Over cleaning stalls?

I can’t even imagine trying to do that in FL. I think the stench and bugs would be horrific. But maybe I’m wrong. My stall OCD would never let me do it.

**I have to add when I see this thread title I keep reading it as “I’m over cleaning stalls” as opposed to “over-cleaning” them lol. But maybe that’s because I usually get on COTH after I get done in the barn lol

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:pensive::point_up:
2dogs raises a guilty hand…
21yrs ago, when I first brought horses home, I was diligent about picking stalls at least twice a day. Forking out piles & digging up wet spots.
Now I’m old & over the last 15yrs have gradually switched to the Lazywoman’s version of Deep Litter :roll_eyes:
I pick piles, fork out the very worst of the wet spots, but otherwise, fresh bedding just goes on top.
Result is stalls that bank through use so one side has a hill. I don’t have the strength (or willingness) to fix this.
Faux Grandson neighbor has dug stalls out for me & spread on my mini-hayfield. But not every year.
There is no hint of ammonia stench, unless we get a week of rainy weather. Even then, never eyeburning & easily fixed with a layer of shavings on the habitual peespots (geldings :expressionless:).
I attribute this to the fact that barn has good ventilation. Dutch doors at the back of stalls are never closed. Big sliders at the front & the one that connects to the indoor are open to varying degrees year-round, closed/latched only in the worst of Winter.
Horses have free access to stalls, but rarely use them. This morning I had a single pile to pick from 3 stalls & 1 wet spot. Fresh bedding went in yesterday - telling me they prefer Out over In.
I’m not recommending my method, just saying it works for me & my horses.

ETA:
Dirt floor w/9" tamped crusher run on top, no mats

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I had a longer response written, but it kept giving me a 403 error, so there was something in my text that the server doesn’t like.

Lots of articles mention the amonia fumes, but I have not had a problem with that, as long as I am generous in adding fresh bedding. The stable we had in the '60s, where we used “deep litter” with peat moss, didn’t have great ventilation, but even there we didn’t have an amonia smell.

The other barns since then have had great ventilaition, with half doors open at the top. Most of the time the horses have free access in and out, but even when one was on extended stall rest, amonia wasn’t a problem.

In the winter, the “composting” layer on the bottom releases some heat, which is a good thing.

BUT, I have had one negative consequence you should be aware of. The normal procedure is to strip the whole stll in the spring. That IS a big job.

One spring, I kept procrastinating, and didn’t get a-round-to-it.
It is relevant to mention that most of my horses are and were mares, who tend to pee arond the edges of the stall, not in the middle. You can probably guess what is coming…

When I finally got around to stripping the stall, I found that the wet shavings along the wall in the mares’ stalls (NOT the gelding’s stall) were starting to rot the wood of the stall walls.

Of course, this was right after the COVID pandemic, when lumber prices were soaring, so I didn’t actually get the wood replaced for another year or so.

I still use deep litter bedding, but there are a few take aways.

  • Make sure the bottom foot or so of your stall wall is treated lumber
  • DO strip the stall at least once a year
  • (Especially if you have mares) Every week or so turn over the bedding from the edge of the stall, to make sure it is not building up a wet mass against the wall.
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Absolutely…she who over cleans stalls will soon be over cleaning stalls.

Also yes to more turnout time and doing at least some feeding outside, least reduce the quantity of stall deposits. And I like using pellets in favored spots and a broom as described elsewhere to get to the problem areas without stripping the stall and losing perfectly good, dry bedding to the manure pile.

The next couple of months in Florida is like the dead of winter up north. Dreadful weather for horse keeping so don’t be afraid to modify your schedule as needed. Summer solstice is next week and the days will gradually start to shorten up and you can plan around the sea breeze storm routine between 2-7pm daily. You can survive it.

That’s a really interesting point! It seems like the countries where it’s more common, like the UK and Germany, tend to have much cooler summers.

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OP, I thought of you while cleaning stalls (haha, aren’t you flattered?) and took a pic to compare to yours from your first post. I’m not saying I’m the goddess of stall cleaning, but I’m reasonably happy with my system, described earlier. You can see how what’s in the wheelbarrow is thoroughly wet. For me the broom is key to separating clean shavings from wet around the top and edges of the pee spot. I recognize this is much tougher if the horse is a churner though. I think with those guys you have to experiment with bedding deeper so they might not churn the bottom layer, or bedding shallower and just planning to strip/rebed more often.

For the manure a Fine Tines basket fork is my strong preference, to the point that I don’t even understand how people can clean a stall with a regular pitchfork. I hate how the smaller manure bits fall through the wider tines.

Runs off the stalls help tremendously too. I had a poop-tornado yearling on stall rest before I had runs and it was horrible. One of my three current guys prefers to go poop outside, which is very nice.

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They also did not traditionally bed on shavings or on rubber mats. I can’t imagine how nasty deep litter gets if not done properly. On peat bedding with a well drained floor t’s not bad at all but yeah, you need to remove it annually.

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I keep thinking this is a key point in deep litter system and Janet said it should be over peat moss. I cannot see this system working as well over mate or other non-porous surfaces.

The stalls where my horses live have no bedding as they are mostly treated as run-in sheds. hey do have mats and the older ones are not on a flat surface as the owner thought that would be better for drainage, which is irrelevant given the mats. so we get pee pools in various spots and use old hay (either sitting on the floor and rejected as not tasty enough or having been used already for bathroom services) and soak it up that way.

Some days are better than others for cleaning and they seem to prefer the two inner stalls for bathroom use (one contains almost all the manure and the other pee…very neat, I guess?) and the other two stay fairly clean.

It has it’s plusses and minuses.

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Yes, deep litter is an really old method from before any kind of floors and requires drainage underneath! Old flagstone floors drain well, concrete needs drainage built in, grooved or a sump or something.

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We did it over concrete actually, using shavings. Mind you the horses were out as much as possible depending on the weather conditions. The smell was minimal.

I don’t have mats in my stalls so the deep litter works great for me…I actually dig out wet spots twice a week. The benefit is the horse blankets don’t smell because the bedding is deep and they are rarely laying in urine. I put a small amt. of fresh shavings in daily and the poop gets picked as needed.

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