The Paddocks

How else can you describe mucking out

Mucking out is basically stable cleaning.

Before I start

Before mucking out I remove the empty hay nets and water bucket to be cleaned and refilled and so you have plenty of space.

There are so many options for horse bedding, Straw, shavings, paper, Hemp, etc.

We couldn’t use straw for our first pony Harley as she was partial to eating it! So we started with shavings, we tried large shavings like bedmax and small shavings like snowflake, but all would stick to her mane and tail and take lots of brushing out.

When we got our second horse an ex racing thoroughbred we used straw and continued to use straw when we got Finn an Irish Cob who we also used straw for. Now a lot of people only use straw and prefer it as it’s the most commonly used bedding and what a lot of people are used to or trained with to muck out. I personally found it messy and smelly and when we moved yards to a place where no straw was allowed, I can’t say I was disappointed.

We continued to use shavings for a couple of years until a couple of our neighbours started using pellets and raving about how clean they were.

I first thought they were expensive and a bit of a faff as you have to tip them into a barrow and soak them with water for a while before you could even use them, so I carried on with shavings for a bit, until I started admiring how neat and clean theirs looked not to mention no shaving stuck on their horses manes and tails so I gave them a try and never looked back.

What we use

We use Snowflake Pellets. We’ve tried other brands but we love these as they are a bright clean colour and spread really well.

We use rubber mats in all of our stables in our 12x12s we use 2-3 bags 3 bags in Galaxy’s to make a bigger bed and 2 in Blue and Harleys and in Biscuits 10×10 we use 1 and a half to 2.

When mucking out I use a shavings fork and rake all of the poop to the front of the bed when stable cleaning.

This one pictured is one of THE BEST I’ve used it has deep sides so the poop and bedding doesn’t drop off before it’s been sieved. It’s called the manure fork maxi and is £12.99 from Voss.

I then sieve it and put the poop and wet in the wheel barrow.

Personally I think you get less waste with pellets too so although a bag costs more than shavings I feel it’s cost effective. We would top up shavings every day, but with pellets it stays clean and fairly full for a bed for 2-3 days!

Afterwards I put back clean filled water buckets and refilled hay nets so they are all ready for horsie bedtime.