Two gross geldings. Advice needed

[Calvincrowe]

For the pee guy— a layer of pelleted bedding in the middle might act like a “litter box” and keep him drier.

For the churn and burn boy? Ugh. I’ve got one (a mare actually) and even having 24/7 access to her paddock doesn’t help, she goes in and out and pulverizes the poop. Inside? She just moves around and grinds everything to a fine mess. She lies down a fair bit, isn’t overly restless just has big feet and likes to move them I guess.

Some horses are just tidy. Some are pig pens. I far prefer pelleted bedding, about 4” deep, centered in the stall, some wetted into sawdust the rest still solid. I sweep my bedding back from the front of the stall where hay is fed, allowing them to move bedding only in the back 3/4 of the stall.

[OverandOnward]

@Bays4days

The other guy just pummels everything to smithereens.

Does this mean that he does what I refer to as ‘churning’? Moving back & forth, back & forth, in the stall, dragging his feet through the shavings like a manic electric mixer? The turn from one side to the other makes the foot movement somewhat circular, dragging all of the bedding around and around. As has been mentioned, this is the way with a square stall.

Mine does this when he has a window on one side and the stall front on the opposite side (the configuration of most stalls). It’s not a health concern, it is that he thinks he has to keep checking both views. Like a dog wanting to go in and out and in and out. They don’t believe in doors/walls/barriers and have to keep viewing all the things.

His stall bedding is a nightmare of puree’d poop balls and pee shavings.

Not sure there is a fix. Other than picking up all deposits within 3 minutes. Or turning horse out with a shed.

Horse doesn’t do this in the two-sided shed, where there is only one view to the other two sides. He’s either out in the pasture or standing quietly under the shed observing the world.

All I know is to observe the impetus for the horse’s movement when stalled, and consider if there is a way to change the habit.

[OzarksRider]

@Calvincrowe

Some horses are just tidy. Some are pig pens.

This is so true. I have 2 geldings that I should have named Oscar and Felix (after the characters in the old TV show The Odd Couple). One horse is neat as can be. He has divided his stall into sections–his dining room, bedroom, and bathroom. He always pees and poops in his corner bathroom, and it takes no more than 5 minutes to clean his stall. The other gelding is a grumpy slob. He pees and poops all over his stall, buries the poop like a cat, and then lies down in it. I have to sift through the entire stall to get it clean,

[OverandOnward]

@OzarksRider

He has divided his stall into sections–his dining room, bedroom, and bathroom.

I know one like this! LOL He is in a 12x24 stall which makes it easier to keep the sections separate.

Bless this noble WB gelding, his bathroom is convenient to the stall door. The rest of the shavings are so clean that I’m not sure any human has moved them in years. Just tossed them back into shape. Even his hay detritus is minimal. He’s an efficient eater on top of his other sterling qualities.

[TheJenners]

@Pehsness

he chooses the stall to do it, despite it being an in and out

My big filly comes in to do her bidness, and all my stalls open to the outside. Funniest part is she picks one stall for the pooping and another one for the peeing. Less funny part, she will pee until there is a lake of pee and it doesn’t stop her, I tried not putting ANY bedding down hoping the splashing would deter her but the pee continues. Ugh. I usually only bed with pellets the “pee spots” the donkeys will create, but nooooooo Miss Thing and her Lake of Piss requires way more than that.

I have been spoiled, my gelding would go outside in a hurricane, and never used his stall. As in, if he was on stall rest, I had to take him out to pee like a dog twice a day. He would poop if desperate enough but never pee. Now my two mares… sigh. The filly is the worse, just disgusting. I’m going to have to swallow my angst at literally watching her piss on my money and start bedding again, because she pees so much it soaks through the wood at the bottom of the stall and starts coming into the aisle.

Sigh.

[widge]

Oh sorry, I wasn’t clear but with my gelding we removed the salt lick and only fed the loose salt so that it was a controlled amount each day. If your horse goes through his salt lick slowly, maybe this won’t help in your situation.

[starsandsun]

The pellets are truly amazing. I also have one that likes to sleep in ‘stall soup’. The pellets absorb so much - really worth looking at. I follow the recommendations and dump at least a bag in the area he pees. I don’t use them throughout the stall, but I know people who do.

America's Choice Horse and Livestock Bedding Pellets

[Bluey]

@OverandOnward

Does this mean that he does what I refer to as ‘churning’? Moving back & forth, back & forth, in the stall, dragging his feet through the shavings like a manic electric mixer? The turn from one side to the other makes the foot movement somewhat circular, dragging all of the bedding around and around. As has been mentioned, this is the way with a square stall.

Mine does this when he has a window on one side and the stall front on the opposite side (the configuration of most stalls). It’s not a health concern, it is that he thinks he has to keep checking both views. Like a dog wanting to go in and out and in and out. They don’t believe in doors/walls/barriers and have to keep viewing all the things.

His stall bedding is a nightmare of puree’d poop balls and pee shavings.

Not sure there is a fix. Other than picking up all deposits within 3 minutes, or turning them out with a shed.

Horse doesn’t do this in the two-sided shed, where there is only one view to the other two sides. He’s either out in the pasture or standing quietly under the shed observing the world.

All I know is to observe the impetus for the horse’s movement when stalled, and consider if there is a way to change the habit.

Could you cover the window in the stall of horses like that with something like a transparent plastic, where they can’t see out but you still get light in there?
Nothing to see, will quit walking back and forth.

[starsandsun]

One day my husband said he was worried about my young horse because he had not pooped. Well, he had - tons - and then ground it into mulch. Quite the hard worker, that one.

[Bays4days]

Omg haha

[Bays4days]

Yes ! And electric mixer is exactly what he is

[Kyrabee]

@Calvincrowe

Some horses are just tidy.

At one barn I was at I was so jealous of another boarder’s horse. They were out in large-ish dry lot pens. The mare had two very tidy poop piles. She could easily get away with cleaning once a week.

My pigpen…no way. And when it got muddy, she didn’t want to get her little tootsies in the mud so she would poop and pee on the mats where her feeder was…really. You have 30’ x 90’ of space so it’s all where you stand to eat. At least the mats made it an easy clean (every day).

[OverandOnward]

@Bluey

Could you cover the window in the stall of horses like that with something like a transparent plastic, where they can’t see out but you still get light in there?
Nothing to see, will quit walking back and forth.

This horse – I think he would lose his mind without his outside window. He’s always had one, and takes it very seriously. I’m sure he would just start doing circles of anxiety at an even faster rate than his current electric mixer path of window-checking. Because horses.

Because who knows what terrible thing might be going on outside when he isn’t looking. Because CONSTANT VIGILANCE is what keeps the terrible stuff away. Not looking – that’s when it happens.

I suspect he is a sentinel-type anyway. When he’s on turnout, he’s the one popping his head up to check on things that the other horses ignore. He’s also looky when riding, it’s the number one thing to control. It’s all up to him to keep us alive. LOL

I don’t know what he’s checking for but it must be a very serious matter – to him, anyway.

[Demerara_Stables]

@OverandOnward

Because who knows what terrible thing might be going on outside when he isn’t looking. Because CONSTANT VIGILANCE is what keeps the terrible stuff away. Not looking – that’s when it happens.

I suspect he is a sentinel-type anyway. When he’s on turnout, he’s the one popping his head up to check on things that the other horses ignore. He’s also looky when riding, it’s the number one thing to control. It’s all up to him to keep us alive. LOL

I don’t know what he’s checking for but it must be a very serious matter – to him, anyway.

Have you talked to him with a communicator? Might be an interesting conversation. I have a mare like this, and it did help her a bit.

[OverandOnward]

Actually yes, once, many years ago, different location, different issues. That’s a great idea.

I don’t know if the last communication was genuine, or just someone who is very insightful about talking to people about their animals. Either way it did help the last time.

Not long ago, while riding, he did a massive spook to escape a tiger. Biggest spook I’ve ever ridden through. I did not see a tiger. But he says there was definitely a tiger. So yep, it might be time for an animal communicator to find out more.

[Demerara_Stables]

@OverandOnward

But he says there was definitely a tiger.

I’ve heard that before from mine! Usually tigers are in the shape of horse sized black things that go moo, or for my older mare, small feathery things that make lots of noise.

Funny story: my mare goes in a paddock on the back side of the barn at night, alone. For a few weeks to a month she had been reluctant to go in at night (normally happy to have her privacy and alfalfa). I had a scheduled call with the communicator and so I asked what the deal was - she said “I almost never have horses show me scents, but I smell something burning.”

Cue two nights later our power turned off in the middle of the night. Apparently our main breaker was shorting out and likely smelled like it was burning when this was happening. The main panel is about 40 ft from her paddock.

[beowulf]

Stall walking is the horse’s way of saying they don’t want to be in the stall. I have one and he will immersion-blend the entire place if he’s locked in, doesn’t matter how much hay or grain is in front of him. The funny thing is if he is “free” (in a run out and/or at large in the herd) he really doesn’t move around much. But something about being in a stall just aggravates him. He’s such a quiet horse otherwise, it’s a quirk I happily live with.

BTW, he is very neat and orderly outside. He has a poop pile in the corner of the paddock.

[TheJenners]

@OverandOnward

I don’t know if the last communication was genuine

If you want a recommendation, I have one. It was by phone, I provided older pictures (a couple years each) of my gelding and my boy dog. My horse was on stall rest at the time with a rear suspensory tear, which I did not disclose. She said his back legs felt funny, not one (I asked which leg?) but both of them. She did her best to describe it. He was only months away from a DSLD diagnosis and tearing the other suspensory and being PTS. For the dog, she said the left side of his mouth hurt like he had a bad tooth, while on the phone with her I yoinked his flews back on the side and he had a benign tumor way up high and back that I would have never seen otherwise and he sheared a part of that large upper back molar off maybe two months later so it was probably already cracked.

Yeah I was floored.

[OverandOnward]

I will ping you for the recommendation.

Similar experience of seemingly uncanny prescience. The last time I spoke to a communicator (10 years ago?) she asked about the color red. Literally, a red wood-frame house was next to the pasture where my horse lived. The horses frequently pointed their heads that way, so they spent a good part of every day with it directly in their line of sight.

On the one hand, communicators and psychics have techniques for asking about things that are very common, and if it doesn’t pick up, they quickly move on to something else. On the other hand, red is a very uncommon color for rural buildings and barns in this part of the country (unlike other parts of the country). The red house next to the pasture was an anomaly in the rural areas I frequent. Not unheard of, but rare. So – that was interesting.

[OverandOnward]

@Demerara_Stables

small feathery things that make lots of noise.

Those things kill and eat horses, you know. Happens all the time. According to my horse.

It doesn’t matter that his size and hoof defenses would make that such an uneven fight that I have to keep him away from chickens, as I fear that he might stomp them to death, trying to get away from them.