Shavings on trailer floor...yeah or nay??

[Dapple Dawn Farm]

Your opinions???

[Sithly]

I use them unless it's a really short trip. I like the shredded Aspen shavings -- the particles are heavier so they don't blow around.

[theoldgreymare]

I always haul with a trailer full of shavings. They need the cushioning when traveling and the shavings will soak up any urine that would make the floor slippery if only matted.

ETA: When the weather is hot and the windows are dropped down (bars up), I always put fly masks on the horses to prevent eye injuries from shavings that blow around or road debris that might fly in.

[lizathenag]

I am torn.

I never used them. Then I lent my trailer so someone who put a lot in. I am still cleaning them out. I think they might make the ride a bit nicer but I have good mats.

My concern is the mess cleaning them out and the dust if they are left in. I hate throwing away so many good shavings but don't want to leave them in (although I do).

I guess you will hear both sides now.

[IslandGirl]

A resounding "YES." Shavings help cushion the ride, reduce ambient heat from the road, prevent urine from splashing (I have several horses that will ONLY pee on the trailer when they're at a show), and provide more traction if a horse urinates while going down the road (wouldn't want a horse slippin' and slidin' on wet rubber mats). Shavings also absorb the urine, preventing it from "running" and corroding other trailer parts.

[Dapple Dawn Farm]

OK then...how thick of a bedding of shavings????

[IslandGirl]

I usually use about 3 to 6 inches. Depends on the length of the trip and the specific horse(s).

[theoldgreymare]

My trailer floor is currently double matted and I use 3-4 inches and bank up the sides some so I have more to replace wet spots that get pulled out.

[Dapple Dawn Farm]

Thanks for the info!!!

[BuddyRoo]

Shavings blow around and can be dusty--creating the potential for particles to get into the eyes and also be inhaled.

Unless you're bedding very very deeply I can't see how it would provide much cushion because they're not lying down...they're standing.

I will sometimes throw down a dusting of shavings near the rear of a trailer if a horse is prone to urinating in the trailer--just to absorb and keep the mat from getting too slippery.

But generally I'm not a proponent of adding shavings. If you want to create additional cushion, get thicker mats.

[Woodsperson]

Always. It makes clean up so much easier-as I have one that will poop 6 times on a short trip to the vet. I don't bed too thick maybe 3 to 4 inches-but I don't trailer long distances. Might put more in for a long trip.

[AppendixQHLover]

YES my horse ALWAYS pees the second he gets into the trailer.

It makes cleaning it up so much easier, and better smelling. I didn't think about getting him a flymask for the drive.

[<3OTTB]

I never use them anymore.

[thumbsontop]

Yes, I've never seen any indication that they blow around, but we only have the side windows open, not the back top doors. The ones we use are the guardian mini flakes and they contain very little dust. Never had a dusty horse at the destination either.

I like it for absorption, not cushion. Pee and the nervous wet poo. I've had a horse fall in the trailer before and that makes me much more nervous than a little dust.

We use very little - maybe a bag in a two horse? I don't spread it too evenly, concentrating on the back.

[Sithly]

I like it for absorption, not cushion. Pee and the nervous wet poo. I've had a horse fall in the trailer before and that makes me much more nervous than a little dust.

Same here. The horse actually slipped, scrambled, and fell ON me while unloading. Not fun.

[pines4equines]

I never do. My horse does not pee on the trailer but we travel very short distances. My trailer is a 2004 and it still looks brand new.

What I do do to prevent slippage is I rake/scoop away any poop before unloading the horse. It will get a wee bit slippery if he steps in his own poop and then goes down the ramp. Again, just a swish with your boot or rake cleans that poop away.

[jn4jenny]

I do. I have nice trailer mats and a trailer with a suspension system (hence a very smooth ride), but I'm concerned that one of these days my horse will pee in the trailer. If he does, one of two undesirable things will happen:

1. The trailer floor will get slick. This is not likely to happen because the mats are grooved, but that brings us to problem two...
2. The pee will make a beeline for my trailer floor, potentially contributing to faster degradation and more $$ for me.

Throwing a dusting in the back seems, to me, an even worse compromise. Then I've got slippery stuff for the horse to slide on when he loads or unloads.

OTOH, it was quite the PITA to take the shavings out the other day when I gave my trailer the bi-annual cleanout. Basically you can't win no matter what route you decide to take. :lol:

[DMK]

I guess if you have ever seen a horse slip while unloading on mats slick from manure, you think shavings are the lesser of two evils. That and all the other good reasons already listed are why I always have shavings in the trailer (or sometimes woody pet/shavings mix). Yes, they might blow around a bit, but I've not seen much evidence of it firsthand, and I'm pretty sure that big old hay bag that is pretty damn close to their face is definitely the bigger culprit for dust. I'm not getting rid of that, either.

To me the good reasons outweigh the possible bad reasons, so once again it's not black and white and you just have to go with the odds that favor your situation.

I will clean the trailer out after every use and sweep the shavings forward so the back half of the mats can dry thoroughly. I also make sure to sweep the shavings out of the nooks and crannies on the side (between mat and the wall) because generally moisture can collect there and possible cause damage to your floor/wall.

[Blugal]

Always. Those rubber mats are slippery when wet.

If I'm worried about dust, I sprinkle them with some water.

If I'm on a long trip, I'll load up with shavings quite deep (we have an extra tall trailer) - that way I have some for my destination, just in case. (I've arrived at a campground at 2 AM because of bad roads, and although I'd reserved a stall, there were no shavings. Thank goodness I had enough in my trailer to put down.)

I've also heard they insulate against heat from the road to the mats. I'm not sure of that, but since I use them anyway... Someone also told me they put a layer of crushed ice on the shavings and cover it with more shavings to help with that problem in a very hot area.

[Jaegermonster]

I have never put shavings in my trailer. Don't like the dust, also I think it makes cleanup a pain. Also have never had a problem with a horse slipping, and I haul A LOT. My trailer floor also has holes in it so the pee doesn't really puddle up or anything. I've slipped in people's trailers on their shavings more than my horses have slipped without them.
My trailer has an aluminum floor, every time I use it I pull the mats up, hose out the back and the mats and leave the mats up. Just had it in for it's annual check up, the trailer is 11 years old and still looks brand new.

I did have a friend who uses shavings in her trailer have a mishap once. She didn't use the trailer for a week or so but left the bedding in.
She put a horse in it, and about halfway to our destination (I was behind her with my rig) I saw her horse go into a full blown freakout.
Apparently some red ants had made quite the nest in the shavings and it took them a bit to make themselves known.
That was a lot of fun in the truck stop parking lot, let me tell you. That horse was coming out one way or the other, so we figured putting the ramp down first was a good idea;)

[Rachel L]

I don't use shavings because I don't want to clean them up. I have never understood the soak-up-the-urine-so-the-mats-don't-get-slick argument either. My mare once peed right before we unloaded from the trailer, and the mats were not the least bit slippery. If my mats were slippery when wet, I would replace them.

[Sparky Boy]

I don't use them either. If a horse pees in the trailer, I'll hose it out when I get home.

[Go Fish]

With all the vets now saying that respiratory issues are real when hauling horses, I don't like adding to the problem with shavings in the trailer. However, my horses are frequently hauled long distances to show. If I think they are going to pee in the trailer, I'll have shavings put in the back half of the trailer. It's probably not good on a horse's respiratory system, but I have one horse who will not pee in the trailer/van if there are no shavings.

[SmokenMirrors]

We have thick mats with divits in them to take the pee away and the floor of our aluminum trailer has tiny holes in it to let the pee, or any liquid for that matter, get out. I don't use shavings as I have walked into a trailer with shavings and found them more slick than not.

When we are done we clean the trailer out then my husband takes the mats out and we power wash the inside, the mats then let everything dry before we put them back in.

One thing we do and this is debateable, is I tie a hay bag where we want my mare's head to be then tie her in. Many people don't tie their horses but I don't like the idea she can move around in the back and do what she pleases, I give her enough lead that she can move, back up, catch herself, etc. The husband also put a small video camera in the back so I can see what she is doing up in the cab of the truck, so that is VERY helpful.

[Foxtrot's]

Only on long hauls.

[Foxtrot's]

Now I would LOVE a video camera. With my tough old diesel truck's noise, and the horses behind the tack room, it is hard to know what is going on there.

I only tie a horse in if it can pretzel itself around. My big horses fill up the slot.

[PNWjumper]

The only time I've ever hauled with shavings was when I was hauling in to a show each day for three days and leaving my mare in the trailer like a big box stall in between classes.

I don't like helping any dust find it's way into my horses' respiratory systems, and I'm not a big fan of leaving ANYTHING on the floor of the trailer in between shows. My horses rarely pee on the trailer, and if they do it certainly doesn't make the mats slippery. My mats are much more slip-proof than the ones in my barn, and I'd swap them out if they weren't.

[Beverley]

Add me to those who don't ever use shavings, I don't consider them necessary. I haul from a few blocks to 1000 miles one way on various trips. My mat provides excellent cushion, and is not slippery when wet. And actually, when my horses are on really long trips, most of them try really hard to not poop, and especially not pee, in the trailer. When they do pee, I simply hose after use.

[Seven-up]

I have heard of (but not seen personally) a horse foundering because it was hauled on a long trip on no shavings. Apparently it was during the summer and the heat from the road more or less cooked his feet. I've always used shavings, and hearing that just gives me another reason to use them.


Personally I use about 3"-4" that I pick out after every trip and strip once or twice a year. (Wouldn't leave them in if I had a wood floor.) Never had any issues with dust, but I like to use the big chunky shavings in the trailer (not the sawdust stuff I like to use in my stalls.) I also don't travel with the windows open. Well, sliding windows open but not doors folded down. I have full doors in the back and the sides are completely enclosed, so there's very little wind in my trailer to blow stuff around. I have air circulating because of the top vent and sliding windows, but no tornadoes blowing crap around.

[angrychinchillas]

I don't haul much at all, but have never used shavings.

That said, I know that heat founder is real (having moved to Australia recently, I've heard some horror stories about bushfires), and would likely put shavings down for a long-distance daytime haul in the summer... But I would also probably wet them down.

Those making the case that urine/manure make the mats slippery: what is the floor surface of your barn's wash stalls? Do they have mats? If so, do you put down shavings before bathing your horse to prevent them slipping? As someone else said above, if I found my trailer's mats to be slippery when wet, I'd buy new mats ASAP. They're supposed to be designed not to be slippery when wet.

Other than the heat issue, I see no real reason to put in shavings on a normal, non-hot trip, and a few not to - most notably respiratory issues, and the high flammability of shavings. I know of an incident in which a thrown cigarette butt on the highway made its way into a trailer full of shavings, and the results were predictably not good, though thankfully not fatal.

Interesting points, all.

[Badger]

My trailer has wooden floors with rubber mats, and a fiberglass roof, and it is notably cooler in summer than my previous all aluminum trailer (which also had rubber mats). Road heat is less of an issue in the current trailer than it was with the all-aluminum one. But one thing you can do on really hot summer hauls is put a block or two of ice in the trailer (on and covered by bedding). I've put ice blocks under the feed bags between the horse's heads, or taken a few bags of cubes and made a mound under the partition running the length of the horses' stalls and covered it with bedding. The bedding insulates and slows the melting time, and the ice will lower the temp as it sits there and melts, and the shavings will absorb the melting water.

I don't use shavings for short local hauls, but do want something on longer ones to help absorb urine and manure and keep the footing from getting as slick as it does when nothing is on the mats. I prefer pellets to shavings as they don't blow around nearly as much. I moisten them a bit when I put them down, which makes them start to absorb/break down and keeps them from being little rolling marbles underfoot. I put more in the middle of the geldings' stalls and more at the back of the mares' stalls to target their pee areas. When the horses pee, the pellets expand more, but don't blow around. And it's very easy to just add a large coffee can full of additional pellets into the target area when necessary after I've cleaned the soiled ones out. Plus they are compact and store easily in the trailer in a smaller space. I've used this system for several years and been very happy with it.

[jn4jenny]

Those making the case that urine/manure make the mats slippery: what is the floor surface of your barn's wash stalls? Do they have mats? If so, do you put down shavings before bathing your horse to prevent them slipping?

There's a big difference between a stationary, non-moving, WIDE wash stall and a potentially narrow, definitely moving and bouncing trailer. Although I don't like mats in wash stalls either.

[Paddys Mom]

I don't use any shavings because I completely sweep out or hose out my trailer after every use and it would be a major PITA!

[rothmpp]

The only time I have ever used shavings in a trailer was last winter, when it started to rain/sleet when I was attempting to load my "hates a trailer with a ramp" OTTB. The rubber on the ramp got a little slick and he almost took a nose dive. I spread some shavings on the ramp and the back half of the trailer and it seemed to help in that circumstance.I have never found my mats to be particularly slippery under any other circumstances. I don't like the idea of dust adding to the respiratory issues when trailering, though the road heat was something I had never thought of before. I really like the put some ice in the trailer idea, and I will use that when I haul in the heat this summer over longer distances.

[Beasmom]

Yes vote for shavings.

I don't mind my horse feeling free to poop or pee in the trailer. I've seen horses get sick from holding their urine at shows. My gelding regularly pees in the trailer, often will NOT pee while tied to the side at shows. If I can make him more comfortable by letting him pee in the trailer, so be it! Heck, I need potty breaks, surely he does too?

I'm taking more frequent and longer trips with my horse and want him to be comfortable. Really appreciate the ice idea. Air conditioning!

[Phaxxton]

There's a big difference between a stationary, non-moving, WIDE wash stall and a potentially narrow, definitely moving and bouncing trailer. Although I don't like mats in wash stalls either.

And there's never been a risk of my horse slipping and falling underneath the wash stall... or slipping and cutting himself on the wash stall ramp... (unless you all have some very complex wash stall set ups! :lol:)

[Janet]

NEVER
1- I hose my trailer out to clean it, if not every trip, then every other trip. There is no way I could get it as clean with shavings in it.

2- Every vet I have talked to has recommended against shavings because of the respiratory issues.

3- Wet shavings are MORE slippery than a wet floor mat.

4 - The shavings trap the urine and manure in the trailer.

[joiedevie99]

A resounding "YES." Shavings help cushion the ride, reduce ambient heat from the road, prevent urine from splashing (I have several horses that will ONLY pee on the trailer when they're at a show), and provide more traction if a horse urinates while going down the road (wouldn't want a horse slippin' and slidin' on wet rubber mats). Shavings also absorb the urine, preventing it from "running" and corroding other trailer parts.

Ditto. I don't haul without them!

[Chardavej]

NO! After following a friends trailer for two hours and watching the shavings CONSTANTLY blowing around and out the whole way there, no. Not going to have my horses breathing that, I have them ride with fly masks anyway but dust can get through the holes, not much protection except for the larger particles.

And sawdust does NOT make it any less slippery. I USED to haul with sawdust (thought I was going good) and they slipped when backing out on the wet sawdust, so I just stopped using it, didn't see the value or need, then I rode behind above mentioned friend and that confirmed it for me.

Also not that much "cushion" between the horse and the floor. How much sawdust are you putting down? An inch or two is compressed down to nothing under their feet and I can't imagine putting much more in a trailer...my floors are matted that's more cushion than a layer of sawdust.

[DMK]

And there's never been a risk of my horse slipping and falling underneath the wash stall... or slipping and cutting himself on the wash stall ramp... (unless you all have some very complex wash stall set ups! :lol:)

Aw c'mon - my wash stall frequently makes unannounced sharp left turns!

I swear some trailers must have some strange wind dynamics, because the one thing I've never seen flying around in the back of my trailer or any other that I can think of is ... shavings/shavings dust. It's not like my horses are particularly coated with dust when they get where they are going either. But I agree, if your trailer is blowing up a storm back there, taking all the shavings and hay bags out is probably the lesser of two evils.

[Jealoushe]

I don't get it, I have never seen shavings blow around in a trailer? Am I missing something?

[Sithly]

I use aspen bedding in the trailer.

http://dogschoolnh.com/store/images/aspen.jpg

It's not dusty, and it doesn't blow around. The particles are bigger, firmer, and irregularly-shaped, which is why I think it gives so much better traction than other types. It's not as absorbent as other types, but it's absorbent enough for the job.

[Beasmom]

I've not seen these blowing shavings, either.

Current trailer is a GN fully enclosed Hawk, reverse load. Even with all the windows open, with the top door over the front ramp open, shavings don't blow around.

Previous trailer was a two-horse slant Apache BP. Even in that one -- no shavings blowing around. Otherwise my horse would have been coated with shavings dust after the ride. Now after tooling down a dirt road for a while, sure, dust gets in the trailer, but it's not from shavings.

Maybe in a slat-sided stock trailer shavings would blow around.

[Seven-up]

NO! After following a friends trailer for two hours and watching the shavings CONSTANTLY blowing around and out the whole way there, no. Not going to have my horses breathing that, I have them ride with fly masks anyway but dust can get through the holes, not much protection except for the larger particles.

And sawdust does NOT make it any less slippery. I USED to haul with sawdust (thought I was going good) and they slipped when backing out on the wet sawdust, so I just stopped using it, didn't see the value or need, then I rode behind above mentioned friend and that confirmed it for me.

Also not that much "cushion" between the horse and the floor. How much sawdust are you putting down? An inch or two is compressed down to nothing under their feet and I can't imagine putting much more in a trailer...my floors are matted that's more cushion than a layer of sawdust.

Sawdust is way different than shavings. Sawdust is dusty as hell. Shavings are not. Shavings like the plastic bags you get at shows: those huge, obnoxious flakes of wood that are so maddening to try and pick thru. They are fairly heavy, so they don't blow around, and they also stick to each other (and your clothes, lead ropes) like velcro. When you put down 6" of that stuff, it's cushy. I only put down 3 or 4 inches, and I have plenty of squish.

[katarine]

Suncoast bedding is the ideal type of shaving for hauling. Absorbent, not dusty, good for splatter protection for peeing horses.

I always haul with shavings and don't see a dust issue in my horse's lives. I haul a 3H GN with the windows open and butt screens open, as well as roof vents. I've taken a spin back there, nothing's blowing around.

[Beverley]

I have heard of (but not seen personally) a horse foundering because it was hauled on a long trip on no shavings.



Yeah, me too. Seen personally. Mild case but founder nevertheless. However, the other three that made the same trip were just fine. So I cannot guarantee it was 'just' the trailer flooring issue, could have been other variables at work. The mare was brought to me to be sold. Ended up finding a good home for her. But the stock trailer in which she was riding (plain wooden floor, no mats) would certainly have not held shavings given air going through the slats at 75 mph on the highway.

Those who have trouble picturing the blowing shavings issue- well, in addition to stock trailers, mine is a 2-horse bumper pull with ramp. So, open back that sucks in air plus window up front that is cranked wide open on hot days. I suppose it wouldn't ALL blow out, but you should see how much dust collects in there on unpaved roads. But- shavings are not necessary for me anyway, as the rubber mat is excellent for footing and insulation.

[Seven-up]

I believe the one I heard about was on mats, just to make everything more confusing.;)