mucking out survey

[fleabitten]

1) what type of bedding do you use
2) any particular reason why you use it
3) how do you manage it? i.e. do you do a full muck out every day removing all wet patches and poo and airing the floor;
just remove poo and dig out wet patches;
just remove poo and tidy bedding;
deep litter - full muck out....(insert frequency)
4) how long does it take you do do your stable(s) in the morning/evening - i.e. muck out, water buckets and sweep up (not including feeds/turning out etc etc)

interested to know as am reading up on mucking out and bedding etc (sad, i know ) and just wondered what way everyone works.

when we had the ponies we used shavings because that was just what everybody we know used and it seemed like good enough bedding, easy to muck out etc. we fully mucked out every morning and aired the floor and then when they came in from field at night the stable was bedded down and they were brought in. i seem to remember that it took me 1 hour to do a full muck out, sweep up and do water buckets. but then i think i was slower back then lol!! i would hope that i am a bit quicker at tasks these days

Thanks for your input

[spotti]

I'm going to input 3 differnt versions as we've tried a few different beddings, but 3 of them were used for quite a while. Hence my first answer will relate to the first bedding listed, second to second, third to third.

1) what type of bedding do you use - Shavings. Aquamax. Straw .
2) any particular reason why you use it - Everyone else did. Heard good reviews about it/got fed up of smelly shavings staining Faith's white bits and getting stuck in her tail. Moved yards and it was included in the price of livery.
3) how do you manage it? i.e. do you do a full muck out every day removing all wet patches and poo and airing the floor;
just remove poo and dig out wet patches;
just remove poo and tidy bedding;
deep litter - full muck out....(insert frequency) - Always a full muck out (regardless of bedding used), usually in the morning and leaving it up to air the floor, but if I can't be bothered to do it in the morning then I still do a full muck out but just don't give the floor time to air. With the Aquamax I tended to mix any slightly-wet-but-not-soaked/stinky bedding back in with the drier pellets to make them expand and become more absorbent (it's odd stuff but so good and easy). If any patch is particularly wet then I use left over drinking water to wash the floor/mats - disinfect it at least once a month, usually more like once a week - particularly in the summer.
4) how long does it take you do do your stable(s) in the morning/evening - i.e. muck out, water buckets and sweep up (not including feeds/turning out etc etc) - About 15 minutes - Faith liked to trample her poos in! About 5-10 mins, much easier than shavings as you don't have to shake the shavings fork because the Aquamax just falls away and leaves just poop on the fork (oh how I loved that stuff). About 15 minutes, depending on how long she's been in/what the weather has been like outside (she's messier when it's windy but really tidy when it's cold because she seems to just curl up and sleep ). Regardless of the bedding I never take out more than one wheelbarrow of muck...unless taking the whole lot out and starting afresh (which I do every couple of months if needed).
Tend to leave waterbucket filling as I take tools back to where they 'live' and mix feeds, so combines a few jobs into one!

[Blonde Donkey]

I'll do it for the yard I was on doing work exp
1) what type of bedding do you use - All on straw except one on shavings
2) any particular reason why you use it - Was free from the farm that the yard was attached to
3) how do you manage it? i.e. do you do a full muck out every day removing all wet patches and poo and airing the floor;
just remove poo and dig out wet patches;
just remove poo and tidy bedding;
deep litter - full muck out....(insert frequency)

Full muck out at least once a day twice if they stayed in, manure was taken away and used as fertiliser for the farm
4) how long does it take you do do your stable(s) in the morning/evening - i.e. muck out, water buckets and sweep up (not including feeds/turning out etc etc)
My record was four hours doing 18 - turn out, muck out, yard cleared and arena cleared of muck ready for a riding club lesson - bloody hard work on your own.

[haffyfan]

Well mine happily live out 24/7 but will do it based on when I have had to stabel at nights when on yards and they insisted

1) what type of bedding do you use

Straw

2) any particular reason why you use it

makes a nice looking bed, easy to manage, cheap and always easy to obtain and doesn't fill your boots with bloody shavings!

3) how do you manage it? i.e. do you do a full muck out every day removing all wet patches and poo and airing the floor;

Full muck out daily...leave floor up to air if at all poss....occasionally would bed straight back down but only if i couldn't be there in evening to do it.


4) how long does it take you do do your stable(s) in the morning/evening - i.e. muck out, water buckets and sweep up (not including feeds/turning out etc etc)

Depends on the horse! Sunny/murph were clean so about 10/15 mins max and 5 to pop it back down. Khara/my freinds horse Addy were mucky toads (despite Addy having half rubber mats) and could take longer!

[solomon]

We use comfy bed, its a wood based product use it because its highly absorbent and dust free. Takes me about 15mins to do full muck out each stable. Always leave bed up for floors to dry unless they are staying in. Have mats near the door as stables are massive! Muck goes on trailer which is taken away weekly.

[zara]

1. straw
2. prefer it to shavings / cost
3. full muck out every day
4. 15 - 20mins / stable - I'm getting old lol. Aj nis very clean, Tordi is a dirty b****r

We're on a farm so all the muck is re-cycled

[racaille]

All mine are out 24/7 now but when I was working at the club we moved from straw to hemp to wood pellets.

I would NEVER EVER EVER again put any horse of mine on straw. Greedy horses like Paco can give themselves colic from eating it (and he did). and it STINKS and takes ages to muck out and we had to faff around with the tractor and trailer blah blah ....

Hemp was good but wood pellets were the biz. We did deep litter (poo removal only, you have to leave the base alone) so a daily clean-up was no more than 10 minutes (if that) per stable which is great if you have eight to do. There was never any smell (even in summer) far fewer flies and very importantly, disposal was incredibly easy. As the boxes were renewed fully only every six weeks there was far less of it hanging around in a heap and as it makes fantastic compost (it breaks down much faster than straw) we could sell it.

The YO did the sums and found that although initially expensive, it worked out very well over time. And she wasn't worried about ease of mucking out as she had us to do it. But boy, were we grateful. Even the mucky mare couldn't mess it up!

[fleabitten]

Thanks for all your input, v interesting to read - slightly ashamed now tho at my slow mucking out time (unless i was maybe being extremely particular about the bed and sweeping up lol) im wondering now how i managed to spend 1 hour doing a single stable!

BD - that sounds like a lot of work for one person - good on you though!

I do think that the key to straw seems to be excellent drainage - old RS uses straw in some of their stables and i far prefer mucking it out than the shavings beds tbh as its lighter to handle and is comfier looking as well. but i know that we couldnt have used straw at home as our drainage was pretty non existent - the stable up the field the pee kept collecting at the door (connie was v wet and stable floor was sloping towards door a bit) and in the converted stables at the house the rainwater seeping off the field soaked through the brick wall and wet the stables so it wasnt great really.

Thanks again guys

[Blonde Donkey]

May 2, 2012 9:48:33 GMT fleabitten said:

BD - that sounds like a lot of work for one person - good on you though!

Just a wee bit but it was a case of I did or no-one did, the groom was at college, the YO was on nights and the YO's husband was working on the farm. I loved it though and everything on the yard flowed because of the layout.
Must admit I spent the whole RC lesson sat watching to recuperate .