cost effective bedding for a very wet horse!

dollymix

dollymix

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Hi all

One of my mares is really very wet. I have had her on straw, but I find it very labour intensive (at least 3 barrowloads a day). She is now on Duobed, which I love, and my others are on, but she makes a tremendous mess of this and I throw a full wheelbarrow, if not two away too.

Can anyone recommend a good, cost effective bedding for a very wet horse? Does anyone use woodpellets? the type you add water to?
 
I've swapped from straw to shavings because my mare is so wet.

I tried Easibed but it wasn't absorbant enough so I am now using Hunter shavings. I tried Megazorb which is brilliant but it worked out rather expensive to use as a normal bedding, although if you deep litter and do a full muck out once a week, you can put a layer of it under the shavings to hold the wet.

ETA: When she was on straw, the wee was running out of the door every morning!
 
Megazorb is VERY absorbant, but quite expensive. As suggested you could put it under shavings or straw. You need only take out the wet once a week because although it looks damp it just keeps on absorbing.
 
I swapped my wet gelding from shavings to wood pellets and haven't looked back. I could easily use 3 bales of shavings per week and his bed was still vile!

When I set the bed up I didn't use as much water as they advise and I put new pellets in unsoaked to make the most of the absorbancy.
 
Another vote for Megazorb. I have used it as pure bedding and also base for a straw bed.
It is excellent used in either way and would certainly solve your problem, but it is not the cheapest option.
 
Aubiose. Half a bale of clean per week and one barrow of wet out once a week, just poo-picking the rest of the time. I used to be on shavings and had to take a full barrow of wet out every day and used 3 bales a week. Plus no nasty smells with aubiose, it doesn't move about if you do it properly and it benefits my poor old back!
 
My gelding is disgusting.. today I got rid of 2 barrows! We're on bed-down. Tried most things but some just don't last as long as I'd like.
 
We don't have rubber matting, the stable floors are concrete, and they are level with no drainage. Whatever bedding we've tried over the last 15 years or so, we always go back to Aubiose as the most cost-effective. It's getting difficult to source, though, and Hemcore just is not as good - we never use more than one bag of Aubiose per stable per week, with Hemcore it's three bags a fortnight.

We have two fairly wet mares, one wets the middle of the bed and the other always backs up into the corner. If the wet base is left too long it is pretty heavy to dig out.

We have not tried wood pellets, but have used straw, shavings (Snowflake are our favourites), Excel, Easibed, paper, Ecobed...
 
We've recently switched from shavings to wood pellets and it's so much easier to muck out! My horse destroys his stable overnight and it used to take me forever to make it acceptable again but it's so neat & tidy with wood pellets now, I don't get through as many bags as I did with shavings p/week & it's very absorbent. It's also a lot less time consuming and doesn't smell! Love them.
 
wood pellets are AMAZING!

My mare was on straw, and was disgusting (and ate it!)

Then I tried bedmax, and although better, wee still puddled at the front of the stable

Wood pellets, the floor is perfectly dry, and bed is quick and easy to do
 
A good deep wood pellet bed works best for my very wet horse. I deep litter him but take out any wet that comes to the surface. I add a 10kg bag every 3 or 4 days.
 
Over here we don't get a huge choice of bedding shavings straw or paper its very difficult to get wood pellets my youngster is disgusting i find rubber matting has saved alot of bedding and money i throw a thin layer over mats i don't have a problem with smell which at first i was expecting
 
My mare was wet on shavings, ie oozing out under the mats and front of stable, but Wood Pellets have been great and I will never change back.

Mucking out is so much quicker for both my horses and less goes on the muck heap. I pay £4 for a 15kg bag through a friend that orders a pallet of Liverpool wood pellets at a time. A bag lasts about 3-4 days between two horses. It's also good for chickens!
 
eggs said:
A good deep wood pellet bed works best for my very wet horse. I deep litter him but take out any wet that comes to the surface. I add a 10kg bag every 3 or 4 days.
Click to expand...

Agree with this - I disturb the bed as little as possible and just dig out a wet patch when it 'rises' to the top. In practice this is about a 18" square each day. I put in a new bag (unsoaked) every other day which is generous but I've found it better that way as it keeps the bed immaculate. If I wasn't so fussy I could use less. Every couple of months I scrape back the top layer and dig out any remaining wet patches. Never smells and horse never has stable stains. I have full rubber matting underneath, but only because I am a softie with my neds! It does mean though that I only need to lay the bed in the back half of the 12 by 12 stable. He's a bit of a fidget in the box and brings it to the door (and out of it!) if I lay it any further forward.

ETA I use Corley bio wood pellets - and tried both White Horse Bedding and Liverpool Wood Pellets - I find Corley by far the best.
 
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Another vote for PELLETS!

I use straw pellets though but they work the same as wood pellets.
I used to get a wee pool at the front of my stable and outside the stable door when i used shavings. Now i am on pellets there is nothing, it is so absorbent everything stays dry and comfortable.
My gelding also doesnt get those horrid stable stains anymore too, which is brill as he is so white!
 
Switched my very wet gelding to wood pellets and I'm very impressed.

I still take out 3/4 barrel most days, but the wee stays where it was done and doesn't spread over the whole bed. Its really absorbent and doesn't smell at all.
 
You would love Flax (Equisorb) bedding, its amazing! However, it's becoming really expensive so we are now on straw pellets (underneath) and Natural Flake shavings on top. Works fantastically!!! as the pellets are SO absorbant and then it's easy to find the poo in the shavings. We use 1/2 bag of pellets and 1/2 bag of shavings per horse per week (7 horses, all different sizes, cleaniness, etc, and are turned out for 5 hours per day) so works out about £5 per horse per week (bulk buying).

However, you might find you love pine wood pellets, my neighbour sells them and they are fab, but they're just a bit more expensive for my liking and the beds don't look as nice!
 
thanks for the feedback everyone...sounds like wood pellets might be the way forward!

Just a question....how does it rot down? I'm on a livery yard and the first thing I'll be asked is if it will rot down well!
 
both of my boys are really wet and both on deep litter...i have 2 bags of Easi bed as a base then Nedz bed on top and as banks...Nedz bed Pro is better than the Original as it's more absorbent I find. I take all the wet out every 2 weeks or so, depends on how bad the bed is. I put 1 Nedz in every 5-6 days, and the 2 Easi & 1 Nedz when I've taken wet out :)
 
dollymix said:
thanks for the feedback everyone...sounds like wood pellets might be the way forward!

Just a question....how does it rot down? I'm on a livery yard and the first thing I'll be asked is if it will rot down well!
Click to expand...

You take out less bedding and it rots down quicker than shavings! We have a much smaller muck heap than we did with shavings.
 
dollymix said:
thanks for the feedback everyone...sounds like wood pellets might be the way forward!

Just a question....how does it rot down? I'm on a livery yard and the first thing I'll be asked is if it will rot down well!
Click to expand...

if rotting down is an issue then go for straw pellets - they rot down much much much faster than wood pellets and they perform pretty much identically to wood pellets.
 
liston wood pellets are really good ,and economical.easy to handle ,delivered on a pallet and they rot down very well and can go on the garden as a soil cond. i have tried every bedding known to man! pellets are the best.
 
I am just about to switch from straw to shavings as wee is seeping out the front of the stable - are shavings not absorbent either then? I am so sick of pee!
 
palomino698 said:
We don't have rubber matting, the stable floors are concrete, and they are level with no drainage. Whatever bedding we've tried over the last 15 years or so, we always go back to Aubiose as the most cost-effective. It's getting difficult to source, though, and Hemcore just is not as good - we never use more than one bag of Aubiose per stable per week, with Hemcore it's three bags a fortnight.

We have two fairly wet mares, one wets the middle of the bed and the other always backs up into the corner. If the wet base is left too long it is pretty heavy to dig out.

We have not tried wood pellets, but have used straw, shavings (Snowflake are our favourites), Excel, Easibed, paper, Ecobed...
Click to expand...

Have you tried Equisorb?
 
Another vote for wood pellets ive got a very wet mare and used 12 bags to set bed up on rubber mats, I then add 1-2 10kg bags a week, I skip poo and most of wet out each day works out to be half a barrow, I just swish the rest around and sweep back takes 5mins max on the weekend I give the bed a proper sift through. The bed always looks immaculate and everyone comments on it.

I get mine from Corley bio wood and they are the cheapest I have found

K x
 
Another vote for wood pellets...

Our gelding could have a nice fresh bed of four shavings bales and trash the lot so it needed completely replacing in two days... He goes through 3 bags of pellets a week... Much easier to muck out with a smaller amount on the muck heap...

The only downside is the bed is darker than shavings and doesn't look as fluffy... But that's purely down to my own opinion and it's definitely not enough to go back to shavings... He lies down on the pellet bed for a snooze quite comfortably... :)
 
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