I am just wondering why it is everyone seems to bed down differently and why????
It fasinates me when I look at all the beds on our yard and how each varies so much!!! Some have just the bare minimum (we all have rubber matting by the way), some are just what I'd call 'normal' ie decent depth and banks (thats me) some have a bed and no banks, then we have the 'extreme' ones with a bed at LEAST a foot deep and one I looked at this morning had banks 3ft high (this is no exageration!) why would you do that....there must be a method to the madness, but the beds look like an advert for a comfy DFS sofa
One yard I was on most folk used straw (me included tho I did have to put shavings down where the roof leaked). Anyway, it was fascinating to see other peoples beds, they were indeed all so different! One lass used to have mahoosive bankings - her horse definitely lived inthe lap of luxury........There were other folk who would spend hours (literally) poking and sorting through the poop - all to save money (lets face it, straw ain't that expensive! lol). What a variety!
Other yard I was on, we had no choice but to use shavings. I'd never used them on their own before and was immediately converted! I still made bankings, tho not so big, as the stables were a whole lot bigger and we didn't think Joe would get cast (he did have a history of it at one point).
Now we are on NEDZ bedz - and its FAB!!! I make a nice fluffy nest for Storm and Joe, and it really does smell and look lovely!
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OH uses flax bedding and i can't stand it!!! so i use Shavings, i used to put banks up, as i was told years ago it stopped horses getting cast.
Well thinking about it they would have to half way up the wall to do that so now i just have a pretty flat bed but about 9" deep.
i only take the poos out most days, and the wee every couple of weeks, so the beds are firm almost deep littering.
In fact today i have just had a massive clearout for them coming in during the winter. Had 12 heaped barrows full
So beds are lovely and fluffy at the moment
Banks are only useful if they go up like 3ft! They don't stop casting. Silver has about 5-10inches of chips depending on how far through the bale we've got.
She eats straw out of skip buckets so could never bed her on it - she wouldnt have a bed by the morning . She is mucked out every time she comes in - I find it lasts longer - and keeps it nicer seeing as she likes to pee on the edge so there is a puddle and wet chips - don't know whats wrong with actually peeing on her bed
The only time I put banks up is when I have xtra time and want it to look smart hehe.
I made up Sam's bed yesterday but he's not in it yet, aren't I cruel?
My stables have semi-permeable rolled ash floors so to prevent my old boy getting damp from below, I put down two bales of Hemcore. On top of that this year (he used to be on shavings, but I'm trying this out) are two bales of Unibed Original. It smells gorgeous and so far, reassuringly dust-minimum.
I put up banks approx. 18" high just out of habit more than need: the shelters are wooden constructed and the two that are stables, too, are wooden-panelled inside as well for strength and warmth. Halfway up the walls I have a wooden "bar" that runs all the way round the bedded floor as a cast prevention, and I presume it works since I've never had a cast horse, touch wood!
I intend to fit out the ginger's bed on Wednesday and get them in before all the fireworks
Holly has rubber matting and gets a large feed storage bin size bucket full of shavings spread over them She is on full livery if I had her on DIY i would have a massive shavings bed of about 10" to a ft deep
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At my old yard we had rubber matting fitted in all the stables. Wood shavings were then used covering about 3/4 of the matting, they were quite deep with normal size banks. It used to take ages to muck them all out. I then realised the banks were really only for cosmetic purposes, they weren't big enough to stop a horse getting cast, and also if the horses were mucky they really hindered the mucking out process.
Now they are on wooden pellets covering the back half of the matting with no banks. Much simpler, just as clean and nice for the horses, and much more user friendly for the staff that have to muck out.
It's OK demanding a huge thick bed with big banks if you're the one doing the mucking out every day, but if you've got a big, messy dirty horse who trashes their stable every night then all I can say is spare a thought for the mucker outers
i like straw the best, but this year have put down shavings, to save on the size of the muckheap. they have light weight rubberflooring, but i like them to have a warm area they can lie on if they want. with straw beds, i put about 4or 5 inches of straw on top, and with the shavings i have put about 4or5 inches also, but swept up into a square at one side, so i have two uncovered floor areas about 2foot wide along the front, and down one side. i gave up banks years ago.
I agree with Claire. All this high banks & deep beds is to make us feel good. My Shetland used to ignore the bed & lie down on the concrete.My horse nearly demolished the back wall of her stable by lying down on the banks. They now have rubber matting & shavings without banks.
Ours were on old-fashioned deep, fluffy shaving beds with big banks. Worked fine for Nell b/c she was a clean pone - always pee'd and poo'd in the same places and didn't step in it/move it around. Kate, though, used her little hooves much like a Magimix and trashed her bed constantly.
Roo (assuming we buy him) will be on shavings (he's been on straw) and will have a fairly deep bed but is a clean boy so it should be easy to keep his bed clean. He'll be on full livery and will be skipped out every day and fully mucked out when required (which shouldn't be that often given how clean he is). The yard does banks as a matter of course - a horse at our old yard got cast/stuck underneath his automatic waterer, broke his back thrasing around trying to get up and died. It may just be to make me feel better, but I'll continue to do banks - they help with drafts too.
N
Edited to add: Nell and Kate didn't have rubber matting down in their boxes . . . and neither will Roo . . .
Last edited by Nimbus65; 3rd Nov 2009 at 11:00 AM.
Alfie completely trashes his bed and has a habit of eating some of it too, he's on rubber matting and has a bank up the back wall (to cover the pipe for the automatic drinker) and a sprinkling of straw. I feel really mean, esp seeing some of the other liveries beds all deep and cosy, but he doesnt seem to mind as he lies anywhere even in all his wet crap... yuk!
It really does amaze me the amount of straw some people use for the beds and this is why I was curious as to why some had such HUGE deep beds that the ponys need to step up into and banks that maybe would suffocate them if they fell on them I thought there may be a 'reason' for this .... but it appears not. Interestingly, you have also answered a question that I wanted to know anyway.... do they REALLY need banks??? It seems you all probably think not.....(thinking of all that extra space around the stable where they were!!!)
I guess we are very different, and I do think a big fluffy bed of straw does look inviting....but do they care as long as they are clean, warm and fed!!!???? I think probably not
I guess we are very different, and I do think a big fluffy bed of straw does look inviting....but do they care as long as they are clean, warm and fed!!!???? I think probably not
CLEAN???? In my experience all horses love being dirty.
Put them out after it has been raining, and they love to roll in the mud
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I must admit I am a nightmare with Jade's bed, she does have a thick bed but that is more for my benefit than her's I think, although she always has straw in her mane so I know she enjoys the benefits as well
i use Shavings, i used to put banks up, as i was told years ago it stopped horses getting cast.
Well thinking about it they would have to half way up the wall to do that so now i just have a pretty flat bed but about 9" deep.
i only take the poos out most days, and the wee every couple of weeks, so the beds are firm almost deep littering.
In fact today i have just had a massive clearout for them coming in during the winter. Had 12 heaped barrows full
So beds are lovely and fluffy at the moment
Harvey is on shavings as he eats straw and as he seems to have a issue with wheat it also sends him do-lally.
He has a moderate bed with banks, his bed is firm and inviting but only about 6" deep although he does like to lay down on it still.
Piccolo is on straw and her bed is massive! KI'm not sure why either. I think the straw must expand overnight as I take out a wheelbarrow a day and haven't added any for 4 days and it's still as big! It's about a foot high. I do find it stays cleaner when deeper though. She also has banks. She doesn't eat her bed at all but being a youngster does seem to play in it a lot lol.
It takes me 35 mins to do both the stables (full muck out with beds banked up, floor underneath swept up and then bed layed, banks done, water and haynets filled, wheelbarrows emptied) at a casual not too rushed rate. (I am aware though I might just have got used to it as I used to muck out 10-20 stables a day for work which had to be neat too!)
I was always told banks should be about 2.5ft high and a foot wide to be effective against casting? I have seen them help stop a horse being cast though so do think they work on the 'prone to be cast'
Abbie is on shavings not hugely deep but deep enough and not masive banks either, she lasy down cos shes covered in shavings, pee and poo stains in the mornings, she was on rubber matting at livery yard and tbh although I feel its better for them as in not slipping I didnt like the way the wee went under them at all, and to lift them up and clean under them they wieighed a ton, but yeah am a fan of deep littering, poo picked up daily and wee after 5 days or so and then another bale put in
) some have a bed and no banks, then we have the 'extreme' ones with a bed at LEAST a foot deep and one I looked at this morning had banks 3ft high (this is no exageration!) why would you do that....there must be a method to the madness, but the beds look like an advert for a comfy DFS sofa
hehe.
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