Need a change of bedding, help please.

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wilson1

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I want to change my horses bedding, I have 6 horses and have been using shavings but am finding it expensive and would like to change but not sure what to. they all have rubber matting so what do you all use? is cardboard any good or wood pettets?
 
I use thick porous mats and this year have started with wood pellets. I am very pleased with them. Chancer is fairly clean, pees in one place and poos at the back, so he is a 5 min skip out each day. At weekends, I take out the wet and top up the bed. Before this he was on shavings.

In winter he is out 9 - 4 four days a week and the rest of the time is in - a 15.1 cob and I use 2 15 k bags a week as I like to have a half bed - 3" thick over half the stable.

Farra is a 16.2 clydesdale mare - pees for England and requires a very absorbant bed. I changed from megazorb to LWP and have to say I prefer them. She has 2 - 3 bags a week as I have to take out the wet mid week.

I have cut my bedding bill from a minimum of £23 a week to a minimum of £10 for the two of them - over £250 for the winter months. The muck heap is smaller and mucking out time is very quick. I paid £213 for 1000k of pellets in 15k bags delivered last order.

Downside is you don't have a white big fluffy bed - but for me that has never been a problem - as long as they are clean and dry and the poo is out, I don't care what the bed looks like. Mine are happy to lie down and don't get filthy rugs on this bed.
 
Another vote here for wood pellets.
I have 4 all 16hh plus.
They are on rubber matting and up to this year used equisorb or aubiouse over the rubber matting.
This got REALLY expensive so this year I moved to wood pellets and find they make a nice bed which is dry and there is no smell !.
I water the bed when I set it up but add dry pellets 1 x 15 kilo bag per horse per week after that.(They are out 7:30 until 4:00 every day).They are cheaper to buy and I was using 2 bales per horse per week before so a saving all around
They also seem to rot down well.
I am a convert and wouldn't go back to other bedding
 
I use cushionbed, it is really cheap and makes a good firm bed. I semi deep litter, just taking the wet out once a week, and it works really well.
 
I tried cardboard and hated it - wet, smelly, messy and hard to sweep up.

Like the wood pellets - on my second pallet now.

I still wet them a bit before putting them down tho - it bugs me if I throw out whole pellets when skipping out!
I use roughly 2 bags a week per bed - but it's masses cheaper than the equivalent I would spend on shavings, less storage and smaller muckheap.
 
i used cardboard for years (Ecobed) but have recently defected to wood pellets, purely because 1 of mine was utterly filthy and needed 5-7 bales of cardboard a week (the other 2 needed 2 a week!)
the wood pellets are very good, very very absorbent. it takes me a bit longer to muck them out but there's definitely less wastage, and less cost.
 
I also use wood pellets on my rubber mats but UNDER a straw bed. I put a bucket load down (and spread them out to one pellet thick) on the pee patch and they fluff up when pee'd on. I rake them up once a week.

I just fork out any really wet straw daily, leaving the sawdust/pellets untouched, and then put a slice or two of fresh straw ontop.

Costs me about £15 wk for 4 horses for straw and pellets (stabled 18 hours a day).
 
Hi I was also finding shaving too expensive for my 3 ponies so went over to shredded egg boxes from Harbour Bedding www.harbourbedding.co.uk They charge £4.65 a bale and I use the same number of bales of these shredded egg boxes as shavings so have cut my bedding costs down by half.
I found them so easy to use. The wet patches are soaked up like blotting paper and it rots down well.
Give it a go. Its really warm in this weather too.
 
I tried everything and now use Ecomax Horse Bedding. Wood pellets definately the best for my wet messy mare and Ecomax the best of the wood pellets and believe me, I've tried everything and you won't believe the difference in all the pellets. Only costing £6.00 per week as I only use one bag a week. Shavings was costing £28 a week and Liverpool Wood Pellets the cheapest of the other pellets but no where near as absorbent, so ended up costing more at £10 per week. Very happy as Ecomax bed nice pale yellow and I know that there are no nasties in there as it's made from Virgin wood pulp with no chemicals and no recycled wood. I thought recycled = good, but not where bedding is concerned. It can include old pallets (plus whatever chemicals has spilled onto them) and hardwoods which can damage horses respiratory tracts.
BEWARE wood pellets that are intended as bio-fuel (including Liverpool) as these can have stuff in that's dangerous to horses.
 
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