Which bedding do you use?

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loverly

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I've almost tried all the different types of bedding and have decided on miscanthus...

However, my mum has started to help me muck out during the week due to work/college commitments and she is suffering from the dust(?) causing her throat and eyes to itch so going to change it after I've used all the bales..

I have one very messy horse so ideally a bedding that is really absorbant, the others aren't to bad thank goodness!

Which bedding would you recommend?
 
I mix small flake shavings with wood pellets....makes a REALLY nice, fluffy, absorbent bed. My boys are 17hh plus, and some days I can muck them both out in tomone wheelbarrow (some days I can't quite squeeze it in) and never get as much as a full wheelbarrow from each!
 
Have you tried wood pellets? I used to use them in my horses stables before we moved, VERY easy to muck out, doesnt smell and lasts a long time! (i have the wettest horses ive ever met but the first bed i put down for him lasted 2 weeks before i had to add anymore) I only stopped using them as my old boy really feels the cold so wanted to make a nice thick straw bed for him, but im now thinking of having wood pellets underneath the straw to soak up his wee!
 
Mine (3, plus 5 Part liveries) are all on straw pellets as a base (where they urinate) and then Natural Flake shavings on top!

Love it, so easy to muck out, even if they're really messy. Plus it's very economical 1/2 bag of pellets and 1/2 bag of shavings per horse per week (turned out for 8 hours per day).
 
Littlemax shavings with a couple of bales of snowflake supreme underneath to make it more absorbent. Really good, virtually no dust, compacts down into a thick bed, slightly heavier than normal shavings so poo sits on top more making it easier to muck out. Works best as a deep litter and I only use 1 bale per week including topping up banks which he's pulled down :)
 
I am using shavings mixed with cushion bed for our very mucky mare. I will probably alternate a bale of one and half a bale of the other every week. Cushion bed is only £3.99 and it doesn''t move around like shavings does.
 
I mix wood shavings with wood pellets for my big extremely messy mare, highly absorbant, doesnt irritate my asthma, and she benefits from a nice deep bed, for our small native pony we use just wood pellets as he is disgusting on any other bedding to say the least.
 
I use 3 parts wood pellets to 1 part hemp (Aubiose best but Hemcore if not). Fantasticly stable absorbant bed and hemp much easier to use than shavings (no stuck together clumps in the bale and doesnt stick to everything or blow around. Also rots down much quicker and doesnt suck nutrients out of the soil so farmers like it more). My horses are massively cleaner and hence quicker to muck out. NB one had full bed on rubber mats, the other has half stable bed on rubber mats.
 
we just use wood pellets - Tom is a very wet horse and box walks (well, paces between his hay and the door). We've found these work best!

10-12 bags to set up the bed (dampened), then about 1x10kg bag per week after skipping out, sometimes 2 into Tom's if he's been really mucky.
 
Aubiose and rubber mat - love it! I pick up the poo and dig out any wet that's showing through every day, then full muck out one day at the weekend. That way i use 1/2 bale a week in the 2 clean ones, and 2/3 bale a week in the mucky one...
 
I have rubber mats and prior to that concrete floors.

Over the years I have tried: -

Straw
Shavings large and small flake
Aubiose
Chopped straw and Shavings
Chopped Rape Straw (Bliss or Bedrap)

I have to say that straw although makes a nice bed very smelly and very wet floors.

Small flake shavings I found more absorbent than the large.

Aubiose great but very expensive.

Chopped Straw and Shavings quite good but not as good as: -

Rape Straw - either Bliss or Bedrap this makes a stable bed and is very absorbent only need to take the wet out at the weekends which is great when you work full time.
 
I have used straw (due to cost) but found it to be not very absorbent and gets smelly and dirty very quickly.

Then used small flake shavings - absorbency okay but my gelding still managed to leak a stream of wee out the stable door every day. Found it took me longer to muck out because it moved everywhere, blew around, stuck to things. Really didnt like it but yard didnt offer any alternative.

So.....I made a deal with yard to trial Straw pellets and so far I am really liking them. Take some getting used to but the absorbency is impressive - no more wee streams!
 
Ali27 said:
I am using shavings mixed with cushion bed for our very mucky mare. I will probably alternate a bale of one and half a bale of the other every week. Cushion bed is only £3.99 and it doesn''t move around like shavings does.
Click to expand...

I did this last winter after my local supplier stopped doing safebed- I found Cushion bed alone i didnt like too much and shavings too fluffy and "poo hide able!"

Mixed together its perfect!
 
i use megazorb and woodshavings. my horse wees for england in the same place. the megazorb holds the wee in one place and when i do a full muck out once a week the wet patch is solid (bit like wood pellets). during the week just take out the poo's. full muck out once a week and top up with half a bag of magezorb and either 1/3 or 1/2 bale of wood chips depending how dep i want it. initial bed i used 4 megazorb and 1/2 woodchips. am spending less now than before and am doing 2 stables now.

used to use beddown excel, absorb bed and wood pellets in wee patch but started becoming expensive and needed to cut costs.
 
I use straw, that way I can have deep beds without spending a fortune as my cob is very wet. I muck out in the morning, leave the bed up to dry, spray some Jeyes on it and the pull it back down in the evening.
My two love it, I had them on shavings for most of last year (old YO wouldn't let me use straw) and never saw them lie down, as soon as I moved yards I got this:
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Also it means that as I have to restrict Olly's hay intake (he's a lard ass!) he can munch on his bed when his hay runs out.
 
I used to hay straw here 2w reasons y i wont hay straw on yard.

we have well liveries use hunters - bedsoft-cussionbed- comfybed- bedmas easybed and another 2 different dont know the name
 
are you using miscanthus that has been dust extracted????

I had the same prob as your mum with old supplier, now get it from Miscanthus Bedding Ltd (page on face book) :) It is great, dust extracted and I only use a bale every 9 - 10 days (i have a 16.2 Shire x TB) and no more coughing and spluttering for either my boy or me, they are a great company to deal with too :)
 
I use wood pellets for my old boy. Have just had a full pallet delivered from PLQ Wood pellets and they're great....soooo easy to use, dust free and very absorbent. My bed is lovely and dry and fluffy.They are premium pellets NOT economy (which I've tried before but nowhere near as good). Also what put me off was that alot of the economy pellets are made from old pallets etc.
PLQ are the cheapest I've found for premium pellets & they're really helpful. Delivery was quick, 2 days from me ordering online. See link below.

http://www.plqpellets.co.uk/
 
Equisorb or equivilant non branded flax. Really absorbent and amazingly quick to muck out during the week with slightly longer process at weekend to remove the wet but still no big deal. We have our whole yard of 9 on it. Also very low dust levels and a small muck heap!!

Love it!!
 
Since injuring my shoulder a couple of years ago I started deep littering with easibed and have never looked back. I start out with 6 or 7 bales and pick out the poo in the morning and add a bale each week building the bed up. Never have to remove any wet as the bed is heavy and the wee drains to the bottom. Over the winter it starts to get warmer (like a muck heap) as the bottom breaks down. The top is always dry as my mare isn't too messy and I sprinkle pine scented equi-dry powder on once a week also. It's never been dusty either as it's not getting moved about - love it!
 
I take the entire bed out in the spring as she lives out in the summer and start it again in November. What's interesting is that even the bottom is relatively dry by the time I take it out and only has a couple of damper sections where she tends to pee the most. I spread the used bedding in an area we used to cover in sand which the rain has washed away over the years as the wood chips take ages to compost and makes an excellent surface for lunging so I get to use it twice! I use roughly 30 bales per winter which costs about £160 delivered
 
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