Bedding costs

Pony 14.1hh connemara, straw bed, approx £5-6 per week. Semi deep litter, take out some wet every day and more once a week but dont throw the bed back and empty it.
 
£6 a week. I pay £18 for a tonne (or so) delivery of shavings/sawdust from the local timber place which lasts 3 weeks. It's the best thing I've found for him. Straw he eats (and would probably go through 3 bales a week) and wood pellets are fab but at £70 to set up the bed plus another bag (£4) every 5 days it's not so economical. I deep litter him, his bed is approx 11ftx9ft and a good 2-3" deep (although it compresses so when I first lay it, it's more like 5"). He's 15.1hh cob who is revolting, sopping wet!
 
I have an IDxCob mare who is 15.2hh, she's in at night and out in the day (goes out at about 8 and comes in about 4). She's on rubber mats and easibed with sawdust on top. I go through about a bale of easibed per week and hardly any sawdust, maybe an 8th of a bag, if that. A bale of easibed is about £7 I think and sawdust is £6 if I remember correctly, so it'd probably average out at about £7.75 ish per week for her bedding :) I used to have her on shavings and used about the same, if not more per week but it was a bit more expensive :)
 
£20/month . . . for straw grown on the farm, fixed cost, can use as much as I like.

16.2hh sporthorse gelding - very, very messy boy. Decent-sized stable, no rubber mats. In at night (from about 4.30 p.m. until 8.30 a.m.) and out during the day.

I deep litter during the week . . . just remove the poos and top up with clean . . . and then dig out the wet at the weekend. His bed is probably a good 8-10 inches deep with huuuuuge banks . . . nice and cozy/warm.

P

Edited to add . . . when he was at former yard, he was on flax (Hippofan) and he's so dirty that I probably ended up spending a good £20/week on bedding
 
I use shavings. I use a bag a week. He is a 15.1 Welsh cob, he comes in at night. Think its a case of trying things and seeing what suits your horse though. Oh and i muck out completely every day.
 
I use a wood pellet base under shavings. Skip out daily and take any wet that's come up to the surface out weekly. I'm paying £7.40 every week for a bale of shavings and then £3 a bag for the wood pellets as and when I use them. It was initially set up with 5 bags of pellets as the base and I probably put an average of a new bag of pellets in every 3 or 4 weeks so say £8.40 a week.
 
I use shavings, my horse is 17hh and I deep litter her with a full muck out once a week. Each bale is £8.95 and I use about 5 a month. My horse is very clean though
 
I use shavings pay approx £6 for a bale and use about 2 bales a week. My horse is 16hh messy mare. & I fully muck out everyday ( bit OCD about mucking out )
 
I use wood pellets by it by the ton pallet = £245 in 10kg bags, I added 12 bags to start with then 1 per week so £2.45 /week.

She is a 15.2 mare (quite wet) in at night in a 12x12 stable on rubber mats, I do a full muck out everyday I'm quite OCD about a nice clean bed :D
 
I use shavings, I buy a pallet of 42 bales each time & I think they work out at around £6.60 - £6.70 per bale (Natural Flake). I'm ordering another pallet load tomorrow. I have 2 horses & usually use 3 bales a week between them. The price fluctuates so I'm hoping it will have decreased when I order tomorrow.........but I doubt it. :(
 
Straw bed that is very big and full mucked out daily. On oat straw as not dusty at all and use 2 - 3 bales a week @£2 a bale. So between £4-£6 a week - much cheaper than shavings which was costing me £18-£27 a week!!
 
For 2 horses on straw I spend £8 a week putting in two small bales in each (£2 a bale). Last winter they were both on shavings, they're very messy also and cost me £26 a week for 2 bales each a week (£6.50 a bale). Both have big, deep beds on matting.
 
A mucky mare, 16.1, stabled every night. Just a small corner of stable of bed otherwise I go through 3-4 bags a week.

Atm I just top her small bed up every night or every other night with a few handfuls of shavings. Keeps the bed relatively clean without spending a fortune on bedding. I now go through 3 bales a month, about £20 worth. I used to go through 3-4 a week on a big bed for her.
 
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For a very clean 14.2hh mare in a 12ft sq stable, who does churn up the bed at all I use Easy Pack Miscanthus and loving it!

I put 5 bales down to start the bed, and then am adding a further bale on average every 3 weeks!

It draws the wet downwards so no wet patches and no smell either


It wasn't so good for my extremely soggy Shetland though who has an 8ft x 6 ft stable. I've tried him on deep litter Easy Pack but was having to take the whole bed out after 3 days, so then did a thinner bed and proper muck out each day but was using almost a bale of the stuff a week just for him!

The EP with straw on top worked a lot better but I've now run out of straw so he's on shredded newspaper and that's working REALLY well. Two scoops to pick up the poo and one scoop for the clod of wet paper and he's done!

A bale of newspaper will last him about a month!
 
Up until now I've used wood pellets, £210 a ton as I collect which have lasted from early November for 5 - 6 horses that are only in at night, semi deep littered with mats as well. Now I'm down to 4 (yippee!) I didn't need a ton to last, spring's not far away until turnout so have gone for a local brand of micanthus to top the beds up. Bad mistake for me. They smell nicer I do admit but take twice as long to muck out, I've gone back to using a skip and gloves which is playing havoc on my back. Next autumn I'll certainly be back to pellets both for cost, effectiveness and to save my back.
 
I use Shavings, usually 2 bales a week at £6.50 per bale. I remember the days when they were £5 a bale (about 4 years ago!!) :eek: My mares quite clean though and is mucked out completely everday + skipped out once or twice a day aswell. I can get bedding for free but i like the smell of the shavings :p
 
I have eight horses in my care. Two of them only use one bag of wood pellets a week. Two of them use four. They are all on rubber matting and get fully mucked out every day. It makes a huge difference how wet, mucky and messy they are, as the two that only use one bag a week have lovely white beds, and the messy bu**ers beds look more of a brown colour despite having more than twice the number of bags of bedding used and cmpletely mucked out daily. One horse is so bad he has the whole bed completely removed and brand new put in every day!
 
£7.60 per week. Horse is 17.1, bedded on a full bed of shavings over rubber matting. He's very clean and always pees in the same spot, and has one heap of poo at the back so on a daily basis I just take all that out and turn the middle of the bed, then at weekends take down the banks and turn the lot (not because it needs it, but otherwise I find mice nesting in there!)

He uses one bag of shavings per week.
 
I have one on wood pellets on rubber matting. He costs me nothing as I acquired everything with him.
The other 2 are on straw. 1 deep littered, 1 semi-deep littered (mucked out at weekends) I use 2 bales of straw for them a week- £1.50 a bale.
So for 3 horses my bedding cost is £3 a week :)
 
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