what bedding is best?

[pegasus1986]

what bedding is best for rubber matting have had rubber matting for a year now and love it and wuldnt go back to not having it mine are on shavings with it but i love the look of lovely big thick straw beds but what beddin is best out of everything??

 

[Chico Mio]

Depends on many things I suppose: cost, availabilty, horse, personal preference etc.
I don't have mats and use deep litter pellets and shavings. This because:

a) both mine will joyfully eat a straw bed
b) I have nowhere to dispose of quanties of dirty straw
c) deep litter is easy to manage

I am looking at changing to mats (because I can get them for free

) and shavings pretty soon.

 

[millitiger]

i love really big straw beds- also straw is much, much cheaper than any other bedding. i can get a huge round bale for £10 which lasts 6 stables about 2 months.

also, if you get good quality straw i don't think the dust is much worse than shavings- particularly as i put new straw on the bottom of the bed and 'used' straw back over the top.

 

[lucym]

i personally use shaving, deep litter, on rubber mats. Use one bale every two weeks, and the bed is clean-ish and doesnt smell

i have tried various things, cardbaord, paper, nedz bed, chopped treated straw, aubiose etc, and they really dont wrok as well imo. plus my horse is prone to eat anything vaugly like food!

 

[catymmh]

[ QUOTE ]
what bedding is best for rubber matting have had rubber matting for a year now and love it and wuldnt go back to not having it mine are on shavings with it but i love the look of lovely big thick straw beds but what beddin is best out of everything??

[/ QUOTE ]

I have rubber beds and have tried everything but the best I have ever found and would never look back is Nedz Advance. It goes down like pellets (they do not eat it) but as soon as they walk/lay on it is crushes down. The amazing thing is how stable it is, how there is NO urine smell and is a doddle and I mean a real doddle to muck out. You see it goes like dirt/sand consistency and when you stick the fork it it ONLY picks up the poo everything else slips through effortlessly. It has made my life so much easier and I've had the boys on it a year now. It may turn out to be slightly more expensive BUT weighed up all the pros and cons and this just couldn't put me off. Also the muck heap is vastly reduced like I couldn't believe so pound for pound I'm betting it's not more expensive.

I have to say I only cover half my stable - replace (weekly) with only one bale in the summer and they have a deepish covering and use 2 bales in winter (each stable that is). The boys lay flat out in it so must like it. Hope this helps.

 

[equestrian2u]

i personally prefer paper bedding , as it absorbs the pee on contact keeping it in one area so you can just lift it out in one and it fluffs up nicely is warm and dust free , droppings are easily picked out by hand so cost efective as no waste , but some yards dont like it because of disposal issues but wouldnt use any thing else after being brought up on straw beds ,

 

[kerilli]

straw on rubber matting is hopeless as straw is a drainage bed, and with mats you need an absorbent bed.
i use Ecobed cardboard, have done for years. i know some people don't get on with it but i think it's great - no dust at all, doesn't break down to dust with use (unlike paper and shavings), easy to muck out, absorbent, doesn't dry their feet out too much (ditto), small muckheap, worms love it (at my last place a local Wormery guy would take muck for nothing, he was so impressed with how happy his worms were in it!), inedible (i've had some right pigs on it, and one mouthful has always convinced them that it's not food). fab stuff.

 

[miller]

We now use a chopped, dust extracted straw and get on brilliantly with it on mats - use about 1/2 bale per horse per week and it is extremely absorbent (agree with Kerilli re standard straw) much better than shavings/laysoft etc and cheaper too