Which bedding do you think is best and why?

Laura-Maybe-IV

Laura-Maybe-IV

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Hi all, I think were all feeling the pinch at the moment so...

Which bedding are you all using and why do you think that it is the best?

I have three at the moment one horse two ponies and i'm trying to work out which one could be best for my three as well a keeping the costs down and having the muck away man come less...

I've tried:-

- Shavings - Pricey at £8.50 a bag here no wood yards we can get them from
- Straw - Cheap, but they all eat it.
- Chopped Straw - Expensive, £9.95 per bag! but it is good, but again they tend to eat it

But i've been thinking about giving wood pellets a go, does any one use them? They do seem to work out considerably cheaper if brought in bulk, reduce time mucking out and less on the muck pile.

If not what do you use?

I'm looking for convenience, cost effectiveness and reduced mucking out time.. aren't we all!
 
I think it depends on the individual horse and the stable size. I'm in much smaller stables this year and its costing me a fortune in bedding. I've used wood pellets for years and found them great but in the smaller stables they were compacting and the peeling would run over the top instead of to the bottom. I'm now adding a bit of shavings and it seems to be reducing the compacting. I've never had to deal with muck removal so can't comment on that! If you have aggood straw supply maybe you could look into a straw chopper? Expensive but you could also sell the chopped straw.
 
Wood pellets have saved me a fortune this year!
I have a dirty mare and used to get through 2 bags of shavings a week (£16)
I now use 4 bags of pellets a week which is (£8.88)
 
Thank you for your reply :) My stables are currently 12x12, and I have a 15.0hh and two shetlands. I been thinking about using them for a while, but I don't have rubber matting and I wasn't sure if you could use them without matting :confused:

Yeah that could be an option, but not many people use chopped straw around here, a lot of people are quiet set on using shavings, but with three and two messy ponies its quiet expensive. I can't even turn the ponies out all year as we do not have enough grass :(
 
phizzogs said:
Wood pellets have saved me a fortune this year!
I have a dirty mare and used to get through 2 bags of shavings a week (£16)
I now use 4 bags of pellets a week which is (£8.88)
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Phizzogs.. I know the feeling!! I'm currently using atleast three bags a week, one chopped straw sometimes 2 so that's £19.90 and then one sometimes two for the Shetlands.. so £8.50 x2 = £17, so my bill weekly can be upto £36.90 a week!!! But it's always atleast, £18.45!
 
I have 5 on straw and 2 on shavings. One is on shavings because he eats huge amounts of straw, also he had laminitis and I always put laminitics on shavings because the bed packs up into the feet better than straw. My mini Shettie is on shavings too, she had colic once after she had eaten a bit of her straw bed. I can't say for certain that it was the straw that caused her colic but it's a chance I'd rather not take again.
I wouldn't mind having them all on shavings but straw works out cheaper and none of the other 5 eat it.
 
TelH I know what you mean, straw is cheap.

Yeah that's why my 3 came off proper straw, both my Shetlands I discovered last year have had laminitis in the past, I only got them last year and they will eat straw as i've seen them tuck into my big horses bed after escaping in there before.
My TB is 21 coming up for 22, and she is also a massive straw eater, I would put a bale or two in weekly. And after putting the banks up most of it would disappear over night :mad:... I worry about her as there digestive system is less efficent as they get old and do not want her to get colic.

So pellets are a definite option as they can eat them! :D
 
I'm using Hemcore at the moment and deep littering through the week then cleaning out on Saturdays.
It makes a nice stable, firm-ish bed, I only put in 1 bale a week (was using approx 2 bales per week of normal shavings)
It costs approx £8.40 per bale, Rapport is also pretty similar but cheaper (£6-£7 per bale I think).
Mine also eats straw but doesn't eat this (tries the occasional mouthfull, pulls a daft face and doesn't bother again)
I wouldn't go back to shavings now.
 
Safemix - shavings and wood fibre mix £5.25 a bale - better for wet ponies as very absorbent, can be v'slightly dusty but the dust settles straight to the bottom of the bed every time with the fibre on top.

EcoComfyBed - wood fibre £6 a bale - same as EasiBed, heavy but v.firm bed, again absorbent and v.good for bed digger uppers.

Prices are from an expensive area of the country as well, i've tried every bedding under the sun and always come back to these two being the most economical and easiest to work with.

I had thought about trying wood pellets but the dust factor after they have broken down really puts me off as i have one v-sensitive to any dust and the beds i've seen in practice all look like sawdust after a while.
 
My favourite bedding is shavings on rubber mats. At my yard you are not allowed to use straw anyway, but not used it in years now and I am a real rubber mat and shavings fan anyway not sure I would ever change back
 
little_critter said:
I'm using Hemcore at the moment and deep littering through the week then cleaning out on Saturdays.
It makes a nice stable, firm-ish bed, I only put in 1 bale a week (was using approx 2 bales per week of normal shavings)
It costs approx £8.40 per bale, Rapport is also pretty similar but cheaper (£6-£7 per bale I think).
Mine also eats straw but doesn't eat this (tries the occasional mouthfull, pulls a daft face and doesn't bother again)
I wouldn't go back to shavings now.
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Yeah I have heard of Hemcore, but I can't get it where we live and I have never heard of Rapport, but with three it would still be pretty pricey, but thank you I appreciate the thought its definitely a good one :) Yeah I would not go back to shavings either they just don't last and I swear the bales have gotten smaller.. so you get even less for your money now! :(
 
Boysy said:
Safemix - shavings and wood fibre mix £5.25 a bale - better for wet ponies as very absorbent, can be v'slightly dusty but the dust settles straight to the bottom of the bed every time with the fibre on top.

EcoComfyBed - wood fibre £6 a bale - same as EasiBed, heavy but v.firm bed, again absorbent and v.good for bed digger uppers.

Prices are from an expensive area of the country as well, i've tried every bedding under the sun and always come back to these two being the most economical and easiest to work with.

I had thought about trying wood pellets but the dust factor after they have broken down really puts me off as i have one v-sensitive to any dust and the beds i've seen in practice all look like sawdust after a while.
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Oh eco comfy bed sounds good, we get Easibed but I've seen the consistency and I wasn't very sure about them. Yeah the dust factor is a consideration, but once they are wetted down I guess it would be less perhaps?
I don't have rubber matting so I think that the bed would have to be fairly deep so she wasn't laying on the floor. We don't have much of a selection of bedding where I live unfortunately.. It's either, shavings, straw, chopped straw or easi bed so not a lot of choice unfortunately... :(
 
I only have matting on the front half of stables, the EcoComfyBed and/or SafeMix doesn't budge much, my beds are probably 6inches deep, enough so my fork doesn't ping on the floor if i poke it, i have one bad bed digger and he never manages to get thru the Eco to concrete especially if you deep litter during the week.
 
That sounds pretty good then, at the moment my beds are around 4 inches thick, but I have to take the floor up nearly everyday, as one of my stables floor doesn't drain as well as it could. The chopped bedding is good as it absorbs all the wet patches, but it's not very cost effective. :(
I deep litter my shetlands and the wet comes out of there stable every 1-2 weeks, depending on how wet the bed looks.
My mare I have tried deep litter before, but her feet haven't been the best in the past so for me it wasn't a great option for her and she does wet a lot in her stable. So may consider the Safe mix, can it be brought online? :)
 
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