Wet horses and bedding

[SugarCubes]

What is your go-to method for bedding a stall for the super-wet-pees-constantly-horse? I have a pony that is a good drinker and while he has a paddock attached to his stall, prefers to use his clean stall as a bathroom. I throw away SO much bedding every day, he easily soaks half of his stall.

I’ve been bedding with pellets because they’re so absorbent but my bedding bill is through the roof with this guy! I like to bed deeply, but lately I’ve used less in his stall to eliminate waste. Any tips? Is it better to bed really deep or really lightly with a horse like him? My stalls are also fully matted. Any better bedding options than pellets?

I can’t wait until the weather is nicer so I can lock him outside more often :lol:

[Libby2563]

I like to use mostly sawdust but I put unexpanded pellets in the common pee areas. I would not bed too lightly or the pee spreads out all over the place. One of my guys occasionally pees near the front of the stall where the shavings are thin/swept back, and I find a puddle in the aisle…gross.

Some people say bedding deep allows the pee to seep down instead of spreading out, but one of mine is too much of a toe dragger and it ends up all over the place anyway.

[Red_Barn]

I’d say bed deeply, for sure, but I’d also wonder why he was drinking and peeing so much in the first place.

Any possibility of metabolic issues in this pony?

[IPEsq]

My ideal mixture for deep bedding is sawdust or pellets plus some fat flake shavings for the fluff. The sawdust and pellets will soak up the pee better but then it takes relatively little of the flake shavings to get some loft in the bedding.

[jawa]

I have been using a combination of puffed pelleted bedding and peat moss. I use one bale of peat moss and 4 bags of puffed pelleted bedding. When first bedding the stall, I use a hose to dampen the peat moss, not to saturation, but enough to keep the dust down. Once the stall has been prepared, I find I only need to add moisture occasionally to keep the peat moss at the optimum moisture level. Often this is just by dumping the left over water from the water buckets into the stall, or mixing the pee spot around to spread the moisture around.

I keep the stall bedded around 6-8" deep with the areas under the hay rack, feed bucket and stall door swept back.

I haven’t found it to be any dustier than using puffed pelleted bedding alone, it’s just that the dust is darker.

I have a bay and grey that are currently bedded on this mixture. I started with the bay because he PEES ALOT!!! He was costing me a fortune to keep in, even for only 4-6 hrs a day. I had tried using a deep litter method with him prior to trying peat moss, but he liked to paw in his stall prior to rolling and the ammonia smell was awful. He does the same thing with the peat moss, but there isn’t any ammonia odor. He is not the neatest horse, but if he’s in for less than 8 hours i can usually find all of his poop piles intact. any longer than 8 hours, it’s like he’s taking out his own form of revenge.

I haven’t found either to look less shiny, or to take more elbow grease to get them shiny. It takes just a few minutes to pick poops and rehydrate the peat if necessary. I sweep whatever the horses track out of the stalls back into the stalls at the end of the day. My manure pile is MUCH more manageable since I have started. I started in May and have added more peat/pellets to the original, but haven’t needed to strip the stall completely. I have had to remove some bedding that became over saturated due to his peeing in the same spot several days in a row and I hadn’t taken the time to mix it around with the drier areas of the stall.

A bag of peat costs me around $12.

[sublimequine]

Honestly if they have a run available 24/7 I may not bed stall. My older mare will only pee in stall if I bed it. If I just do the clean mats then she pees outside.

[cnigh]

I would just limit his access to the stall. As long as he has a shelter in the paddock. Horses that are in all the time or have 24/7 access to their stall use 2 or 3 times the amount of bedding/horse.

Otherwise I would buy the cheapest bulk sawdust I could find and bed deeply. Using pelleted bedding costs too much.

The worst piggy I had to care for was eventually put on 24/7 turnout. His stall was always a lake with poop in the buckets.

[tazycat]

I would limit access to stall,i don’t bed the run in shed has just rubber mats keeps horses from peeing in it. Stalls have just enough bedding to cover mats,saw dust shavings mix.

If mine had attached corrals with stall i wouldn’t bed stalls i’d just have the mats…they can use the great out doors for their bathroom.

[Chief2]

For this situation I used dry bedding pellets directly on the mat, covered by sawdust-like shavings on top. The ratio was 2 bags of pellets to 1 bag of shavings. Make sure the savings you are using are very well kiln dried. Those are the most absorbent. Unless your horse gets hock sores etc I wouldn’t deep bed the stall. It’s not worth what you’re ending up tossing away.

[SugarCubes]

Thanks, all!! No metabolic issues, he’s just a piggy! I would LOVE to limit his stall access, it’s just been too hot to lock him out lately, as soon as it cools down though he’s getting kicked OUT!

I’ve never tried peat moss, sounds interesting…for $12/bag I assume it lasts a LONG time?

I took your advice and poured a bag of pellets on the mats where he pees then topped with some fine flake shavings. We’ll see how his stall looks this evening!

My paddocks are compacted stonedust and if they lay down outside they get horrible hock sores, so I like to give them a nicely bedded stall to sleep…my other geldings uses his stall correctly - the pony? Not so much :lol:

[Libby2563]

[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8805248]
My paddocks are compacted stonedust and if they lay down outside they get horrible hock sores, so I like to give them a nicely bedded stall to sleep…my other geldings uses his stall correctly - the pony? Not so much :lol:[/QUOTE]

My run-outs are the same footing, not very forgiving. My donkey still rolls and naps out there but he’s the only one. I’ve thought about dumping a load of sand in there so they have somewhere soft to roll, nap, or pee. That wouldn’t solve your problem when it’s too hot to lock him out, but it might give them somewhere soft to sleep the rest of the year.

Don’t you hate it when they hold their pee all day just to go in the stall!?

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=cnigh;8804284]
I would just limit his access to the stall. As long as he has a shelter in the paddock.[/QUOTE]
I swear my old many has the hugest bladder ever.
He does not have access to his stall all day and I know he has no problem peeing on a hard dry surface (he is not worried about splash). Most days he comes into his paddock with stall access after a full day of group turn out and heads right to his stall and pees so much I wonder where he stored it all.
Some of them just like to keep us cleaning up after them.

What I do for my wet horses is dry pellet bedding in the wet spots covered by whatever bedding I am using for that horse.
What I have found is, if I used too much dry pellet bedding I am tossing out more. My above mentioned boy gets two feed scoops (3qt) of dry pellets in the middle of his stall with either bulk saw dust or straw over it. Most days I have a nice clump of soaked pellets to toss out in the morning when I clean his stall. If I put a whole bag I find I have a bunch of not really totally wet pellets that end up being tossed along with the fully used pellets.

[2DogsFarm]

I swear my Hackney Pony is 50% bladder!
The first time he did one of his Marathon Pees I worried about metabolic issues, but bloodwork was clean.
He is just a Big Ol’ Pee-er, TG he consistently uses the same spot in his stall.

I use pelleted bedding also, keep that spot picked & occasionally dump almost an entire bag of unwetted pellets in that spot.

My TWH has started to pee at the front of his stall - where I usually put their hay down :mad:
I have relocated his haypile.
When I add pellets to this stall I’ll dump about 1/2 a bag unwetted in these spots then bank the wetted pellets so I can pick up the pee spots & cover with banked pellets from the edges.

Horses are Out more than In, have free access to stalls & pastures, but always seem to manage to save some pee for inside the stalls.
Manure mostly happens just outside the stalls & gets picked daily.
Maybe they think I need the exercise?

[jawa]

[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8805248]
Thanks, all!! No metabolic issues, he’s just a piggy! I would LOVE to limit his stall access, it’s just been too hot to lock him out lately, as soon as it cools down though he’s getting kicked OUT!

I’ve never tried peat moss, sounds interesting…for $12/bag I assume it lasts a LONG time?

I took your advice and poured a bag of pellets on the mats where he pees then topped with some fine flake shavings. We’ll see how his stall looks this evening!

My paddocks are compacted stonedust and if they lay down outside they get horrible hock sores, so I like to give them a nicely bedded stall to sleep…my other geldings uses his stall correctly - the pony? Not so much :lol:[/QUOTE]

I think I started in May. I didn’t add any pelleted bedding at that point, because I used what was already in the stall. On Wed, after mucking out the super wet spot, I added 1 bag of peat and 2 puffed bags of pellets. I keep 2 edges of his 12x12 stall swept back. If I wanted the “whole” stall bedded 6-8" deep I need another 1/2 bag of peat and one bag of pellets. So, I’m getting 3 1/2 months of 6-8 hour a day use from close to $30 worth of bedding. I was having to start with 6 bags of pellets and add a bag every 10 days and th en strip every 2 1/2-3 months. In the 6-8 hour time period, there are 2-3 pee spots in his stall.

I am saving money, time and the manure pile is smaller. The last is a bit of a problem since the farm manager only deals with the pile once a year. I have limited space for the pile and it was getting hard to roll the wheel barrow up the muck heap.

[Xanthoria]

Stubborn hock sores

I’ve tried the duct tape trick and even 2 thicknesses falls/is ground off. I’ve tried Hock Shields - they broke in 2 days. Horse is out 24/7 in a herd and the ground is dry. Ideas?

[jawa]

for the horse that is getting hock sores in the field, can you add some sand to the area she seems to be using to roll? Or maybe by providing him with a sandy area he will roll there.

I know a lady that has her mare on a 80x100’ granite dust dry lot 24/7. She has one area that she piles her leaves to provide a soft “bed” for her horse to lie down on and roll in.

I think if you make a comfortable spot for him to roll, he will use it.

[cnigh]

The thing about peat moss is - it’s DIRT. Very fine dirt. You breath in all that black dust. Makes blowing your nose interesting.

The horses and everything in the barn gets a layer of black dust. It’s also kept wet, which stains any white hair and clothing too.

Also you don’t want to leave wet spots with a horse that pees more than normal. It quickly becomes a loosing battle. I worked in a 40 horse, 2 barn set up and I hated it. Like I said the pigs were kicked out.

Most of the horses got abscesses from peat moss as well. It’s normal for one or two to get abscesses every so often with that many horses. Having half the barn foot sore is a huge red flag.

No one is ever happy with the way the stall looks. The BO wanted me to use less bedding but the boarders wanted clean fresh stalls.

Lastly it freezes solid in winter. That means it doesn’t absorb anything. So i would open then barn to see pee puddles in the stalls or flowing out into the aisle. The smell was terrible.

[Angela_Freda]

[QUOTE=Xanthoria;8808119]
I’ve tried the duct tape trick and even 2 thicknesses falls/is ground off. I’ve tried Hock Shields - they broke in 2 days. Horse is out 24/7 in a herd and the ground is dry. Ideas?[/QUOTE]

Did you try Gorilla tape?
I like the stickiness of regular Duct tape, but it’s pretty thin.
For my last horse I used Gorilla, a longer piece that I placed at an angle up over the hock [ie almost vertical to the leg, if that makes sense] so it, in a way, wrapped around [= harder to rub off] and it seemed to stick a bit better.

[csaper58]

An old time solution to a wet stall is a piss pit. It’s like a dry well, in the center of the stall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_well

Fill it with 1 inch diameter gravel or lime stone and compact. Top with a layer of brick, fill spaces (grout) between the bricks with sand. Bricks should sit flush with the stall floor. Bed stall as usual. Fluids drain thru the sand/grout

I would try giving him a pile of shavings or loose sand in his paddock, hopefully he will learn to pee there.

[SugarCubes]

[QUOTE=Libby2563;8805526]
My run-outs are the same footing, not very forgiving. My donkey still rolls and naps out there but he’s the only one. I’ve thought about dumping a load of sand in there so they have somewhere soft to roll, nap, or pee. That wouldn’t solve your problem when it’s too hot to lock him out, but it might give them somewhere soft to sleep the rest of the year.

Don’t you hate it when they hold their pee all day just to go in the stall!?[/QUOTE]

Or when they come into the stall you JUST cleaned to pee again :lol:

The sand is a great idea - and I actually have a pile sitting by my arena that I don’t need as footing! Anyone done this? Do you just dump a pile or do you enclose it somehow so the sand doesn’t all wash away?