Aubiose or myscanthus

Sanversera

Sanversera

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My horses live out mostly,have the occasional night in during filthy weather but come in during the day for me to groom ride or just dry if very wet,so usually not in for more than eight hours maximum. My stables have rubber mats with a couple of bales of shavings in the middle for them to lie down on or to catch urine. This works well but even dust extracted shavings are actually quite dusty. I am wondering if miscanthus or hemp would be better in this regard, what I don't want to do is put down a deep litter bed,aubiose seems good on absorbancy but reading the info it seems that a deep litter system is recommended.does anyone use either hemp or miscanthus on rubber mats just a couple of bags in the middle and is it as dust free and absorbant as the manufacturer says?
 
miscanthus can vary quite a lot, sometimes it is quite 'stalky' but I've never found it dusty, we used it on top of mayo mats but as a full bed still as Frank needed banks (prone to rolling).
Aubiose I use indoors for the guinea pigs in part because it isn't very dusty and doesn't have any residual smell, it clumps when wet, I don't think I could ever justify the price for the horses 🤣
 
I found wood pellets more absorbent than aubiose, but they were too dusty for my pony with breathing issues. Aubiose is ok for her but I do deep litter and I make sure any new bales have time to settle before she comes in.
 
I use Aubiose on rubbber mats on one of my stables. I do a wet muck out once a week and just do droppings daily. I like it and find it pretty absorbent compared to shavings. Drys Tali’s legs nicely over night. I do a proper bed though as they are in overnight.
 
Miscanthus really made me cough when I put a new bale in. I use rape straw and prefer it over miscanthus. It’s a bit cheaper than Aubiose/hemp. I do put some wood or straw pellets in wet patch. I tend to semi-deep litter. One horse is very wet and I take his out every other day and the other can go a week. I only run the whole bed down in the summer when they’re out mostly.
 
Second Sussexbytge sea, always used Easipack miscanthus, but it suddenly started really making me cough. Swapped to Aubiose and really rate it! It is expensive initially, but you actually use far less of it, so it works out more economical. It also packs down and makes a very stable base, ideal for my oldie who dragged shavings and easipack around so it looked like it had been ploughed!
 
I've gone with myscanthus. It's proving to be a good choice. And farmer is happy as it rots down on the muck heap better than shavings. He'd prefer it if I used straw but myscanthus it is.
 
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