What bedding do you have?

[Amber...]

What kind of bedding do you use? And how much is it a bag? My horse has mild copd and he can't be on anything dusty! He's currently on bedmax but they break the bank a bit!!!

 

[debsflo]

snowflake softchip, best i have used having tried everything including shavings ,easibed, bedmax etc

 

[ponydi]

Wood pellets - much cheaper

 

[Pamfyson]

Wheat straw. £1 bale delivered. Much less dusty than anything I have ever seen in a bag.

 

[xgemmax]

Hunters at £8.70 a bale, if they don't have them in stock then I get the own brand shavings at about £7.00 a bale. Put one bag in a week

 

[McCauley]

I use NedzBed Pro and it retails in my area at £7.20 ish a bale. I use 2 a week at worst and 1 every 10 days or so through the dry season! LOL...if we get one!

My lad is sensitive to dust/spores from hay (so it's soaked,...for getting rid of some of the sugars too), so the Nedzbed Pro has been a really good choice for us personally.

Straw wouldn't work for us as he's a feathered horse and it plays havoc with him and makes him itch.

Shavings, we found weren't as absorbent and the bed 'moved' more in the stable.

I do 'semi deep' litter (and clear out once a year with a fresh bed around about this time of year actually when he's going to be changing over to his summer turnout regime).

HOpe that helps!

 

[Magnetic Sparrow]

I use Ecobed cardboard squares. It's actually really cheap, but the reason I use it is because it's the only material I've found that my bu**er doesn't eat! It's easy enough to do, but it never looks nice.

 

[dixie]

Equinola - lovely stuff. Have switched this winter from Miscanthus and find it goes much further and is much easier to clean. Also smells lovely. £6.65 a bag.

http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/products/bedwell-bedding-equinola-horse-bedding

 

[AliceCrail]

Woodpellets! My mare has mild copd, and my gelding is a filthy beast. Took about 10 bags to start the box from scratch, but you can mix them in with other bedding too. They don't eat it, it is pretty cheap £4-5 a bag (small bag) very absorbent, very easy and quick to muck out, virtually no dust at all. The only downsides I found were it looking a bit grotty with all the rain we had - it seemed to absorb moisture from the air! And hay is hard to get out of the bed, but probably no more difficult than shavings.

 

[TelH]

I have 5 on straw and 2 on aubiose.

 

[9tails]

Woodpellets! My mare has mild copd, and my gelding is a filthy beast. Took about 10 bags to start the box from scratch, but you can mix them in with other bedding too. They don't eat it, it is pretty cheap £4-5 a bag (small bag) very absorbent, very easy and quick to muck out, virtually no dust at all. The only downsides I found were it looking a bit grotty with all the rain we had - it seemed to absorb moisture from the air! And hay is hard to get out of the bed, but probably no more difficult than shavings.

Get a garden rake with thin metal tines, the hay will be pulled into a pile and easily separated.

 

[AnyChance]

I find wood pellets really dry in warmer weather and it is then very dusty unless you water it, Shavings even the dust extracted ones still have dust in so I am looking into the chopped straw bedding

 

[NativePonyLover]

I use straw with a base layer of Bedrapp for added absorbency. Ideally I'd like shavings and rubber matting, but the £££ puts me off as straw is doing it's job.

 

[Tash88]

Wood pellets - dry, odour-free and easy to muck out. I put a bag in every five days, a bag is £5-6. Although the bed does go a bit brown, the ease of use makes up for it and the bed doesn't look dirty.

 

[case895]

Bedmax for ages but trying out Bliss as it is supposed to rot quicker.

 

[Tiffany]

Fitch bedding and my girl's bed is the best it's ever been

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

I used shavings for years & although I bought a pallet at a time it was still too expensive so I changed to pettets. I buy the Woodlets pellets, they're very absorbant, quick to muck out, I don't find them dusty & a 10kg bag costs under £2.50. I put in 3 bags a week & the bed remains clean, dry & odour free. I was spending far more on shavings each week so it's been better all round. I'd recommend tghem to anyone.

 

[Talyn]

I have 2 on wood pellets and 1 on a mix of wood pellets and easibed.

 

[glinda]

I have tried loads of different bedding types and now use Aubiose for all off mine and find it excellent (1 of mine has severe COPD)

(wood pellets are far too dusty for a COPD horse IMHO)

I did a deal with my local supplier as I get through quite a few bales a week and I pay £7.20 plus VAT but I find I use far less bales than say normal shavings or in fact any other type of bedding I have tried- normally about 1 per week for my really wet guys and 1 every 10-12 days for the others.

 

[martlin]

I use Laysoft and pay around £6,50 per 25kg bag including delivery.

 

[Pipistrelle]

Equinola. It's revolutionised my morning muck out! Honestly the best (and cheapest at £6.60 a bag) bedding I've ever used. My horse is quite messy in the stable and I was getting through a bale of shavings every 3 days plus having to lift the rubber mats and hose out because pee was streaming out from underneath. With equinola I use a bale every 8-10 days and haven't once had to take the mats up because it's so absorbent. Love it!
Pip

 

[mynutmeg]

I use aubiose - I pay £10.30 a bale but I use 1 bale a week instead of 3-4 bales a week of shavings so works out way cheaper.

 

[Lolita]

Snowflake shavings usually.

 

[Wolves]

I used to be on wood pellets but didn't like them very much and they are only marginally cheaper than shavings for me.

I am now back to shavings but have changed my routine. Instead of mucking out fully everyday, I only muck out once a week and what a huge difference it has made. My horse has a big bouncy bed, only having to add one bale a week which is cheaper than wood pellets. I am a little OCD about my bedding and so was a little apprehensive about mucking out once a week but it's kept very tidy and I wouldn't do it any other way now.

 

[Echo24]

Mine is on aubiose. It's £9 a bale and took a lot of work initially as it's the first winter my youngster was stabled overnight and he often trashed his stable! Now he's more settled I can get away with one bag every other week and I semi deep litter and dig out the wet every weekend.

 

[Queenbee]

I use straw, £23 per round bale, lasts about 10 weeks for one horse in winter. Now I've got two horses but it's lasting longer than expected as they are only in at day so about 7 weeks for two horses in summer. Neither have breathing issues, but not very dusty at all anyway.

 

[pistolpete]

Yard supply two bales of shavings a week I add a bag of megazorb every ten days or so at £7.20 works for me.

 

[Ginge Crosby]

Run a livery yard. Currently in the bedding shed - blazers wood pellets, straw and shavings. Wood pellets £5 per 15kg, straw £3.75 per bale, shavings £7.50 per bale.

One livery has a full straw bed (1 bale per week), a couple deep litter shavings (2 bales per week), a couple muck out daily shavings (2 bales per week), the rest are on a pellet/shavings mix, usually pellets where the pee patch is and rest of bed shavings (1 pellets every fortnight, 1 shavings every other fortnight to pellets).

What do I use personally? bed made of pellets with an inch of shavings on top, and shavings banks. Both of mine are filthy on anything else, but on this combi the one poo's on the concrete and only uses bed for wee, the other stockpiles his poos/wee in one corner and rest of bed is spotless. I use one bag of pellets a month for each, and one bale of shavings for the littler one a month, and 2 bales per month for the bigger. 'Wet' bedding gets moved across to level the bed, but only gets taken out when it's built up too deep, so about every 12 weeks or more, depending on how it's sitting. Pellet/shavings mix when in the right proportions (and with the right type of horse!) makes a really nice dry deep litter bed, it doesn't move, doesn't look pissy and doesn't really smell like a traditional shavings/straw bed does.

 

[AnyChance]

I have one pony copd and one big horse.
I had the big horse on wood pellets which is the easiest bedding to muck out. Costs £4 per bag in winter I would go through 4 per week as pellets absorb moisture in the air. Summer would prob end up using 1 possibly 2 per week. However in summer I find them far too dry it just turns to dust and you then need to start watering it. Also the banks if you have them start to smell musty ic you don't turn them over regularly. I am now trying nedzbed original and it seems ok so far.
The COPD pony wad on shavings whivh was starting to look dry and dusty so trying nedzbed pro chopped rape straw big she has started to cough again so will swop her back to shavings

 

[L&M]

I have one horse on 'pro bed' - it is just under £6 per bale and is wood fibre with added eucalyptus. It is totally dust free and use a bale a week mid winter. This horse is very wet so straw doesn't work for him, however deep. I find it is more absorbent deep littered, or if mucking out daily, on top of mats.

The other ned is on straw, buy it for £2 a bale and only use a bale a week - he is a very clean boy and not wet.

I have a livery with a horse with mild copd who is bedded on cardboard, which works well for him, and also cheap - around £4.50 a bale and she rarely puts in more than 1 a week.

My muck heap is a very interesting concoction!