Absorbant and warm bedding needed!

[RolyPolyPony]

i have a 26yr old WBxTB who is disgusting in the stable! He is one of the wettest horses I've ever known and his straw bed just isn't soaking up the urine (causing a very smelly stable!) I am going through around 4 - 6 bales of straw a week so I need to find a bedding that is both absorbant and warm (he REALLY feels the cold!) which will hopefully cut back on the amount of bedding I use. He is on rubber matting so i obviously know this makes the stables a little warmer than if he was on the concrete. Any suggestions welcome!

 

[Tammytoo]

Megazorb is very, very absorbant. To get the best from it you need to bed it pretty deep and use a deep litter system. Pick out the poohs every day and once a week dig out the wet. Because it is so absorbant the wet is very heavy but picking out the wet once a day is wasteful as it keeps on absorbing even though it looks quite damp.

The downside is because of its absorbancy it can get slightly dusty in summer, but I just used to water it as necessary with a watering can.

 

[claribella]

I was on straw but my girl was just too messy and wet for it. It would take me ages to muck out every day and I'd be taking practically everything out. A friend of mine told me about her farmer friend who was selling big bags of cut straw for just three quid. I thought I'd give it a go and I've never looked back. It is fantastic and sooo cheap. For some reason it's much more absorbant than long straw. I go through a bag a week and tend to just remove the poo and very wet stuff each day and do a full clean out every monday. I'm not sure but one of my friends at the yard likened it to a bedding which is quite expensive and as I write this I can't put my finger on what its called!! How annoying! It might be worth seeing if you can source it locally.

The other thing one of the girls do at my yard is combine shaving with dust which she's get free from a local chipper.

 

[fatpiggy]

Aubiose for me every time. You just poo pick through the week and dig out the really wet patch once a week (1 barrow and my horse does like to wee) so it very slowly and gently decomposes at the base as the damp spreads, providing under-floor heating. It packs down to something like cork at the bottom so isn't easily dug through by those who like to have a roll or dig about. Banks well and is incredibly economical. Pick the poos up with a fork (preferably an aubiose fork), give it a shake and 99% of the bedding drops off so wastage is minimal. I only use half a bale a week. If you gave me free bedding I'd still pay out and buy aubiose - that's how highly I rate it.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Aubiose for me too, tho I mix it with wood pellets to keep the cost down. Mind you for all the price per bale of Aubiose looking a lot, I use soooooo much less bedding with aubiose that for me it works out cheaper than straw. Horse (big hunter) a lot lot happier too, he can lie down to sleep where he likes now, before he struggled not to be on a wet patch (straw) or kicked the mucky stuff everywhere (shavings).

It rots down really quickly too into fantastic black compost.