- Thread starter
- #11
About every 4 months. The truck holds 40 yards.Beekissed said:
Bedding can go faster or slower, depending on how many animals are on the place. We used sawdust under the 2
calves and lambs when we have them, with their stalls cleaned daily.
Horses can number between 5-6 or 7, with one off to the Trainer for "weaning and training" right now. Being raised
together, they do get VERY attached to each other. Sending them off to a strange place, getting them
acclimated to the MANY weird things happening at the training stable, gives them good basics for life long use.
They WILL NOT die if they are alone in a new location. The world won't end if they meet new horses, have to
follow a DAILY training regime with STRANGERS!! They CAN meet donkey and minis who won't eat them. Life
is very busy there, unlike home. Horse learns to be accepting, using their brains in situations they meet, odd though
it can be. Have to have that "OK Mom" in our Driving horses, to make them suitable for our needs. It would take
us years to present all those new things to a young horse. They come home with a new attitude, easily transition
to working for us while learning even more new things, in a calm, accepting way.
Horses are stabled half a day here, days in summer, nights in winter. All stalls are cleaned daily. We do save bedding
with having mostly tie stalls. Very economical with the bedding, even though there is plenty of room and depth for laying
down comfortably if they wish. Tie stalls just use way less bedding than box stalls. The 2 box stalls also get cleaned daily,
hold the 2 old girls or a very young foal/horse when we have one.
The bedding gets spread on our fields. Bedding is a key factor in having healthy grass crops, good turf depth for the horses to run
on without tearing it up. Our horses are grazed and stay fat, working hard, on just the grass. Very little grain is fed
and almost no hay over the warmer weather, unless we leave home for an activity. Grass production is very good, with
grazing usually running from May to late Oct. These are large horses in work, rotated on about 12 acres in various paddocks and
fields.
With the bedding spread, the grass stays green and growing, even during the summer drought times and summer
heat. Bedding adds organic matter to the soil and acts like mulch in covering the soil, protecting the grass plants roots
from sun burn, drying the soil and heavy water runoff. I figure we get double use from the bedding for a long time
before it finally breaks all the way down.
