Looking for an opinion on what is the best shavings brand

Green Bean

Green Bean

Well-Known Member
Joined
1 February 2017
Messages
676
Visit site
As the title suggests. My horse has been on Hunters shavings as long as I have had her, but wonder on experiences with others?
 
I think it’s personal. I love Bedmax but a lot of people don’t. I like it as makes a brilliant bed and ours are pretty tidy so don’t need to worry about how absorbent it is. Plus it stays a nice colour for longer and is pretty economical
 
MegaSpread. Huge bales, brilliant quality. I had to buy some Natural flake and MegaSpread is the same volume as almost 2 bales of Natural Flake (great shavings too just less in the bale!)
Made by the same people as Hunters I believe.
 
jnb said:
MegaSpread. Huge bales, brilliant quality. I had to buy some Natural flake and MegaSpread is the same volume as almost 2 bales of Natural Flake (great shavings too just less in the bale!)
Made by the same people as Hunters I believe.
Click to expand...
I agree MegaSpread is also good and cheaper than Hunters, but can’t get them either!!
 
Metsawood Stable Choice.

Only been told they are out of stock at present. This and the Thoroughbred shavings, they both have really long lead in times but they are saying next year now.
 
Last edited:
Mega spread or Hunters but they are hard to get hold of here at the moment my livery bought some lavender shavings today they smell really strong, there is a place that delivers to me and they do a similar thing to mega spread but the bales are a bit smaller and a bit cheaper so I often use those if I can't get the real thing, I must admit everything else I have tried just doesn't compare to them I'm afraid.
 
Bedmax (even before it was trialled by David Marlin and came out tops). I think it is the closest you can get to a straw bed whilst using shavings and horses have been shown to prefer straw (my YOs Great Dane also chooses my Bedmax beds for a kip!). I do find it takes a few weeks to slightly break up to have some smaller pieces and stop moving about so much and that you need to poo pick by hand to keep it looking good, a fork either leaves too much poo behind or wastes too much bedding.
 
Tronk said:
Snowflake.
Click to expand...


They are tiny though

We had stable bed at the yard which was good but yo can no longer get them in. We have snowflake or bedmax though. Tried snowflake whicj is half the size of the stable bed bale and goes no where so boys on to bedmax once a week now
 
throwawayaccount said:
yeah its hard to find one that's right. I was using snowflake and thoroughbred but mine are so messy. but tbh they're messy on bedmax too..so just switched to straw :S
Click to expand...
The best shavings and I mean the very best shavings I had was when Dad used to get them for me from the Timber Yard in a Birmingham suburb.
He was retired and loved going to the timber yard as he could have a chat with the men that worked there, the type of chat only men can do! :)

He was brilliant, if they had a lot of nice pine shavings he'd go three times during the week to get as many as he could. It helped that they didn't cost anything and because he was a service engineer, if the men had issues with the sawing machines Dad would look at it for them for a fraction of what they would get charged with a 'proper' timber machine engineer! So it was a win, win.

He got me these shavings for 20 years before eventually having to stop through ill health. God bless him, my succession of horses never coughed on them once, yet with the so called 'dust extracted shavings' always seemed to.
 
Like others I'm currently just getting what is available. Normally I go for Thoroughbred.

I was very dubious about the Bedmax at first, but the longer they are down the more I like them. They rustle quite loudly when first put down. They are completely dust free. This is just a day bed, btw.

The individual flakes really are huge.

EB38C1C4-6666-41A6-95A9-D21EB9C16EEF.jpeg
 
There seems to be a general shortage of all shavings over here in east anglia. We're just using what we can get which is currently bed-down excel.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Like others I'm currently just getting what is available. Normally I go for Thoroughbred.

I was very dubious about the Bedmax at first, but the longer they are down the more I like them. They rustle quite loudly when first put down. They are completely dust free. This is just a day bed, btw.

The individual flakes really are huge.

View attachment 101027
Click to expand...
Mum and Dad had a cupboard around the side of the house and I had stored a few bales of Thoroughbred shavings from about 8 years ago, when I opened one up last year I couldn't believe the spreadable volume, the ones that are sold now aren't even half that volume!

Just like chocolate bars that have gone down in size, I have noticed bales of shavings have too.

I noticed the last lost (Stable Choice) were looser packed than before too!

God help me if I end up on straw, I've not mucked out a straw bed since 1987!
 
Bedmax for me. The only shavings that are actually dust free (as far as possible). They create a thick sturdy bed and I don’t waste as much bedding, they certainly last longer than other small flake shavings. I put a scoop of pellets daily in his wet patch spot and this seems to be the best combination for us.
 
In my area we can only get Bedmax, Littlemax or Natural Flake - I like Littlemax best, the bed seems thicker/fluffier and more absorbant.

I didn't realise there were so many other types/brands produced, the lavender one sounds intriguing!
 
I use Bedmax the best product for the horses feet I have ever found . I use strawmax pellets under the Bedmax in the wet areas of the messy horses .
 
Birker2020 said:
I noticed the last lost (Stable Choice) were looser packed than before too!
Click to expand...

I've just had a load of these. They look like massive bales but they're actually not compressed at all, and when you open them and put them down the bed still looks like it needs a bale of shavings on! Royalspan before that and they went further.
 
Flame_ said:
I've just had a load of these. They look like massive bales but they're actually not compressed at all, and when you open them and put them down the bed still looks like it needs a bale of shavings on! Royalspan before that and they went further.
Click to expand...
How much do you pay for yours if you don't mind me asking?

In December 2017, Metsawood started selling what they alleged were Stable Choice and they were sold in clear plastic wrap. When I saw them after work (driver had dropped them at the yard during the day without anyone around) I could see the bales were much smaller.

I rang the supplier to complain and they told me they had rang the manufacturer to ask them and the supplier said that MW claimed they'd run out of wrap and they were Stable Choice shavings but in clear wrap. They swore blind this was the case.

It was blantantly obvious they were much smaller, I took photos of the clear wrap bale and the SC bale stood next to each other to compare them and text them to supplier.

I never got to the bottom of whether it was the supplier trying to rip us off with smaller bales of a different kind, and saying they'd rang the supplier when they hadn't or whether Metsawood were trying to pull a fast one and trying to supply inferior shavings but neither MW or the supplier ever ran out of wrap' again.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top