Does anyone still actually use straw for bedding?!

I love straw and would always use it unless for a medical reason. It makes a warm, cushioned bed, if properly sourced and stacked it's not dusty and I find it quicker than shavings to muck out. I find my horse lies down more on it than he did when I once had him on shavings.

It goes down thickly directly on concrete (don't like rubber matting as all the boxes I've seen it in stink, however careful the owners are!) and I muck out/take out wet and sweep back everyday.

What I have done for the last couple of years is start the winter with 2 bales of shavings as banks - it's more solid than just straw and I was surprised at how well it stayed put for the entire season. It also means I only need 2/3 bales of straw to make a great, fresh bed.
 
I went back to straw this spring for my mare to foal down on. I had been using large shavings and wood pellets for three years. I lasted 5 weeks and then I changed them back on to wood pellets and I haven't looked back. It seemed to take me ages to muck out the straw and everywhere I went for the rest of the day, I had the lingering pong of horse wee about my person :( Not ideal... I havent the time to go back home for a shower, hair wash and complete change of clothes after morning stables, like so many others I just have to crack on with the rest of the day.

I am most definitely in the straw no more camp. I used to love my huge deep straw beds too...
 
Both mine have nice fluffy straw beds, I personally haven't ever mucked out anything else so I don't know if it's easier or not, none of the boxes smell bad. The gelding has straw in with his livery, I have to buy it in for the mare but get it really, really cheap from the farmer. In fact the mare shares a massive double box with another mare and you can tell by the indents in the straw in the morning that they've had a nice cozy lay down together in their fluffy straw beds
 
i took up my deep litter bed today and got 3 barrowfuls of really wet stuff.bed been down a week.took all the old bedding out and put down in his stall which got use of now.as he in stall all poo and wet behind him now so no more trashed beds.the stall is 7 feet wide and he not even tried to turn round and seems very happy.
 
I used to have straw - and dearly wish I could use in now too :(
One point in the late 80's had 8 out of 9 (as had then) boxes on straw.

Little fuzzy gorges on it & has had impaction colic when a youngster, even with it being sprayed with the likes of jeyes etc, so shavings for her.
Big fuzzy is a grubby wotsit on straw & also a porker, so both on shavings as is more economical and labour saving for me.

Question:
Am I the only saddo who likes creating a good muckheap out of used bedding - and straw works much more nicely. Its easier to get rid of too - and is good for yard in the really bad weather as can muck out onto yard if necessary :D
 
I love straw beds :D

I find it cheaper and easier than a shavings bed as I am SOOO fussy that I am never happy with a shavings bed unless its nearly white :o

My two are also mingers and I can get a round bale of straw to do my guys 4 weeks for £20 where as that would do me a week on shavings at a fiver a bale!!
 
Out of all the things I've tried with my very wet messy tb, straw has worked best and been cheapest. On shavings he was so wet, he was standing on soggy shavings most of the time and I was using 4 bales of hunters a week! With straw (without mats) I find the wee drains through to the bottom and the top layer stays drier. It worked out cheaper too and now I get straw included in my livery, it's even better.
 
We use straw with shredded paper underneath to catch the wee. Beautiful big clean smelling beds and saves a fortune compared to shavings.
 
My horses are in my own stables so any choices made are down to me and not influenced by anyone else really. For the last few years I have had rubber mats with full shavings beds. Shavings were reasonably (ish) priced as I bought in twice a year in bulk. The horses' feet seemed dry and needed daily Effol and at the same time we seemed to get thrush now and again. This year mats are out and apart from 1 pony big straw beds are back and I think the horses are better for it, they certaily don't seem to trash them and any wet floors dry quickly during the day. Plus I don't have the awful chore of cleaning under mats!
For me it has proved a good move and was for practical reasons, starting with horse health.
 
Mucky Shavings said:
I love straw beds!
And I can get rid of hay nets this year too, my old horse was on shavings (yard policy) :mad:and a box walker so hay on the floor/hay bar ment I used so much shavings I had to use hay nets.:mad:

This winter new horse and new yard so, straw and hay put on the floor=happy horsey, happy pocket and more time to ride etc :D:D:D
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Ditto this. Kal (also a box walker) was previously on a very deep flax bed with haynets . . . he's now on straw and his haylage is fed from the floor. No coughing, takes 2 mins to muck out and none of the haylage is wasted (he goes through his bed to find it - which also keeps him busy).

Big fan of straw.

P
 
I've been on shavings for the past year or so and I can honestly admit I am still no nearer to figuring out how the hell I muck out quickly and efficiently without having a nervous breakdown because the banks just seem to produce poo!

Give me straw any day, purely for the selfish reason that I am incapable of handling a shavings fork! :D
 
Like Aprilblossom (phew thought I was alone here), I just cannot get to grips with shavings, takes me hours. I love my straw bed, quick and easy, though I admit I do find I smell more after mucking out!
 
I love a proper straw bed....at the mo all ours are on shavings as they have their own individual reasons for not suiting straw. My own lady gorges herself and has colicked on straw but i don't blame the straw I blame the mare....she is a complete and utter glutton!! Barring her we have two with lung issues and one new lad who is currently on shavings as there was a clean shavings bed made up so we stuck him in there rather than bed down another stable but when others start to come in he will go to a straw bed! I love shavings or straw, am not fussy really. We have a good and cheap supply of both and are buying both anyway for the farmyard so not a major cost issue.
 
I'm another that prefers straw too.

We were on shavings for a while as I thought it would make it easier for my novice husband. They were so expensive and seemed to create dust somehow! I also hated that if you had any cuts on the leg they got full of dust and shavings.

Upon changing to straw, I didn't have to bandage any lower leg cuts to keep the shavings from sticking to them, and the air could therefore get to the cut.

What we spent on shavings for one horse, we now spend on straw for four!

Those that got mud rash were better on straw, as it was deeper and warmer around the leg.

We don't spend forever picking shavings out of the tails before we ride.

The muck heap doesn't get as big, and pats down better - if it rains it goes down a foot. It also rots down when dumped in the corner of the field. Gardeners will happily take bags too, when they didn't want shavings muck.

The dirtiest horse is much cleaner on straw than he was on shavings. They deep litter suprisingly well too. Not as many bits blow out of the barrow either, so the yard is easier to sweep!

Downsides - we have rubber mats, and they do smell more as straw drains rather than absorbs, so the wee goes to the floor. We throw the beds to the side daily and chuck a water bucket on the mats, which drains through and flushes the wee out too. If you don't have rubber mats the straw that sits in the wee will absorb most of the liquid and you won't get the smell..

Shavings would have to be much cheaper than straw before I changed back, and I wouldn't be happy!

ps. I've never had a horse eat much straw, no matter how greedy they were.
 
I use Dixons Dustless chopped straw on rubber matting, although sometimes you do get a dusty bale in general they are really good and I dont seem to use hardly any on the matting. Once opened the bale seems to have vast amounts in it and goes a very long way - only use 1 about every 2-3 weeks. Nice old fashioned straw bed always looks so much more comfy though although I cant use straw as I dont have any room for a muckheap - all my manure is bagged up straight from the stable and put out the front for 25p a bag - and is usually gone by the end of the day. If they were on proper straw I would struggle to bag it without it being rotted down first.
 
In research where horses have been observed on different types of bedding, straw always comes out as the bedding preferred by the horses themselves.
Benefits include less stereotypical behaviours and more time spent lying down or foraging through the straw.
More horses lie down less on thin beds with a small area of shavings or bare rubber matting.
Straw doesn't dry the feet out as aggressively as shavings which can be a problem when time is spilt between a wet muddy field and a stable. While feet benefit from drying out, straw does this more naturally.
Straw is very good at moulding around the horse when lying down and insulates against cold floors and drafts.
Straw is cheaper and therefore its more economical to replace.
Fresh, good qualitity straw sprinkled with Eucalyptus oil, or Obas Oil, helps with breathing.
 
I used straw with one of mine at my last yard, but in my experience it works best with stables that have a proper slope to the front. As someone said above,the urine runs down through the bed rather than being particularly absorbed by it. Usually overnight it stays under the bed and if you do it properly it can work, but I always found you needed to swill the stable out daily; and if it doesn't work your horse and/or rugs will be the filthiest things you've ever seen :eek:.

I don't use it now because I don't like the way it smells, have no way to store it, and also I find it very bulky. I use cardboard, and can muck out two horses with one barrow, including any haylage they haven't eaten overnight. It means my muck heap is relatively small, composts down very well, and is great on the garden (for those who mentioned that above).
 
horserider said:
In research where horses have been observed on different types of bedding, straw always comes out as the bedding preferred by the horses themselves.
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Probably due to its second role as something to munch. Mine gets unlimited hay and haylage but still has the odd mouthful of straw, probably what he considers a balanced diet ;)
 
broke_but_happy said:
Trying telling that to my TB!!
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I love straw! Only time I didn't use it was when I was on a yard that wouldn't let me.
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I have lots of photos of a a very similar looking bay tb who feels the same. If you tried with this shavings, you'd get them up your nose.
And if he has banks he uses them as a pillow.
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I love the way he is curled up like a dog!

For those who mentioned the wee, I do my beds in the morning, sweep out the wet patches and then leave the bed up for the day. I also spray with Jeyes once a week if I think it needs it, but that is very rarely.
 
I put down my straw beds last night! There was a lot of dust, so I may have to find some better straw, but they look lovely! I will report back in a few weeks after the horses have come in.
 
For those that say horses dont get colic from eating a straw bed I would like to know what I am doing wrong. My mare (who is now 12) was 5 when I first went to stables that stabled on straw - she had a lovely haylage net and still continued on to her bed and ended up with what vets described as impaction colic from the straw. It was horrible watching her being tubed as she fought the vet so much. A few years later I moved yards and the new YO confirmed what you all said that she wouldnt colic etc so I thought ok try again - to be on safe side I put a HUGE net of hay and some toys and YO sprayed something on straw - no - another vet visit due to impaction colic - apparently from the straw! She was a proper drama queen this time thrashing around - again horrible to watch. I do admit she is greedy and now I have her on shavings but the other two on straw. I would love to have them all on straw but just too scared to try. I have tried putting her in their stables with smelly beds but she goes rooting through it and after a few mouthfuls I get her out as I am paranoid now. She must just be a straw addict :)
 
This may be a stupid question but one that I have always wondered about.
What's the different between feeding chaff which is chopped straw and a horse eating its bed. Is the fact it is chopped mean it's less likely to lead to impaction or is it the quantities involved that cause a problem.

That's excluding the fact that what you use to bed down with may not be feed grade anyway so might be too dusty to eat or contain residues of spraying.
 
Another vote for straw bedding, at £3.50 a straw bale compared to around £8.00 for shavings its no wonder....I have a clean mare and use about 3 a month during the winter so i'll only spend est £42.00 on bedding :D (I do have rubber mats also)
 
No one seems to have considered that there are different types of straw. Traditionally wheat straw was used for bedding. Barley straw was rejected as it caused skin problems and oat straw was too palatable (ie they ate it!)

Nowadays with modern combine harvesters the husk of barley straw that caused the skin problems is removed at harvest and it makes a fantastic bed - if it is eaten a little it is digestible and in moderate quantities should not cause colic. Oat straw is still very palatable and is used by many as a low calorie feed stuff - it actually is used in several proprietary chaff type feed products so is not really suitable for bedding. Wheat straw is less palatable, but is also non digestible so eaten in any great quantity could well cause colic.

There is no comparison in price between straw and any other bedding - straw is by far the cheapest. I have kept horses for over 45 years and apart from the odd top sport horse or the odd one with a dust allergy they have all lived on straw and touch wood I have never had a colic caused by the bedding.

The resulting muck heap is welcomed by my local farmers who hate shavings as they appear to harm plant growth unless left for several years.

However if you are all so wealthy that you can afford to throw your money on the muck heap .........!!
 
Good quality straw is no more dusty than shavings. I used to muck out 12 shavings beds per day, and god, the grot you end up with in your airways is horrible!

Mine generally live out 24/7 so it's rare that they are stabled, but when they are then I use straw. Shavings are a ridiculous waste of money! If I were to stable a horse regularly then I would use wood pellets.
 
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