Economical mucking out- no rubber mats

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Laura2013

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I am looking to change bedding- I currently use bedmax but think there may be a more economical option.

I don't have matting, I might invest next autumn but not an option this winter.

My preference is to semi-deep litter. I skip out in the week and then take out the wet patches at the weekend. However, there is no particular reason for this other than habit and I could do a full muck out daily or deep litter completely.

I don't really like straw, but would try a straw chop.

So options? I thought about wood pellets, but not sure how they would work without matting.

I would be up for combining two types of bedding if this would work. For e.g I had thought of using the pellets with shavings or bliss.
 
I love chopped straw beds. Had a very wet horse on one for quite some time, find them very easy to muck out even when deep littered. Sadly no one around here sells it.

Wood pellets aren't bad either, but I find moves around more than chopped straw and takes longer to "stabilise" a bed.

Miscanthus I haven't used, but have heard good things about.
 
I always found bedmax to be a bit rubbish at soaking up a lot of wet, you could maybe try a normal shavings bale or even sawdust at the bottom and put bedmax over the top and for banks.
 
I use ComfyBed like this. 1 or 2 bales a week on a very wet horse. Need a really good deep bed to start though - I have about 10 bales. I love it!
 
Why aren't rubber mats an option? They really do save you loads of money and time. I've had my ones for 5 years, several changes of livery, and they were reasonably cheap to buy in the first place. They are the smaller (4x6 x about 3/4 inch) so easy enough to move around. I'm using easi-bed at the moment, and probably use a bag a week, with an initial 6 or 7 bags to make "walls" and then just a very thin covering in the middle part, which I just clear out daily. It takes about 5 minutes, max. Stable drains well, and I chuck a few buckets of water in the middle bit every week or so. It's by far the easiest cheapest system I've used. It really is true that rubber mats save you money.
 
I started on chopped straw this winter & do like it but then found reasonably priced flax so swapped to that as I really like flax,nice & absorbent & makes a stable bed. I tried a couple of bags of miscanthus but found the length the strands were cut at made it really difficult to muck out but then that could just be down to my horse as half of his poo's are on top of the bed & the other half are trampled & buried & I have to hunt about & sift them out! I don't have enough mats to cover while stable I just have the front half covered & one big one in the middle,the bed covers the back half of the stable.
 
Wood pellets definitely. Better on rubber mats but would be fine without. Not sure why rubber mats aren't an option, like Landcruiser says they save money in the long run as you don't need so much bedding. I have been using wood pellets for a few years now and would never go back to anything else. They're cheap, quick and easy to work with and there's no smell. I wouldn't use Bedmax if you paid me. So wasteful and not absorbent.
 
I use a mix of shavings and Aubiose which I really like

I did visit a saddlery recently that had a livery yard attached and got chatting to a couple of people there. They use Verdo wood pellets with Arden Safemix on top (Safemix is a bit like shavings mixed with chipped bedding) It looked a great surface and is apparently ok to use without matting. It looks like it would semi deep litter very well too

If I didnt get my existing bedding so cheaply I would definitely try their method
 
Re matting- my horse has just come in over night for the winter and will only be in for a couple of months. This is the first time he has been in over night since I have had him, normally out 24/7. This winter is a bit of a trial for that! If I decide it is working and I am likely to do the same next year, I may well invest in mats. But if next year he goes back to out 24/7, then I don't think I am going to get enough use out of the mats in the next 2-3 months to justify the cost.

So the best plan is probably bedding that will work for both, in case I do end up getting mats this year.

Jenni- you are so right about the bedmax, I bought them when he came in a few weeks ago as they were the cheapest shavings at the shop and can't wait to use them up!
 
There's always a reason why some things are cheap..... Interstingly, my vets use them in the hospital stables but I think that's because they get them for next to nothing.
 
That's interesting because bedmax is quite expensive at my feed merchant! They smelt lovely but didn't do the job, when I sifted through for poops I eneded up taking as much wood chips out too.
 
I use wood pellets and do a full deep litter, I also have rubber matting. I keep the clean bedding in the banks, scoop out the poo and then mix the clean stuff with the wet. I also don't pre-soak my pellets, I put them down in pellet form and let the wee soak them.

My mare is VERY messy and it's the only way I can keep the bed half decent without costing me a small fortune.
 
I think the for cheapness is aubiose or flax, flax is cheaper at the moment. With both they work best as deep litter, don't take out any wet for two weeks and just keep adding to it. The best thing is the beds dry out if the weather is warm so by spring if you have a well ventilated stable you are using less.
I am using mischanthus and rape straw with the odd bag of wood pellets at the moment as I have rubber mats neither is as absorbent but he only has a third of the stable bedded down.
 
With or without mats I would use wood pellets. I use them similar to Frosty, deep littered but I don't have banks (but do have mats).

One of the biggest things with pellets I've found is to always take out any hay that gets mixed in as for some reason it seems to clump it all up (I use a rake) This is the fourth year I've used them and wouldn't change unless I went down to just one horse as they are econimical and very easy/quick to deal with.
 
I use Bliss - 4-5 bales to make a bed, then 1 a week to top up. I skip out all the poo and take the wet out on a Saturday. Works brilliantly for my 2 big skanky beasties. Have used wood pellets before and didn't like them but I think that's because I didn't deep litter them. Might try them in the future if Bliss gets expensive.
 
I use a mixture of Bedmax and Cardboard and it works really well.

I find that the Bedmax on its own is not absorbent enough and that the cardboard on its own squashes down too much. A mixture of these two keeps a nice deep fluffy bed that is also dry :)
 
I use miscanthus and start the bed with 4 bales and then poo pick in the week and muck out fully on Saturday. I generally work on adding 1/2 to 1 bale per stable per week and that keeps us going. Stables have a hardcore base and that helps. I have 2 horses, one keeps his lovely. The mare well least said about her bed! It takes me about and hour and a half each day to feed, hoof pick, check or change rugs, turn out, muck out, refill water, fill haynets and feed for the eve! The Miscanthus I buy is grown organically and breaks down in 3 months. I use it in my allotment garden so my muck heap is cleared each year.
 
I liked wood pellets with straw on top. Pick the poo out of the straw in the week and dig out rhe wet pellets at the weekend, then chuck another bag in.
 
I don't put a full bed down as such, just in shelters/barn, currently using Unibed chopped miscanthus....i don't like it, seem to be throwing a lot away with the droppings, sticks to everything.. 36 bales to get through and then going back to wood or straw pellets, so much more economical.(and the price has dropped back down)
 
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