[Brooke]

behind placing shavings only in the middle of the stall? I keep reading about the bedding being swept away from the walls, away from the door, away from under the feeder. I was always taught (both here and in Europe) to bed the center, but then to bank more against the wall. So, is there any reason, other than it takes fewer shavings, (therefore cheaper) and less time (and therefore cheaper) to bed the stall that way?

[Ambitious Kate]

I do it becausue the horse naturally kicks the bedding to the walls, and then it isn't used. When I go into the stall, I pick the whole thing then dig out the clean bedding from the walls and sweep it in. My horse tends to lie down against the wall, and the bedding on the wall, if I don't do this, becomes an impacted mass, and then isn't used. But the main reason I do it is to keep wet shavings or bedding from soaking the boards at the walls. I had a BO who didn't do it, and let the bedding stay at the wall and every day I would come in, and pull the bedding out from the wall. Her lowest boards were rotting in every stall, especially the ones at the front where the water buckets were. I couldn't understand why she didn't keep the bedding away from the walls, becausue it was going to cost her alot more to replace those boards.

[War Admiral]

It's cheaper.

I have never boarded at a boarding barn EVER where they banked the shavings, even the ones where I was paying extra for shavings TO BE banked (17.2h horse who got cast a lot). When I have them at home I always bank. The only place I do not bank, and in fact do scrape to bare floor, is under the water and feed buckets. If you have a horse who plays with his water bucket they do unnecessarily soak any shavings left there, and if you have a horse who dribbles his feed, it's nice if he has a clean place to nibble it up from. But apart from that - I bank!

[Bluey]

It's cheaper.

I have never boarded at a boarding barn EVER where they banked the shavings, even the ones where I was paying extra for shavings TO BE banked (17.2h horse who got cast a lot). When I have them at home I always bank. The only place I do not bank, and in fact do scrape to bare floor, is under the water and feed buckets. If you have a horse who plays with his water bucket they do unnecessarily soak any shavings left there, and if you have a horse who dribbles his feed, it's nice if he has a clean place to nibble it up from. But apart from that - I bank!

That is very much standard.
Bank and clean under water and feed and some clean also in front of the door.

[mvp]

It's cheaper. Don't underestimate the savings in labor costs. It's a lot of work to completely turn over a banked stall.

[Calvincrowe]

I bed in pelleted bedding. I have doors into the aisle, and directly opposite, doors directly outside. Water and grain at aisle wall, hay in the back corner, opposite the feed tub. I bed only in the center. Horses generally don't stand up against the walls, they stand in the center, or off to one side. With four legs and a pee depositor in the middle (for geldings anyway) centered bedding is the best, easiest, cheapest solution. I've never had one get cast, so it really isn't a concern for me. If I had a rolling-get-cast horse, then I'd put up casting strips. I've never seen the wisdom in huge banked stalls.

[Hippolyta]

It is fun to play in the pile.

[TBRedHead]

Simple, my horse pees in the middle. He doesn't pee or poop anywhere but the middle, unless his stall is ICKY. But yep, he tries his hardest to be considerate.

[TBRedHead]

It is fun to play in the pile.

My dogs LOVE a freshly bedded stall, to the point they won't let the horse in LOL.

[BeeHoney]

I bed deeper in the center where the horses stand, lie down, and urinate. Banked bedding gets dusty and dirty unless turned over frequently enough. Banking can also hold moisture against the stall walls as another poster pointed out.

I personally think that banking makes it easier for a horse to become cast. If there isn't much bedding against the wall, the horse can get their legs under them and get up fine. If a ramp of shavings against the wall prevents them from getting their legs under them then it makes getting up that much more difficult. I'm well aware that others have different opinions on this, but in many years of keeping horses that has been my observation.

[Bluey]

Banking doesn't mean there is no full bedding in the middle, as some seem to assume.

When we had a horse that tended to get cast, we banked his stall higher and he didn't then get cast any more.
It works.

[Chief2]

I was taught to bank the sides. The appaloosa deposits his poop in the banked piles all along three walls. So I changed him to center bedding. Then he used the pile of bedding in the center to pee in. There is no winning here.

Then the draft came along, and within 5 minutes of going into the stall, has begun moving the bedding to the walls. Once he is done with his nap, the center is bare and the bedding is all moved out to the walls in a circle around where he slept. Then he poops on the bedding along one wall.

So, perhaps the answer is: bed in the center, let in the draft, let him nap turn then turn him out, re-rake some into the center after his nap, and let in the appaloosa into the same stall. It would save me the time of banking the walls, and give the app nice clean bedding to completely foul with his poops. The app, by the way, has a real fettish about his stall, and then takes perfectly good hay and covers all of the poop and pee with it. Then when I get in in the morning, the Easter Egg hunt is on! Ahh...there's a reason for 24/7 turnout!

[Bluey]

Maybe the answer here is do whatever seems to fit best for each horse?

[Chief2]

I know, I know. That's what I really do. It's just that it's the middle of winter, I have to go like this until May, and the easter Egg hunt every morning is wearing a bit thin.

[saddleup]

Mine pee near the far corner of their stalls, and poop outside, so I tend to concentrate the deepest combo of pellets and shavings where they pee. I keep the bedding away from the front of their stalls so they don't mix their hay with bedding. The stalls have mats with bedding on top, and I don't ever bank them.

[NBChoice]

I make shavings deeper against the walls with one of my horses. He is the messiest horse alive, no matter where the shavings are at. So I've started making the middle less deep so that I can just strip all that out and bring in clean shavings from the sides. I used to make the middle deep... but I'd have to strip that almost every day . Doing it the way I do now makes me use wayyy less shavings.

[DiamondJubilee]

I used to bank stalls at a barn where I used to work. It never bothered me one way or the other, but I did notice the horses that would get cast, still got cast. It didn't really seem to help. At our farm, I just put a lot of bedding in the middle and they seem to move it around and I've never had a problem (knock on wood!). I don't see the point in banking a stall....

[msj]

I was taught to bank stalls but that was with straw bedding. I was also at a facility that the English FBS instructors managed and taught.

Now I do like most of the others with piling it a bit deeper in the center and pulling it away from under the water bucket. Feeder is removed unless horse hasn't finished eating when the other horse has finished. I also have a sliding door to the barn aisle and a dutch door to the outside paddocks, much like Calvincrowe. I really dislike having them kick bedding to barn aisle and even more so outside.

[kookicat]

I've always banked bedding. It's how I was taught and the stables just don't look right if there's no banks. Fen does love to pull them down though.

[Brooke]

I bed the center of the stall, and extra is placed around the edges. When I clean, I just rake the clean shavings away from the center, take out the wet and/or dirty shavings, and fluff the extra from around the edges back into the center. There's always enough in the center for the horse to lie down comfortably, enough around the edges for them to pee (especially the mares) and poop, and enough to last a couple of days without having to put more in. It may take a bit more time, but in the long run, I think you may save on shavings.