Anyone use hemp bedding?

[vicky86]

Same as title really. Is it east to use? How may times do you remove the wet bedding? When you remove the wet is it a big job? More or less cost effective than shavings? Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[miss_c]

I use Aubiose, which is hemp.

I remove the wet once a week, and take out about 1 1/2 wheelbarrows of poo and wet. On the other days I just take half to three-quarters of a wheelbarrow of poo. (My mare poo's for Wales)

For me it's more cost effective than shavings. I put in one bale of aubiose a week, whereas I was using two of shavings, so although it costs more per bale I am saving money overall.

Hope that helps! I'm very lucky in that my mare poo's in one place as opposed to all over the stable.

 

[fatpiggy]

Yep, I've used it for more than 10 years - fabulous stuff. Set your bed up, water it well and leave a while before you stick the horse in then off you go. Resist the urge to poke about in it and it will make a layer like cork at the base which stabilizes the bed and keeps the horse safely off the floor. You should be able to leave the new bed at least a week before any wet needs taking out, more like 10 days. I use half a bale a week in the winter when my old girl is in at night, out during the day. I pick up the poos every morning, tidy up and that's it. At weekends I comb all the loose stuff back, locate the wet patch's margins, dig it out (1 barrow at worst), put all the bed back down, add the half bale and its all done and dusted in 30 minutes. It is worth locating a proper aubiose fork btw. Expensive but brilliant pieces of engineering and my current one is 6 years old (its predecessor got broken - not by me). It will do any type of bedding too. My girl used to be on shavings and I easily got through 2 bales a week plus I have a bad back and even when saturated, hemp is much lighter plus there is very little smell as it deodorizes. If you gave me free shavings, I'd still put my hand in my pocket and buy aubiose. Thats how much I rate it. It does get stained looking and doesn't look gleaming white all week, plus it is so absorbant that it will draw water from the atmosphere on damp days, so the surface can feel a bit damp, but horses quite happily lie on sodden ground in the field, and they don't worry about having immaculate looking beds. As it gently rots at the base, it provides under-floor heating for the horse which you can feel if you dig your hand down a bit. Oh yes, and because you use so little, the muck heap is much smaller too. I take bucketfulls home to add to my compost heap - the spuds love it!

 

[vicky86]

Thanks both of you. Really useful information, I am definatley going to give it ago. I have got 6 to muck out mon-fri but only 3 on weekends so it sounds ideal as when I have more to do in the week I can just skip it out and on weekends take the wet out. Four are on full straw and it will only be 2 of mine that will go on it but still sounds like it would save time

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

I also use Aubiose (I combine with wood pellets to save ££ too, that works well) and wish I had done it years ago, it takes me half an hour to do each stable including water buckets, feeds and hay, it used to take hours with shavings or straw. Brilliant stuff, and despite the bale cost looking expensive (although not so much now shavings have gone up so much!) I use a lot less, 1 bale a week (with 1 of wood pellets) as opposed to 3 bales of horrid shavings. And thats doing a fairly full muck out every day, which I know isnt the optimal way to do it but Im a bit of a perfectionist where stables are concerned.

oh and the smell is Lovely, like forest floor.

My horses lie in much more varied places which tells me they are happy now they arent lieing on damp patches like they used to.

And it doesnt stick to everything which horrid straw and shavings do.

 

[lisab]

I love Aubiose. Don't like Hemcore - too hard and has funny little bunny tail balls of fluff in it. I mix the odd bale of shavings in with the Aubiose to break the surface up a bit so I can't see all the little tiny bits of poo that make me go all OCD and spend hours removing. It's brill and you use far less than shavings.