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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
   
Location: MD | I thought this was an interesting read. Obviously not the end-all-be-all but for those curious about the effects of little bedding and a lot of it this may interest you as it does me.
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/36730/does-your-horse-need-rest-gi...
I use considerably more bedding in the winter vs the summer as my horses are in for less then 6 hours during the night turn-out schedule. I do notice that during the winter months where they spend more time in their stalls (that I bed deeper) My horses are ALWAYS laying down in the morning catching their ZZZ's. Which I do find sweet and really love seeing their sleepy faces excitedly get up for breakfast.
As many here barrel race on the regular, this may be an interesting tactic to try to encourage more rest for your horses as some lead hectic lives and every minute of rest counts for our athletes! |
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  Witty Enough
Posts: 2954
Location: CTX | Very interesting. I never put shavings in the stalls, since they are only in their stall during feeding time and when the weather is real bad. They are on dirt with rubber mats, but reading this makes me wonder if I should put shavings in there anyway.
I do know our colt loves to sleep on his hay (his bed and breakfast I call it....) so that makes sense....
Thanks for posting!
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I keep mine bedded pretty deep too. I also love it when I see their sleepy faces with shavings all over their head. Thanks for sharing |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Interesting! I've been using pelleted shavings and they provide so much cusion compared to regular shavings.
Although I do keep it pretty low....not down to the dirt low but definitely not overly-cushy ...maybe I should add some more....I never see mine lay down. (Of course I do board so I don't see a lot of things....)
Edited by hammer_time 2015-11-17 11:40 AM
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 No Name Nancy
Posts: 2715
Location: never in the right place | no matter how much bedding I put in, my horse gets hock sores. In the summer I leave him out and he is then in a dry lot and no hock sores. |
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 Go Canada!
Posts: 2954
| Interesting read. I also have noticed with my horses that if I bed them deeper they tend to keep their stalls cleaner. |
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 Ms. Poutability
Posts: 2362
Location: In my own world | I can tell you from personal experience the article is right. End of August a yearling of mine basically tried to take her leg off. She spent 6 weeks at the University. They wanted her to lay down to rest her leg and prevent issues with her good leg so they double bedded her stall. It worked!!! I was amazed at how much she rested herself. She was so lazy they could do a complete physical including a rectal temp while she was laying down. I brought her home for a two weeks, still on stall rest. I didn't bed as deep and she didn't rest as much. She went back for a skin graft and has been there 2 weeks again now. And she has resumed her routine of nap, eat, nap, eat!
Plus at home I can bed a stall, leave the door open to a turnout and if I leave a horse in they will lay in the stall instead of the turnout |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | How many inches of bedding are we talking? ^^ very interesting that you could see the difference! |
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 No Tune in a Bucket
Posts: 2935
Location: Texas | My granddaughter's breakaway horse loves his shavings. On his first out of town trip to stay in a stall with shavings, we thought he was trying to colic. He was rolling around, getting up, laying back down and tossing his head. Gave him banamine and was walking him and everytime she put him back in the stall it would start all over. Called previous owner and his first question was 'Did you put him in a stall with shavings? Oh, he likes to play in the shavings.' Kind of funny after it was over but what a joker. |
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| I believe this!! In the summer time I keep mine up during the day (I live in south Texas and the heat gets too brutal for some of my northern-raised horses), and I keep a decently light layer of fine shavings in there because it is sooo much easier to clean. When the temps start dropping I put bigger flaked-shavings in there so its thicker and more fluffy for them. The stalls are open to the pasture so the horses come and go as they please if i leave the back doors open. I just recently made the transition to fluffy shavings last weekend, and the next morning I went out to feed and all the horses walked in with shavings stuck on their bellies and manes. So they made the choice to walk into the barn and lay down rather than in the pasture, I know they love their shavings :) |
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I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | RocketPilot - 2015-11-17 9:39 PM My granddaughter's breakaway horse loves his shavings. On his first out of town trip to stay in a stall with shavings, we thought he was trying to colic. He was rolling around, getting up, laying back down and tossing his head. Gave him banamine and was walking him and everytime she put him back in the stall it would start all over. Called previous owner and his first question was 'Did you put him in a stall with shavings? Oh, he likes to play in the shavings.' Kind of funny after it was over but what a joker.
that's really cute! |
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | I like the video with Sherry Cervi where she talks about Stingray and how much she loves her shavings. She dumps a bag of shavings in the field and Stingray wanders over and collaspes into them. It's hilarious. She says even if she's only at a barrel race for a few hours, she always buys Stingray shavings. |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Murphy - 2015-11-18 5:08 AM I like the video with Sherry Cervi where she talks about Stingray and how much she loves her shavings. She dumps a bag of shavings in the field and Stingray wanders over and collaspes into them. It's hilarious. She says even if she's only at a barrel race for a few hours, she always buys Stingray shavings.
I saw that, so cute!!! |
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| My 3 are all together on pasture but have a big barn to come into when I feed them or nasty weather. Two I put in stalls to eat their feed and the one is just in the barn. When I put shavings out in the barn and even though they are on pasture they come to the barn and will poop and pea in the barn then go back out on pasture. But I do like seeing them resting but the barn floor is just a dirt floor. I wonder if they would appreciate it if I threw down some shavings for them or if they would just trash that spot. |
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Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| RocketPilot - 2015-11-17 8:39 PM
My granddaughter's breakaway horse loves his shavings. On his first out of town trip to stay in a stall with shavings, we thought he was trying to colic. He was rolling around, getting up, laying back down and tossing his head. Gave him banamine and was walking him and everytime she put him back in the stall it would start all over. Called previous owner and his first question was 'Did you put him in a stall with shavings? Oh, he likes to play in the shavings.' Kind of funny after it was over but what a joker.
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The relationship with resting horses and the amount of bedding