Cheap wood chip for turnout pens???

[_jetset_]

I have absolutely no idea where to start with this!

I am looking for some cheap woodchip to put down as turnout pens at the yard. The reasoning behind it being wood chip is because I want to be able to turn out in winter for half a day with hay and having a horse who has been through colic surgery I cannot risk doing this on a sanded area!

So, any suggestions?

I contacted a tree surgeon and he said that his has quite a bit of conifer in (which I believe is poisonous if the horse eats it... am I right?) so couldn't offer any help on this. So I am now a bit stumped!

It does not have to be fabulous quality as we plan on replacing it as and when it needs to be, therefore do not want to go down the route on contacting a 'surface' type person about this.

 

[Bettyboo222]

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=wood+chip

 

[luckilotti]

Hi,
Right - our experiences with this are as follows....
Had a woodchip paddock put in in 2004, used a company from Manchester way for the woodchip, It was not like the samples at all! It was broken down pallets - including glass, metal window frame fixings etc etc! This company also produce shavings - i'll have to pm you the company so you can avoid avoid avoid! They are really nice until you complain then their attitude is disgustin. Anyway, we obviously couldnt use what they had sent, they wouldnt collect it so we had to go with another company, this was square chips at about 1" squared? These were from Jenkinsons in Cumbria from memory? These were not cheap though.
We did have a livery on at one point who had a tree surgeon friend, who brought us a few loads every now and then as a top up. Yes, it was free, but IMO it ruined our paddock, they were much finer pieces and didnt last long at all. It rotted very quickly and well, i wouldnt advise on it.
We have just redone our outdoor but have used fibre this time.

What we have also done though is made an extra little woodchip turnout paddock.

And this is actually from used Cushion Bed bedding. Basically, a number of my liveries are on it and every now and then, they put just the wet on this paddock, the rain washes off the urine (or if its dry we use the hose), the sun dries it out lovely. We make sure droppings are removed when it's used. It's been down for well over a year now if not two and is working really well. We also had a issue with a leaking roof which wet some of the unused bales of cushion bed and some were wet inside, we have also used this on here and i will totally reccommend the cushionbed type of woodchips for such a use.
I do believe that there are a few people selling this type at the back of H&H for gallops etc, also it would be worth looking at http://www.giffords.biz/ride/ride1.htm but what we do works really well as we have all year grazing, the indoor and outdoor to use so it's just a little extra paddock we have which doesnt cost us to top up, and also reduces the muck heap.


also - you need to make sure its woodchips rather than bark as bark is a lot more slippery in wet conditions.

Good luck with it