bedding options questions

[clairefeekerry1]

my gelding is pretty messy. i took the rubber mats out few weeks ago as the stable floor isnt that even and pools of yuk wee was gathering underneath them and was really horrid and rancid. i use straw as its readily available at a good price where i am and i do quite like the traditional big beds, esp as i have taken the rubber matting away. it just takes me forever to muck out tho and it stinks so was thinking of putting a layer of shavings or pellets underneath the straw bed to soak up the wee bit more so then i can just lift the straw bed and clean the pellets or shavings away. at the moment i either take loads and loads of straw out or spend ages sifting thru it for wet and dry bits! anyone tried this?? was looking at maybe that white horse bed pellets? looked quite reasonably priced given that i wouldnt be using it as a main bedding?

 

[ISHmad]

We stick shredded paper underneath straw and it works well as it catches the wee.

 

[Ali2]

Pellets -I'm a convert! I use with shavings though.

My friend uses pellets under straw. She makes a good base of pellets with 5-7 bags then puts clean straw on top. She poo picks and takes out dirty straw daily, topping up straw as needed to keep the top dry and the pellets stay down until they can soak up no more (many weeks) then are changed. Her beds are much better like this - much cleaner and far less smelly - they used to stink but are OK now.

 

[chestnut cob]

We have just changed to something like Easibed (wood shavings but not fluffy like Thoroughbred shavings we did have, more like wood chip) and it's fantastic. YO can't get normal shavings any more. I have tried quite a few beddings over the years. I like straw if you can do a full muck out every day but I wouldn't put rubber mats underneath it, just at the front for the horse to stand on. I'd pull the bed up every day to dry and put lime down to dry the concrete properly. I quite like wood pellets and sometimes put them on top of my wet shavings base (I deep litter) to help dry it out a bit, works well. I've recently invested in some rubber mats for the front half of my stable, sticking with deep litter shavings at the back and now the fresh bedding on top is the wood chip stuff which is fantastic. It has really dried the bed out and if the wet does come through at all, it just dries into a little clump which I can remove quickly. Much easier than shavings and seems to be more absorbent. I took him away for a weekend in the autumn and the place he stayed at had Snowflake down (cheap version of Easibed) - also fantastic. My horse is disgustingly wet, which is why I deep litter otherwise I'd take at least a bale of wet out every day, and so far wood chip seems to be the best for him.