Bedding!!!!

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Wsf74

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I have used straw, bedmax, pellets, megaspread, burlybed. Looking for something that is absorbent, not dusty, easy and quick to muck out , and doesn’t get dragged home. I like to muck out daily. 1 gelding tidy 1 likes to mix it in, hide it and quite wet and I have Ocd! Any suggestions greatly appreciated. thank you
 
Aubiose with wood or straw pellets in the wettest areas, deep litter over winter. It's expensive PER BALE but truly fantastic bedding, I use a new ba!e maybe every 10 days, sometimes once a week if they're in a lot, so works out to be quite economical.
I tried a bale of miscanthus recently and hated it, nowhere near as nice, my bed looked horrible all week until I got some more aubiose and put that in. One of the other ladies has swapped onto it recently too after seeing my bed, and loves it, her mare is really dirty and it takes 10 minutes to muck her out (deep litter).
 
I only ever bed down on shavings, we have a brilliant supplier who we are paying £7.80 a bale for 25KG of Metsawood Stable Choice shavings and this includes VAT and free delivery.

The bales really do go a long way. I was on straw with my first horse in 1997 but didn't have a clue how to muck out straw then and nothing has changed since.
 
Your horse sound like 2 of mine. I super tidy, poo all in one place, bed hardly looks slept in, and the other wee in one place and poo all over, dragged through the bed, squashed into the banks and thoroughly messy! I bed on shavings over matting and I like a big bed. I must admit that I deep litter the very tidy one because the wet doesn't get moved at all by her. The other one, a gelding, drags his feet around so he's mucked out every day. I started with a big bed when I put it down and all I need to add is a bale a week with the odd time adding about half a bale in the middle of the week.
 
I think its how you manage your bed rather than the quality/type of bedding material used.

When my horse did her check ligament and was on box rest for three months I was lucky enough to go up twice daily to take care of her as I was on furlough. Her bed was spotlessly clean. It also helps if its not muddy and pouring with rain and then your horse is brought in and put in a stable without having rug changed or legs washed as the run off from the wet on the rugs and the muddy wet on the legs/feet takes a toll on the bed too. That's not a complaint of the staff by the way, its just the way it works on my livery yard.

Now I'm back at work and we have timeslots of 1.5 hours it means I can only go up once a day after work or around mid afternoon on the weekends and my bed is filthy and I'm getting through loads of shavings. If we want we can split the 1.5 hours and go up morning as well but there's no way I can work it that would be beneficial to me at the moment. Hence one bale probably every five days. The YO suggested having a smaller bed but my horse likes to stand in one spot all the time whilst resting and another spot whilst eating and I would be taking that off her. With her orthopaedic issues I feel she needs the full bed.
 
I am really struggling with bedding this winter :( I would love a solution to this problem: 3 large horses - open barn with 1 area as a large bed. This area is in fact a huge stable that all 3 horses will often congregate in!! The stable is open at night and the barn open onto a hard yard which in turn is open onto an area of turnout (was grass now ploughed clay :( ). We have to keep our good grass for the spring and summer when we usually have 4 or 5 horses at home so the mud turnout is not really alterable). The open stable has rubber matting and I have previously used a thick rape straw bed. But that has completely done my head in for the amount (bulk) of mucking out - the three horses are determined to use the stable as a loo and not for actually sleeping in, though 1 horse definately sleeps there. :) I finished some straw and currently using shavings - with a bed about 4 inches deep. It is still huge amounts of wet - I am happy enough to pick out the poo and add more shavings but that is not really working for me - I could do with a properly absorbent and 'tight' deep litter arrangement.

Very grateful for any suggestions!!
 
palo1 said:
I am really struggling with bedding this winter :( I would love a solution to this problem: 3 large horses - open barn with 1 area as a large bed. This area is in fact a huge stable that all 3 horses will often congregate in!! The stable is open at night and the barn open onto a hard yard which in turn is open onto an area of turnout (was grass now ploughed clay :( ). We have to keep our good grass for the spring and summer when we usually have 4 or 5 horses at home so the mud turnout is not really alterable). The open stable has rubber matting and I have previously used a thick rape straw bed. But that has completely done my head in for the amount (bulk) of mucking out - the three horses are determined to use the stable as a loo and not for actually sleeping in, though 1 horse definately sleeps there. :) I finished some straw and currently using shavings - with a bed about 4 inches deep. It is still huge amounts of wet - I am happy enough to pick out the poo and add more shavings but that is not really working for me - I could do with a properly absorbent and 'tight' deep litter arrangement.

Very grateful for any suggestions!!
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It sounds from your post as though there is alternative shelter so I would shut the stable off for 1/2 the day, be it night or day if you're finding it unmanageable.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
It sounds from your post as though there is alternative shelter so I would shut the stable off for 1/2 the day, be it night or day if you're finding it unmanageable.
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Sorry I didn't make it clear in my post that I close the stable during the day - perhaps the horses store up all their wee for the night time!
 
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