Bedding - starting out from nothing - what would you use?

nikicb

nikicb

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Just about to start keeping my horses at home. Please give me your pros/cons on non-straw bedding. I will be having rubber matting put down in the stables. Horses/ponies will be in at night, out in the day. Would like to try to be reasonably environmentally friendly and keep muck heap to a minimum as will need to pay to have it taken away. Your ideas/suggestions please..... Thanks!! :)
 
Ours are out 24/7, so we use a minimal of shavings in our one stable which has occasional use, as we have a bag or two in stock for the chickens.

I will say that it's well worth letting people know they're welcome to a bag or two of horse poo whenever they like, our neighbour took a large trailer full, and four or five others have taken half a dozen bags each, so after 7 months of 2 ponies at home our new muck heap is only about 5 barrow fulls worth!
 
Liverpool Wood Pellets !!! We converted our whole yard to them and we hardly put anything in the muck heap which keeps our YO happy. Cheap as well and they don't smell.
 
Thanks everyone. Very interested in the wood pellet idea, but have never seen any let alone used them. Would love more information on what they are like and differences in terms of management to shavings.

Dubsie, thanks for your tip on neighbours etc. I was going to keep a separate pile from the poo picking to rot down for use on the garden and offer around. Presumably this will be better than having all the bedding mixed in or would it be better to keep it all together?
 
I have rubber mats down and have just changed from shavings to Auboise. Much prefer auboise now as it is a heavier bedding so clean bedding just falls through shavings fork, i find i waste much less bedding. Also smaller wet patches, not sure why they just are!! Maybe because shavings are lighter and fluffier and wet absorbs into more of it (this may be rubbish but just IMO!!!) It also doesnt move around as much as shavings. Only thing with auboise is it doesnt look as comfy as shavings as it is heavier and lies flatter, but if you can get past this it is really good. Same price as shavings too.
 
Another for wood pellets here. I've used them for two years and wouldn't go back to anything else (except straw when foaling down) actually skipped out two shavings beds this weekend for a friend and it reminded me why I'd never change from pellets!
 
I keep mine at home and use a deep litter system with Easibed or Nedz Beds. Droppings from stable and paddock are bagged and left at the gate and taken by neighbours, the wet bedding I make into a muck heap and leave for a year or two, by which time it makes good organic matter for gardens, so the gardeners help themselves to that too!
 
Wood Pellets - used them for the first time last winter and they are the best bedding for a very piddly clydesdale I can find, with the far cleaner Stinky, they are also excellent. I saved about 50% on bedding last year by using them instead of megazorb and shavings and they are very easy and quick to do, plus they rot down far quicker than other types of bedding.
 
another vote for auboise really good bed easy to muck out and tiny,tiny muck heap and good for land gives back doesn't take. I can't wait to get back onto it after foaling down on straw, costs a lot to start bed but very cheap to keepup just off to order some to restart put old bedding in field shelter and it looked like new.
 
Thanks everyone - the last time I did my own horses was 20 years ago and so much has changed - feed, bedding, tools!!!

With the wood pellets, can you still build banks which will stay put? I do prefer to have banks round the edge but when I've looked at various wood pellet suppliers websites the beds are all flat.
 
Megazorb! Brilliant stuff. We use straw now, as it is included in the livery costs, but have previously negotiated pricing of Megazorb down to £3.70 per bag, based on a pallet of 60 bags.

When it is wet, it clumps together like cat litter - very easy to muck out and very economical.

http://www.northerncropdriers.co.uk/megazorb.htm

I think the challenge tends to be in finding a stockist...
 
I'm another one who'd recommend wood pellets.

But rather than burn the waste I would suggest making a wormery to turn it into mega compost really quickly. The worms reduce the volume of the muckheap by 80% (so instead of a 1000kg, 200kg!), the compost is ready to use and really good for the garden.

We used pellets last year (can't remember the supplier I'm afraid) which cost about £3 a bag, and we bought a ton. they lasted until about 3 weeks ago (2 horses on deep litter november to april, in at night and out during the day apart from a few days when it snowed.) Worked out, for us, the same as using straw cost-wise, but much less dust, smaller heap and soooo much easier to muck out once you get used to them.
 
bordermare said:
How exactly do you do that Martlin? I'd be interested in doing that.
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You take away most of the poo and put on your muckheap, you press the wee wet pellets into brick shapes and leave in the sun to dry:) You need a little press for that though, I have never actually bothered to go through with it, but had a sales rep come and show me;)
 
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