# First time using shavings - advice please



## SMIS (23 September 2013)

Hi everyone,

Next month my horse is moving to a yard where they only use shavings. 
This is my first ever year of diy livery (I was full before) and I have never used shavings before. I am sure the people at the yard will help me out but I wanted to get some advice before I move to try get my head round how many bags of shavings I should order and to try to get confident that I can do a good enough job of looking after my horse!

1) How much do I put down to create the first bed? - the stable is currently swept clean so it will be a new layer of shavings I need to put down. 
2) How thick a layer of shavings do people use and do you deep litter?
3) When mucking out how much do you take out and how often?
4) How much shavings do you add after a muck out?
5) Do you use rubber mats beneath the shavings?

I am 100% new to shavings and have absolutely no idea where to start so I may not even be asking the right questions! Any shavings experts please help/share your advice.

Thanks!


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## Pinkvboots (23 September 2013)

If you are using rubber mats you dont need it so thick I would lay 4 bales down see how it looks, if its on concrete I would lay 6 or 7 but I do like it fairly thick, I used to skip out everyday and do a full muck out twice a week and put down between one or two bales a week, my clean horse could get away with one bale a week most weeks but the bigger horse had to have two, Hunter woodchips are the best used loads of other brands but nothing compares to them.

I have changed bedding as the woodchips were getting too expensive so one is on Rapport bedding the other is on straw, I prefer woodchips over anything but they are pricey and I have to have a pure white fluffy bed so used to cost a fortune.


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## webble (23 September 2013)

Rubber mats are great I have the Eva ones which means I only need to make half a bed. I agree 4 with mats 7 without. 

I am cheap skate and mix paper with my shavings and go through a bale a week plus a bin bag of paper. I take out about a barrow of poo and wet everyday


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## SMIS (23 September 2013)

Thanks thats great advice so far.
I am seriously thinking about getting rubber matting as hoping it might be more cozy/comfortable for him but they are so expensive!


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## dibbin (24 September 2013)

I've always used shavings with no mats!

Starting off your bed - 5-7 bags depending on stable size and bed depth.
Bed thickness - I like a good 6-8 inches (ho ho) at least, especially with no mats. And nice big fluffy bankings.
Maintenance - I did a full muck out every day and turned the bankings over completely once a week.  Once you get used to mucking it out and can do it with minimum waste, you'll probably need a bag every week or so.

Nothing delights my heart more than a just-mucked-out shavings bed!


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## applecart14 (25 September 2013)

I tend to get out all the obvious big pooh's first and then delve down gently to the wet stuff by skimming off the top layer of shavings.  When I have rid of the wet stuff I throw the 'slightly damp shavings' up the wall into a pile and use this as a bottom layer for the next day. 

Then with the clean stuff that will have lots of little bits of pooh's I throw up the banks, and the pooh comes rolling down.

I use a snow shovel as it feels better in my hand.  I can pick up a load of pooh with shavings in it, and throw it up and down on my shovel so that the clean shavings come off and the pooh is left on the shovel, but this takes practice and experience!

Finally I put some of the used shavings back onto the floor, then mix new shavings into the banks, level off the banks and anything that is left over, place on top of the main bed.

Leaving clean shavings on top is a) a dust hazard and b) wasteful.

If you can a bit of sawdust as teh base of the bed is ideal as this soaks up the wee really easily.

I get my shavings free so I am very lucky.  They are not dust extracted, but my horses have never  coughed on the shavings, but they have coughed when  I haven't mixed a bought bale of shavings into the sufficiently.

I do use rubber mats under my bed.  Mine were seconds, so has the odd slight defect but they were soooo much cheaper. Here is a site you could investigate http://www.horsematshop.co.uk/stable-matting/133-seconds-slightly-imperfect-mats.html


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## spaceflower (25 September 2013)

Shavings are fab, better than straw, far easier to keep on top of daily.  However I've moved from shavings to rape straw, which are a bit like short sections of chopped up, fine straw.  Loving them as price is good, and as they seem not to move around so much, are easy to skip out and apparently pretty good for hooves too


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## SMIS (26 September 2013)

applecart14 said:



			I tend to get out all the obvious big pooh's first and then delve down gently to the wet stuff by skimming off the top layer of shavings. When I have rid of the wet stuff I throw the 'slightly damp shavings' up the wall into a pile and use this as a bottom layer for the next day. 

Then with the clean stuff that will have lots of little bits of pooh's I throw up the banks, and the pooh comes rolling down.

I use a snow shovel as it feels better in my hand. I can pick up a load of pooh with shavings in it, and throw it up and down on my shovel so that the clean shavings come off and the pooh is left on the shovel, but this takes practice and experience!

Finally I put some of the used shavings back onto the floor, then mix new shavings into the banks, level off the banks and anything that is left over, place on top of the main bed.

Leaving clean shavings on top is a) a dust hazard and b) wasteful.

If you can a bit of sawdust as teh base of the bed is ideal as this soaks up the wee really easily.

I get my shavings free so I am very lucky. They are not dust extracted, but my horses have never coughed on the shavings, but they have coughed when I haven't mixed a bought bale of shavings into the sufficiently.

I do use rubber mats under my bed. Mine were seconds, so has the odd slight defect but they were soooo much cheaper. Here is a site you could investigate http://www.horsematshop.co.uk/stable-matting/133-seconds-slightly-imperfect-mats.html

Click to expand...


Hi, thanks for such a great response. I have never heard of the chucking poo up the wall trick but thinking about it I can see how useful that would be to reduce throwing out shavings unecessarily.
Thanks for the tip off about mixing in shavings too - I had not thought about dust, I am so new to this it is embarassing! 
I am looking into getting rubber mats and the cheapest (without being too thin) I found so far are Robinsons Interlocking 22mm green Eva mats. I will check out that website to though : )


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## Bay TB (26 September 2013)

AC14 very good detailed advice on how to muck out a shavings bed! 
We have rubber mats and for my horse that will be in overnight only in winter I use 3 large bales to start the bed, muck out daily and will use about 3 bales a month from them on.
If practical leave the bed up against the back of the stable for a while to dry out the mats when you can (we often only manage to do this at weekends and leave it up while they are in the field).
I use a shavings fork with the rounded ends so it doesn't stick into and trash the matting.


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## lhotse (28 September 2013)

The best thing to muck shavings out is a pair of rubber gloves and a bucket!
I use Bedmax with a layer of Megazorb in the usual wet places, I take the wet out twice a week and add a bale each time. I like a full bed to the door, don't use rubber mats and the bed is at least 10 inches deep.


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## SMIS (30 September 2013)

lhotse said:



			The best thing to muck shavings out is a pair of rubber gloves and a bucket!
I use Bedmax with a layer of Megazorb in the usual wet places, I take the wet out twice a week and add a bale each time. I like a full bed to the door, don't use rubber mats and the bed is at least 10 inches deep.
		
Click to expand...



Thanks everyone for all your advice I feel better prepared for next weekends move.

I ordered my rubber matting at the weekend - Green 22mm Eva Interlocking mats from Robinsons Equestrian online and ordered 7 bags of shavings to get me started. 

He is in until 2pm on the day he arrives due to there being a XC comp on and the fields being cleared so if I make a mess of his stable at least he only has to put up with a few hours and I can get it sorted for when he comes in overnight November on.

So far I am planning on doing a deep litter type bed so I can take the poos out everyday and a bit of wet then twice a week (Tues & Sat) do a big wet muck out and leave the floor bare to dry on those two occasions.
That is the theory anyway says the girl who has never done this before!


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