Pee splash and keeping hind legs clean

[x-halt-salute]

My mare is the self-potty-trained type to an extreme degree. Recently her absolutely impossible-to-clean, grade-destroying, open-air pit toilet that made one whole corner of her paddock stink like satan’s own nether-regions was remediated and covered with a rubber mat. We’ve tried some less dramatic things in the past to keep her determined ways from creating sewage problems, but I really can’t blame barn management from tiring of experimentation and implementing a solution that clearly cuts down on work and sanitation problems. Less stink, less flies, less fishing soggy manure balls out of a rancid cesspool of urine-mud, less post-rainstorm sewage ponds, and less frequently having to move earth to fill in a DIY toilet drain straight to Hades are all good in my book. The un-bedded rubber mat is a winner in every regard but one…

Being so thoroughly potty-trained, all of her urine still gets deposited on that one, now non-porous spot. Her nicely bedded stall? She’d never dream of peeing in there – how barbaric. She’s always been prone to an occasional splash when wearing a blanket with a tail strap that splits the stream (which means all the Rambo winter and fly gear that fits so well). But adding a non-porous surface to the One True Toilet means that her hind legs are now being treated on a regular basis to a golden shower that would make Christopher Steele blush. It’s icky.

I tend to at least hose down legs after riding, but don’t usually have time to do so before riding as well (often there’s a wait for the wash rack in the high traffic outside-of-work hours), not to mention that I try to avoid wet legs under exercise boots for several reasons. But tackling sticky urine fetlocks with a dandy brush before riding isn’t cutting it for me, and the buildup seems to be getting worse because my ordinary horse shampoo doesn’t seem to completely get the pee out during our post-ride wash rack sessions.

Anyone have any miracle grooming tips for peed-on hind legs besides scrubbing with ordinary horse shampoo and water? Favorite brushes/grooming tools for dried urine? Products that help remove the buildup (esp. ones that can be used without water for busy summer days and winter)? Sprays/products that keep the pee from sticking in the first place? I’d love to find a grooming regimen that would allow us to enjoy the toilet upgrade without ever-worsening sticky brown stains on hind legs…

[Limitless]

I’m so sorry I have no recommendations. However, I loved reading your descriptive predicament, and could actually smell it through my iPhone. Good luck and hope someone can help!

[Equkelly]

I would recommend putting diaper rash cream on the hind legs. It’s designed to protect the skin from getting raw from urine so it works really well for protecting the legs. The purple desitin with 40% zinc oxide works great but Walmart’s brand works just as well and it’s half the price. Just as long as it’s 40% zinc oxide. None of that aloe or other stuff mixed in.

Can you put straw or bedding in that area where she pees though?

[Fillabeana]

I don’t know that I have anything actually useful for you…
Maybe you could rig up some sort of waterproof chaps for her to wear. With an elastic strap over her back. Nobody would laugh or talk behind your back about that one…

[x-halt-salute]

@Equkelly

Can you put straw or bedding in that area where she pees though?

Alas, with the winds and storms we get, straw and shavings don’t tend to stay put outdoors for very long.

I’ve already tested how popular it makes me when Mr. Restricted Diet a few stalls down gets mouthfuls of delicious straw on the breeze, or when a big gust is timed perfectly to pepper a passer-by with pee-soaked shavings. Barn management has generously repaired the pit of despair in a way they find tolerable and I don’t want to get on their very last nerve by revisiting some of the experiments they were not keen on.

ETA: thanks for the diaper cream suggestion. So far we haven’t had any urine scald issues – the skin seems to be o.k. (knock wood) but the residue on the hair is pretty gross. Ideally I’d find some grooming product that can help remove pee buildup with less mess, but this is worth experimenting with if there’s not some magic urine-removing product or tool out there (gooping up to prevent urine residue and then wiping it all off with a rag before riding).

[x-halt-salute]

@Fillabeana

I don’t know that I have anything actually useful for you…
Maybe you could rig up some sort of waterproof chaps for her to wear. With an elastic strap over her back. Nobody would laugh or talk behind your back about that one…

After a decade of trying to get this horse to tolerate hind shipping boots and ice wraps and such I’ve learned that any hind leg wear that’s not a perfectly wrapped compression boot or bandage secured with a few wraps of tape will be perceived as a tiny and weak, but MURDEROUS and DANGEROUS predator (possibly one of those bunniculas that like to lie in wait for unsuspecting equines on the trail) and that a gnashing of teeth and flailing of hooves will commence as soon as she’s at liberty and continue until either the dastardly legwear is killed dead or the horse is. I can only imagine how an elastic strap would up the ante!

I’ve wanted so badly to outfit her with those shoofly leggins or Kensington fly boots that all the chill horses at the barn wear as they doze in the paddock (while meanwhile Miss Mare is fussing and stomping and nonverbally cursing the flying 6-leggeds that feast on her sweet sweet blood). And maybe even the mesh of those fly leggings would be enough of a splash guard to solve our pee problem! But I think practice has made perfect w.r.t. her skill at thrashing legwear to shreds in the blink of an eye. And over the years I’ve had to make enough desperate, foolhardy grasps at velcro tabs as hooves go flying past my head to prevent total equine self-destruction that I’ve given up the hobby of training an illogical half-ton beast in emotional distress to overcome whatever instinct misfire vaporizes her brain in response to leg gear. I humbly concede defeat.

[Fillabeana]

Ok, gotcha, ix-nay on the eggings lay…

Sounds like your best bet is the zinc diaper rash ointment, or turnout on 40 acres…

[4horses]

I would probably put some bedding over the spot. Something like corn cob? Absorbent and easy to muck.

Love your descriptions. Are you a writer?

[luckycricket123]

Could your barn owners put in gravel instead of a stall mat? It shouldn’t splash as much as a stall mat and helps the pee drain through.

Or does she poop on the same spot? Mucking poop off gravel is such a pain

[ClassyJumper]

Maybe Cowboy magic greenspot remover?

[Kyrabee]

I give my horse a pile of stall pellets for her main pee spot. She is out in a large dry lot pen 24/7. Don’t wet them down, the pee will take care of that and they won’t blow Way like shavings.Once they start to break down, no pee splash. Stall cleaners can get the wettest ones and put another bag out when necessary. I was going to suggest the shoo fly leggings but…I put them on my mare this year and it does take care of any splash (my mare isn’t as nicely ‘spot’ trained as yours).

Susan

[Simkie]

Since you can’t use bedding, and the barn owners are (understandably) done with playing around with different types of fill, maybe something with some texture over the mat will work. Something that can be hosed off easily. Artificial turf?? A ring mat over her solid stall mat?

This is a “no splatter pad”…this is too small, but the concept is the same.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/…780/25981315-P

Any sort of “drainage” mat should help splash less.

Or, if your mare always stands the same way, is it possible to set up her pee place so it’s downhill running away from her? Anything that splashes would be more out and back instead of just straight up to her if the ground is angled.

[Dutchmare433]

I had a similar problem one winter with my old mare. I would periodically really scrub clean her hind leg and then absolutely douse them with show sheen or laser sheen. Re-apply the laser sheen probably after you hose her off each ride. I was able to get a week or 10 days out of each wash.

[candyappy]

Why not grade the area to gently slope downward and fill her pee spot with pea gravel? My 2 are dry lotted at night and pee in some of the hay we put down ( they both detest splash of any kind). The hay is on mats, but it is also on a downhill grade so the wet just runs down and the area dries out pretty well while they are out all day.

[x-halt-salute]

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. These are all good and helpful.

Bedding outdoors of any type has been ruled out as an option at this point, unfortunately. As is any further experimentation with earth moving or alternative footing materials in the paddock. I board, so I’m not calling the shots on those matters. And I’ve already engaged in enough PITA-boarder experimentation on this paddock maintenance issue that I’m worried about wearing out my welcome (or at least my friendly relationship with management) if I push any further on those fronts. I think @Simkie’s texture-over-mat recommendation is the only sort of facilities-based solution I could pursue without becoming THAT boarder. I don’t think I’ve found quite the right thing in that department, though… I had thought of one of those coir trailer ramp mats (big enough to cover toilet area, heavy enough not to shift much) but I think it fails on the cleanability criterion – a few months of constant urine would probably be all it could handle, and it’s a big enough investment that watching it disintegrate into a stinky heap of pony TP would be unpleasant. A ring mat would check many of the boxes, but I’m not positive it would reduce the splatter significantly without going back to the porous substrate drawing board.

The toilet spot is, in fact, near the top of a slope with decent drainage and urine does generally run off and dry out (now that the soil has been protected from fork tines and repeated bullseye potty deposits). The puddle of stink is no more. So now what needs to be solved is the spashback from urine dropping a few feet onto rubber. She always stands facing the same direction, perpendicular to the slope, when she’s “in the loo”, and it does seem like her downhill leg is suffering more urine splash/buildup. I’m not convinced that she could be convinced to position herself another way to take better advantage of the grade, though. Seems a lot easier to find a grooming routine that keeps the buildup at bay than to train a mare to assume the position and be mindful of compass coordinates (and more importantly, ignore whatever instinct has her better potty trained than any of my niblings) every time she pees!

@ClassyJumper thanks for the spot remover recommendation. It does mention urine on the Cowboy Magic website so that is worth a shot!

@Dutchmare433 I was wondering if ShowSheen or similar would be helpful. Thanks for confirming that it’s useful in keeping the pee from sticking! I think I have some buried in my tack trunk somewhere … I’ll give a generous coating of that a shot after tomorrow’s ride and see how it goes.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

My old retired gelding no longer has good bladder control, so he ends up with a lot of gunk on his hind legs. I clean him up every morning while he eats his senior feed. I put on some dish washing gloves, put a few quarts of water in a bucket, sponge water on wherever needed, scrub a little with this curry (it is soft but effective) https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr…e?cm_vc=-10005 , sponge on more water, and apply Desitin on any raw spots. Last winter I used warm water that I packed out from the house.

[wildlifer]

You have my sympathies on Legs Which Shall Not Be Violated – my young gelding hates things on his hind legs. We’ve gone through a two year negotiation & he’ll wear the shipping boots if my odd human whims simply must be indulged but he clearly informs me exactly how he feels about it.

[Miss_Motivation]

They call it pee gravel for a reason… : )

You might try making a box out of something like 2 x 4’s or railroad ties staked down that has the mat underneath it and birdseye gravel (it’s about 1/4") filled on top of the mats and about halfway up the wood frame. There will need to be drainage splits in the surrounding wood to allow the urine to drain out. Put more pee gravel in the draining area outside the box too. A 6 x 6’ box in her target loo area would maybe get her where she goes, so to speak, reduce the spatter, and also slow/help control the urine runoff.

This may be more than you’re willing to taunt management with- but I can say we’ve had some good results using pee gravel.

[SonnysMom]

How about this?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/4-ft-x-1…E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Just cut 4 x 6 or 4 x 4 squares off and dispose of when it gets gross.

[anon6003733]

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