How long does it take you to muck out every day?

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slaneyrose

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I read one of the threads or posts (sorry cant remember which) about putting lime under shavings to stop the smell.....would you leave the bedding in place, just pic up poos or clear the floor to dry it out every day and let the shavings dry??? I used to have a floor that was on soil so it was so quick and easy to clean, but now I have concrete floors and wondered what everyone else does????
 
I have dirt floors, then have padding over that. In my pig mares stall I had to take out the padding and just leave hers dirt, with pelleted bedding ( the kind you wet). In the other stalls its padding plus shavings, they have runs and those horses will 'go' in the runs for the most part. In the a.m. when I feed I let everyone out to go buck and poot, pick the stalls and get urine spots if needed. Takes maybe 3 minutes a stall, if that, pig mares takes longer. Then once a month or so I will toss the stalls, pig mares gets it every week or 2. On weekends or weekly I will clean the runs. My setup doesnt take much time, pretty much only as much as I feel like. Oh, I put that stall dry down when I strip stalls and then on the spots they pee in. Pig mare gets it sprinkled all over. Have never seen a horse as messy as she is.
 
I have no horses in in winter. In Summer it takes me on average fifteen minute to do four stalls. I have dirt in two and concrete in all the others, I prefer the dirt!!!
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I also prefer dirt I have a 10 stall barn with dirt floors and then 3 foaling stalls with concrete and mats. If i am quick about it and dont get distracted by barn kitties I can get the barn clean in about 15 min and another 10 for the larger foaling stall w/pens.

It helps though that my horses are only stalled overnight
 
It takes me about 30 minutes to clean my stalls. I have ten stalls filled at the moment.

There is a dirt floor base, and then layers of all this on top;

layer of gravel,

layer of sand,

layer of shavings

My stalls never stink. YIP YIP YIP

All I do it go in there daily and pick up the piles.

Then level the shavings back and fluff them.
 
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I have a six stall barn, and aside from foaling time when there is straw in there, it takes about one half hour to clean and replace shavings, another half hour to tidy up and clean and refill water buckets, so about an hour, but I can make it more or lots less depending on what I have available to me as far as spare time.

All stalls have 3/4" rubber mats and I use white pine shavings exclusively. A couple of my horses are real "piggies" so they do take a little longer and I like to leave the stalls empty to dry and air out before I put the shavings down just before they come in at night.

Not sure about time saving tips, but I think having the rubber mats changed things for us most of all. MUCH cleaner barn, stalls, horses and less shavings waste.

Liz M.
 
Boy, I was beginning to think I was doing something wrong :new_shocked: :bgrin Everyone so far except for Nootka it takes 15 minutes or a little more :new_shocked: ?

It takes me" total time" from picking stalls, getting all the pee spots everyday, emptying waterbuckets & filling them, feeding & graining..on average 1 & 3/4 hours(give or take 10 minutes) depending on how long they have been in that day. That is not including letting everyone back in. But, I am very fussy about stall cleaning. My BARN IS CLEANER THAN MY HOUSE.. :lol:

I have 11 stalls (2) -12x 14 & (9)- 8x10 with dirt floors and we just started adding mats to the ones that like to PAW BIG HOLES! :new_shocked: :no:. Oh, all of mine have shavings except two stalls with are stripped & rebedded every 7 days unless they need it sooner. 1 foaling stall has chopped straw in it and the other has shaving because it is being shared by my 2 yr old colt and my now yearling colt and one of my other smaller stalls has chopped straw as well for my recently diagnosed COPD mare.

It does take longer to do the straw covered ones and I do have one mare that is an absolute PIG :no: She is a sweet little girl but, boy is she messy. I have had her since she was a yearling too and she still has not been trained good in a stall.

The rest of mine are pretty darn good especailly if I have had them since they were young for some reason. I have a certain way I do things for stall training and it usually works for me but not with this one :new_shocked: . Nothing has worked... so I guess for now I will have to keep stripping her stall 2 to 3x a week! Oh and she is also one of the worst of the pawers too! She will DIG TO CHINA in front her stall door. So, we have temporarily stopped that by putting board down infront of her door and making it stationary to the floor so she stopped doing it there for now anyway
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: until a stall mat can be added in hers as well.

Jeri
 
:bgrin :bgrin horses are on pasture so zero time cleaning stalls :bgrin :bgrin

Now in the barn are sheep and I was spending 2 hours every weekend stripping out the wet and nasty however now that so many have lambed I have given up and gone to deep litter
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: so I just keep adding fresh on top and only cleaning out the area where lambing has taken place...so come the end of lambing season (4 more to go) when I move the flock to a pasture it will probably take me 2 days to strip the barn back out
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: but by then maybe it will warm back up :bgrin
 
Jeri, was I glad to read your answer :bgrin I was thinking something is just not right here in my barn, it takes me about 2 1/2 hours to do all the chores. :no: I have 17 stalls, in the main barn, 2 stalls in a small barn, and a large run-in. We have concrete floors, with mats over it, and I bed with pine shavings. My stalls are cleaned daily,stripped 2 times a week. then I have to water, feed, sweep, go outside and clean up in the run-in. Most of my horses are pretty clean, except one stallion I have, and a mare who is boarded, they are pure piggies! :bgrin At foaling time, I also bed down with straw, and then it takes me even longer to clean....best part is, I do have a barn cleaner that goes around all my stalls, but I hardly ever use it! I guess I just like to visit and spend time with each horse in there stalls. Somedays I wish it would only take me 15 minutes!
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: Corinne
 
Jerri,

I`m intriqued!!!
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: How do you train a horse to be tidy?? I thought it was just a case of....they are or they`re not???!! My stallions are very tidy (poos in one place only please!! :aktion033: ) and my newest mare is unbelieveably tidy!!! Even better than the stallions!!! wish they were all like that, would take me half the time. I am using straw at present as shavings here have gone so high in price.....8.50euro per bale!! and I`ll be foaling soon so will have to have straw anyway!! It takes me about 45mins to clean four stables and a large run in area at the front of the barn plus feed and water.
 
HOLY COW ..it takes you guys 15 minutes! lol, the day it takes me 15 minutes to clean stalls will be the day i only have one horse agian. :new_shocked:

I have to clean 5 stalls a day and it takes me rouphy an Hour. That includes Picking up the poop and Putting down shavings (every other day).

Thats all i do. We have a dirt floor under the shavings, but i put down plenty of shaving so it doesnt really matter.

So an hour of work for me, i love it though.

Leeana
 
I`m intriqued!!! How do you train a horse to be tidy??

Have my miss molly visit for a week and every one will go right up against the wall!

We clean everything here, no paddock, pasture, stall or run in is left with manur for over a day. It takes about a half hour to clean up after every one where they are now, Three in the barn and two out in the paddock - we clean twice a day. Molly, Image and Rodeo are a breze because they are all tidy poopers :lol:

Pixie and Mixie havent learned the fine art of going in one place so its all over the place in their paddock and Mixie paws it all over so they take about 15 minutes themselves.
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Do you find the stallions are tidier (marking their territory probably) and the mares...well some of mine bury it (they think they are cats I guess!! he he) and my best mare, who is a real character, completely trashes her stable every night and she is in a 12 x 14 foot one!!! I think she has parties at night and they all go over to hers for a drink and a chat!! LOL
 
I always wander why after I just clean a stall, they come right back in and poop in it......They where just out why do they save it till they come back in???? I keep telling them this is NOT a litter box!!!!!

Now if only I could get them to dung pile like my Llamas!!!! There has to be a way!!!!!!
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OK a new tack on this same thread :bgrin when I was cleaning stalls professionally about 15 years ago the going rate was .50 per stall so to make the minimum wage that was 10 stalls an hour for full sized horses in 12X12 stalls.............it was definately do-able........the last mini barn I worked at I could easily clean 10 stalls stripped and bedded fill waters and sweep aisles in 2 hours................having done this for a living over numerous years I can say stalls can be cleaned quickly regardless of bedding if you get a good system/rythum going............I find straw no harder to clean than shavings
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Not using any of the stalls yet so only have the 10 stallion paddocks and 34 mares in the winter paddock to pick up poop in and haul to the garden. l do it every morning and it takes me 1 1/2 hours and another half hour to haul water each stallion has his own tub and gets a bucket so thats 10 big buckets and 5 trips out to the fields for me in summer l have a hose and the mares have a tap right at the barn with hot and cold l just turn on as needed all winter. Mares are horrible messy things stallions are just so freaking neat with the stud piles and never poop in there huts.
 
I have 19 stalls, all dirt. The only time we use shavings is when we have foals in with mommas. It takes 1 hour to do all 19. That includes one 16 hh QH.
 
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I've never timed myself, so I have no idea. :lol:

Most of my horses are VERY neat: they "go" in just one area of their stall, or run, so cleaning stalls is pretty easy for the most part. Even the six horses that are on a half-acre dry lot have four different "manure piles" that they go to, to eliminate, and no where else. I love that! :bgrin
 
The best way for quick stall cleaning is to have tidy horses....

Bless my kid's hearts they are.......

Yet it takes about 2 plus hours to clean 5 - 12 x 12's, clean pastures,

set up feeds and clean water buckets daily.

Then there are the days I knock the cobwebs down, play with the cat, gaze out

at the neighbors critters. Warmer weather is more conducive to lolly gagging

than what we've had this past week......

Every day the dogs have to be fed cookies throughout the process, cause

they just can't wait until I get back to the feed room.

My preference is to clean out the pee spots early in the AM so they have a chance to dry.

Then put down dry bedding in the afternoon at dinner time. My girls will not potty

outside, unless their doors get blown shut. Actually, I don't mind that as it's easier to clean

off the mats than it is to clean mini poops out of the pasture. Now the boys they will potty

outside, but they do it all in one spot so clean up outside is even fairly easy. My stallion potties

on top of the geldings piles...nice neat piles.

I love stall cleaning.....it's my decompression time, it's the best part of the day.
 
:saludando: I just have a 16x10 building for my three boys with no stalls. I have wall to wall mats over the wood floor we put in the barn a couple years ago. I put down a real thick layer of shavings on the whole area.
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: I add a bale of shavings about once a week.

I clean the barn every morning and every night. I usually go out to the barn around 8a.m.

I pick up all the poop, (which I am sure my dwarf Casey does because he won't go outside if its raining or too windy!) :no: pick up the pee spots, clean the feeders and fill the water buckets then I feed the horses.

After I feed the horses I pick up all the poop thats in the paddock that the other two horses leave during the night.
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Then if I go back out in the afternoon to let them out of the paddock I pick up more poop.
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At around 4:30-5:00p.m. I clean up what ever is in the barn and feed the horses their supper.

So, I guess it takes me about 1 hour total a day.
 

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