Best bedding for an uber messy horse?

eventerbabe

eventerbabe

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Dec 16, 2004
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We've used Aubiose bedding the last 10 years. Since moving, I've noticed Toby's bed is disgusting :confused: He's very wet and I've dug it out three times in 5 days. With Aubiose you should only need to dig out every week or so. I don't like straw. Shavings was very labour intensive (hence our move to Aubiose). I'm wondering about mats? Hubby to be has said he'll buy me mats and fit them. I just don't want yo go to that expense if they are no good for very wet, messy horses. Any insights much appreciated! Ta :)
 
I love my mats, wouldn't be without them. If I had a very wet horse I would either have mats and a thin bed that I scraped out every day, or it might be worth trying wood pellets a lot of people at my yard use them.
 
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I was going to say straw but if you don't like it.....I just think it works well. Chloe is quite messy and I find a nice deep bed stays pretty clean and tidy without having a full dig out every day.
 
The mats with scant bedding was my initial thought.... I'll look into wood pellets! I just remember straw being hellish. We could do it as I've the storage space for straw. I was worried about the urine pooling at the bottom? So frustrating as the Aubiose works brilliantly with Kezzie. We'd put the wet mess down to a leaking stable roof on our old yard. Now I'm thinking it was just Toby! What a messy bugger!!
 
I used aubiose for Bo and mucked it out fully once a week fine so put jess on it and basically had to start fresh daily so gave up after just a few days as she is really messy and churns her bed up. I switched her to mats with just a dusting of shavings or sprinkling of straw and it saved me a fortune both financially and in elbow grease :p I love giving a nice big bed but for her it's just a nightmare so I would go for mats if she were stabled again, the only down side I found was rugs do get very mucky if your drainage isn't great but that's easily fixed (before your mats go down) if your stable floor doesn't already slope.
 
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I find a deep straw bed with wood pellets under the straw in the pee area works well. I muck out the straw but don't disturb the pellets underneath until they're wet enough to need replacing. It gets better when the bed has got older, new straw tends to move around more & be messier.
 
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The problem with mats and a wet horse is that the wee gets under the mats and they need to be cleaned on a regular basis. The smell from some of our stables is terrible when there is not enough bedding to soak up the wee. I personally would go for a deep straw bed.
 
Flicks is a very messy girl. Her owner recently switched to a deep bed, wood chip on the bottom and then a good layer of straw on top. Wood chip only gets changed when it gets pretty wet. It works really well, she has been much cleaner since we switched.
 
Deep litter with wood pellets or mats with a thin layer of shavings/sawdust/wood pellets I think is your best bet.

I deep littered Rubic when she was on box rest and that worked best for us but previously she'd just have a thin layer of sawdust or shavings on mats.
 
I think I would try deep littering with pellets, they absorb the wet really well and the bed stays pretty compact. I would still use mats though (I like them for their joints).
 
My cob is disgusting.

What I found worked was rubber mats, but my husband sealed them with silicone so no urine could escape down underneath, (unless you have sloping floors and a drain then you won't have an issue.) then I kept a shavings bed on that, you could use Auboise easily enough to absorb any wet on top and keep a simple bed on that.

I used that system above for well over 5 years and it was quick and easy to muck out for a dirty horse who liked to churn his bed !
 
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Roxy is messy and Poppy was ultra messy! I do a thin bed of woodchip (I use Creature Comforts as it's cheap and I like it) on rubber mats.

I tried deep littering with Poppy - who was a truly messy mare and also a box walker - and it really didn't work at all. She suffered badly from thrush and it exacerbated that. Also I couldn't bear the thought of it - I know some people love deep littering but I think it's a bit yuck having a solid bed of wee hanging about. Just my opinion though!
 
I would deep litter. I deep litter Kia and its easy for me during the week when working and also cheap to do.

I'm now using a bale every two to three weeks and he gets poopick we daily with marigolds then the bed lifted at the weekend and more throughly done. He now has a good thick clean bed that supports his joints and is cost and time effective for me.
 
I'd be inclined to go the mats and a small bed of wood pellets/shavings/Aubiose that you can chuck out daily. Oscar was a messy boy and deep littering just didn't work at all for him - he just trampled everything everywhere and mucking out was a time consuming expensive nightmare.
 
Ooh, sealing the mats is a good idea!!!! I'll keep that in mind. I think we will try mats and if that doesn't work, deep litter. He's been moderately better the last few days... Or maybe I'm just getting used to the awful mess?!
 
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It certainly worked well for us as in that time, we moved once and the mats came with us ! Silicone was easily sliced off with a sharp stanley knife.
 
eventerbabe said:
We've used Aubiose bedding the last 10 years. Since moving, I've noticed Toby's bed is disgusting :confused: He's very wet and I've dug it out three times in 5 days. With Aubiose you should only need to dig out every week or so. I don't like straw. Shavings was very labour intensive (hence our move to Aubiose). I'm wondering about mats? Hubby to be has said he'll buy me mats and fit them. I just don't want yo go to that expense if they are no good for very wet, messy horses. Any insights much appreciated! Ta :)
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Spring is ridiculously messy. We have mats down and then a thick straw bed on top, but as you don't like it wood pellets are also good. If we give her a thin straw bed she wees and then walks the wet straw all around the stable making a huge mess and extra work!
 
I personally like rubber mats with a proper bed of straw that is properly mucked out daily.

I don't think with any horses there are many short cuts tbh.
 
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