I just don't like pellets anymore

Wagtail

Wagtail

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Has anyone else used pellets for a long time and now just fallen out of love with them? I thought they were amazing at first and stuck with them for 7 years. I thought they were cheap, and they were until I got in a number of very wet messy horses and then they were not so cheap at all. I found that with messy or wet horses you need around 4 bags a week to keep the beds looking reasonable. If I had the beds as I wanted them then those horses would need a 15kg bag in every day! I found I was getting through pallet loads of the pellets and it was costing me a fortune. Yes, they are easy and quick to muck out, but really, the drawbacks were starting to out-weigh the benefits. So, with only two horses left on pellet beds, I have decided that I have bought my last pallet-load. I have already changed the other horses onto chopped miscanthus, and the two on pellets will be changed over to miscanthus as soon as the current pallet of pellets runs out. I can't stand the way the pellets go brown and manky so quickly, or the terrible dust I have to deal with when I clear the stables out over the summer. I find that even the messiest dirtiest horses use only one bale of miscanthus every 5 days which actually works out much cheaper despite the cost per bale being higher than a bag of pellets. And the beds stay a nice colour and look much more cosy.

Anyone else binned the pellets?
 
yeah i tried them and found the same issue. I pay more now for better shavings but they are 100% better value in the long run. I actually enjoy mucking out because i only have a few stables and love to keep a clean bed, but i always thought the pellet beds looked grubby and i was having to put a ton in just to keep it a decent height
 
I've moved two of mine off pellets - one is a swamp monster and soaks his bed every night - he is now on straw and I just throw the wet out every day. The other drags her feet through the bed and messes it all up so she is also on straw. The others (7) are still on pellets. I have very deep beds on rubber mats and in winter use between 1 to 2 bags per horse per week. The beds still look good and have stayed a light colour. With so many to skip out before I start work I do find wood pellets an absolute Godsend as it is so quick. I have used miscanthus in the past and whilst I like it as a bedding it took me much longer to skip out - but I am rather OCD about not throwing any clean bedding out.
 
opposite for me, moved stable in the yard and there is a full shaving bed, so thought i would see how it went, been on wood pellets for years. ahhhhhh, moving to whole bed out and putting pellets back down.
 
hollyandivy123 said:
opposite for me, moved stable in the yard and there is a full shaving bed, so thought i would see how it went, been on wood pellets for years. ahhhhhh, moving to whole bed out and putting pellets back down.
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yep same. I ran out of pellets and used shavings for a bit as couldn't afford another pallet load straight away - both horses in a filthy mess within a couple of days and it was costing me a fortune. Back to pellets again... bliss. I had Millie on big flake shavings after she came home from horspital as it kept the dressing super clean, but that was AWFUL.
 
Mine are on straw. One of mine is very wet and the other just kicks everything everywhere. I don't like the smell with straw but at least I can keep the bed clean. When I had them on Aubiose I was using loads. I didn't want to invest in pellets only for them to end up a mashes in mess too.
 
Wagtail - I changed onto miscanthus following your thread on it. I really like it to muck out but I still find I get through 2-3 bales a week so still expensive for me. I use Easypack as it's the local supplier. I also find when I first open a bale although it's dust extracted It really catches the back of my throat and makes me cough terribly same happens to my my friend who does him for me during the week. I don't have asthma or any known allergies. Luckily horse hasn't shown any signs of coughing though.
 
I didn't even fall out of love with them, I hated them. Found them hard work from the start! But the horse I was using them on is disgusting, so maybe that had an effect. But I found them hard work to muck out too!
 
I tried them for about 6 weeks and hated them so went back to hunter's and I am currently using mega spread they are made by hunter but bigger flakes, I am quite liking them so may stick with it for now I only tried them as hunter shavings become hard to get hold of over Christmas.
 
Sussexbythesea said:
Wagtail - I changed onto miscanthus following your thread on it. I really like it to muck out but I still find I get through 2-3 bales a week so still expensive for me. I use Easypack as it's the local supplier. I also find when I first open a bale although it's dust extracted It really catches the back of my throat and makes me cough terribly same happens to my my friend who does him for me during the week. I don't have asthma or any known allergies. Luckily horse hasn't shown any signs of coughing though.
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Maybe it's the easypack brand then? I use burleybed and the bales are huge. One horse only uses one a week. The other two use one ever five days. The latter two are extremely messy. One treads his poo everywhere and churns the whole bed up just by the way he moves, the other digs her bed into a huge pile and rolls. They are disgusting, but I still manage to keep their beds looking really fresh and nice with a new bale every five days. I have noticed it does sometimes catch my throat as I spread a new bag, but never when I am mucking out and I never see any dust. My mare has actually stopped coughing since moving onto it.
 
Does anyone have pics of the two types of bedding? I prefer straw beds but my yard is switching from straw. I'm trying the pellets first bit the bed is quite small and it looks pretty grubby. Miscanthus or shavings are also an option but likely to be more expensive.

He's on full livery so I don't muck out, bliss, but I do want him to be on a comfy, suitable bed. He has mats as well.
 
mine have a small pellet bed on EVA mats. Both are enthusiastic snoozers and Kira likes to roll in her stable too... both are more than happy with their beds. (Mind you, kira rolled on the bare flagstone floor before I got in there to put a bed down, so perhaps she is particularly weird!)
 
I'm on winter number 3 on pellets and still love them. So much cleaner, easier to muck out and easier to store than any other bedding. My boy is incredibly wet but doesn't poo in his bed or disturb his bed at all as he doesn't walk around his stable much. All he does is wee in it and lie on it so it all forms a firm biscuit base and I just pull clean bedding over the top. We only get through one bag a week. He's grey and always had a yellow flank on shavings but nothing on this as it seems to soak the wet up far more quickly and lock it in. A friend has a horse who's probably not as wet as mine but does a lot of stable walking and it really didn't suit him as it seems more prone to mashing together in those circumstances.
 
I had pellets for years with my cob gelding - they worked really well, economical and clean. Sadly had the cob PTS at the end of last year and now the mare I have is horrendous on pellets. Much wetter and makes a mess. Gelding didn't need much topping up - mare needs it every week. I've started mixing the pellets with Easibed and it seems to be better so I am going to order a pallet and mix them up
 
what works for me is knowing the "pee area", and then when i muck out once a week, 1 bag of pellets goes straight there no pre-wetting, the old bed goes on top. if in more then 2 bags go on the pee area
 
i have never used pellets but i have seen pellet beds and they do look manky and despite being supposedly dust free the horse on the pellets always a layer of dust on his back in the mornings> I have used straw ( never again!!) shavings ( small flakes) and for the last 2 years mycanthus. I find it very economical only needing 1 bale a week- and that goes for all the horses on yard and the pony uses half a bale. We all have enormous thick beds. I have used nedz but found it expensive so now using unibed at £5 a bale. It exactly the same except for the eucalyptus smell! It is very effective bedding and easy to muck out
 
I think the key is with pellets, that they work really well with tidy horses that pee in one area and don't mix in their poo. If you get a horse that either stomps it around or digs it up or pees and poos everywhere, then they're an expensive disaster. My old mare peed in one place and pooed in another. Her pellet bed was always nice and clean. The same goes for another mare I have here. However, the rest are another story! Pellets worse than useless.
 
I've been using pellets for 7yrs and would never go back to shavings. I would consider more than one 15kg bag a week to be heavy usage now....but I have large stables, so the horses never have to stand on their beds.
I've never understood why people add unsoaked pellets...they just trample into dust.
 
Wagtail said:
I think the key is with pellets, that they work really well with tidy horses that pee in one area and don't mix in their poo. If you get a horse that either stomps it around or digs it up or pees and poos everywhere, then they're an expensive disaster.
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exactly, my gelding is a mucky sod. and noone could pay me enough to muck out a shavings bed again.
 
cobgoblin said:
I've been using pellets for 7yrs and would never go back to shavings. I would consider more than one 15kg bag a week to be heavy usage now....but I have large stables, so the horses never have to stand on their beds.
I've never understood why people add unsoaked pellets...they just trample into dust.
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I do it as my horse is very wet but always wees in one spot. Putting them in dry means they can absorb that much more. I put some soaked bedding on top of them and he doesn't really walk on his bed (stable is huge, bed is only on back 3rd) so they remain whole until they're weed on. In fact, if some migrate away from the wee patch they'll stay whole until I drag them back there.

Wagtail - you're right, they don't seem to work if they traipse through their beds lots - they can deal with volume but not disturbance!
 
cobgoblin said:
I've been using pellets for 7yrs and would never go back to shavings. I would consider more than one 15kg bag a week to be heavy usage now....but I have large stables, so the horses never have to stand on their beds.
I've never understood why people add unsoaked pellets...they just trample into dust.
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I gave up using pellets as I was using 6 bags a week! (for one pony) the yard didn't know how to muck out a pellet bed properly so everything got mixed in together, so I needed to put down almost a full bed every week.

I'm now back on straw, doing my own beds, and couldn't be happier!
 
annagain said:
I do it as my horse is very wet but always wees in one spot. Putting them in dry means they can absorb that much more.
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yep same. Kira wees in one spot, (and poos all in a pile elsewhere), so I dig out the sodden bed and pour a new bag into the hole that is left. They are fluffed up within a day or so :o

Millie stirs her bed around but I still find it cheaper and easier on pellets, I was using at least 2 bales of shavings a week when I had to swap back temporarily and it took forever to sift out the poo pieces. Super speedy on pellets. They are all so different :)
 
I keenly observed my friends 2 horses when she stayed with me 2 winters ago for 3 months, both on pellets.
After doing them over xmas, I decided that I'd never have mine on them.

I used to use Eco Comfybed, then my local stores no longer stocked it.
Went onto Easypack Miscanthus & its just fine. Unlike another poster, I don't have (or haven't yet had!) any dust issues.
 
booandellie said:
i have never used pellets but i have seen pellet beds and they do look manky and despite being supposedly dust free the horse on the pellets always a layer of dust on his back in the mornings> I have used straw ( never again!!) shavings ( small flakes) and for the last 2 years mycanthus. I find it very economical only needing 1 bale a week- and that goes for all the horses on yard and the pony uses half a bale. We all have enormous thick beds. I have used nedz but found it expensive so now using unibed at £5 a bale. It exactly the same except for the eucalyptus smell! It is very effective bedding and easy to muck out
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Hi, is unibed miscanthus or rape straw? Where do you buy it? Thanks
 
I've used pellets for 8 years and couldn't bear to use anything else. I don't actually want to spend more than 10 minutes mucking out, horse doesn't care what colour her bed is as long as it's clean, deep and dry. I use two or three bags a fortnight and the bed is around 6-8 inches deep.
 
No I still love them!

2 very different horses - 1 pees in one spot so dig that out each week and add dry pellets to that patch.

Mare pees all over the place - they've been in since end of October and I havnt had to dig any out yet! It's just set to a nice base and I add a bag or two each week on top to keep it thick.

For work I muck out straw, shavings and pellets and find pellets by far the easiest and quickest.
 
Still love them - cheap and quick.....
I have one stirrer and one digger (though always pees in the same place and never disturbs it). I have thick beds on rubber matting, but no banks. Kept them both on shavings for a while and it almost broke me. Also, the stirrer's rugs were gross when on shavings. Hate the smell and bulk of straw.
 
Meredith said:
Hi, is unibed miscanthus or rape straw? Where do you buy it? Thanks
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Hi, it's chopped rape straw- it's the premium medicated one. I haven't seen it in the saddlers but a local farmer supplies it and delivers if need be. I am in the north east . I have used Nedz, then bedwells and now this make. The nedz is 9.50, bedwells £6 (possibly easier to get hold of). They have all been the same quality
 
I play it by ear. Pellets are not my favourite bedding by any means but they are affordable!
I find for leaky stables they are great as they kind of block the water drenching the whole bed and contain the wet. So I use them for the two stable I need to be clean and relatively dust free but do get a bit damp.
Pony who is spotless is on bed max because I love it and he gets through so little. I'd really prefer all on bedmax but without one dry stables it's too pricey
 
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