:52 PM
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I use rubber quattro mats at the front half and deep litter the back with easibed - also use a product called BIOSUPER (disinfectant powder) which i cannot rave enough about as not only does it soak up something rediculous like a million times its own weight in water (ok slight exageration  ) but it kills the amonia and combats the problem of the pools that inevitably collect under the mats on a concrete floor from becoming an irritant to those living inside.......plus - it stops me smelling like a horses ***** too! BONUS!! |
www.havenbeech-stud.co.uk
Breeding Pinto & Dilute Part Bred Arabians & Welsh Ponies
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Big Mover
Gold Member
United Kingdom
999 Posts |
Posted - 02 Nov 2007 : 7:39:15 PM
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I found that two of my horses need different management to the other two:- I use straw
Toffee 17.2 hh Suffolk Punch Very Mucky, but does it all down one side of the stable (cave men drawings on the walls) he drags most of his bedding accross the stable each night and poo's all over it and its a mess every day - I can never have a nice bed in his stable, its impossible! Full muck out everyday
Max 18hh Clydesdale Cross - Horrendously dirty, requires full muck out every single day - hes also very very wet as he drinks around 15 gallons of water when hes in at night & eats roughly a bale of hay each night (and there big small bales - plenty in them)
Gaza 15hh Arab 2yr old - mashes it in all over his bed, but it seems easy to deal with compaired to the two big lads. I muck him out daily and take the wet out twice/3 times a week ish depending on how mucky hes been.
Ruby 14.2hh Arab 3yr - very clean, wee's in the corner and poos across the back of her stable towards the wee corner - really easy to keep clean bed - I again take the wet out of her corner twice/3 times per week and poo pick daily. Its strange though, because the night before a show she always poos everywhere and gets it all over herself. Normally shes so clean LOL
There all different, but I like straw bedding as its easier on the pocket but the horses love to get snuggled down in a big bed when its howling a gale or blizzarding, they just look so snuggled up and cozy. I have used shavings before - I like the smell of them but its also very exposed at my place and they blow around alot in the wind when I open the doors,getting in the horses eyes and mine - just dosent work for me. |
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Edited by - Big Mover on 02 Nov 2007 7:41:39 PM |
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