moisture in stalls?

[Gracie]

The owner of my barn said it is important to have some type of moisture in your horses stall.. she said you don't want to put ALL new shavings in because than the stall will loose moisture and your horses feet will become more cracked... now don't get the wrong idea.. they are not saying that the horses stall should be dirty.. they are just saying that it is good to leave a few pooh balls and not totally strip the stall inless it is nessisary... is this true? Has anyone else heard of this? Thanks for any replies!

[me2]

Never heard of that one, but the way I see it, no stable is going to be clean & dry for very long :) Could she be referring to the 'deep litter bed' whereby you only remove the poo & build up a fresh layer of bedding covering the moisture ? This type of bedding is quick & economical to use & may only have to be cleaned out completely every month or so. You do have to ensure you have enough bedding down to cover the old moisture or your horse can develop thrush very easily.

[Edited by me2 on 30th May 2001 at 09:18 AM]

[Maci]

Moisture is good for you horses hooves, as they need moisture to stay healthy, HOWEVER, the only moisture in a stall is urine, and that is the BAD moisture your horse can do without! When we clean the stalls, we take out all the poo and dig out the urine spots (mind you, we use peat moss as our bedding) and add in new peat moss. Urine is bad for the horses hoof- not only does it stink up the stall (which is also bad for the horse to breath in) but it can cause hoof problems.

What we do- keep the stalls clean (poo and urine patches) and moisturize the horses hooves every once and a while, with a moisturizing hoof cream or soak them in warm water. Ideally, you would want to keep them not too dry or too moisturized.

Hope That Helps!
Maci :)

[fionahogg]

Nope I've never heard of this one either. Agree with what Maci has written.

[Wally]

Yep I've heard this one but as it has been said above clean water is good for feet, amonia high urine is the worst thing for a horse's foot.

[Gracie]

they never leave the urine in the stalls.. I think you guys misunderstood me... they just do not totally gut the stall and put new shavings... they said that they like to keep some of the old shavings as moisture.. they said if you put all new shavings that their would be no moisture in the stalls! Thanks again for your help:)

[Wally]

How do you think the shavings got wet in the first place? The horse pees on them and the amonia in the wet bedding is death to horses feet!

[Gracie]

Never mind this seems to be a lost cause! heehee thanks for your help!