Disgusting slobbishness.
You read reports of neglect where they find a stable full of horses standing on a meter of their own waste, obviously getting enough food to produce it, and enough water to survive. The poor horses soil themselves every time they lie down, and have bedsores and rotten hooves from the urine. Their eyes burn, poor things.
However, my horse chooses this environment and given a choice of soiling the stall or stepping outside, he always chooses the stall. The donkey copies him so it’s a wet filthy mess every day, with poop walked around and smeared everywhere, and a pool of urine in the middle. I clean and re-bed it every day, but they obviously desire their own filth around as they eat hay.
If my horse wanted a dry soft bed of shavings to lie in, he could have it. The stall door is always open. But stepping into a freshly cleaned stall produces the urge to foul it, just like loading into a trailer produces this movement in a horse.
My horse does not lie down in the stall, he sleeps outside in the mud or grass, his blanket keeping him dry in Winter.
The stall is simply a rain shelter, hay station, and toilet.
I don’t understand it, but I know that if my horse were to find himself in a horrible neglect situation, he would not consider standing in a meter of his own waste a bad thing.
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12 comments:
LOL :)) Yeah.... why do they do this?
Since your stalls are only a shelter, have you tried not putting bedding in them? I did that with my horses, since all they did was eat in the stalls, and they stopped messing in their 'dining rooms'! It took a few weeks, but I guess, at least with the urine, that they didn't like it splashing.
But then, they would step just outside the door and pee - so I had a nasty cesspool hole to negotiate in and out of the barn!
You can't win!
Dreaming,
Actually I have tried, perhaps not long enough, but removing bedding did not seem to help. I also thought that I could try to set up a poop/pee station outside the stall, but that's pretty gross too, cuz I'd have to walk through it and roll my wheelbarrow around it, since that area is very tight. You are right, I cannot win!
LOL yes they are messy! Emma is pretty neat, most of the time, I found her water bucket full of poop the other day, grrr. Easy is a stall walker, round and round and round, and mashes food poop and bedding all together. Mickey She has changed her habits and instead of the corner she is pooping in front of the stall gate, sigh. They all have full access out doors too.
Silly hoofers.
The Appaloosa that I sold last spring was similar to this. He ruined my barn coming into the over hang for shelter and pooping. Of all the horses I've had, he is the only one that had bad toilet habits. He'd hang around up by the house under a tree, poop, and stand in it. We had a horrible drought in 2011, and he got seedy toe and thrush. I couldn't figure it out until I realized his poop habits. He would seek shade in the overhang of the barn, as I said, and poop, and he'd stand in it. Drove me crazy. I finally roped it off. All the other horses had stood under the trees for shade and didn't stand in their poop if they could help it (especially my Arabians.)
Mine will go into their run in sheds just to pee or poop when it is just easy to go where they were at in the pasture! I have never understood this either. Also since I worked at a big Arab facility I got to know 75+ horses and their pooping and peeing habits in their stalls. Most were fairly clean and pooped in one spot but then there were about 15-20 that were so messy and they had no choice but to lay in it. Horse personalities and behavior is so interesting to me!
Except for my one old guy (32), who has access to the stall 24/7 (but hates being in unless the weather is foul), all my girls have limited access: The older mare (25) has the option to come in at night, but eats outside unless it's really bad. Right now, she'd rather be out in the pasture most of the time, tho there's always a couple of "piles" in the stall in the morning. The two 8yolds don't even get to come in unless it's below about 15F, or if it's that nasty cold wet snow right at freezing, that just soaks into their backs.
Yep, many of the horses I have known were not overly concerned about hygiene. I guess it is just another reminder for us that they are horses and not people - but I still don't get it!!
lol! Funny post!
Apache's stall is very room at 8 feet by 16 feet, but she has 24/7 access to it and I feed her inside, too.
She rarely ever pees in it, but she always leaves a small poop pile at the entrance to her stall. If I leave the pile of poop there, she won't poop anymore in her stall, but if I clean it up, she must leave another fresh pile. lol!
But thankfully, she tend to walk out of her stall and poop at the manure pile that I keep along the fence line.
~Lisa
Lol. It's because he's GREY!
Not really. Hana is red, and tidy as a cat. One little heap of poop/pee, always in the same spot. In good weather, the heap is outside in the paddock, in bad weather it's in a corner of the stall.
Fee is getting tidier now that Hana is over at Fish Creek. She gets locked out of the stall during the day, and poops along the edges of the paddock. At night in bad weather, she poops all along one wall of the stall. Le sigh.
Pigpens!!
We have one horse here who is rarely dirty, unlike most of the others. He thinks he's all macho, but he does have a prissy side to himself.
- The Equestrian Vagabond
Ew! Silly horse! Maybe you could try pea gravel. The urine would drain right through it and it's easier to pick poop out of. Sorry he's determined to make so much extra work for you lol.
Lily is neat by nature, keeping her mess to a certain area of the stall. She is, unfortunately, more than happy to roll in said mess.
Weird.
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