Whenever we get a heavy rain, which is pretty frequent this time of year, part of our stalls get soaked. The shavings get really wet and we end up having to remove them. The rain comes in through the spaces in between the wood boards. I feel like we’re wasting so much in shavings and time having to remove them after almost every bad storm. We’ve tried to let the wet shavings dry out overnight and it does a little, but some it is still wet. Does anyone have similar expletives and advice?
You can absolutely reuse shavings that are just wet with rain. You can go about it a few ways.
You can do sort of a modified “deep litter” method where you toss wet shavings off to the side and put a light layer of dry shavings on top. If you use the pitchfork to turn them regularly, they will dry out in a few days and you can incorporate them back into the bedding.
Another method is to rake all the wet stuff into the pee spots and cover it with a bit of dry shavings. The wet stuff will still absorb, and putting the dry on top will help prevent the horse from standing/laying in a wet stall.
Whatever you do, I think mixing some dry shavings in and turning the damp stuff frequently (daily) helps it dry out. Otherwise the wet shavings can get kind of gross and grow mold/mildew.
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If it’s just wet, yes. I have that problem too, I fluff it best I can and soread it around etc.
pee, no. That’s gotta go
What bedding are you using that will still absorb urine when it’s soaked with water?
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Thanks for the replies! I was also wondering if it’s okay to keep shavings pushed back off the wall about this much, since this is usually what gets soaked the most? They usually stand there to look out their window, so I’m just wondering if that’s okay for them to be standing directly on that mats, if that’s enough support for them?
Yes, that would work fine. We keep our shavings raked back about 2ft at the front of our stalls so they aren’t under the water buckets, there’s a place to feed hay, and less gets tracked into the aisles.
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Yes horses can stand on bare mats just fine. Indeed mats are sold with the claim you can use less bedding (I guess compared to concrete floors). I make a deep shavings bed for maresy in half the stall and leave the eating side bare mats to keep the hay and shavings from mixing up in an inedible mess.
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Just regular shavings.
I don’t want to misrepresent— covering a stall in sopping wet shavings isn’t going to absorb much at all. But if I have a reasonable amount of wet-from-rain shavings and I mix them with some dry shavings in an area that collects pee, I don’t notice much difference in stall wetness the next day.
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We used to keep shavings a foot or so from one wall - in our case it was the front of the stall with the feed bucket, water bucket, and hay rack and shavings weren’t needed since the horses didn’t lay down over there.
Shavings, wet from rain, same as above. It isn’t a big deal - where my horses are now, we don’t bed the stalls (they are treated like run-in shed since horses have freedom to fo in/out) and I always toss any wet hay because I’m never quite sure if it is rain or pee…but that’s different…
Interesting. I had a similar problem to OP (did some gutter work and the problem is gone), and those shavings were not going to absorb a damn thing. I would put them in a low traffic area in as thin of a layer as possible to dry back out, then put them out again as normal.
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I do a modified Deep Litter method.
Peed-upon shavings get raked into corners & respread when they dry. Fresh shavings are banked on walls , a thin layer spread on top the base.
No mats in my stalls, flooring is compacted DG over clay & it drains well, no ammonia stench in 21yrs of use.
Like @Ajierene my 3 use stalls as a run-in.
I also reuse shavings in my trailer. I pick out manure, sweep the dry ones into a large garbage bag so they don’t get wet if it rains (stock trailer).
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I am going to suggest finding a solution to the rain coming in. That will eventually ruin the boards and cost; time, money and effort to replace. Can you extend the roofing a bit? Or may be put up siding on the boards on the outside?
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