Best buy bedding for a dirty monster!

[Nickles1973]

My horse is currently on a bed of straw over rubber matting. He is a filthy beast pooing and peeing mostly in the middle and then spending hours treading it all in. I have tried hardly no straw which just ends up with a soping wet mess and him smelling horrendous. I have also tried a nice deep bed which ends up causing me to have to take 2-3 barrow loads of muck and straw out. (Hard work and huge muck heap!) So now I am thinking of changing my approach completely and could do with some advice about the best type of bedding to use?? I don't have a lot to spare money wise so it needs to be economical as well. Any suggestions will be very gratefully recieved.

 

[xRobyn]

My lad is revolting in the stable - sounds similar to yours on straw inc rivers of wee!

I put him on wood pellets, fantastic and would definitely use again! Unfortunately I'm a jobless bum so can't afford them long term (Upwards of £70 a month). A friend down the yard recommended sawdust from our local building supplies shop. They deliver a tonne of sawdust (mix of dust and shavings but I'd say mostly shavings tbh!) for £16.20! It lasts me two weeks but would probably do three for a cleaner horse. I was worried about the dust but aside from the initial bed lay (ie pulling it out of the big sack!) it's not dusty at all. He's not been coughing/snorting or snotty I've been deep littering so just take out the wet once a week. Occasionally I'll take out a shovel or two mid-week but only if it comes to the top

This is two weeks old

And with the new on top (after muck out of course!)

 

[icyfreya]

I'm watching this thread with interest as my boy is a dirty beast as well, and im thinking of changing his bedding...All i can say is that i would not recommend shavings, as he's on a medium deepish bed on top of rubber mats, and it's always filthy and a churned up mess, soo i might try looking into sawdust

 

[bumblelion]

My two boys are very messy, tried most things and have gone back to straw! Even though they're still filthy (large beds on matting) I still find it the cheapest, quickest and easiest to muck out daily! Agree about the muckheap size! Can't deep litter my two as they both dig, roll and churn!!

 

[honetpot]

I had a very dirty Highland colt. I have rubber mats so I bedded down the middle third on the stable only as he poo'd all along the back wall so I could just shovel that up. The bed in the middle consisted of a base of wood pellets about a bag and half a bale of straw on top, this lasted about a week adding a fresh sprinkle of straw every day.
I think putting the hay and water near the door so they can munch and look out stops alot of walking backwards and forwards.
I now have another wet colt and I am using the same system but using rape straw as I want to keep the muck heap small.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Mine (17hh IDx and 14.2 wee-y mare were both filthy on straw and shavings and hated shavings anyway as they stick to everything and it take ages to separate the stuck together lumps in the bale.

When I moved to having them at home (yay!) I could at last experiment and the best solution has proved to be 3 parts wood pellets to 1 of hemp (Aubiose best). The reason is that the wood pellets are brilliant for the gelding by themselves but a mix is best for the mare as the hemp is sooo absorbant for her wee it makes the pellets last a lot longer.

Either way def try wood pellets - altho you dont get the deep bed that looks comfy to us humans, I believe the wood pellet bed is a LOT more comfy from a horses perspective and just like a lovely dry forest floor, which would be a natural place for them to lie down. At least my gelding is much much more settled now he has this bed, as the wet isnt all over the place and he doesnt drag it round the stable. It stay in one place and he has lots of room to lie down somewhere dry. And I save masses of time on mucking out (20 mins each as opposed to 90....), and save lots of ££ too, as Im only using 2 bags of shavings and 1 Aubiose between them a week, whereas they used 6 bales of shavings minimum and an entire county's harvest of straw.....

Nowadays the only thing I use straw for is to feed to the lami prone pony (very nice oat straw mixed with soaked hay I would add).
#
Edited to add both are on rubber matting on back 2/3 of stable, front left clear of mats/bed for water buckets/hay/feed

 

[charmeroo]

I have a very dirty TB who poo's around the outside, wee's in the middle and box walks! The stable usually resembles very wet brown soup.

He has good quality rubber matting which is quite soft and I've until last week used a thin-ish shavings bed which I've taken the middle out of every day.
Anyway I've just started to use Fethabed which is a bit like cat litter I suppose in that it is pellets and you have to damp it all down and then it breaks down into a sand-like consistency. This has meant that the wee soaks up really well and whilst he does mash the poo a bit, because the bedding dries it all and takes the moisture out of it then it is not too bad. I am quite anal about having nice clean beds and to be honest I am having to close my eyes to the small bits of dry poo which I really cannot take out. Having said that, it doesn't smell nearly as bad as the shavings and at least rugs are not dripping with pee in the morning! I did have my doubts about this bedding but I think that I'm now a convert!!!

 

[BonneMaman]

Another vote for wood pellets and matting. Super cheap, absorbant, fast fast fast and easy. Took me last winter 10 minutes to muck out a v mucky mare!