Bedding suggestions please

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Daisy1905

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Think I need to change the bedding again. My mare was on Aubiose but have had problems getting some from the shop recently and also got too expensive.

Have now moved yards and she is on wheat straw (after she ate the nice barley straw as is there was no tomorrow lol). Unfortunately she is very messy and also 'hides' the mess she makes in the bed. Mucking out takes me ages just because I need to find what I have to take out first.. :( Also, it comes up to 2-3 wheelbarrows full each day.

Has anybody had the same problem?
 
Hi,
Just my twopence-worth, but my boy is a ragingly messy boxwalker with COPD so bedding is a fairly contentious issue! I've tried quite a few of the beddings out there to see whether they are solid when down & don't take hours to muck out!
I'm currently bedding on cardboard chips as they make a pretty solid bed so can be semi-deep littered in this weather and are very cheap by the palletload, on the downside they blow around a bit between stable and muckheap and never look 'clean' after 1 day down even with scrupulous mucking out!
However I saw some miscanthus (elephant grass) bedding over the weekend which felt very nice like fine aubiose, and must confess i'm pretty tempted as it looks more absorbent, and biodegradeable, but might move around a little more than the cardboard?
Just a thought for your girly!

Please do let me know if you find anything that is inexpensive and works!

K x
 
Liverpool wood pellets. Easy to muck out, forms a nice base layer which doesn't move and you only need to dig out once a week, even with dirty, wet boys! I use 1 - 2 bags a week which works out at £6 and my boy is an absolute minger :(
 
Forgot to say that I have tried flax beddinf before and it wasnt good at all. Got very vet quickly..

Was thinking maybe megazorb or wood pellets?
 
I am currently using chopped, dust extracted rape straw. It goes through a softening process to make it nicer for them to lay on. It is similar to aubiose and I am really liking it. I have tried various brands:
Bliss
Bedrap
Sundown yellow
and most recently, Rapport.
The price is good if you shop around. I recently bought 12 bales of rapport for £5.20 a bale (it was on buy 3 get 4th free so works out at £5.21). The next day I went to a different shop, about 20 miles away from the first and it was £8.19 a bale!
It is quick and easy to muck out and on busy weeks if I deep litter for a few days you can barely tell.
My horse doesn't eat it and it makes a small muck heap.
 
jenni999 said:
Liverpool wood pellets. Easy to muck out, forms a nice base layer which doesn't move and you only need to dig out once a week, even with dirty, wet boys! I use 1 - 2 bags a week which works out at £6 and my boy is an absolute minger :(
Click to expand...

Do you have rubber mats as well? How many bags did you put down in the beginning?
 
I'm using Megasorb underneath Bedmax. My mare is quite wet so I am taking out the wet every 5 days. I'm basically only throwing away Megasorb though, so put a bag of that in each time and a bag of Bedmax as needed. The Bedmax is nowhere near as dusty as the normal shavings (Hunters) I had been using, and the bed moves around a lot less.
 
Daisy1905 said:
Think I need to change the bedding again. My mare was on Aubiose but have had problems getting some from the shop recently and also got too expensive.

Have now moved yards and she is on wheat straw (after she ate the nice barley straw as is there was no tomorrow lol). Unfortunately she is very messy and also 'hides' the mess she makes in the bed. Mucking out takes me ages just because I need to find what I have to take out first.. :( Also, it comes up to 2-3 wheelbarrows full each day.

Has anybody had the same problem?
Click to expand...

Wheat straw is the best for bedding, chuck the clean to a corner and clear out the rest , wet and droppings, shouldnt be more than a large barrowfull. Putvthe worst of what remains down in the centre to hold the bed together (damp straw moves less than dry straw). Put your new straw around the banks. Oh and load your wheelbarrow from the corners in ,you will get much more on if you load it properly.
 
Daisy1905 said:
Do you have rubber mats as well? How many bags did you put down in the beginning?
Click to expand...

I used it last winter on concrete. About 15 x 10kg bags to start the bed - it felt very wrong to be standing with a hose watering a bed! :). Then I was using about 3 x 10kg bags a fortnight for a pony that was in about 22 hours a day in the bad weather. Mucking out took about 10 minutes and a half full tubtrug (just poo) Twice a week I took out the wet patch and just pulled some bed into the hole.....

I love LWP but they do take some getting used to as they are so different to straw/shavings. It took me about 8 weeks to find a way that suited me to manage them but I would never use anything else now. By far the cheapest way to get them is to buy a ton (£220) from LWP which comes plastic wrapped on a pallet and can be stored outside with a tarp so no extra space needed.

I sold my leftover pellets on ebay as the pony retired and went to live out so if you don't like them it's easy enough to get rid!
 
Mike007 said:
Wheat straw is the best for bedding, chuck the clean to a corner and clear out the rest , wet and droppings, shouldnt be more than a large barrowfull. Putvthe worst of what remains down in the centre to hold the bed together (damp straw moves less than dry straw). Put your new straw around the banks. Oh and load your wheelbarrow from the corners in ,you will get much more on if you load it properly.
Click to expand...

Its not possible: :-( the droppings are muddled in with the straw and are all over the stable, not just in one corner.. Even is I think only clean dry straw is left, then there are still droppings hidden somewhere.
 
Rubbers mats, few handfuls of sawdust to absorb the web, and banked with shavings.

Works for my messy mare. Incredibly quick to muck out (I can fully muck out, empty barrow, do hay & water & bring 3 horses in within 20 mins).

Mats cost just over £150 but save £7-ish a week on bedding now, so cost is soon recovered.

Works for us anyway! :)
 
I think perhaps your mucking out technique is the problem . Dont try to take the droppings from the straw ,take the clean straw away from the droppings I have always found that a two prong,traditional pitchfork was much better for shaking out straw beds. Move all the clean bedding back to a corner and clear what is left.
 
I've tried lots of different bedding types for my 2 manky boys!

Straw - one of them ate it. Hemcore / Aubiose - nice but very expensive.

Shavings - ok but were getting more and more expensive. Was using 2 bales a week on each horse at nearly £7 a bale.

I've started using wood pellets. Took a while to get used to them and I started with far more bags than they said I would need to. I'm not convinced that 1 10kg bag is equivalent of 1 bale of shavings but it's not far off.

I find they make a nice compact bed that's easier to muck out. I pay £2.90 per bag and put 1 bag in each stable every 3 days at the moment so almost half the price of using shavings.
 
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