# Stall Cleaning Help



## LadyRichards (Jun 10, 2009)

I recently had a barn built I have 5 horses, I stall at evening horses are in stalls about 12 hours, I stall during night. I am using pine shavings. My floor is dirt, I have two rubber matts in each stall up at the front of stall. I find myself spending half of the day cleaning stalls every day, I am also throwing most of the shavings away every time, I cant keep this up their has to be a better way, I have so much wet shavings that I have to take out, what else can I use that well make clean up easier, has anyone used sawdust from mills and is this better. I just clean, clean, clean, and the coast is getting out of hand help please.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

Do you have a fork made just for shavings? I'm really wondering about your cleaining techniques, as 5 stalls should normally take an 1 1/2; maybe 2 hours if you need to rebed/add shavings.

How deep do you bed the stalls? And what percentage of the bedding is wet?

Are you buying the bagged shavings? They're convenient, but incredibley expensive. You might want to look at buying in bulk for cost reasons.

Sawdust from sawmills is problematic as it is very dusty.


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## LadyRichards (Jun 10, 2009)

Well I must say today only took me two hours. I am wreaking all the wet in to one area and taking it out instead of trying to save on shavings, trying to be cheap doesnt get it. Then I put in one or a half bag what ever I need to replace I also use the pellets on top of the wet areas before I replace beading, thank you.


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## LadyRichards (Jun 10, 2009)

also putting down lime which helps very much on the urine smell and letting dry and air out before putting horses back in. Yes I do have a fork for shavings. I think im getting the hang of it, its just a little over whelming at first.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

maura said:


> 5 stalls should normally take an 1 1/2; maybe 2 hours if you need to rebed/add shavings.


I wonder what I am doing wrong. I can feed, turnout and clean 22 stalls - in under two hours.


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

Depends on how often you clean stalls, how often you strip them, and how often the horses are in them.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

equiniphile said:


> Depends on how often you clean stalls, how often you strip them, and how often the horses are in them.


Every morning - thus the need to strip them 100% is very seldom. 

Horses are in every night. 9 p.m. - 5:30 a.m.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

mls, 

I was trying to be generous on the time. Also, looks like your guys are only in 8 and half hours. Still, I'm impressed that you can do it the fast - I usually figured 5 stalls in an hour, including dumping buckets and/or cleaning waterers. I does go a lot quicker when they're only in at night, but still.... 

Are you on mats with light bedding? Is that how you do it so fast?


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## justsambam08 (Sep 26, 2009)

I agree it did take me longer to do stalls when I first started out. It took me a 1/2 hour to do this one mares stall, she pees a LOT, almost the whole half of her stall was wet, and now I have it down to 15-20 minutes depending on the time of day? Either way its about 3 bucketfuls.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

maura said:


> mls,
> 
> I was trying to be generous on the time. Also, looks like your guys are only in 8 and half hours. Still, I'm impressed that you can do it the fast - I usually figured 5 stalls in an hour, including dumping buckets and/or cleaning waterers. I does go a lot quicker when they're only in at night, but still....
> 
> Are you on mats with light bedding? Is that how you do it so fast?


Mats yes. Is a bag for a 10 x 12 stall considered light? I don't think so. Wet areas are cleaned, limed and left to dry. Shavings are done prior to p.m. chores. Very few buckets. If a horse drinks - they get a bucket. Since we have auto waters outside, very few drink inside.

I don't consider it fast. I consider it very efficient. 

The horses come in to food in the stalls, doors are shut, alley swept and lights out. They eat and go to sleep. No pacing, no arguing. In the morning I feed the cats and the dog as the horses are getting up and stretching and then dump the grain. As soon as the grain is done, the horses are turned out by herd (we have three primary herds). All of our turnouts open into a paddock connected to indoor arena which is connected to the barn. I don't have to lead anyone. If they dilly dally in the indoor arena, I threaten to get a 'stick' (buggy whip). They understand my tone of voice and the majority of the time quit dinging around and get outside.

I've been cleaning in the morning by myself for almost 10 years. Definitely have a system since I have to leave for work (showered!) by 7 a.m.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

Yes, I also consider it very efficient. 

For me, one bag for a 10 X 12 is light, but of course you can do that with good mats. It's part of the advantage of using mats. Bedding on something other than mats, I would use 4 - 5 bags to bed a stall initially, which means you take a lot of time sifting through shavings when you muck. 

I also think your system of leaving the stalls pulled back and limed during the day to dry; and rebedding before evening feed is a great system.

I used to work at a racing barn that had a conveyor belt running behind the stalls; they bedded on mats, only bedded the back half of the stall, mucked onto the running conveyor belt, which ran into a dump truck. They bought shavings by the tractor trailer load, and rebedded the stalls with a small tractor with a front end loader. Two people could do the whole 40 stall barn, including rebedding, in 2 hours. 

However, I think the OP is 1.) bedding deep 2.) mucking into a wheelbarrow and 3.) new at this.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

I bed deep, I am anal about having my stalls spotless, and I muck into a wheelbarrow.

I can not imagine it taking half the day to do five stalls. 

I used to clean stalls to offset my board and it was 20 something per day. After the full time job and before riding. 

OP, you just have to learn to just do it. You will get quicker and not loose quality of the job.


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## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

I'm sorry but I have to push the ol' bullsh*t button on MLS lol!!!! That means it takes you 5.45 minutes per horse to feed, clean their stall and turn them out. To dump feed and wait for 6 horses to eat (average 3 lbs per horse) and turn them out (the gates are 30-50ft from the barn). 

Maybe you can do it in 2 hours if feed is already prepped, they eat a lb each, you open the door and just let them run out to pasture by themselves and clean up one pile of poo...


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## Iseul (Mar 8, 2010)

I don't think it's impossible tondo that in two hours...not very likely, but possible. it takes me/Drew to clean the run in (about half the size of an indoor), feed them and lock them up in 25 minutes if we're trying to hurry. (they're staying in at night for now) and there's 4-5 horses down there, more or less. then we go up and finish the 11 stalls at the top barn in a little over a half hour (we each get 5 stalls and one of us get the last (usually him, coz I get the side with the horses that have ponds in theirs rofl) and then feed them about 2 lbs..and either leave them or turn them out, depending on when. 
but..my point was: it's possible, even if not common or likely, to do what mls states he/she does.
and-you can just toss the piles into the next stall down and collect them in the wheel barrel a the last stalls, depending on what your stalls look like..we can do that atleast lol
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

I cut my post short.. to feed and turn out 6 horses in the morn takes me on avg.. 20 minutes... or 3.33 minutes per to just feed and turn out. Assuming everyone behaves and all goes perfectly.


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## SeWHC (Jul 1, 2009)

It is all about efficiency and where you keep your supplies, I guess. 

I can grain, hay the pastures, lead out 25 horses 2 at a time, clean all 25 stalls, pick the dry lots, throw PM hay in the stalls, bed them all as needed, clean buckets as needed, and prepare the PM grain, all in about 2.5 - 3 hours depending on how tired I am. 

I can't imagine that cleaning only 5 stalls should take half of the day. I know where every horse pees and poops, and which ones poop in their water. We use the wood pellets-- many people don't know how to use them. You put a bag in the stall, cut an x in the plastic and fill the bag with water. The pellets absorb the water and expand to like 5x the pellet size. You let it sit for 5-10 minutes, go do something else like grab hay. When you dump it out, it isn't sopping wet. Kick the new shavings around. 

You don't have to have 5 inches or more (ugh) of shavings in each stall, they'll just take you forever to pick through, you will miss spots, and the horses will just make a pig sty out of it. 

One trick is to pull about the front 1/3 of shavings away from the door and front of the stall where the feed buckets and water buckets are. That way you've got a clean/dry place for your hay to go, if the horse drops feed he can eat it off of the floor and not be eating shavings, and if he spills his water it can evaporate instead of wasting shavings. I use a broom. 


Another thing I see when people are first learning to clean stalls, is that they take great big scoops of shavings/poo/urine and then rely on sifting sifting sifting for far too long. Why would you do that if you can pick up 80% waste and quickly sift the clean bedding and dump the waste. It goes faster if you use a wheelbarrow or a cart on wheels than carting crap with a tub. Don't carry shavings bag by bag, put all of what you'll need in a wheelbarrow and do them all at once, rather than completing one full stall (clean, bedded, watered, hayed, etc) before moving on to the next. 

If your horses are burying all of their waste, you have too many shavings. There is no reason to take 1/2 day to clean 5 stalls... one stall can be completely finished in 10 minutes. Just automate everything. Have a routine. Get some small buckets and set up the grain for the next feeding in advance, stack them up and put a towel over the top so no insects get into it. Stack them in the order you'll walk to feed them, the top bucket being the first you feed, the bottom being the last. 

You wouldn't think cleaning stalls could be such a science.


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## SeWHC (Jul 1, 2009)

Also-- don't sift the clean shavings right in the same spot you just took them from. Sift them onto other clean shavings and level it later, or you'll be stuck in the same spot forever.


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## loxley (May 11, 2010)

As long as you do a good and you are happy with what you do , how about putting some music on time will go quicker and you can have a boogie while you are working .


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## PechosGoldenChance (Aug 23, 2009)

I agree with loxley. Put on some music, thats what I do, it helps so much. Also, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to clean stalls, this isn't a competition. However at shows it may be, but at home, you can take as long as you want. I love being at the barn, sometimes I'll take a long time on purpose lol


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## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

I second the music idea too!! Nothing like cleaning stalls to Black Eyed Peas.. D


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## Donanuge (Aug 21, 2007)

I've never used mats before, but want to now. I have clay, but some of it is gone, and now have dirt. How do you put down mats...ie: limestone, etc.....and has anyone used stall skins?
Thanks,
Dona


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