Advice on bedding for a big mucky boy

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jenmob

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Having given up on straw this year due to the quality I decided to try my new boy on wood pellets (the ones you soak until they partially break up). He is 16.3 in a 13x12 stable with mats. I put 8 bags down to begin with an had a super bed, 6 weeks down the line it's like a ploughed field and i just can't keep it clean and dry. The pellets are very absorbent and completely dust free but his bed has become damp and disgusting. He's out all day and in at night but I'm still using 2-3 bags a week (at nearly a fiver a bag)! As soon as I put fresh ones down they disappear into the mulch in no time. Can anyone suggest anything better otherwise i may have to go back to straw.
 
I couldnt cope with them very well for my Tb either, she would box walk and spread it all into yuk and I'd end up throwing the whole lot out. They were dusty as hell too. She was great on shavings though, but remove the solids as soon as you see them and make the bed nice and deep, 6 bags, remove the wet every 2 days. Hth's
 
I have a shire filly that is in a 14 x 12 stable she has a generous straw bed that is the best for her. Its taken a few weeks to get to know where she poos / wees in the stable and she has a tendancy to poo in her water and feed bowls occasionally so I have had to rearrange where they go. This week I decided to be less fussy about mucking her out and I've found that if I just take out the poo and the obvious wet areas it's much less time. I top up her bed every day with fresh straw anything from half to a whole bale. I think I must use 4 a week. At the weekend I muck her out properly but today she was'nt too bad and I only had to put 1 bale in as I had built up a fair amount of straw through the week. It still works out at about £10 a week for bedding but I guess thats the price for a big girl (and growing)
 
I have always preferred shavings as nice and easy to muck out and soak up the wet well, however my current girl tries to eat them so I had to go to straw which I like because she has a nice big bed and can snack on it if she runs out of hay. I don't find it soaks the wet up though so have started putting a thin layer of shavings under the straw. Works a treat so far and I am using about 1 bale of shavings every 3 weeks approx and about 2 bales of straw a week.
 
Exactly the same prob as I had when I first got my mare. She was on rubber mats with a minimal amount of shavings down. Each morning her stable looked as if someone had thrown the muckheap in and hosed it down in there. It was disgusting and completely un-doable.

I have scrapped the rubber mat idea, and she has been on deep litter shavings for two years now. Absolutely fantastic and wouldn't try anything else again. She is the muckiest mare going but by using a deep litter bed I am spending a lot less, saving a lot of time, and her bed looks gleaming clean and dry all the time! :)
 
There are brands of shavings that are more absorbent. I have a seriously mucky boy we keep on small flake shavings. Just a thin skin bed over good rubber matting. The whole floor is wet every morning - but it takes 10 minutes to scoop it all up into the barrow and chuck down a new bed from the banks. Fastest horse I have ever had to muck out as there is no sorting wet from dry. The lot comes out!
 
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