Mucking out shavings - tips

J

Jasper15

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Sep 22, 2015
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I need help with shavings! I muck out 2 stables with shavings, 1 is fine, the other is a nightmare! He box walks so in the morning there is poo everywhere!

I currently skip out the big piles and the wet, and try and get the big ones out that I can see. I then fling it all the wall in the hope that the bits will fall to the middle. This works in the clean ones but not so well in the messy one. Lots will roll into the middle but there is so much of it it still stays in the banks, so when I redo the bed I find more! It is like hunting the poo every morning! I then tend to find myself just picking it up and trowing it in the barrow. It can take more than 20 mins just to muck one stable out and I'm finding it really infuriating. It is easily 2 barrows out everyday sometimes 3, and quite a bit of wasted shavings too.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks?

Thanks :)
 
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Sorry Jasper, I can't help as don't use shavings but hopefully someone will offer some advice soon. :)
 
Oh, and I thought my boy was bad. He does box walk but not at night thankfully. I tend not to throw it at the walls to get the bigger bits. I just muck out the worst and accept that some little bits will still be in there but it's only at one side. He's currently on boxrest during the day so I leave the worst but still ok shavings down in a metre channel and then muck it all out at night. Sort of like a sacrifice. I don't use a deep bed and use mats underneath, so it's possibly easier to find the bigger ones and pick them out. Is your bed quite deep maybe, and does it need to be so?
I'd maybe have a look on YouTube, I watched some instructional videos (and then promptly ignored them lol) to see what to do as Until this winter I've never, in fifteen odd years of horse ownership, had to stable a horse.
Good luck!
 
I am a nightmare. I pick out the poo first then the wee. I throw the rest up the banks like you rremovin. What falls down.

In the evening i put the bed down but have a bucket that i throw the extra poo in that comes down with the bed.

I hate poo in the clean beds and both stables take about half and hour in tbe morning and another twenty minutes as night
 
One of my horses is really mucky and box walks. I do a thin layer of shavings on mats and just sweep the whole lot out in the morning. She trashes a deeper bed if you put it down, so it just wastes shavings and is pointless as she clearly doesn't lie down on it anyway.
 
I muck out as you do by throwing everything up onto the banks so the poo rolls down, but I have quite a clean pony. I think if I had a mucky mare, I would use mats with just a thin layer of shavings and clear the lot out every night.
 
He is on quite a deep bed with mats. He is still a youngster and recently moved to the yard so he is still settling in. He also does lie down at night which is why it is quite deep. I have tried to watch some youtube clips but none seem to show any that are as bad to start with! It also doesn't help that I am there early in the morning so it is still dark, even with the stable lights on it can be tricky to see the smaller bits. I blink and suddenly more appears o_O

He wasn't quite as bad this morning - only took 15 mins so maybe he is learning not to spread and bury his poo!
 
I'm not on shavings and have a ridiculously clean horse but I feel your pain! He may settle and stop walking when he's used to the yard and that wil make it easier to muck out as (hopefully) the poo won't be buried. Although Toffee, whilst being clean, does sometimes bury it but I just dig about til I find it.
 
Mine had about a week of being all over all the place and then settled into a routine. Maybe it will take a little longer with a youngster?!
Just think that when they are out in the field they sleep on grass, so the mats are decent enough, you possibly don't need as much shavings as you think?
 
I hand pick through the bed which gets most of it then stir about which gets the rest. I only throw the bed I'm once a week and I never remove the floor. I deep litter and I find it easier and cheaper and then bed is still lovely and clean.
 
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