[minnie_mouse]

oh and i forgot to say... i use rubber matting and shavings...

[monica-n-shiloh]

I do it basically the same way Miss B does. Toss shavings up against the sides to let the poop roll down. You save tons of shavings that way. Then I use a shovel and scrape up any wet spots...then put the shavings back down on the floor. O yea and we use shavings and rubber mats.

[wyldterv]

I have clay packed floors with 6" pit run (sand/rock mix) on top with 6" inches of unwashed river sand on top of that, and NOT quite Wall to wall rubber mats on top of that. The reason I don't do wall to wall, is that the urine runs off the edges better and if it has a place to go that has a natural filter/drainage system, you don't have to lift and scrub mats more then once a year!

Then I bank up the edges of the walls with heavy pine shavings, careful to make sure that the 8 inches on each side are filled in above the edge of the mats and I bank the sides about 6" deep and 6" up.

On the rubber mats I sprinkle baking soda first, then I use STALL DRY which is pelleted wood shavings that you put down (looks like kitty litter) and sprinkle with a small amount of water to make them a bit softer. These are more absorbent that regular shavings, and contain alot less dust. Also VERY easy to pick out. I redo the baking soda daily.

I pick my stalls out first thing in the morning after turning horses out. If it is a day horses don't go out due to inclement weather I pick them mid day and evening as well.

I start by picking up all manure, then turn over every once of bedding dry or wet, to make sure I don't miss wet spots. I pick up any soaked bedding, and fluff all of it with my shavings fork, paying particular attention to the edges being deep enough. I then pile the bedding in the middle of the mats as the horses do a good job of spreading it out to the edges and it gives the edges a chance to be really dry by the end of the day.

Every two weeks I completely strip the stalls bare, let the mats and edges breath for a day and rebed in the evening. With the Stall DRY product, I have found I don't need to strip weekly like I used to. I use LESS product, it is dryer, absorbs urine better and does a better job of amonia fume control, combined with less loss of shavings and less frequent strip down, you use less product in the long run with, IMO, better health bennefits.

When I have a bare stall floor, I use about 6 bags at $3 a bag, but then I only have to add at the most one more bag before stripping down the stall. I used to spend $5 a bale of shavings and used 4 bales to bed the stall, then about 1/2 a bale a day to replace what was taken out and stripped weekly. I can't say enough good about using the pelletized bedding now PLUS it saves WORK and TIME besides MONEY!

[DoWeDance]

At the place I boarded this summer, we bedded our stalls very deeply. Unfortnately, they were packed dirt floors and we didn't have mats or sand or gravel on top of the dirt, so the drainage wasn't very good. It wasn't a huge problem since the bedding was so thick, but we always had to use plenty of lime when we stripped the stalls out. I think when I build my own barn, I want to do what wyldterv was talking about with the sand and gravel on packed clay.

[Miss Thunder]

We start by picking up the big, noticable stuff (urine and poop), then move the sawdust to one side of the stall. Let the floor dry for about 20 minutes, then fill water buckets, ect. Then we spread the sawdust and add new if needed. During the summer we let it get down next to nothing (horses aren't in much anyways), but during the winter they have a few good inches of bedding.

We do a "Full" cleaning once a week. That's complete removing of the bedding, wash down the floors, lime it, then new bedding. In the winter we just clean them out, lime it, then new bedding. No stall mats, just boards.

And who has noticed that geldings are neater than mares?

For me it's the complete opposite. Redie poops in one corner, pees in the other and that's it. Not much waste with her. Shadow's a stall walker so he makes a HUGE mess. It's usually all over the place! LOL. Oreo poops everywheres, pees everywheres and any excess hay turns into a neat little bird's nest for him to sleep in. One of these days Ill take a picture of his nest, it's quite the interesting thing to see! LOL.

For my messy geldings, I've heard that if you leave one poop and pee spot let's say in a corner (the 'designated pooping corner') for one night and the entire stall is clean, they will start going only in that area. I thought there might be some truth to it because if you look in my paddock, because it's weekly cleaning, there's poop all on the sides but none in the middle. It's odd ??? Think this may work?

[CANDYGIRL]

I think mares are more messy than geldings, Pic is so clean, Folly's stable can look like a teenagers bedroom in a morning


Candy was dirty as well and she was a mare, Whiskey and Pic gelding, well Whiskey gone to Rainbow Bridge, both really clean

Thanks for the idea of Baking Soda, I was going to get some of that stall dry, it's pretty new at my merchants, for Folly, she can pee for England LOL.

I think it real interesting reading how we all do alot of things the same and a few things different.

One thing about just using rubber matting - from my experience of seeing others at Church Farm on rubber matting with a little shaving banked around sides, is they lie in their urine, rugs stunk too high heaven in the winter.

Infact moved one horse for someone because they were sick of having to wash stable rugs everyday.

Anyone have that problem, or are they just not using enough shavings up at the farm? Personally, and this is only from what I saw up there, the rubber matting looked so univiting to lie down on compared to shavings.

Put me right please

Jane

[i_luv_moth]

I don't have stallsLol but where i work they do and when i clean them i really only pick out all the poo and their stalls are always clean. If they are really bad we move all the old stuff out and then hose down the stall,wait for it to dry,pop some straw down then put a nice thick bed of shavings in.

[wyldterv]

For those using Lime you may want to think about switching to Baking Soda for a couple of reasons. the #1 reason is that it has been found Lime is VERY caustic when inhaled and can do great damage to both human and horse lungs alike. People have been striken with chronic Asthema and horses COPD due to lime dust inhillation so keep that in mind and if you DO use lime for odor control, wear a mask when treating the flooring, put horses out of doors prior to treating (ALL the horses not just the one you're doing the stall on) and don't bring them back in until you lay a nice DEEP bed of shavings, straw or shredded paper.

Shredded paper btw is the BEST bedding of choice for COPD horses but super difficult to obtain in many areas and very costly but works fantastic.

IF you use rubber mats you still need to lay down a fair amount of bedding for the horses, especially those that are locked in their stalls for more then a few hours. #1 you need the absorbabncy of bedding and #2 stall mats alone are not cushion enough for standing on long periods of time.

Baking Soda is the 'miracle product' at my house. I use it to scour the fiberglass shower/tub (it doesn't scratch) Polish the dogs teeth, deoderize fridge, freezer, grooming shop, dog room, add it to laundry to help clean and deoderize clothes, when I had a cat, in the cat box, in the stable, use it to scrub horse tanks out so many uses and it's not terribly $$$!

The second most useful product in my house is OXICLEAN, I use that to bath the horse blankets, dog bedding, clean dog room and grooming shop walls and floors, mop my tile floors, my tile countertops, so many great uses and low toxicity and septic system safe!

[monica-n-shiloh]

Originally Posted by MissBandit

And who has noticed that geldings are neater than mares?

Not here where I work. Theres 3 mares to 12 geldings here....the mares are much cleaner. One mare poops and pees only in one corner...it makes cleaning her stall such cake! The geldings though I have noticed that the younger they are...the more mess they make. As they get older, they get a bit tidier....

[Grey Wolf]

We have 4 12x12 stalls with 3/4" mats over 6" of stone dust. We use the pelletized bedding also, but wet it 'til it's 50% pellets, 50% soft fluffy bedding. I pick out ALL the apples and pieces, then go find the wet spots. I dish those out down to the mats, then stir the wet back into the rest of the bedding. When the bedding has no more pellets, and the bedding can't absorb anymore, I take the wet stuff out and add a new bag of pellets. I add about a bag a week, and keep the bedding about 3" deep. Right now I muck out twice a day.

Our gelding and filly both poo and pee in the same place, along the back wall. Our mare goes in the middle and then kicks it all over....