Bedding recommendations?

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Ind

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Hello, I was just wondering whether anyone could recommend some good bedding options/brands, preferably something similar to woodshavings? For a gelding, not too messy, and has been on grass livery, out 24/7, for last 2/3 years.
Ideally something fairly cost friendly, that will last, and is easy to muck out. I have the option of buying shavings from new yard, but they're fairly pricey, so I'm thinking about buying in separately.
Oh, I'm in North Yorkshire so if anyone could recommend suppliers that would be great! Thank you!
 
Ive been on wood chip for years as it is cheap (£4 for 25kg if bought from a heating supplier) but it doesn't rot down very quickly. It is however really easy to muck out and you find that you really do only take out the poo and wet, and can shake off all the clean.

I've recently switched to chopped rape straw and love it! It mucks out almost as well as wood chip, but is much more absorbent and rots down quicker. It's £6.60 (with bargaining) for a 25kg bag if you buy a pallet load. I use Bedwell as it is chopped finer than the other brands. I've used Alto and Bliss but find, as well as being more expensive, they are also chopped chunkier making it more difficult to muck out - you end up taking out lots of clean as its too chunky to separate through a shavings fork.

Bedwell is my winner by a mile - it's also treated with essential oils, I think citronella and eucalyptus so is good for respiratory issues and keeping flies off :) also makes it unpalatable so they don't eat it.
 
I use Snowflake Softchip for one of mine, its £7.20 a bale and makes a decent bed that you can muck out with a shavings fork very easily
 
Cheapest and quickest would be wood pellets. In find the Five Star Professional (from Eden Wood Products) and Platinum Plus (from White Horse Energy) are probably your best bet for price -v- performance. Both will deliver a pallet load.
 
EQUIDAE said:
Ive been on wood chip for years as it is cheap (£4 for 25kg if bought from a heating supplier) but it doesn't rot down very quickly. It is however really easy to muck out and you find that you really do only take out the poo and wet, and can shake off all the clean.

I've recently switched to chopped rape straw and love it! It mucks out almost as well as wood chip, but is much more absorbent and rots down quicker. It's £6.60 (with bargaining) for a 25kg bag if you buy a pallet load. I use Bedwell as it is chopped finer than the other brands. I've used Alto and Bliss but find, as well as being more expensive, they are also chopped chunkier making it more difficult to muck out - you end up taking out lots of clean as its too chunky to separate through a shavings fork.

Bedwell is my winner by a mile - it's also treated with essential oils, I think citronella and eucalyptus so is good for respiratory issues and keeping flies off :) also makes it unpalatable so they don't eat it.
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Thank you! Bedwell does sound good, I'll definitely have a look into it!
 
I get my woodchip from a local supplier, but for branded makes I quite like Easybed. However my favourite has to be Lay-soft, but there aren't any suppliers near me and I don't have enough storage to buy by the pallet x
 
Over the years we've used straw, shavings (too expensive now), woodchip (really heavy to use), rape stalk (messy & non absorbent) etc but over the last few years we've used wood pellets. We have the Platinum pellets from White Horse Energy & when you buy a pallet load it works out at £3.62p per 15kg bag. The horses keep cleaner, very absorbent, it's quick to muck out & keeps the size of the muck heap down. You must have a smooth level smooth concrete surface for the pallet to be dropped onto at the driver uses a pallet truck to move the load about. Can't move them about on gravel, scalpings etc.

We've found it's easier to manage the stables & we save a lot on time & money with the pellets. :)
 
I use wood pellets and normally pay £270/tonne but got some last week for £209/tonne. It came in bigger bags too so was quicker to put down. I wouldnt use anything else tbh.
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
Over the years we've used straw, shavings (too expensive now), woodchip (really heavy to use), rape stalk (messy & non absorbent) etc but over the last few years we've used wood pellets. We have the Platinum pellets from White Horse Energy & when you buy a pallet load it works out at £3.62p per 15kg bag. The horses keep cleaner, very absorbent, it's quick to muck out & keeps the size of the muck heap down. You must have a smooth level smooth concrete surface for the pallet to be dropped onto at the driver uses a pallet truck to move the load about. Can't move them about on gravel, scalpings etc.

We've found it's easier to manage the stables & we save a lot on time & money with the pellets. :)
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Thank you! That's very useful to know. A couple of others have recommended wood pellets so it's one I'll definitely look into. :)
 
Toffee44 said:
The bedwell bedding is called Equinola. You can get it in Scats/
Mole Valley.

If horse is very wet I mix with flax bedding.

Used for 2 winters now.
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Great, thanks for letting me know. And glad to hear that it's something that can last through winter! I'm deciding between this and wood pellets...
 
Sheep said:
I use chopped straw too, it is treated so they don't eat it cos its basically chaff! Ideally I'd use shavings, but they are too pricy - I pay 4.25 per bale of chopped straw.
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Wow, that's such a good price!! I was looking at paying nearly £8 per bale of shavings so this sounds great...! :)
 
Does anyone know where I can buy the equinola bedding in Yorkshire?? Or is there somewhere that can deliver it in bulk? Thank you!
 
Quite happy with Aquamax Pellets:
http://www.aquamax.co.uk/index.php

Found them much better than Verdo Pellets, very absorbent. Whereas with Verdo, the bed would be full of hard, wet patches after one night, the Aquamax seems to hold the urine in small little patch, which can scraped/raked into the rest of the bedding without it getting at all manky.
 
Ind said:
Does anyone know where I can buy the equinola bedding in Yorkshire?? Or is there somewhere that can deliver it in bulk? Thank you!
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This is their site. Im sure if you email them they can give you a list of suppliers in your area.

Instructions for use are on there too. It is true that for a 12x14 stable you will only need 4 bales - I used 5 for a 16x12. I use 1 bale top up a week and take out the wet every 3Rd day - works better this way as it clumps and comes out in a solid piece :) as long as you keep the top clean it doesn't seem to mix with the wet.

Just for comparison when I used wood chip and wood pellets both took 8 bags to do a stable and I topped up with two a week. Equinola Bedwell seems to go a long way :)
http://www.bedwellbedding.co.uk/horse.html
 
EQUIDAE said:
This is their site. Im sure if you email them they can give you a list of suppliers in your area.

Instructions for use are on there too. It is true that for a 12x14 stable you will only need 4 bales - I used 5 for a 16x12. I use 1 bale top up a week and take out the wet every 3Rd day - works better this way as it clumps and comes out in a solid piece :) as long as you keep the top clean it doesn't seem to mix with the wet.

Just for comparison when I used wood chip and wood pellets both took 8 bags to do a stable and I topped up with two a week. Equinola Bedwell seems to go a long way :)
http://www.bedwellbedding.co.uk/horse.html
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Thank you!! I think I am going to go with the equinola. :)
 
EQUIDAE, do you basically do a deep litter with it? This is what the website seems to be saying you should do.
 
I use Comfy Bed Plus, 24 kg bales of shavings with a small amount of woodchip in there to. Really good bedding and I pay 5.90 ish a bale delivered for a pallet of 42 and I order from a Company called Woldlink who are based in Louth, but they use haulage company to deliver (I am in Peterborough).
 
Ind said:
EQUIDAE, do you basically do a deep litter with it? This is what the website seems to be saying you should do.
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I wouldn't say deep litter as such but it does seem to work better if you only take the wet out every 2nd or 3rd day. If I'm feeling enthusiastic (which having 5 rarely happens) then I take the wet out every day. Leaving it a few days though seems to allow it to pack together and it comes out in a lump, rather than getting mixed with clean.
 
I love chapelstones thirstybed. They are wood pellets that are designed specifically as horse bedding and not as log burning fuel so are super absorbent. It gives a lovely fluffy light coloured bed and a little goes a long way.
 
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