- Bedding depends on what you like and what you are doing. I've used sand, mats w/ no bedding, clean bagged shavings, shavings directly from a processor (sometimes very dusty), saw dust, peat moss, different straws (love Midwestern oat straw) and newspaper shredded at different levels of fineness. Personally, if they aren't penned in the stall or barn (sounds like yours may be - at least sometimes) they don't need to be bedded at all. For big horses and dealing w/ a lot of stalls - I LOVE sawdust! EASY to clean, the biggies didn't eat it. Don't know about minis - thru this forum I'm reading that the smaller minis seem to eat things that our larger Shetlands and big horses never touched. Newspaper - it clumps and can be dusty but if not shredded too fine it's no different than using shavings. I like it as a way to recycle our trash and newspapers - need to get a heavier duty shredder.
- Flooring - is again a personal choice. Right now - we lease our property. The owner keeps saying he's going to pull down the barn. You can bet we aren't putting a lot of money into the flooring or building anything permanent! We also very rarely stall ours indoors. Our big barn has 1/2 of it where they can run in. Of course, they use it for potty - so it has to be cleaned. Because of the rain and flooding (1st time since we moved in 2004), part of the flooring is now covered with feed sacks and heavy army tarps - keeps you from sinking in the muck. Eventually, we'll dig out all the muck. One of the best barns I've been in
in this state had several layers of different products (I can't find the email she'd sent me personally when I was asking about it) - with the top one being several inches of packed limestone. The ponies (they breed Welsh section Bs and Xbreds) can't dig, the urine doesn't make a lot of holes (yes, the weight and the urine will eventually wear into it - then they will need to re-do it) and they bed with shavings over it. Theirs are slanted so that they naturally drain out the back of the stall into a drain that then pulls running urine into a septic system. Makes rinsing the stall walls nice after a sick horse or a foaling mare has been in them, too. I've seen barns with conveyor belts running along the back - a stall cleaner can scoop up whatever and dump it on the conveyor belt and the belt carries it out to dump into what ever they are using. Arab barns often have cement floors - some of them also have the drain somewhere thru the line of stalls that can have at least wet swept into it. If I get to where I can afford that - that's what I'd love! A woman that I've purchased hay from about 20 miles from us (she ships Timothy in from NY) bought a place with the barn already built. The stalls are done in the rubber brick pavers. IT IS AWESOME. Personally, I like a good wooden floor, too. There are still barns in the Midwest and in New England states that have beautiful barns with wood floors that are much, much older than me. All barn floors, regardless of the choice of product, need to be maintained. Even cement and rubber matting develop pits, holes and waves due to pawing, standing in the same place and urine. Of course, with small minis, no matter what type of flooring you choose - it will be longer before you should have to do major maintenance - due to smaller size and less weight. Horses in general, no matter the size, are destructive and the smaller the space they live in and the longer they stay in that space - the more damage they cause to their environment
AND themselves
. Many stalled horses, including minis, develop serious vices (bad habits) that range from digging holes deeper than their withers, pawing, biting at themselves so bad they open wounds that never heal, weaving (causes wear & tear to their joints, damage to the stall), cribbing, wind sucking, chewing, spinning, kicking the stall walls. You also have to balance the bad with the good for your individual horses.
Rain rot - is a type of fungus that most horses may have living normally on their skin. When they are stressed - lots of rain, too much humidity/heat, loss of weight, gaining too much weight/IR/sugar sensitive, weaning of foal, stresses of showing, major transport, illness - it develops. Not every horse develops it (just like not everyone exposed gets the stomach flu or a sinus infection just because they've been around it). You've gotten good ideas already. We had 1 pony and one horse develop it IN THE BARN, when I had them stalled for a two week period. Of course, with the high humidity, it "rains" in my barn on a regular basis! With all the rain this year, I was expecting it to hit all of mine and I was worried (I currently have 37 head in pastures/paddocks - all outside). This is the first year that most didn't develop it - so maybe the rain was a good thing. We've had hoof issues instead (several of my pastures were under water and we couldn't move the ponies to different pastures due to sex, size/alpha context or foals etc...) - lots of absesses and thrush. One of my pastures obviously once had a major trash heap on it. We've had a lot of broken glass wash up out of the sand and due to the way the water flowed it affected the 2 pastures below it as well. And ponies/horses being the loveable but contrary beasts that they are - some of ours chose to stand in the flowing water and in the muck! My farrier is completely freaked out right now.
Clipping - there are many different types of clippers on the market and many different types of clipping that can be done to make horses comfortable. Everything from a basic "pretty clip" (bridle path, coronet bands & feathers, jaws & "goat" hair), trace clip, high trace clip, saddle clip, hunter clip, blanket clip, full body clip, full show clip. When we moved from MT to NC in 1997 we headed out with one stock trailer and one "home made" stock trailer w/ 2 pony sized horses, 1 yrlg filly that would eventually mature at 15.2 hh & 3 shetlands. The first day on the road, there were predictions of a snow storm and we were expecting to make it to ND before stopping for the night. A flat tire on the stock trailer changed that and we stopped in Lewistown, did get the tire replaced (as well as getting the others checked). No one had predicted that that snow storm would become a major blizzard that would cripple many states in the northern mid-west for months. We made it to a brand new Super 8 and thankfully got an extra large room with 2 king sized beds. Good thing - the trailers didn't move for the next 5 days as we slogged thru waist deep snow to carry water to the trailers, give them hay and feed and sorta clean them out. Even in MT, hotel managers freak out over horse manure - we were told NO to unloading in the new parking lot, yep buried under the snow, and to "dumping" the manure. The wind chills hit
-70 below!!!
14 days later, we straggled into the vet clinic that we had leased 5 acres from 8 miles from our house in NC. They were having an early season heat wave in mid-April - it was
110 (all Fahrenheit). The vet worried about our dog first (she was most affected and wasn't shedding her heavy undercoat) and then the ponies whom had all started shedding monstrously somewhere in KY.... After we got the house set up enough to live in it (it was vandalized while on the market - what brought me back to NC), Larry back on a plane overseas (Saudi - trust me, my southern boy hubby couldn't get out of MT or the mid-west fast enough and since 1997 he's never been back!), Skye registered in 1st grade - I turned to clipping the ponies. First time for everything - several were body clipped - the rest - I worked my fingers to the bone grooming them... Acclimating to those massive temperature changes seemed to be easier for the ponies than it was for me, the 3 girls and Blaze (our dog). I learned one thing - simple body clipping is often easiest and when hot, the ponies sure do enjoy getting all the itchy, heavy hair removed. Not showing - clipper marks don't matter. Just remove the hair w/o nicking or burning the horse (no matter the brand, clipping thru heavy hair makes clippers get hot enough to scald/burn if not paying attention)...
Gelding - is fairly "natural". Care depends on both your vet's protocol and your horses' reactions to the procedure. My first vet here in NC never prescribed antibiotics or pain meds at the time of castration. Neither did vets when I was growing up and we had ranch horses (treated totally different than minis, BTW. I have to "fight" to remember that, many people consider my view of horses to be "barbaric" because I still consider minis to be
livestock not pets. Just prettier and more loving than other animals, IMO). Honestly, the last 3 male vets that I had geld my ponies didn't either (2010). Dr. Eaton, a woman, who is now my vet - it's automatic and it's on the bill! Unless your horses develop a problem, just checking them in the morning before you go to work is fine. Even if they have to be medically treated - the main thing about meds to remember is they are prescribed to be given at equal times throughout a 24 hour period so that the drug level remains the same. No-one says they have to be given mid-day - they could be given in the evening or throughout the night if desired and that works for your schedule. IF you have/want to cold hose - there is no reason why you can't wait until after work. The only time this changes is if there is a problem in the morning - same as if you, child or a small animal is sick before you go to work.
Really, horse care isn't all that difficult and you will find it gets easier as you learn more. There are basic needs that should be met and the fact that a horse is an out-door grazer, that is a prey animal in the wild, should be taken into account in both care and handling/training. Different areas of the country have different types of soils, grasses/hays/forage and capability of supporting horses - requiring different care right there, but it's still basically the same.
Love on your guys lots and enjoy them as you learn! They can be lots of fun!!! And maybe you will find that your boys aren't the right type of minis for you... Sometimes personalities don't mesh, special care doesn't work with work schedules you and your hubby have, or since you are "newbies" (beginners in every sense of the word with equine) you may need to get lessons or even find minis that are already properly schooled so that you and your husband don't get hurt! Personally, I've found that sometimes a mini can do lots more damage in an bad situation/injury than a big horse can/will. Those little hooves and those little teeth often pack as much power into a much smaller space than a large horse has/can. Just something to think about... And if you need to switch to another horse for any of the above reasons, it's not a shameful decision.
thanks for the replies! Marty, yes they are wood shavings-sorry! I buy them at TSC. We just went yesterday and bought the pellets and put the shavings over top. I like the idea of gravel to aid withaid with drainage. To be honest, I'm a little nervous about gelding. We both work full-time and I'm afraid we won't be available as much as we need to be to monitor their recovery. We will still get it done, I just hope it won't require several days of vacation or anything like that. When it comes to shaving them, is it basically taking a pair of clippers and shaving all of their fur? Is that something we need to do once every summer? What exactly is rain rot? Is it bad for the horses to be out in the rain? I try to bring them in when it rains because they usually don't come in on their own. Thanks again for all the answers! It will be nice when I will feel comfortable enough to be on the flip side and be able to help others on here!
