Is ANYONE in favour of straw?

MizElz

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Or am I it's only advocate!?!?!?!?!

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Personally, I love straw. As long as it's not fousty or damp, that is! We've used shavings in the past when one of our ponies had an allergy, but as a preference, we've always come back to straw. Nothing else looks as cosy on a winter's evening, and horses seem to love being able to just sink to their knees in a 2ft deep bed of straw! I dont believe people when they say that straw is dirty; it's only dirty and hard to muck out when you try to deep litter it - in which case, I admit it is a nightmare! I understand that some horses chomp their way through a bed in the space of a night; luckily, we've not had one that does this!

So, am I alone? I suspect so.....
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wizzi901

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love it but too much to muck out compared to rubber matting and a sprinkle of shavings, far too much waste to pay to get rid of at the yard, and my lot stuff on it!!! getting rather fat!
 

joy

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Me, however, I have moved to a new yard with limited muckheap space so I am reduced to my rubber matting and hemcore.
Prefer straw though
 

dieseldog

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Yep, I love it as £1 will last me 10 days, and it is a lot cleaner, drier and easier than alternatives. Unfortunalty my horse coughs so I now use Bliss, which is chopped up Rape Straw.

Have rubber mats as well.
 

the watcher

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Too time consuming to muck out, smelly, dusty - sorry I can't find any positives except that it is cheap, but that would never be a motivating factor for me.

I like chopped rape straw, it handles like shavings but makes a much nicer bed
 

mollymurphy

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I love straw!!! It's so much warmer than shavings. Yeah, it's harder to muck out, but it's so satisfying when you put them to bed on a freezing cold night! Also, our livery rent is inclusive of ad lib hay and straw, so that's a bonus! Have always preferred it though.
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emilylovesotis

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i love straw, my horse has been on straw and shavings and he seems to prefer straw, at the moment he has a huge bed, which i love as i feel hes in a nice cosy bed. I would never like to deep litter straw though... wet straw isn't to nice
 

SueAllen

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With you on it - my boy loves having a roll about, doesn't eat it and doesn't have any allergies. It costs 50p/bale from the field opposite his stable and I can use all the muck from my heap. What's not to love?. I hate to see skinny little shavings beds. A big deep old fashioned straw bed is a sight to gladden the heart!
 

flyingfeet

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Me!

We use straw as it produces the best muck heap. Shavings are expensive to buy in and don't rot down quick enough.

Only ever had one with COPD, and we just swapped to haylage to control that.
 

wilder

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love it i am old school of waist high bankings and deep beds, i also think once the horses have finished their hay they can scuffle around in the straw whereas on shavings they can,t
i can,t abide rubber matting and the teeniest amount of shavings
 

PennyJ

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Me. I can muck out a straw bed quicker than a shavings one too. I like the stuff and you can give them such lovely deep beds without feeling too extravagant in the process.
 

MizElz

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Ooooh I feel better now! You all sound like people after my own heart! I was worried that using straw would be considered yet another thing I do wrong, after a few comments I saw about it earlier! You've all put my mind to rest!
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soph21

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If I had stables i would have rubber matting and shavings as its so much easier, but i used to love mucking out stables with straw but that was when i worked at a livery yard so it wasnt my time or money!! but my 2 arent stabled unfortunately!!!
 

mitchellk

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I would use it but am horribly allergic to it- my face swells and eyes run not very attractive. However I would not want to keep competition horses on it as I do like to know what is going in their mouths and my horses are all pigs particularly attracted to yummy straw!
 

Christmas_Kate

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I love it!! I like shavings as a close second, (because the wet clumps so is easier) but would always come back to straw. I do a full muck out daily and like to leave a horse in a deep bed with high banks. Shavings just don't bank the same.
 

Tinkerbee

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I love it

looks sooo much nicer than shavings

and our lot make less mess in it

put a layer of shavings under it though
 

Mavis

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I love it - I dont find it difficult or time consuming to muck out and it fulfills the @nal part of my persona that likes very deep perfectly square banks and a super-flat surface.
 

ponyclubnicole

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i loved straw too but it's way too big on the muck heap and is expensive to have removed more often, like 3 times more often than shavings. but i met with a company called nedsbedz or somehting like that up at YHL and theirs is chopped up somehting or other and the beds looked great as they sponsored the show and you could see some of the beds they said it was really absorbant so might try it sometime. the beds looked really cosy. like straw
 

custard

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Def prefer straw, Wil is a dirty git on shavings and Cat's a dirty git full stop. Have got wall to wall mats though so does make life easier plus theyre off the concrete
 

_basil_

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Our donkeys love straw. They are bedded on it and they eat tonnes of it too. Also use easibed for those allergy sufferers. It makes an ideal deep litter system too which is what we have in our big barns.
 

Zebedee

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[ QUOTE ]
I love it, its cheap and its much easier to muck out than shavings IMO!

[/ QUOTE ]

Couldn't agree more with the above, but this year straw is so expensive, so I'll be using paper. I can muck that out far quicker than I can shavings. (Don't ask me why I just can!!)
 

PaintboxEDT

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yep i love straw,nice deep bed and big banks,always looks more inviting than shavings,i love mucking it out as well,it takes longer but i go in to my own little world and have some quiet time whilst doing it !!!
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