Wood pellet bedding

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kittykatcat

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Hi all!

I am considering moving onto wood pellets instead of shavings on top of rubber matting. Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on it? Do you use it? Do you know anyone who does use it? The thing i am worried about is it being uncomfortable for the horse...how does it fair against shavings for absorbency? Any replies would be gratefully received!
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i`m a straw person,But my livery has her small pon on shavings and her tb on woodchip.sometimes i do for her and i much prefer the woodchip.it seems very dry and the poo picks out easy with no waste.she has had it down all winter with a dig-about at weekends and it doesnt seem to smell then either.
 
Ooo...sounds good - when you say wood chip - is that the pelleted wood??? As that's what i am looking at. Rather like wood pellet cat litter i'd imagine
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The wood pellet stuff is great. You water it into like a wood pulp so no its not uncomfortable for the horse. It is very absorbant, and at less than £3 a bag is cheap! I get through about 1-2bags a week
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what is the name of yours?i will have to check.
it`s very different from the ordinary shavings.
 
I used to use shavings and changed to wood pellets about a year ago - best thing I ever did!!!

Really absorbent and makes a lovely bed for my mare. She is quite clean anyway tho so .......... I Find that when she lays down the bed doesn't seem to get too disturbed either which is great!
 
yes I have it on my livery yard - its fantastic stuff !!! cuts time mucking out and you take half the amount out to as its so absorbant meaning i can muck out 2/3 horses in 1 wheelbarrow x
 
I have corley biowood and it's great! IDeal for my v. mucky mare and use about 2 bags a week - she is a filthy mare!! Corley are great to deal with too!
 
I have just swapped to wood pellets from Bedmax. Was using 2 bales of Bedmax a week for my dirty boy. Wood pellets are much easier to muck out and he lies down every night so must be happy. You definately throw less away. I still take out wet everyday as he stirrs it up but i still have less than 1 wheelbarrow when on Bedmax had 1-2 wheelbarrows every day. Definately a good move and swapping little cob onto it weekend too. I bought a few bags of Natures Best to try it out, but don't find these are any different from the pallet of Liverpool Wood Pellets that I just got (apart from twice the price!). I will use between 2 and 3 bags a week for dirty boy and probably 1-2 for clean one so works out much cheaper. I have 15kg bags which are about £3.60 each so I can use two of these for the price of one bale of shavings.
 
Absolutely love the wood pellets. I have always used Hunter shavings in the past and never thought I could be convinced by a 'brown' bedding but the pellets are wonderful. My horse is very active in his stable plus he likes to lie down and snore quite a bit and this stuff doesnt move about. ive got it over mats and it is the best thing Ive done for a very long time. He also loves to roll in it when I put fresh bedding in!

I use a bag every three days but bear in mind he is a big b*gger and very playful. Cost wise Im saving about 30% over shavings per week and in summer when he is out at night I reckon I will save at least 50%.

Another benefit for me is that I can store 60 bags of pellets in the same space I could get 8 Hunters in!
 
I will go against the grain here! I tried them once but really didnt like the fact that you have to leave some of the wet in and mix it in with the bed, only taking out the really wet patches a couple of times a week. The horse is then basically standing in bedding that is mixed with urine. I know the bed isnt soaking wet but the urine is still there and the horse is standing and sleeping on it. And breathing it in.
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I use wood pellets moved from shavings also, i find them very good. The bed doesnt look as comfy as a nice fluffy shavings bed, but my shavings beds never stayed fluffy for more than one night anyway.
I tend to take out the urine everyday from each bed as they all pee in the same place & not even the pellets can absorb it. My bunch are really messy & wet. I do find it quite easy to much out & my much heap isnt huge.
I did use Nature's best but there really expensive, so i now use Corley Bio-wood also, have used LWP but won't use them again as there service wasnt good.
 
I take the wet out daily - I basically do the same as i did with a shavings bed !!

Also if you have a clean horse your bed stays basically white or a sandy colour ¬!!!!
 
I also take the wet patch out each day. I cant bring myself to deep litter although I know people who do this very succfesfully with pellets.
 
I too have swapped from shavings and straw to the wood pellets and think they are great. Mare is very clean, bed still immaculate - poos in one corner and pees in the other! take out wet everyday. Gelding - very dirty, poos everywhere and tries to mix it in and pees mainly in 2 places!! Take out poo everyday and obvious wet bits. Give both stables a thorough muck out at weekends and air them. Both stables have a nice big bed the horses seem to like it - gelding digs it up and rolls everynight and they both sleep on it. I like that when you walk on it there is some 'give' but he best bit has to be that I can muck out both st
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les in about 15 mins and in one wheel barrow instead of 3/4 barrows out of my gelding alone!! Wouldn't be able to afford to keep my gelding on shavings!
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Another convert to LWP! It is much quicker to muck out than shavings as it is heavier and the bed stays put (we have very large stables with full rubber matting so I only make a bed in 1/4 of it) My boy still lies down every night on it. I did try mixing the wet back but I find it lasts better if you take the clumped wet out every day and mix the damp with the dry otherwise the bed feels a bit damp all over - if that makes sense??
 
OK, I was going to keep this to myself as it makes me sound totally anal but here goes. After going through the bed with a standard shavings fork I use a soft yard brush and very gently sweep over the layed bed.

Now in my defence I have a horse who has hay on the floor and it does end up mixed in. Ive found the light sweep lifts the bits of hay out and also deals with the annoying little bits of pooh that are too small for the fork tines.

*slinks off in shame* I cant believe I posted this......
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[ QUOTE ]
OK, I was going to keep this to myself as it makes me sound totally anal but here goes. After going through the bed with a standard shavings fork I use a soft yard brush and very gently sweep over the layed bed.

Now in my defence I have a horse who has hay on the floor and it does end up mixed in. Ive found the light sweep lifts the bits of hay out and also deals with the annoying little bits of pooh that are too small for the fork tines.

*slinks off in shame* I cant believe I posted this......
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dont worry im with you on this !!!!!

LWP sell the forks !!
 
I do this too Spaniel and it works very well ! I've got a fine tine fork but I find it actually traps the pellets in the tines when I put the fresh bedding in and pellets end up wasted in the muck barrow - grrr! However the fine tine forks do work well when the pellets break down a couple of days later so I tend to use both types of fork depending on how the bed is.
I'm defo a wood pellet convert.
By the way I leave my wet in until it comes to the surface and my horses are never left sleeping on soggy beds.
 
I'm a wood pellet fan too!!!

Have tried Natures Best, Aquamax and LWP. Currently using LWP as they seem to be the cheapest(just over £3 for a 15kg bag).

I also find that if you sprinkle a small thin layer on top where horse poos, the poos tend not to break up as much so no annoying little bits get left.

I have an extremely wet 17hh mare and use 1-2 bags of wood pellets per week (2 only very occassionally) and 1 bale of shavings every 2-3 weeks for sprinkling on top.

For those who might be interested, I have the fine tine fork which I have only used once. If anyone wants to make me an offer for it I would gladly sell it to them? Just pm if interested.
 
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