A beginners guide to bedding

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countrybumpkin727

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Hello All!

So I finally made the plunge and got a beautiful OTTB who is my first official horse.
I got him last week and started him off in his stable with shavings but after doing lots of reading I discovered wooden pellets would be better as he is a little bit messy and the pellets are cheaper. He is currently on a mixture of shavings and pellets.
I had a couple of questions about using them:

1) With wooden pellets how much water do you use to make the expand?
2) how deep is your bedding with out matts (saving up for some)
3)how do you go about adding more bedding? Do you just add the dry pellets or soak them first?
4) Are they as cost effective as people say?
5)do you take out the wet every day or leave it and just take the droppings once a week?

Sorry lots of questions!! Any advice would be great though, am I even using the right bedding?
 
I tried woood pellets a year or so back, I had rubber matting so can't advise on depth but I think the rule is if you put your fork into the bed you shouldn't be able to hear/feel it prang the floor. Water wise I used to empty the bag into my wheelbarrow and use the hose to soak just give it a few goes to see when you feel it's expanded or ask someone else on the yard if possible?

You need to soak the pellets everytime you add them so don't put dry pellets down when topping up.
I feel it's expensive to start as you need quite a few bags to get a proper bed together but if your deep littering then you won't spend too much on bedding once you've got started :)

One massive upside of pellets over shavings for a deep litter bed is the pellets don't smell as bad (or didn't for my girl at least) I'm back on shavings now because I have rubber mats and my girls live out so they only come in occasionally now.

Hope someone gives better advice than this haha! Good luck with your new horse :)
 
If your deep littering you can leave in for a month or more. For 4 weeks your taking poo out and the wet bedding should compact and make a nice base on the floor almost like rubber matting would. Add a layer of fresh bedding on top after skipping out so your horse has a fresh bed to lie on and then once a month you will have to remove the wet bedding and start again.

Some owners do go longer than a month it depends how you feel about it and if you and your horse are happy with it :)
 
countrybumpkin727 said:
thanks for the reply :)

Do you remove the wet every time? or just once a week? If so does that mean you don't disturb the bed at all just remove the droppings??
Click to expand...

I remove droppings twice daily and dig the wet patches out at weekends and top up with fresh pellets. I try not to disturb the bed too much. Once the bed is established, you don't need to soak newly-added pellets.
 
1) With wooden pellets how much water do you use to make the expand?
I put in half a bucket of water for 10kg bag and 3/4 of a bucket for 15kg bag, i cut a cross in the top of the bag and pour water in with bag on stable floor

2) how deep is your bedding with out matts (saving up for some)
I have no matts and bed is about 6 inches deep

3)how do you go about adding more bedding? Do you just add the dry pellets or soak them first?
as per 1)

4) Are they as cost effective as people say?
If you use them properly, i used 1 or two bags a week at roughly £3.00 per bag, but expensive to set up (I put in 12 bags to start)

5)do you take out the wet every day or leave it and just take the droppings once a week?
I take poo pout every day and wet out once a week (get roughly a wheelbarrow out with the wet)
 
thanks for the reply again :) editing my post as I didn't see the new replies come in!

if you do not always need to soak then do you just sprinkle them through?

Where is the best place to get the pellets from?

How does the wooden pellets compare with aubiose which I have also heard is good?
 
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Oohs have fun with your new boy!

I use wood pellets for both mine (they are on rubber matting) and do one semi deep litter and the other full muck out each day.

For semi deep litter I just take out wet as it appears....I have the bed fairly thick because it's for my old boy and it's great because it become a really nice deep, non slip bed for him when he lies down.

Now madam is another matter! I'm sure she is just a bladder on legs! I take out her wee patch everyday. Thankfully she does it all in a line at the back. I have minimal bedding in hers, thinish covering on about half the matting.

You'll have to play around with what suits best. For your boy. I do soak the pellets for her but only ever sprinkle half bag (dry) or so over his bed. To soak I just empty the bag in the corner and tipper water bucket over it and leave for a few mins.

I do think it saves money in the long run, especially if you buy by the pallet load. One pallet lasts me 7-8 months. Also saves on labour as there is minimal waste. I can fill one barrow between the two when they have been in overnight in the winter ( and our muck heap is a fair treck away.
 
I love woodpellets, I used to work on a yard where I'd muck out 20 in the morning, then skip them all out again at night.

When I bought my TB (box walker) I tried everything but ended up back on wood pellets, he ended up with a 6ft x 3ft section of wood pellets at the back and thick mats throughout it was the only way to keep his bed managable. People laughed at it then saw the mess he could make and realised why I did it.

This is my (new) stable with 6 bags of pellets, I put them in and then added some water as I didn't want them fully hydrated yet as she's living out at the moment, I used to use a watering can to add water evenly to the bed (a drop of lavender essential oil in the water make it smell lovely!) and at work we used to empty the bags into a wheelbarrow and redistribute like that:

FCF89EB8-D556-4E75-8EC6-AD4EB5BE54A6_zpsawlrpoif.jpg


NB: This stable is for my 13.2hh pony so that should be enough space for her and I have three rubber mats underneath
 
I've been using wood pellets for a number of years now (Five Star and Aquamax - I tried many of the others but prefer these two brands). I do have rubber mats but still put a full bed down which will be about 8" deep. To start with a empty a bag into a wheelbarrow and use the hose to add water - it is surprising how much it does take but I put some water in, mix the pellets around and go back in 5 minutes or so to see if they need more water and repeat as necessary.

I have nine to do so I skip out the droppings and dig any wet out that comes to the surface and then every few months I dig most of the wet out. In winter I tend to use between 1 - 2 15kg bags per week and I tend to put one in soaked and one in dry. The dry one goes where that particular horse seems to pee the most.

In summer I probably only put 1 bag in every four weeks or so (they are only in for about 5 hours a day).

I don't use banks as I find that I just used a lot of bedding and to be honest unless you build really big, solid banks they won't stop a horse getting cast.
 
Great advice from everyone :) Very interesting subject , I have never used pellets. Have to say though, I am old school and whatever bedding I use, I always, always go for a big solid bank due to it being drummed into me when growing up - by my father who was in the Royal Horse Guards, our "head lad" who had worked for Col. Harry Llewelyn and an old family friend who had lost his beloved steeplechaser when he was cast in his box.... well and truly drummed in (many years ago, but it stuck), so I prefer to use extra for the bank to keep my horses safe.
Everyone has their own ideas and I judge no-one. I look forward to hearing how the well the pellets are doing
Teg :)
 
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