Alternatives to Shavings

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dieseldog

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My horse is currently on shavings with rubber mats. She has a cough so even though I much prefer straw I can't use it. I absolutely hate using shavings as it is so messy and wet (with her anyway)

So could I have some recommendations as to other dust free alternatives please?

Our local merchant stocks Bliss, does anyone use that at all?

Thank you very much
 
http://www.ecowoodfuels.co.uk/
Almost exactly the same as aquamax but only costs £3.50ish per bag if you buy a pallet which includes delivery. We now use it in the vast majority of our boxes at hme and it's pretty good stuff, very easy and quick to muck out and wastes hardly anything.
 
JM07 tried out some Scandewegian peaty stuff. Not sure if she is still on it but it was amazing, no dust and sucked up wet like a sponge. Worth picking her brains.
 
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http://www.ecowoodfuels.co.uk/
Almost exactly the same as aquamax but only costs £3.50ish per bag if you buy a pallet which includes delivery. We now use it in the vast majority of our boxes at hme and it's pretty good stuff, very easy and quick to muck out and wastes hardly anything.

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This stuff isn't supposed to be bedding? How did you get the idea to use it?
 
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http://www.ecowoodfuels.co.uk/
Almost exactly the same as aquamax but only costs £3.50ish per bag if you buy a pallet which includes delivery. We now use it in the vast majority of our boxes at hme and it's pretty good stuff, very easy and quick to muck out and wastes hardly anything.

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This stuff isn't supposed to be bedding? How did you get the idea to use it?

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Any little way to save money!! We used Aquamax for a couple of months and quite liked it but it's expensive and someone suggested this stuff- it's virtually the same, when it gets wet it swells and the pellets turn into a really soft bedding. When you put fresh in you dampen it down. Then you just skip it out for roughly a week when you clear out the wet bits too. We prob use 3 bags per week in each half bed.
 
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Oooo, thats really interesting. Does it rot down quickly? How much water do you sprinkle on to it?

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Its very eonomical on the muck heap as you dont need to take much out. We tend to put enough water on to just soften the pellets, too much and it doesnt absorb much urine before needing clearing out.
 
I used Aquamax in the past and it was just too expensive. Saying that I'm getting thru 2 bags of shaving a week at the moment and she is only stood on it at night
frown.gif
 
Flax. It's brilliant if the beds are full bedsand are done every day but I find that deep littering it with very wet horses makes the bed go really wet and rank.
 
i've just moved to a yard that uses flax and it's great. I've always been an obssesive mucker-outer but flax is great if you're short on time and want something that with withstand substandard mucking out. I just take out the worst of the droppings and level off the bed, and then occasionally i dig around and take some wet out form underneath, and the bed is really firm and dry on the top. My horse is the filthiest creature I've ever had but I literally spend no more than 5 minutes a day doing his bed whereas on shavings it was taking a good 20mins.
 
I have horses kept on he following bedding! Cant believe how/why I used woodshavings for years when these are so much easier!

Bedrap is really good (made from chopped rape straw) and the same as Bliss Bedding- only use 1 bale a horse per week to top up and its completely dust free.

JoPack/ Equisorb Flax bedding is fab as well (maybe a bit more absorbent) .

With both types of bedding we skip out every day and just atke the wet out once a week. Really time saving and they have nice deep beds too!
 
Thats what I'll be using JoPack, and I'll do the same, skip out in the week and then clear the wet out at the weekend.

The Warwickshire College use Jopack for all their horses, think there must be 120, including college horses and liveries.
 
I use recycled chopped corrugated cardboard, much better and cheaper than shavings, rots on muck heap to compost very quickly. It is produced by disabled group (Carlisle) but know this is happening in other parts of the country
 
i use cushion bed. very fine wood chips. all our yard is on it and liveries love it.
the bed holds really well, with minimum mucking out time, no smells and absorbs wet really well. no dust either.
cheap too at around £3.50 a bag.
saved on my bedding bills with our 5.
i would deffinatly recmmend it to anyone.
 
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