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Stall Bedding and Cleaning

Off Course
#1

Curious to hear about how others handle their stalls.
Tell me:
*What kind of bedding
*how deeply you bed
*how long your horses are inside
*how long it takes you to clean one stall
*and how particular you are on stall cleanliness (on a scale of 1-10.)

I have had a few stall cleaners recently that are just flabbergasted by how much I want my stalls bedded (3-4”) of saw dust. Entire stall flipped (not necessarily sifted but all bedding moved and bedding pulled out of corners if banked, under water buckets and feeders where it’s not useful.)
I can clean approximately 4 stalls an hour with this set up. Including sifting the entire stall, scraping wet spot and lime. Move old bedding to back 1/3 of stall or middle and then add fresh bedding to the front end.
I have had a few who struggle to clean 2 stalls an hour and don’t seem to get faster despite having time to learn a routine.
So I ask, am I expecting too much to think it takes less than 30 minutes to clean a stall with my set up?

#2

Where I board/work we keep the stalls pretty darn clean. We use small flake shavings, generally the main part of the stall is about 5-6in deep and the edges are banked. We chuck everything that isn’t more or less the same color as it was when it came out of the bag, which makes it go a lot faster.

It takes me about 2 hours to do 6 14x14 stalls. But that includes mucking, sweeping the wet spot and under the hay/grain/water buckets, dumping/scrubbing/refilling water buckets, stuffing and hanging hay nets, and sweeping/blowing the aisle.

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#3

I was thinking recently of reviving an old topic on how long it takes to clean stalls. It dawned on me that if you post on here about it taking forever to clean stalls, you are told to use less bedding. I can’t remember now, but other topics posted get the advice to use more bedding.

I try to get every pooplet out of the stall that I can, I would think I’m a 10+ on cleanliness. When I clean stalls, my horses have been in them including their attached runs for 16 hrs usually. I bed so that the entire stall is soft and absorbent (minus under feeder and buckets,) I’d say 3" at least. It often takes me 20-30 min per stall. I may be slower since I’m not doing this daily, horses are usually in their paddock with run in sheds. I have noticed it takes me a LOT longer if I paid someone to do stalls the previous day. My mares usually poop outside unless it’s raining, sometimes I can do their stalls in 10 min. Gelding is always a pig, rarely poops outside.

I bedded with pine pellets for a while, but it got dusty + winter was coming, so I got fine shavings. I think the pellets were a little faster to clean. Oh yeah, lately my hay has had twigs and such that my horses leave that in the stalls mixed in the bedding. That does not help.

#4

I agree and bedding less is not optional for me. I guess I’m just wondering if a majority of people bed very light so when they clean my stalls they aren’t used to it and it takes forever.

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#5

ok - my disclaimer is that I am 73 and doctors marvel I am still walking with the help of a cane, much less still cleaning stalls:)

I am down to two horses. I bed both stalls about 4” deep with medium bagged shavings, on top of grid mats.

They come in at dusk and go out around 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM - the IR horse is in remission and is the horse with the 9:30 turn out.

I have to pick my battles and watch my retirement money. That means I pick manure only, every 2-3 days and clean the pee spots down to the mats on the off days.

Both horses have their same spots they pee in. IF I don’t have to stop to rest too much, on the days I clean the pee spots, I can get both stalls cleaned and the lime put down in about 45 minutes.

I have always preferred to leave the stalls banked, especially now that both horses are mid-20’s and have some physical issues. However, I do completely strip the stalls a few times yearly; these days DH does that, as his back is still better than mine:)

This is not to my own specifications but my horses are out at least half the day, and I do have to pick my battles, lol

IMHO, OP, you are paying people to clean stalls the way you want them done, not what they want to hurry up and do, because they have to text someone.

Hopefully you can find better help if the current whiny bunch can’t get with the program <—-which is why I still clean stalls - kids around here would rather work at McDonalds and sweat over a grease fryer, than sweat doing farm work——-

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#6

I use 3-4" or shavings and I can clean 14 stalls in an hour.

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#7

No, you are not expecting too much. I used to work at a boarding facility mucking stalls and I can tell you dragging my feet is NOT how I want to spend my day.

Part of this is how efficient is your set up in regards to materials needed? (How far away is the lime stored, the shavings bin, how far to the manure pile, etc.)

My own personal thinking is “if I had to spend the night in here with a sick horse, would I want to sit/lie in this bedding?” Maybe share that thought with your stall cleaners to give them an idea of how clean you want it.

To answer your other questions:

I use bagged sawdust, about 3" deep, with fluffy shavings over the top. Stalls are matted. Mare is in (right now) about 13 hours a day. 12x14 stall. Every day I pull back the top layer (after removing all visible manure), take out the pee spot, pull older bedding back over it, re-spread the cleaner stuff.
It takes me about 10 minutes, give or take. How picky am I on a scale of 1-10… well I’ve been known to pick just about every last bit of poo… because I can’t just leave it sitting there.
And no, I do not waste bedding either. I pick into a muck tub, and generally speaking it is full daily. But miss maresy is known to ‘hold it’ all day until she gets to her stall to pee! :lol: If she didn’t do that there would be less to pick.

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#8

I use shavings and bed about 6" deep. I muck every day but my stalls are for ponies, so about 8.5’ x 11’. Ponies are in for about 12-14hrs a day. They take me about 10 mins each and I’m pretty picky how clean they are. I don’t bank my stalls, but I take out all the poop, turn over all the bedding and remove all pee spots. I go right down to the mats or concrete and then pull all the bedding back. So everything gets turned over every day. I usually add new shavings every other day.

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#9

At my barn now, I bed about 5-6 inches deep with large flake shavings. The two stalled horses here right now are in for about 2-3 hours per day total, just for AM and PM feedings. It takes me about 3-5 minutes to clean each stall at night (typically each has one poop pile and one urine spot) on a typical day when no one else touched the stall. I despise banked bedding. I mean, of course it has its purpose for certain horses, especially seniors, that are in a lot, but when a healthy horse is inside for one hour, it’s unnecessary and annoying. I pull it all off the walls and out of the corners, flip it all to find the pee spots (pee spots aren’t always readily apparent with the large flaked bedding), and spread it out in the middle of the stall. I’ve had boarders whose owner’s wanted them in half the day, their stalls typically took about 15 minutes to clean for the messy mare. The messy gelding was quicker, maybe 10 minutes, because he paced and paced and ground it all up, so I didn’t really have to sift and just basically half-stripped the stall every day.

At barns I boarded at that I cleaned stalls for, they usually bedded about 3-4" with fine shavings, those horses were always in at least half the day. A 30-stall barn took about 2.5 hours with two people. An 8-stall barn took me about 45 minutes by myself, unless the person the day before added an absurd amount of bedding (the BO constantly asked them not to, they didn’t stay long).

I knew of a small personal barn owner who constantly had Craigslist ads up looking for barn help cleaning stalls. Her ad always detailed the job, and that it took about 2.5-3 hours to clean four stalls. Just to clean them. Nothing else. I was like whaaat she must be the slowest stall cleaner on the planet, there’s no way. I had a friend who worked for her briefly, and it was forreal. She bedded like 8-10" deep with fine shavings, her horses barely got one hour of turnout per day, and the stalls were atrocious. I could never. Shoot me now.

Are you paying hourly, or per stall? Are they milking time, per chance? Are they non-horsey people without stall cleaning experirence?

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#10

To answer your questions, the shavings pile is built into the side of one barn. We fill a 17 cubic foot lawn cart, attach to the quad and then just drove down and aisle and bed the stalls.
Lime in a convenient bucket so you can just carry it with you to clean stalls.
In one barn the tractor and spreader can be driven right down the aisle and you can muck right into the spreader.
In the other barn, the spreader gets driven into the front and we use muck tubs with a dolly. Each stall is about 1.5 tubs.
I know muck tubs are not the MOST convenient but I don’t think it’s like they’re taking 5 tubs out of each stall.
I agree that people seem to want to drag their feet. Especially when paid hourly. However, I worry about paying by the stall and then they rush to try to get done and stalls are not cleaned well.
Also, every stall is completely matted.

#11

I bed really lightly (12x12 matted stalls, maybe three bags of compressed fine shavings) because not only does my horse pee enough for a fire hose, he has little tiny turds and he walks them all in all over the stall… and they get buried along the edges even tho I only bank in the two back corners and pull the shavings away from the walls. COnsequently, he lives out 24/7 unless there is a reason for him to be inside… *yes pee issue has been checked by vet no problems. He jsut drinks alot and pees alot.

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#12

I have two horses, one on straw and one on mini flake pine bedding. The straw stall is deeply bedded, about 2.5 bales fully beds it (10x12). Pee spot is covered with pelleted bedding. This horse is narcoleptic and the straw has made a world of difference for when he falls down. The other stall is mini flake and pelleted bedding on the pee spots but this horse does not always pee in the same place so the pellets move around. I usually keep it about 3-4” which IMO is on the lighter side, but this horse is pretty neat and this means the stall gets dustier as I’m not removing much each time.

The horses are in 4-8 hours per day. I can clean the shavings stall in about 8 minutes including sweeping away from under buckets and resetting hay. The straw stall gets poops picked daily in about 5 minutes and then I fully muck the pee spot and refluff everything twice a week. It is a lot of work to completely do that stall and takes about 30 minutes. Regardless, the horses never go into a stall with a spec of poop and if they poop and I am around I pick it out immediately. On days that they are in a long time I do a midday pick through. I would say I am a 9/10 on cleanliness because of the straw stall.

I would bed more if they were in more and I agree I think the answer to messier stalls is heavier bedding and better mucking. I don’t think you’re being unreasonable.

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#13

*What kind of bedding
fine shavings
*how deeply you bed
4-8"
*how long your horses are inside
Overnight
*how long it takes you to clean one stall
About 10 minutes + once a week a few extra minutes to drag in a few bags of shavings to top up
*and how particular you are on stall cleanliness (on a scale of 1-10.)
Very - I’d say 9. Would be 10 if my dang horse didn’t treat her poo like treasure and end up mashing some of it into fine pieces during her Oak Island worthy burying endeavours. I am not rich, so a bit of ick wins over the cost of having pristine bedding everyday.

Caveat - current barn has a stable cleaner so that cuts out wheelbarrow or spreader time completely

You are not being unreasonable.

#14

Are the cleaners that are taking too long new to you?
I am wondering if them being slow is just a matter of them not being used to your setup, including cleaning a stall with that amount of bedding and doing it your way. There is a learning curve when doing things a new and different way.

#15

3-4" of sawdust is really not an excessive amount. Any less than that and I find the pee spreads out rather than soaking down and in, makes the stall smell, and gets churned around more as horses walk through it.

I do wonder though, why do you flip/sift all of the sawdust every day? Do some of your horses hide their poo in the bedding? If not, as a stall cleaner I would find it kind of silly to have to sift through all the sawdust looking for nothing. I only do that with the very messy horses who like to turn their stall into an even mixture of poo and bedding, and yes it can be very time-consuming. With those horses I end up bedding lighter and stripping the stall every 2-3 days because I can’t stand how gross it gets. Thankfully I don’t have any like that right now!

I also prefer to keep the newest and oldest bedding unmixed. When I need to add bedding I pull older stuff from the edges of the stall into the middle and add new bedding to the edges. That way the older, dustier bedding is getting peed on (I have geldings) and removed, and the newer, cleaner bedding can take its place. I wouldn’t want it all mixed together but I’m curious to hear why you do in case I’m missing something.

”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹*What kind of bedding: Bagged sawdust.

*how deeply you bed: 3-5" with some banked in the corners that I pull down as needed.

*how long your horses are inside: Currently full-time due to an injury, but they do have access to the runs off their stalls. These two horses still do all their business inside but I think the runs help keep the stalls cleaner because they can walk in and out rather than walking in circles. With my messier horses I’ve seen a huge improvement in stall cleanliness with runs vs no runs.

*how long it takes you to clean one stall: 5-15 min in the mornings when they haven’t been picked since night check around 9 pm. 5 min for the neat freak horse who never ever steps in his manure (love him!). 10-15 min for the other one who doesn’t churn his stall but won’t go out of his way not to step in his poo either.

*and how particular you are on stall cleanliness (on a scale of 1-10.): Probably a 7 or 8? I use a small-tine pitchfork to get as many manure shards as possible, but I’m not in there picking the really small ones out of the bedding with my fingers. I also don’t sift the entire stall so for the horse that does step in his manure, I occasionally find a manure ball that I missed during a previous cleaning. I clean pee spots twice a day usually, but more often right now for the horse that has a hoof wound and a hospital plate on.

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#16

I use a blended pine flake (mix of fluffy shavings with finer sawdust) that I buy bagged from the feed store.
I don’t bed equally deeply with all my stalls. The neater horses get fluffier beds (4-5"), while the two messier ones are scantly bed (3") because I can’t afford (time or money) to completely throw out an entire stall of deep bedding every day.

I have 4 12x12 stalls and 2 12x16. I say I average 15 mins per stall. In the mild weather spring/fall, the horses might only be in for a few hours a day, and then I can clean all stalls in less than an hour and only fill one wheelbarrow. In the winter, when they’re in more, it might take me 20 mins to do a stall, and take 2-3 wheelbarrows for all six of them. And of course the neat horses take less time to clean than the pigs and stall walkers.
Like @Libby2563 , I pull used shavings into the pee/poop places, and put new bedding in the ‘cleaner’ areas.

I do a pretty meticulous job picking stalls, and if the horses are in extra due to weather or injury, I’ll pick a few times throughout the day to keep things from getting nasty. I’d say I’m probably a 6 or 7 on your scale. DH is probably a 4, and he’s not frugal with the shavings at all: just throws away a lot of good ones with each scoop. Since I pay for the shavings, I’m more careful with them. But that’s a balance. The more effort you take to save bedding, the longer the cleaning process takes, so it’s a trade off.

In the case of slow employees, might be worth paying by the job, not by the hour…
Also, when you say clean a stall, are you talking straight cleaning, or other stall-related chores as well. I’d say it takes another ~5 mins/stall to top off water, throw more hay, etc.

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#17

I, too, am wondering about your sifting all the stall. When I clean, the old bedding goes into the center or side for pee control, and fresh bedding goes in the less used spots. Poop and pee is taken out, pee spots are limed every other day.
I use pelleted bedding at home, which makes cleaning a snap-- maybe 5 minutes per stall and I’m meticulous. My horses are “come and go” right now, so not locked in. When they are in overnight in the winter, I bed 3" of fluffed pellets centered in the stall (no banking), bare under their water and feed buckets, and hay pile.

I love my pitchfork with a basket head on it-- I can shake off all the good bedding, saving quite a bit and it fluffs as I go. What tools are you using to clean?

#18

*What kind of bedding
Small flake shavings over mats that are over crusher run gravel

*how deeply you bed
about 3 inches on the back 2/3 of the stall, nothing upfront under feed/hay/water
*how long your horses are inside
overnight occasionally, usually live out-
*how long it takes you to clean one stall
Neither Chip nor Archie is a pig, all poop and pee is in one corner, so maybe 10 minutes per stall. If I leave Toppy in, he destroys a stall, so 20 at least.
*and how particular you are on stall cleanliness (on a scale of 1-10.)
For Chip and Archie I want it clean. All pee shavings removed, PDZ put down, stall fluffed a little, not crazy though. For Toppy, good enough, because Toppy.

#19

Oooh yes, this too. I’m so used to using a basket pitchfork that I almost cannot clean a stall effectively with a regular pitchfork anymore. I hate non-baskets.

#20

Most of my horses are mixers and grinders. Out of habit, I flip stalls every day…I just mean that when I horse pushes the bedding out to the corners, I don’t want it left to pile up there for a week. For some stalls that may just mean back forking the bedding in the corner across the stall and picking up any turds that are on top.
As far as tools go…doesn’t everyone use a pitchfork? I personally use a regular fork…I have arthritis in my hands and the basket forks seem significantly heavier to me and bother my hands.

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