12 months ago, Sonia Waddell trialled Stalosan® F in her horse truck. Today she sells it through her business, The Stable Door Equine, and counts racing stables amongst her biggest advocates for the product.
The Stable Door Equine is in Ashburton, Mid-Canterbury. They stock and sell a range of quality equine products. The Waddell family also ride and produce young off the track thoroughbreds on their 22-acre property. They also compete and show their horses around the South Island.
“We first came across Stalosan F when (AgriVantage South Island Business Manager) Cheryl Farrar came in store one day and suggested we trial it in the horse truck” says Sonia.
“We travel with three to four horses at any time, and it used to get really smelly. Not anymore!
“We use about a cup and half of Stalosan F on the floor of the truck and put a bit of sawdust on the floor at the rear end of the horses. When we get to our destination, we simply scoop the sawdust to the side, there’s no smell, and the truck is perfectly dry by the time we need to move the horses again.”
Sonia uses Stalosan F in her stables too, applying about ‘half an ice-cream container’ to the top of the concrete, then piling sawdust on top.
“This works well. The horses tend to pee in one spot, the urine is soaked up by the Stalosan F so it doesn’t spread. This saves me a lot of work.
“Our daily clean of the stables involves picking up the manure and scooping up the wet patch of sawdust. We then reapply Stalosan F to the floor in that spot and add fresh sawdust.
“We only need to clean the whole stable every six weeks.”
The outdoor yards are also dusted with Stalosan F and sawdust.
Sonia says that Stalosan F has been life changing. “It makes taking care of the horses so much easier. The float is easier to clean, the stables are easier to manage. We don’t have the smells that we used to endure. And I know it kills bacteria which is especially important at events.
“I think the real benefit is using it in horse trucks or floats; it makes for a much healthier environment for the horses and ourselves.
From Sonia’s experience, Stalosan F is highly cost-effective. “A little seems to go a long way” she explains. “In the truck, we are still getting through the 15kg bag Cheryl gave us to trial almost a year ago.
“We’re saving on sawdust too, not having to clean as often as we used to. And then there’s the time factor, I’d say we’ve more than halved the time we used to spend mucking out.
“I’m so glad Cheryl introduced us to Stalosan F” Sonia continues. “She has also been hugely helpful; her knowledge of both the product and horses is very good. It’s great working with someone who has the same passion for horses as I do.”