Bedding

J

JACQSZOO

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Georgie is lame at the minute and is on box rest <Sigh> YO is completely out of shavings and cant get any unless he wants to pay £7 per bale (which means I'll be paying about £7.50 per bale)! I am currently looking at alternatives. There is a place locally that does carboard at £4.99 bale which I am considering but have never used before. Has anyone any experience of this? Or can you recommend something else that is'nt going to break the bank!!!?
Thanks folks
 
Rubber mats! save yourself a fortune on bedding
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I have used cardboard and found it was fine as long as you havent got a really really wet horse
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Why do you say mats are dirty, horrid things? Mine are sooooo much easier to muck out, use less bedding, rugs are no dirtier on mats.

Cardboard can be very good, although not for every horse - wet ones aren't good on cardboard.
 
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They are indeed but ideal when you have a horse that digs his bed up every night without fail and chucks it around the stable. Grrr................
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Take it you can't use straw then???

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Can't stand the smell with straw (fussy cow I am) and the YO doesnt have any straw either!
 
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Why do you say mats are dirty, horrid things? Mine are sooooo much easier to muck out, use less bedding, rugs are no dirtier on mats.

Cardboard can be very good, although not for every horse - wet ones aren't good on cardboard.

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Unless you have perfect drainage I find mats are revolting things! I suppose I'm a bit of a traditionalist and like a good old fashioned deep bed and if you have a deep bed then mats seem a little bit pointless really.
Anyway to fit the stable out with mats just cause he is on box rest for a few days seems a bit extreme lolol
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Do they sell Miscanthus (Elephant Grass) anywhere near you? We use it and it is fantastic! Not dusty, doesn't smell, cheaper than shavings, you can have a deep bed and it works fantasticly as deep litter. I love it! We have it delivered for free in massive building sacks but you can also buy it in bales.
 
I love hemp but hate Miscanthus, we trialled it at work but scrapped it as it was very slippery and looked like musty stalky straw. We use Easibed which is ok and do a full muck out 3 times a week for box resters and twice a week for the others.
 
EcoBed is just a chopped cardbord we used to use that on top of rubber matting which was great! I now use dixons dustless chopped straw, just because YO buys 6 pallets at a time and gets huge discount on dixons. I love rubber matting but not everyone uses it like i do.
 
Yeah, can see your point about not wanting to lay mats for just a few days box rest but I did want to say that rubber mats don't have to be smelly! I remember posting all sorts of questions on here before I finally invested in some mats. I was worried sick they'd stink but in all honesty, having had them laid for a year now, they really don't. My only grumble is the stable rugs becoming so poopy during the winter months. But, as I have an industrial sized washing machine at home, even that's no big deal.

In my stables with mats I have a 'pee patch' of hemp based bedding in one back corner and sweep the whole front area out each morning, then splat about some dilute Green Gloop (from Fieldguard) to keep the box fresh and clean. The Green Gloop seeps between the mats and neutralises the ammonia in the horse's urine to keeps the boxes smelling great.

I bought unbranded mats from our local feed store and laid them myself. Each mat cost £22 and I used 6 per box so it was £135 per box. That's about the cost of 22 bales of shavings! Before the mats I was using 2 bales of shavings per horse per week, so have definitely saved money this year. The Green Gloop was about £10 and I am still using the same stuff I bought last year!
 
I've just changed from shavings to Natures Best - wood pellet bedding (like Aquamax but cheaper) and I wish I'd done it years ago! Quick to muck out - and you don't throw away as much as you do with shavings.
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if you buy good quality mats and use enough bedding on them, they are not smelly. properly managed, they are much cleaner than a traditional bed, which tends to harbour dust and mould spores

I have kraiburg mats and use easibed on them. Dont save any money as still use 2 bales a week at £7 a bale, but my horses dust allergy has improved and I dont get a film of dust on my water bucket anymore
 
Myself and all the people on my yard use woodypet its great ALOT cheaper easy to use, do, quick, doesnt smell, less wastage.
 
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