For anyone who's been reading my blog a while will know that I've struggled with bedding for Legacy in the past. She's a very wet and messy mare, and since having her I've always said that people need to write how horses are in the stable when advertising them. The only time she's been somewhat clean in the stable was in her second stable which was about the length of 2 stables but narrower. She had her hay nets by the top by the door then her bed was down the bottom. She was quite clean in this stable as she poo's where she is standing eating so all her poo was going on the concrete and would make it easier to clean up, the worst that would happen back then would be that she'd poo in her water but that's nothing compared to how she's been in other stables since then.

Last winter she was in the typical 12 x 12 stable, and I've done a blog post on this before when I wrote about her first going onto straw but she was so wet on just shavings she was having a new bale of shavings put down everyday. It was costing a fortune and we weren't able to keep up with it, even when we managed to find bales at £5 a bale it was still adding up each month. If I let 2 months roll by like that I could've bought a pallet of shavings for that amount. She'd been on wood pellets and they worked for a little then she got bad on them too, even with pellets mixed in with shavings.

One day I decided to try out straw and although that doesn't have any absorbency, I had to try something. To begin with I sprinkled some shavings under the straw to absorb some of the wet up and that started to work. That's how I kept her for the rest of last winter.

Onto this winter, her stable from last winter was unavailable due to the last set of storms destroying the roof. Both her and Cloudy had to move stables, luckily they are still able to be next to each other and keep each other happy. Both stables are much bigger than their 12 x 12 stables from last year so they are able to be much cleaner.

Legacy's stable is much wider and longer than her previous stable, she now has her bed which is a 3 horizontal rubber matting's wide and long. So due to the size of the stable is now able to have a much bigger and better bed. She's able to have a bed this big as where she stands to eat her hay-net is just where the bed ends. This means that when she poo's where she's standing to eat most of the poo is either just going on the edges of the bed or onto the rubber matting, meaning there's much less to clean up the next morning. She will still go to her bed to have a wee and the odd poos, but the maximum amount of poo's on her bed will be about 3. This means that I'm able to somewhat deep litter her to keep the bedding costs down. What I've found works great for her now is to put down half a bale of shavings then a large amount of straw on top to keep the bed fluffy and warm. The first 3-4 days after putting down a new bed I can just take out the poo's, this is great as it now takes a maximum for 5-10 minutes to muck her out. I like to try and keep the bed down until I'm off work on the Monday, then take everything out and redo her bed fresh again. By Friday or Saturday she's created a little wet patch and I scoop and this out and even out her bed. By Saturday or Sunday she's created a lot more mess and instead of giving her a new bed then I will just make her bed a little smaller or thinner. I can get away with this as she's got rubber matting. 

Hopefully she'll stay this clean for the rest of winter for me. What bedding do you use on your very wet horse?

Haynet or No Haynet?

Many people have different opinions on using haynets or not. There are many people (including myself) who have used haynets without even knowing about some of the health  concerns of using them, and until writing this post and doing some research on the cons of using them I didn't even think about potential scenarios which could happen when using them.  

Pros

- Less mess

-  Save money

- Less waste

- Control how much your horse is eating

- Can be made up ready for the next day/week

- Slows down eating

- Doesn't get dragged into the bed/left in wee

- Can be tied in specific place so horse doesn't make as much mess

Cons

- Takes time making them up

- Need to work out how much to give to last the day/night

- Goes against natural grazing of floor level

- If not tied correctly, can become loose and horse can get stuck in it

- Pulling on the net develops wrong back/neck muscles

When it comes to giving the horses hay in the field I've always filled up haynets them emptied them onto the floor in the field, but this year we have had to give hay to them quite early on in the year and with no grass in the field they are eating up a net each within an hour. Not being able to put a big round bale in the field we had to come up with other ideas to make it last. Meaning we had to put nets up in the field. Thinking about some naturalish ideas of putting nets over big tubs we couldn't think of ways to make that work. So as the field used to be split in 2 fields there's still some fencing left up, We decided to hang haynets from the rails. This idea is now making the hay last alot longer and there's less chance of them walking it into the mud.

In the winter when the horses are in at night time, they now have haynets as I've used a haybar before and both horses have dragged their hay to the door and dropped it in their wee. Which ends up wasting it all and costing us more over winter. 

Horslyx Respiratory Lick Review

This review is a Cloudy based one. The reason I chose the respiratory lick is because Cloudy has been known to suffer with choke and will cough throughout the winter when in the stable depending on how dusty it is. So the reason behind choosing this is because it's designed to provide a unique approach to supporting the respiratory system. The ingredients such as menthol, eucalyptus and aniseed supports the airways and helps keep them clear of mucus which helps the horse breathe more easily. The minerals such as Vitamins C & E, selenium, chelated copper and zinc in the balancer package help maintain immunity which then helps support and aid a healthy lung function. 

The high oil content helps for healthy skin and coat while the Biotin, zinc and methionine helps with healthy hooves. 
The 2 main reasons to why I chose this one for Cloudy are:

• If your horse is prone to coughing or any respiratory compromise, Respiratory Horslyx Balancer can support the body’s natural defense mechanism.
• For horses that are stabled for long periods of time, Respiratory Horslyx Balancer can help maintain healthy breathing and lessen the chance of ill-health affecting performance levels.

After the first night of giving Cloudy the lick this is how I found his stable the next morning. Safe to say he'd had some fun fighting with the lick to get it out. Please excuse the mass amount of poo in this picture, this was on a bad night haha. After retrieving and trying to clean the lick the best I could, I paired up the licked with it's container again for him. The next night he'd managed to get it out of the pot again and hide it in a pile of hay, thankfully the third night he had it, it stayed in the pot. 
After all the fighting with it to get at it I'm sure he loved the lick. I was also told that he had brown patches on his nose from where he was getting in there to get at the lick.  

Now although Cloudy loves these licks, Legacy isn't that keen on them. I bought her one after the Nettex one's she used to have stopped being sold in my place of work so I thought I'd try her out with the original one. She has licks in her stable to try keep her occupied while she's in there for a long period of time. This is mainly because she gets stressy and starts to box walk and crib bites. When I first put down the Original tub she went over for a little smell, but wasn't majorly bothered with it. I thought she'd take a few days to try it out, but it ended up just staying in her stable gathering dust. In the end I had to throw it as it had gone to bad to give to Cloudy.  

These licks are great if you have a horse that's not needing any food and is on a good forage diet. These can supply all the vitamins & minerals needed for a balanced diet for them. They are weather-proof which is great for being used in the field as well as the stable. 
They come in 3 different sizes
- 650g which lasts 3-4 days
- 5Kg which lasts 20-25 days
& 15Kg which lasts 60-75 days 
The length of time they last depends on the size of your horse and how much they use it for. 
They also come in 4 different flavours Original, Respiratory, Garlic & Mint.

The average prices for them are:
 650g one is £3.50 - £4.50
5kg one is £14.00 - £16.00
& 15kg one is £28.99 - £34.00

The original is the cheapest one and then the flavoured or specialised ones are more expensive. 
You can also get a stable holder for the 5kg tub, and a ground holder for the 15kg tub.

Here are 2 sites I've found which sell a range of the Horslyx.
Naylors Equestrian & Countrywide Farmers

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Legacy's Take on Bedding

In the 3 winters I've had Legacy I have tried a variation of types of bedding. Most of them have worked well in the beginning and then have just majorly fallen down hill as I thought that plan and type of bedding was working. During the time she's been at the current livery yard she's been in 4 different stables. In these stables her stress levels have been different in each one, this has contributed to how messy each stable has been. Pretty much each variation has included shavings at some point and it even went to the point of trying out different types of shavings. 

All of the stables she's been in have had rubber matting in, so this has been a major help when it comes to putting down a bed for her. When I first had her she was on shavings, in a average stable size she would just poo where she was standing when eating her hay, the only problem with this would be that when she would walk around the stable, the poo would be walked into the shavings. 

Apart from this the main dilemma I've always had with her beddings is that she's very wet, this at times could be to the point there would be a slight puddle in the middle of the shavings if there wasn't a thick enough layer down. 

The bedding variations she's had are:

- Shavings with thick banks and thin bed layer

- Plenty of shavings all around, thick banks and bed layer

- Shavings banks with Megazorb in the middle

- Shavings banks with shavings and wood pellets mixed in

- Wood Pellet banks and bed

- Straw banks and shavings bed

- Shavings banks with straw bed
- We've also tried deep littering her on shavings

Before trying her out on what she's on now she was going through a bale of shavings a day if you were mucking her out properly she was that wet, so I knew I had to find a better alternative for her. She now has Straw all over for banks and bed with a sprinkle of shavings underneath in the middle. This seems to be working well for the time being, and she will probably be on this until she goes out for the summer which I'm hoping will be within the next few weeks if the weather sorts itself out. The shavings layer beneath the straw is enough to soak up the wee from the bedding to make it not so soggy or have wee running through the stable. 

She also seems to be very much less stressed while she's in this stable, she is now next door to Cloudy who she is very close with as their never separated now, being in both summer & winter fields together. He has really seemed to calm her down and it's really helped cut down on her separation anxiety. She still has a few stubborn moments trying to get her into the stable on her own, but with a little persuasion she's much more better and willing to be on her own. 

Here is a quick before & after picture of Legacy's stable. 

Light Evenings Can Only Mean One Thing

It's now creeped to that time of year where I can start to ride after work. The evenings now don't get dark until 6 O'Clock. When I do the early shift in work I finish for 4, this gives me 20-30mins to get to the yard and Legacy will be in her stable ready for the night. This is also great for me as I don't have a stressy Legacy to tack up, like she can be when she's on her own.

This time of evening is great to ride on the yard as everyone has been and done their daily riding by this point, which means the school will be free for me.

As Legacy has recently had 2 months off work I'm only doing short schooling sessions with her until she gains some fitness back up, saying that she wasn't full of fitness before. Now's the time to start building her up, for some summer activities hopefully. So the sort time allowed with the darkness is great for me at the moment.

Have you managed to get some late evening riding in now that the evenings are getting lighter and longer?

Stable Toys & Licks

The cold & wet weather has now approached us in the UK, and for those fortunate enough that can only mean one thing with horses, stable duties.
This is Legacy's second winter stabled at the yard and she's in a different stable this year to last due to a leaky roof. She doesn't like to be in the stable alone and can be one of the worlds biggest attention seekers when she is. She can be nodding her head and neighing for the others. Although you leave her then spy on her later and she completely fine just eating her hay. 
Although in her stable stable I did find bits around to where she had started to crib bite, only presumably when she's bored. 
So this lead to me trying to find some stable toys to keep her entertained throughout the night when she's eaten her hay or has a fully belly.

The first thing I tried her with was a likit, I had no luck with this. I went through all 4 of the main flavours that my work has and none of these seemed to work. I though the mint one would've been sure to make her curious about it but no luck. I then tried the Nettex version, the Tastylyx in carrot which has natural ingredients in, hoping this would work as she loves carrots, and again no luck. So I gave up with that and after a customer recommendation I decided to get her a treat ball. After trying the likit and failing I took to ebay to try and find a money savvy one just in-case it failed again. I found one on there for £15ish including free postage and that was great. At first she didn't know what to do with it, I tried all sorts of treats inside it, one's she'd go mad for and ones that you can add into the food. She didn't bother with any of them. One day I got an idea to try horse & pony nuts in it, and this worked. It's so funny to watch her with the ball now, she goes straight for it when she goes into her stable, kicking it and nudging it with her nose. It at least keeps her quiet for a while in some sense. I couldn't find the exact one I bought but I found this one on ebay which is cheaper and looks great, they are really great for the stable and the one I bought is really durable. 
This one on ebay for £9.95 with free P&P in a range of colours, red, purple, pink and blue. (This one is the one in the image above.)

Below is Legacy playing with her treat ball.

The other thing which she loves while shes in her stable is her Nettex Supalyx. There are 4 flavours available for specific things such as Nimble which has Biotin & Glucosamine in to help with feet and joints, Garlic, Easy Breather which has qualities to help sooth the trachea and a general health one, they are all filled with general vitamins & minerals along with the specific qualities for each flavour. For the stable I get her the 3KG size, but there's also a 12.5KG size available for the fields. She loves these licks and I'm lucky to have one last longer than a week. 
All of the Nettex treats mentioned can be seen here. From the Supalyx to the Tastylyx.

Do you have any stable toys for your horse? 
How do you keep them entertained throughout the night? 
Leave your suggestions below I'm always open to try new things with Legacy to keep her quiet and calm.