How many of you use wood pellets?

[I See Clover]

What are your opinons of them?

Do you prefer using them to straw or shavings?

Do you have rubber matting in addition?

I am moving my new mare from the yard I bought her from to a yard closer to home and I am thinking of using wood pellets. They would be used on their own, without rubber matting.

Any opinions/experiences would be great, thanks.

 

[Bug2007]

We use wood pellets on our yard....my mare is on mats as well as she is gross so only has a sprinkling of pellets to soak up wee, but gelding on full bed of them, Just skip out all week and then weekend take out all wet and get under the banks etc...

I find it's less waste.

 

[Tr0uble]

I moved to wood pellets about a month ago....and they have seriously changed my life!

I use them on top of rubber matting, but the youngster started off on a bed big enough to not need the mats.

I can now muck out in a fraction of the time, there's barely any bedding wastage and I can do both boys (both 17hh plus) in just one wheelbarrow!

My bay horse has a muscle condition that makes his pee particularly strong smelling and vile...with the pellets you can barely smell it!

 

[McNally]

Yes, I used them last year- they are very good the reason i stopped using them was my yard was frozen up for weeks and i had to take water for my horses to drink from home- it was too much hassle (and i didnt have enough containers) to bring extra bed soaking water from home. Although i think if you have a wet horse you can mix new straight into an existing bed?? Mine were far to dry and never broke down unless soaked properly so i went back to shavings. I much prefer shavings tbh but they are far far more expensive.

By next winter i will have moved yards and be responsible for my own muck heap so will go back to pellets as far less waste and they are so absorbent i can easily deep litter, still only removing a small barrowfull on the weekend

I far prefer them to straw. Shavings are best but for easiness to muck out, cheapness and small muck heapness! I'd highly recommend pellets.

 

[Sambo]

I used rubber mats with a shavings bed - and then put in wood pellets in the wet areas.

I only got through 1 bale of shavings every two weeks and 2 bags of pellets (10kg) a week. As opposed to 2 bales of shavings a week! (My boy is particularly messy!!!)

It ment that the wet didnt need to be taken out, as the wood pellets just turned into shavings when mixed with the wee. It didn't smell either - did look any/sell any different then if i'd just mixed with water!

I went from 2 small wheelbarrows a day and 30 mins on a pure shavings bed, to not even half of a wheelbarrow of poo's in 5-10mins on a mix.

Couldn't recommend enough, saves me time and money! Will definately use again next year.

 

[I See Clover]

Thanks for the replies. My mare isn't usually very wet - so would I wet the pellets to make them soften if they didn't do so themselves? I dont' know anyone who uses them, so I haven't a clue

 

[trendybraincell]

When you initially lay the bed you pour water on them to get about 75% of them to expand, then they recommend watering the new bags you put in, but you certainly don't have to.

My bed is well established, through winter I was just putting the pellets straight in and letting them expand on their own...when it gets warmer I have to water the whole bed as it can get dusty otherwise.