I’ve read some on here say they can muck a 12 x 12 stall in five minutes! It takes me at least 20 to 30 minutes.
I used to be able to do this in a fairly leisurely fashion, taking my time. But now I have a 40 to 45 minute commute to work each way and I need to get better / faster at this!
I have four horses in 12 x 12 stalls with rubber mats. I bed on pelleted wood.
Help me get better at this! Thanks!
Your bedding matters greatly, as does the horse’s behavior and length of time in the stall. Pelleted bedding is much easier than any other type. I keep my bedding centered in the stall, swept back from front where hay, grain and water buckets are. Back has door to outside so bedding is kept back from there. I bed with pellets.
I turn out, then pick all poop, in a circular pattern from interior door generally clockwise. Pee spots fully removed. Bedding pulled back in to the middle, sweep back, and I’m done.
I can muck in less than 1 minute with pelleted bedding and my 2 mares who carefully poop in one spot. My stupid stall walking gelding takes 5 minutes. 30 minutes a stall seems excessive to me, it would take me 2 hours to muck 4 stalls! What are you doing? How long are they in?
agree that 30 minutes would allow me time to dust the rafters also… for wet spots I use a scoop shovel, first using the fork pull away the unsoiled bedding then use a grain scoop shovel to remove the wet… takes a few seconds
The only stall that takes time is the one for wonder boy which is bedded in shredded news paper… but even so 15 minutes or so (that shredded news print bedding costs three times that of pine pellets or shavings, so I am very conservative on how I do clean that stall)
An hour and half to two hours to clean/prepare four stalls would be a very leisurely pace
Wow, how much bedding do you have in there? Bedding deeply does take forever to clean.
I pick up all the obvious poop first, then, starting from one corner, methodically work through the rest of the bed by raking it toward me. Hidden poop gets tossed, wet spots get tossed. The clean bedding, now off set in the stall to one side, gets raked back into the middle and any stray bits get raked away from the wall. Depending on the horse, bedding is raked away from the wall 2-3 feet.
”‹”‹”‹”‹Yeah, it takes about five minutes. Ten, maybe, if I’m day dreaming :lol:
Sounds like I’m using too much bedding …
Horses are in overnight, usually about 12 hours.
I have two stalls that are easy, I think I can do them in 5 minutes or less because those two don’t kick it around.
I have two that are just horrible – a 16H and a 17H Thoroughbred who each just kick the poop everywhere.
Do you muck into a muck cart? Where is that cart situated? Mine is out in the aisle and I usually have to empty it into the FEL after each stall.
Hi, @King’s Ransom
Agree 1/2h is too long.
Maybe if horses are stalled more than out, but even so, seems excessive.
I bed on wood pellets over packed DG floor, no mats. Three equines: horse, pony & mini.
Horses are out 24/7, come in for hay & grain on their own, then back out.
In bad weather they may sleep in stalls, or spend more time in them.
I pick out manure, address wet spot when saturated (pellets change color) & add more bedding only when pellets thin out a lot.
Maybe adding a bag or two to each stall twice a month. Mini less often.
If I strip a stall that might take 1/2h per, but that happens so rarely you might say “never”.
Stripped stall gets four bags of pellets, refreshed as above.
I mucked into a wheelbarrow, until it died, now I just dump loaded fork over the fenceline at right angle to the barn & attached indoor.
Wheelbarrow lived in the aisle. When filled, I rolled it through the indoor to manure piles located just outside the side sliders.
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹The current fenceline mound composts over Winter & I plant in it come Spring. Next year I plan melons, but have had great success with zucchini, squash & pumpkins.
My barn chores for three - including picking, haying, mixing & feeding grain, refilling water buckets if needed, takes 40min tops, usually less.
AWESOME! Followed your advice and clocked myself this morning!
Started at 7:45 a.m., finished at 8:20 a.m. – this included dumping the muck cart twice and dumping all four water buckets!
(Did not include refilling them.)
Clearly I am using way too much bedding AND I was walking around the stall picking up the scattered poop. Now, I’m just pulling it all into the middle and VOILA! Huge time savings!
Really glad I asked because I actually WAS going to add a bag of bedding to each stall today!
This is my first winter to bed horses on mats … back in Kansas, we did deep litter on dirt. I guess I was trying to deep-litter over mats! LOL!
Thanks for the advice! This is a huge improvement for me!
I muck into a Rubbermaid farm cart. Four stalls, horses in at night and out during the day, which right now is about 9 am - 5/6 pm. The cart sits at the stall door, and is filled after four stalls, then emptied into the manure pile. I also start with four ish bags per stall, and add about a bag per week. I can get through stalls, water, filling hay nets, bringing in and graining in about 45 minutes if I hustle.
Sounds like you’re on the right track today, congrats!! 
Simkie, I switched to the Rubbermaid farm cart this morning, too. The muck bucket cart was too small to be efficient. It’s still in use, though!. I cleaned it out and the heated hose now resides in it!
I just made a post about stall cleaning lol. I notice and it could just be dumb luck BUT… if I get out to turnout and start cleaning before the sun is up, the horses stalls are not nearly as bad. I think it is becuase they dont notice daybreak and start thinking “food and out, food and out, food and out” not sure if that would work for your schedule, but it makes a huge difference in mine 
!!!
So if the horse stall walks all the bedding into the corners I usually pick out the center really well, spot pick any poop in the corners. Then I pull bedding out of the corners one by one as needed. I tried bedding that one really deep but it was horrible, so I bed lighter and more often.
I use 2-3 bales of fine shavings over mats, pulled back from the front wall. My one horse is very neat and easy to pick. The other buries it, spreads it around, leaves me surprises… I pick the obvious bits and toss them to the corner just inside the door. Then I pull back from sides (and find the rest of the poop). Only after the stall is picked do I bring the muck trailer or spreader down the aisle, and toss it all in from the piles by the door.
Also, on the odd occasion that they stay in all night, I find that if I pick the piggy one’s stall at night check it REALLY helps b/c he has not had time to grind it in/spread it around. I toss it to that front corner and get it in the morning…
I like the method of removing piles of poop, and removing wet spots (really easy with pellet bedding), and then I would throw the rest of the bedding against the wall, in a pile. The poop would bounce off the wall and roll down the outside of the growing pile, and then was easy to pick up from the bottom edge of the pile.
But. I could never do it in five minutes. It took me 10, and sometimes 20, to do a really good job. Oh well.
I know there is probably no way to fix this in your current barn, but the size of the stall made a huge difference with my guy. One barn he was at early on, stalls were quite small probably barely 11x11, and he’s a big guy, 17h and 84" blanket so long as well. That BO used to bitch non-stop that he was a pig. Next barn he was at - huge stall - 12 x 15 - and he was one of the tidiest horses in the whole barn. Worst part was he would pee in the same spot, so that would occasionally need extra attention. Otherwise he’d poo in one back corner. 5 minutes would be a long time to pick his stall.
Our stalls are 12x12 bedding on fine shavings with about 4 inches of bedding. It takes me about 15 minutes a stall.
I sift every square inch of the stall. My horses are mixers and grinders. So I just work systematically sifting everything. I normally work along the outside of the stall while throwing what manure I’ve sifted into the middle of the stall as I go (quicker than throwing to the muck bucket every time) and then just take a few pitchfork full scoops into the muck tub.
After I’m done sifting I pull all the older bedding towards the middle for the geldings or the back of the stall for mares and then add my new bedding at the front of the stall.
Of course not leaving bedding under water buckets or hay feeders. I also lime wet spots as needed.
Once I’m done, spreader is parked at the end of the aisle and it’s a short trek to dump and tub. The other barn is situated so you can drive right through the aisle which makes it very easy to muck right into it.
i think I’m a very efficient stall cleaner for how deep we bed and the bedding we use. I’m pretty sure I could be done in 5 minutes a stall if I used pellets!
I’ll add that I use a fork with a basket. So much easier to sift the stall!
Keep them on night turn out all year. It’s actually easier if you blanket because you turn out when the temp starts dropping, and they come in before it goes up again, so you don’t have to worry about them getting sweaty in the blanket. And they stay nice and clean so grooming to ride is easy.
What, wait there… do you Ride your horses? Our Horses belong to something call EETA (Equines for Ethical Treatment of Animals) …riding, driving or any work is prohibited
Stalls are always much dirtier with mine out at night. During the day there’s more activity, horses are moving around more keeping an eye on stuff. If they’re in at night, there’s very little going on, they sleep, things are just quiet.
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