Who still uses straw bedding?

S

Sandstone1

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 July 2010
Messages
8,789
Visit site
Anyone else still use straw as bedding? I like it but I seem to be looked down on by others who use shavings etc.
To me it is a cheap and comfy bed. more enviromently friendly and I just prefer it!
I know it does not suit all horses but mine are ok on it and i dont see any reason to change, but I am getting comments from others about still using it. who else still uses straw?
 
Me. I love it and so does Kal. Now that he's on rubber matting though (came with the stable), I do put a light layer of bedmax underneath to help soak up the wee.

Nothing like the smell of a fresh clean straw bed :).

P
 
I use it and would have to be dragged screaming to use anything else. I pay £1 a bale and can see no reason to start to pay the excessive amounts for shavings etc.

We have rubber mats and the floors have a really good fall on them so no puddling. One of mine has COPD and I have yet to find anything that is as dust free as good wheat straw.
 
PolarSkye said:
Me. I love it and so does Kal. Now that he's on rubber matting though (came with the stable), I do put a light layer of bedmax underneath to help soak up the wee.

Nothing like the smell of a fresh clean straw bed :).

P
Click to expand...

Hmm, and nothing like the way one smells having mucked it out :(:)

I haven't used straw since 1999 (!) and now use wood pellets on rubber, and love the fact that I don't reek of horse wee any more. The kids' ponies had straw beds at camp this year, and I had a very smelly 3.5 hour journey home at the end of the week.

I do agree a straw bed looks lovely, but I wouldn't go back :)
 
We get straw inc in our livery, some liveries use it others don't. I use it with rubber mats and can't see me changing to anything else. I find straw is much less of a faff, shavings etc take me 3 times as long to muck out because the poo breaks up around the box and I have to get every single bit up.
 
Of the yards i go to in my area the vast majority of people are still using straw:
Yard 1, 5 horses DIY, 3 on straw
Yard 2, 30 horses full livery, 25 on straw
Yard 3, 60 horses DIY, approx 40 on straw
Yard 4, 20 horses full livery, nearly all on straw
Personally I've always loved straw, you can't beat the look of a nice clean straw bed, but I've got one pony on woodchip because he's a fattie and he eats his bed if he's on straw and I literally spend less than 5 mins to poo pick his bed each day and just get rid of the wet once a week as he has a good deep bed so i have been converted off straw for him. My horse is on straw because he's a mucky bugger who walks his poo around his bed and when I had him on shavings (I haven't tried him on woodchip) it took me hours to muck out because there was broken up bits of poo everywhere and I hate shavings forks - just don't get how they work😳 so he was changed into straw after about ten days, but I am open to suggestions for his bed because as much as I love love love straw it does smell more than other types of bedding!
 
I love my straw bed, now I've worked out how to manage it :o I initially changed due to costs as my pony was so filthy on shavings that I was sweeping the whole bed out daily and it was costing me a fortune. At least sweeping a whole bed of straw out was cheaper (was my initial reaction).

However I soon learned that giving him a deep bed with big banks kept him much tidier than the piddly little beds I'd been doing previously and I could pick out the poos by hand, scrape back the dry with a shavings fork to pull out the wet, and relay, leaving a thick, warm, dry bed that only needs half to one fresh flap of straw a week to keep it nice.

Am now a total convert! :)
 
me, its cheap and easy to muck out and far easier to keep a clean bed when you own a mucky little ***:D - personally don't use rubber mats - think the amount of **** that gets stuck in between them unless you get them properly fitted is disgusting!
 
I have a straw bed it did stink at first but now I have a system that works.
Rubber mats big straw bed. The pee area gets free shavings aka sawdust bed on top.
Take poo out and about half a wheelbarrow a day. Mats are heavy rubber and well butted together. Straw is supplied and good and cheap.
 
I do - my horse is allergic to wood bedding and comes up in lumps on shavings or wood pellets.

There are other options but I'm on full livery and the last 2 yards I was on was straw or shavings.

He is exceptionally dirty and when he was on shavings I got through 4 bags of Hunters a week.

I don't like straw with mats though, mats work best with absorbent bedding, with straw the wee tends to drain and this works best if you have good drainage.
 
I much prefer straw. Less dust (agree that its better for COPD too, most shavings are dusty as heck), doesn't stick to cuts on the lower leg, so don't have to bandage over reaches etc. The muckheap rots down much quicker and is easier to manage. Looks better. A fraction of the price. It does smell more though, but thats a small price to pay and I have a washing machine!
 
I use a pellet base then covered in a deep bed of straw. The pellets help absorb the pee. I skip out every day and remove any of the pee soaked pellets.
I am also contemplating using two stalls over the winter one for day use with a thin bed of straw quick and easy to muck out and the deep bed for night time.
 
On the odd occasions I stable mine, I prefer to use straw - I have an earth floor and have found the combination of that, shavings and the amonia from horse wee really smell bad after a while - and the stable is next to our kitchen...but with straw down, its fine..
 
We use paper. Get it from the local college. Best thing I ever did. Muck out time 5 minutes + a dig out once a week.

The other bonus is my dog and I like to play 'lets see how much paper we can cover Baloo in before he jumps at mummy and pushes her over' when I get a new bag out each week :P My pony usually watches us in mild amusement.

:D
 
Hello,

We use alot of straw at the yard im at and there about 30 horses in the yard and 3/4's of the yard use it. Some horses are on other types of bedding but most people use straw. If your horses dont over eat it or they havent got health issues its great and always looks cosy. We do disinfect a couple of times a month to help with the smell. It can also be cost effective to use it with matting. Yes the matting costs alot at first but used with straw can keep the costs down. Defo a fan of straw bedding :)
 
*waves* We use straw on our yard at home. We have rubber mats down as we used to use shavings but about 3 years ago we got to 5 horses and decided it was ridiculous trying to fund 7 bales a week at £7 a bale. Compare that to 7 bales of straw at £1 and its a no-brainer !

I keep a nice thick bed with banks during the week and just pick up the droppings/any wet thats exposed. I put 2 slices of straw back in every day. On a Saturday I take the wet out, sweep the mats and let them air for a couple of hours before bedding back down.

Works a treat. And saves a FORTUNE !

I have a muck trailer that I empty every 2 weeks so that works well too =0D
 
I have used straw for 20 years now, used shavings at a livery yard before that as they only used shavings. Love deep straw bed but yes my mare will eat it but to be honest isn't really a problem as she only nibbles it a bit when her hay has all gone. I make sure it is good quality straw and low in dust so no harm in her eating it. Saying that mine live out 24/7 all year round but have access to their stables at all times so they come and go as they please so once her hay and feed is finished she will only nibble the straw while waiting for my gelding to finish before going back out the field.
 
I use straw. My horse is only in at nights in winter recently as he was outdoor all year previously. He's a big fan of lying down so the comfy straw serves him well.

To the point where at times I've seen him lying in his field on the hay that's been put out! Talk about breakfast in bed, huh?!
 
Miss Bean said:
me, its cheap and easy to muck out and far easier to keep a clean bed when you own a mucky little ***:D - personally don't use rubber mats - think the amount of **** that gets stuck in between them unless you get them properly fitted is disgusting!
Click to expand...

Not a big fan of rubber mats either but the ones in Kal's stable are sealed . . . no joins therefore no muck/wee underneath (at least that's the theory ;)).

And, yes, I find straw much easier than shavings b/c Kal is such a filthy beast. I don't know how he does it, but he manages to micronize every molecule of poo into smithereens turning his bed uniformly brown when on shavings.

P
 
itsmylife said:
Do any of you have problems with horses eating the straw?
Click to expand...

Mine are fed adlib haylage from the floor and Ive never seen them eat the straw. My old mare used to the eat the bed but TBH, it was cheaper for her to do that than eat the haylage and she never suffered from it !
 
My new one is on straw I hate straw always been a shavings person.

I am thinking of putting him on matting with a base layer of something like megazorb to soak the wee up with a fresh straw bed, I hate stinking of straw after mucking out too but its the cheapest option really I only pay 1.50 as apose to the 7.50 for shavings, he eats his bed as its a lovely wheat straw, he actually prefers his bed to hay, but its saving me money on hay i guess.

I am planning on giving him a much bigger deeper bed come winter with banks, he only has summer bed even though its still nice and big and deep.
 
I'm very excited as going back to straw this winter after having shavings last winter as she only came in after the new year and was hard to source any good quality stuff for a good price!
Straw is by far my favourite bedding :) I ended up with OCD with my shavings bed was always snow white and took me ages to muck out lol:)
 
Waving.gif
*Hand up*

I still use straw (and have rubber mats down!)

I generally put down a bag of shavings/pellets/miscanthus/Bliss or whatever's cheapest at the time over the matting where mine pees, then layer the straw over the top. The under bedding catches the urine and prevents it pooling and/or running out of the stable onto the yard and the straw bed provides a warm, cheap and comfortable top layer. My bed isn't massive, as I've got the mats and generally just bed out the back corner or whole back third of the box.

Mind you, our yard has just run out of straw
ForGodssake.gif
so most of the liveries are being forced to switch to miscanthus (which the yard supplies) or to get our own alternatives in. I've just ordered in half a pallet of premium wood pellets to use until the yard finds more straw but will happily switch back to good 'ole straw once I can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top