Wood pellets/hemcore as an underbed, straw on top

[Maggie2]

Recently experimented with Hemcore as a base for a horse on box rest 24/7 for a few weeks. This has worked brilliantly with big straw banks and a layer of straw over the Hemcore, has cut the mucking out time down to next to nothing compared to a full muck out daily, the waste is minimal (leaving aside the poo of course) and so on.

I have a plentiful supply of good straw at a very good price but am seriously thinking that for the winter I may adopt doing this in the other stables. I recall reading in H and H many years ago that Robert Oliver put shavings down as a base when they got the show horses in, with straw on top to prevent them getting to the concrete. This was in the days before rubber mats and beds such as Hemcore were available, and by nowof course he may have stopped doing it.

Has anyone ever tried this with wood/any other type of very absorbent bedding with straw on top, did it work?

 

[ISHmad]

Our horses are on rubber matting with shredded paper on top and then a straw bed on top of that. It works perfectly as the paper catches all the wee so the straw and bed doesn't smell of ammonia at all. Best thing is the paper is free as we shred out own office waste and also a friend gives us theirs too.

We were on shavings but have saved a fortune going back to straw and paper. The reason we changed to shavings in the first place was because straw on top of rubber mats was a no no for us - until we came up with this solution which has worked perfectly for the last 3 winters.

 

[Maggie2]

Thanks, I can get the Corley ones easily as I'm not far from them, and they work out cheaper than Hemcore or Aubiose type of bedding.

I was very impressed with how this worked as being so dense and hard the bed didn't mix together much at all, I did try shavings as a base years ago but despite damping them and flattening them with the back of a shovel they still got stirred up into the straw.

I have read that the wood goes to a powder so wonder if that will mix in more. Sadly shredding my own paper isn't an option!