Can’t you just raise the bucket holder higher than her butt?? Seems like the easiest solution.
That’s exactly what I plan to do when I go out tonight!
It’s kind of hard to explain this barn. It is very much so a “this is what you get, if you don’t like it move”, but with kids who don’t know anything about horses. We don’t have a lesson program. We don’t have a trainer. Most of the horses are owned by absentees, who also own horse trailers which haven’t moved in 5+ years. Some are retired. About 5 of us ride. It’s very common for me to go a whole evening and see no one else. The BO is a horseman, but isn’t in love with boarding horses. He just wants it to pay the property taxes and that’s it. He makes his money elsewhere.
At any rate, I’m going to try and move the bucket up. I am also going to take your suggestion and mount a bucket in one of the other two corners that I can fill when I’m out, to give Little Miss Pooper a second chance if she craps in one of them.
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Tonight: Raised the bucket as high as the crate could go. I’m not sure if it’s over her anus or not, I can add 2x4s to the bottom of the crate to get the bucket higher if needed. I also put a second bucket in the opposite corner.
I hope that solves it! Thanks again, everyone!
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OP - you better come back here and give us the results!!
It’s kind of hard to explain this barn. It is very much so a “this is what you get, if you don’t like it move”, but with kids who don’t know anything about horses.
to me it is pretty easy to correct, move the horse to a barn where they do clean the water buckets rather just add more water into a bucket that contains foreign matter
If the staff is so inept about the need for clean water what else are they unaware of?
I do not board, but our horses each have two buckets of water which is changed each time they are removed from the stalls (depending upon weather they may be in/out twice a day) It is not that big of deal, at least for me.
When I did board, my horse did have the same groom every day… she was an excellent person, so I had my horse buy her lunch at least one a week and she also was sent a monthly stipend… but she would have done whatever the horse needed anyway as she knew her job was to care for the horse
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@2tempe Well the little jerk ripped the mats up in her stall and also finished off a gate by leaning on it last night (it was on its last legs, but I digress), after taking me for the worlds slowest drag in the outdoor arena because she didn’t want to walk here she wanted to walk there (no. the answer is no, young lady).
Good thing she’s cute and really sweet. :lol:
So last night I moved the primary bucket up, put the additional bucket up, fixed mats in two stalls (if you’re going to get gross, might as well do them both), drove pins back into a telephone pole with a sledge and hung a REALLY HEAVY 16’ gate back on said pins by myself in the dark, and watered and drug the indoor arena. No wonder the BO likes me :lol:.
If there’s poop in the bucket today I might cry. The thing is almost at eye level for me, I’m such a shrimp.
I shall update after tonight’s visit! She needs to slow down on the destructo stuff, or she’s going to break me.
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This area is strange, because it’s in commuting range to Chicago. That means land is being sold for homes, and barns have disappeared left and right.
The barns within range of this one don’t offer turnout at all, or are known for riding your horse when you’re not around, or have blatant hazards lying around the place. To get more, you have to 1) drive double the distance and 2) pay double + and/or be in their “program”.
This area is really devoid of reasonable priced places with good care. Trust me, I’ve looked. This is the least of the evils within the range I can afford.
We were all hoping that HITS Balmoral coming to the area would spark some nicer barns. It did not, and now HITS sold the property on again.
So it is what it is - I’ll make it work. I used your suggestion for a corner bucket. Hopefully all my efforts were not in vain!
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Fingers crossed this works. Could you work out a trade with one of the other boarders if this doesn’t work?
We are poop free today, but had a really close one. I need her to get her tush far far away from the water. So, I added the patent pending “Move Yer Ass” bucket pooping deterrent. Picture attached, it’s a stiff broom head bungee to the crate if the picture isnt clear. Wouldn’t work if I didn’t know she’s a thin skinned wimp, some might enjoy a stiff butt scratch!.
Clanter’s far corner bucket was entirely poop free, no close calls.
We appeared to make progress today with the stud pile practice. Just that one, lone poop pile, really close to the water.
If I can go one full week with no poops and no close calls, I’ll consider it a win!
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I honestly dont see people at the barn often. This place is really quiet. I could ask my one friend, but her schedule is irregular, so it would be a case by case. She might kill me if theres poop in the bucket though, she cant lift a low bucket if it’s full so would be stuck bailing most of it out.
Not out of the question though! I can wave a 20 and a beer and it might be a yes. :lol:
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Here is another idea. Get a second bucket and put a screw eye and snap in stall. Set second bucket outside stall. Ask worker - if horse has pooped in her bucket - can you hang the second bucket and fill it up and just leave the bucket with poop in the stall and not fill it? This is not labor intensive. All worker has to do is snap bucket onto screw eye. And fill new bucket instead of crappy bucket.
Good luck. Mine not only pooped in her bucket but she always managed to get a chunk of her tail caught on the bucket and rip out parts of her tail. That was worse than the poopy bucket which was pretty awful in itself. Glad I figured it out. I wouldn’t put up any things to poke her to discourage it. She probably will stick them in her eyeball. Because she is a horse.
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My gelding will poop in his bucket if something is not to his liking. It can be not enough shavings or the shavings are not piled in the right place. he doesn’t have enough hay, or, and this is a big one, he’s having an ulcer flare. You mentioned something that made me think she’s new or you don’t know her that well. I know my horse quite well and it took me a long time to figure out that bucket pooping correlated with his being uncomfortable about something.
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Does this horse get turned out?
Yes. There are about 15 dry lot paddocks, and she is turned out 5 days a week by the kids, and on the weekends by me. Turnout varies from 5 hours to 10 hours, depending on the day.
I could talk to the BO about it, and see if he’s on board. Unless it’s a blatant safety issue, I try to stay out of the workers way - I don’t know what motivates someone who isn’t into horses at all to take a stall picking job, but we’ve had several. Nearly all of them have been from ultra religious families. This is a brother/sister pair, very very nice kids.
The broom is no stiffer than a brush, but I hear what you’re saying. For my flat back buckets, I always tape off the U part of the handle, because I lost a ton of tail from my late mare in just the way you describe!
This is a really good point. Maybe she just needs to settle in, or I need to figure her out better. She always has hay (grass hay, though, which isn’t as effective at quelling ulcers). When she first arrived, she was immediately put on esomeprazole per @Simkie 's thread. She is on a taper now. She is also on Ukele’s GUT, though I’m not sure that does anything honestly. At night I bring her 3lbs of alfalfa cubes and a 3 qt scoop (not sure how much it weighs) of beet pulp as an evening meal.
Since she arrived, she’s pooped in her bucket about 2-3 times a week, sometimes overnight. Overall she’s very quiet and amenable, though reminds me occasionally that she is a 3 year old OTTB mare. Her PPE was clear, though the shoe pulling can cause soreness all over so as Simkie earlier stated, it definitely could be that she’s ouchy.
Regardless of cause though, I do need her to stop pooping in her bucket.
Update to this thread:
The raised bucket seems to work for the pooping, for the most part. About once a month, she manages to poop in it again. She broke the milk crate the bucket was sitting in (she is a lug-headed clutz that breaks her quick release halter at least once every two weeks, so it’s par for the course), so I replaced it with a metal ring-type hanger, which allowed me to raise the bucket a little higher yet. Still though, she has managed to poop in it once.
She still has a secondary bucket in the stall, just in case.
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Some horses are strange.
My new to me oldie has strange poop habits. His water, feed and hay are all stationed on the front wall of his stall. When he poops, he turns his front end away from the front wall swings his back end towards the front wall and poops. So he lines the floor near the front wall with manure. He’s in a 15x20 stall so he has plenty of room to stay tidy. He just doesn’t. He walks to the back of the stall to pee, so I don’t think it’s a lameness issue (though the old guy isn’t what I’d call sound).
I had a hony mare that would poop in the water trough in the field in times of distress. Distress could be: location move, herd change, horse show the weekend before, high heat in summer, lots of bugs out, being put on a diet (she was a chunky thing), etc. It was a giant PITA. Interestingly, said mare didn’t really express her anxiety / discomfort in any other way.
I’ve also found raising the bucket keeps them from pooping in it. I think sometimes it’s just the right height.
