And the BEST bedding is?

[ASB Stars]

OK. I've seen threads on different types of bedding- pellets, straw, shavings, and hybrids of each- but, here is the thing. Based upon ease of cleaning, economy of purchase, economy of cleaning (do you have to throw out a bunch?), which bedding do you prefer- by type, and brand.

I have been using pelleted bedding mixed with/underneath of shavings. I prefer what they call "green label shavings" which is a paper bagged product that is a smaller flake with just a touch of sawdust to them. However, I cannot always find them. And, not always reasonably, when I do locate them.

I like the "Equine Fresh" pellets, but I hate driving to TSC to get them. So, I usually settle for what is easy to get delivered- Woody Pet. I don't like it near as well.

So, where do you all line up on this?

[TrueColours]

I have tried every bedding known to man and THEN some (as that is how I earn my living ...) and there are some great ones out there and some awful ones and eveything in between

I tried the BestCobs bedding and hated everything about it, but my sister ran a test stall with it and loved it. She and I are pretty well the same in how we muck out stalls so I am still puzzled as to why she thought so highly of it and I didnt. She is coming up to week 4 and just added a new bag of bedding this weekend so THAT in itself is very impressive ...

I love the pelleted straw bedding as it is very easy to muck out, breaks down quickly (2-4 weeks) and you only generally add 4-6 bags with normal useage to each stall each month. Plus you take out so little from each stall that your manure pile is a good 1/3 - 1/2 the size as it would be with shavings. You just need to get used to the slightly darker colour of the bedding itself

Probably my favorite mix of bedding of all is the smaller particle, granular wood bedding mixed 1:4 with the EcoStraw pellets. Visually it makes it look lighter and fluffier and the EcoStraw holds the urine in place and doesnt allow it to flow into the good, dry bedding. Its about the best, most cost effective and urine/manure effective mix you could possibly have

I hate peat moss. Hate the dark look of it, hate the black flim it leaves on everything, but again - it does break down very very quickly so it has that going for it at least!

I love the look of those nice big fluffy shavings but its a PITA to muck out - BIG time - it takes up to 3 years to fully decompose and the availability is getting to be less and less and the cost to maintain a stall is extremely high.

Wood pellet bedding will get scarcer and scarcer over the next few years as more and more of the production here in North America is shipped overseas to meet the Kyoto protocols in those countries to assist them in amassing their Carbon Credits. I have tried several of the different brands and found - IMO - that for the first 3-4 weeks it was perfectly acceptable and worked very well, but then "turned" in that 4th-5th week, necessitating gutting the whole stall and starting from scratch once again

We have a product here that is made from recycled, scrap skids and its another product that I hate. The particles are marge enough that they dont absorb worth a darn and there is NO way of knowing if there is any chemical residue on the skids before they get shredded so no thanks! :no:

Hemp may be making a comeback here in Ontario and once it does, I'd love to run some test stalls with it and the other products I'd love to try that comes out of NC is the pelleted cardboard bedding and the shredded cardboard bedding that comes out of PA and the double cut shredded paper bedding as well if I could find any! :)

I'd love to try rice hulls but the availability would be nil around here. We are looking into producing a bedding product from the shredded hulls of soybeans which is in plentiful supply in this area so that may be something that may be available in the near future if we find it is absorbent and performs well. Millet is another crop in this area and again - we are looking into seeing if we can use some part of the scrap plant to produce bedding that would otherwise simply be ploughed back into the ground once again

[deltawave]

Guardian's Swift-Pick shavings, with TSC's Equine Fresh pellets a close second, and perfect for using with the Guardian on the wet spots.

Why the Guardian shavings beat my beloved pellets: no soaking, they don't freeze, and they're a dollar per bag cheaper.

[EqTrainer]

I use/like the Guardian Swift Pick also but would not if I had horses in for a long time or a horse on stall rest - I learned with Killian that it is much more abrasive when they are down than the fluffy shavings. If I ever had another horse stuck in the stall who had to lay down a lot , I would switch to the big fluffy shavings even tho' they are a pita to muck out.

I would like to try them mixed with a pelleted product this winter - is that what you do, DW?

[Daydream Believer]

I think the best bedding depends on what you are using it for. For me...with mares and foals hands down straw is the best bedding. It is cleaner and healthier for the foal than any wood product. I also find straw to be very easy to muck and like that horses can't mix it up like shavings or sawdust.

For some horses straw is an awful choice if they eat it for example or if they have allergies. Stall walkers are not great on straw either.

I hate the pelleted bedding. I found it to get very very dusty in a week or so as it broke down. The only use I have for it is in the wet spot of a very wet horse.

I like nice shavings for some horses but I think the manure takes forever to break down in compost.

I've tried the cardboard bedding and its' great for a day and then it flattens out. It is outstanding in a horse trailer though as it is not at all dusty and the chunks don't blow around if you leave the window open.

[shawneeAcres]

Pelleted, hands down! Ease of use, FABULOUS. Waste, MINIMAL. Absorbency, GREAT. Price, more expensive than bulk, but worth it for the fact it is bagged (less waste than a "shavings bin"), the fact I can pick out with little waste of beeding, great for use in amanure spreader as it is basically sawdust and breaks down quickly. I won't use anything else!!

[Evalee Hunter]

. . . . Based upon ease of cleaning, economy of purchase, economy of cleaning (do you have to throw out a bunch?), which bedding do you prefer- by type, and brand. . . .

I'm glad you defined "best". But I have to say that I think "best" means the bedding that the horses like the most ... the bedding that they show they like by lying down in it more than other beddings ... the bedding that horses choose when they can choose between several stalls with different bedding ... the bedding that can be shown to provide the best insulation from a cold, hard floor. It doesn't seem to me that ease of cleaning, economy of purchase & so on are really very important in the big scheme of horse keeping. What counts is what makes the horse comfortable. It's pretty sad when people put their own ease ahead of the horse's.

[shawneeAcres]

I'm glad you defined "best". But I have to say that I think "best" means the bedding that the horses like the most ... the bedding that they show they like by lying down in it more than other beddings ... the bedding that horses choose when they can choose between several stalls with different bedding ... the bedding that can be shown to provide the best insulation from a cold, hard floor. It doesn't seem to me that ease of cleaning, economy of purchase & so on are really very important in the big scheme of horse keeping. What counts is what makes the horse comfortable. It's pretty sad when people put their own ease ahead of the horse's.

I guess I don't really agree with this train of thought. Horses can and do regularly lay down on hard bare ground out in the field. When given a choice, mine are laying in the hard dirt areas rather than the soft grassy areas. I don't think horses idea of "comfort" is the same as ours. Mine lay down just fine in the pelleted bedding I use over mats. I do generaously spary the bedding with water prior to use, but I don't think the big flaky shavings are any more preferable, to a horse, than what they have now.

[Evalee Hunter]

I guess I don't really agree with this train of thought. Horses can and do regularly lay down on hard bare ground out in the field. When given a choice, mine are laying in the hard dirt areas rather than the soft grassy areas. I don't think horses idea of "comfort" is the same as ours. Mine lay down just fine in the pelleted bedding I use over mats. I do generaously spary the bedding with water prior to use, but I don't think the big flaky shavings are any more preferable, to a horse, than what they have now.

Well, I agree that horses ideas of comfort is not the same as human ideas of comfort - on the other hand, our cave dwelling ancestors probably didn't have the same ideas of comfort that we have.

Anyway, horse's bedding preferences have been researched. All the studies I have read have found horses have a strong preference for straw as bedding.

I do not know why horses choose to lay on dirt rather than grass but it could be as simple as that the dirt is warmer from the sun (being darker colored) than the grass. I really do believe that horses (& other animals) have a reason for what they do, even though the reason may not be evident to us.

I still think your ATTITUDE is sad - your attitude that the horse's preference or comfort is not as important as your preference or comfort.

[Foxtrot's]

For me - I'll go with pellets based on your criteria. I can carry the bags easily, they absorb so well there's little to throw out (economical), they seem to pack better than shavings which sort of slide away when the horse lies down and leave bare matting, they compost well, they sift through the fork well and fluff up amazingly if enough water is put on them to pre-wet them.

For luxury, looks and feel - I don't think you can beat crisp, springy, short cut, shiny fresh straw, on top of pelleted bedding for absorption.

[amastrike]

I love pelleted bedding. I was using Equine Fresh from TSC, but found we could get Magnum brand pellets for about 50 cents less per bag if we bought by the pallet. I felt the EF pellets puffed up more readily, but the Magnum pellets seemed to puff up MORE. I usually add water directly to the bag, since I don't strip the stall all the way, so no point in watering the already-puffed bedding. I tried not adding water to begin with this last time (put the pellets on the mats, then tossed the broken-down bedding on top, so my horse wouldn't be directly on hard pellets). It didn't work the way I wanted it to, and in the future I'll puff my pellets before adding them.

I find pellets to be more absorbent, easier to clean, and easier to maintain a good thickness of bedding. Shavings seemed to get gross really quickly, and they were harder to pick out. With the pellets, the pee spot clumps and it's easy to get it all out. Errant poo-balls are also easily captured. They are more expensive to start, and more expensive in the long run, but not by much... and I find the convenience and quality of the bedding to be worth an extra $15/month or so.

[shawneeAcres]

I still think your ATTITUDE is sad - your attitude that the horse's preference or comfort is not as important as your preference or comfort.

My "Attitude" is that my horses are VERY comfortable on the bedding I choose. They lay down in it, stretch out and sleep peacefully thank you!

[Altamont Sport Horses]

I've never used pelleted bedding. It would be just too expensive because most of my horses are absolute slobs in the stall and grind up the manure into the shavings and spread it all around. It basically has to be stripped every day. Of course it is sometimes because there is a foal in the stall and they definitely trash the stallevery night. So we use wood shavings by the load.

At foaling time we use oat straw which is the only straw I've seen around here. I do not like it. If the horses are moving around a lot it moves to the outside walls and leaves holes in the middle of the stall. The absolute worst thing about it, IMO, is that it is kinda "sweet" and it attracts flies like nobody's business. I get rid of the straw in a foaling stall as soon as possible, maybe 3 days post foaling. I slowly take it out as it gets dirty and replace with shavings. Straw is also really hard to muck. You can't take just manure, y ou're going to get a forkful of straw too. It's heavy and not absorbent. When they pee in it that spot gets slippery underneath. I don't like it but use it to keep the dust down and provide a healthier foaling environment.

[Evalee Hunter]

My "Attitude" is that my horses are VERY comfortable on the bedding I choose. They lay down in it, stretch out and sleep peacefully thank you!

If you were tired enough, you might "choose" to lie down on the floor of a cave or the roots of a tree and even sleep there. People used to sleep on mattresses stuffed with corn cobs & felt lucky to have that. That does not mean that the floor or corn cobs is the "best" (most comfortable) bed for a human nor does it mean that all humans would get deep & restful sleep on that type of bed, nor would most humans choose the floor or corn cobs over a modern mattress. The same goes for horses - they may not be lying down for the optimal amount of time nor sleeping as much as needed to perform at their highest potential levels. We ask horses to perform amazing athletic feats without taking into account whether we are giving them all that is needed to prepare for those endeavors.

I will also tell you that we have horses that live outside pretty much 24/7 & we have a number of horses that seem to strongly prefer living outside & all of the horses that live outside in herds are very attached to their herdmates. The horses living out in herds are pretty much never ridden (some are permanently unsound, although comfortable in the pasture).

But when I ask a horse to spend time in the unatural environment of a stall, and ask that horse to give some type of performance, then I need to ask myself whether there are ways that I can give the horse a more comfortable environment while also being reasonably practical. Providing bedding that has been shown to be preferred by most horses in research experiments is a small thing to do in return for what is asked of the horse.

A lot of time is spent on this board discussing how to keep the performance horse (or the laid up horse) comfortable in a stall - feeding schedules, choices of feeds & hay, stall toys, sizes of stalls, mats, stall skins, flooring (concrete, clay, stone dust, pea gravel) are all discussed at length on frequent threads. Most of the answers are related to the comfort & pleasure of the horse. BUT ... when we discuss bedding, the human comfort (ease) become paramount. I think it is time to ask ourselves, "why?" Why not put the horse first in the area of bedding?

[MistyBlue]

Best bedding probably depends on a lot of different things. Such as size of stall, type of manure disposal/handling, size of facility, equine preferrence, budget, etc.
Straw for foals...more dust free if it's good straw and has a really high insulation rate...it's warmer. However...IMO....makes manure piles gross, doesn't absorb anything and is tough as hell to clean the stall and have it immaculate unless it's almost stripped and restarted. To me cleaning a straw stall is like trying to comb half-melted raisinettes out of long tangled hair with a comb missing half it's teeth. :lol:
Shavings...probably the most common and most loved of beddings. However, costs a bloody fortune to keep a stall bedded *deep* like I prefer mine to be because so much is thrown out all the time if you want to remove all used bedding. Tougher to clean. But it does look pretty and fluffy and smells nice so I'm guessing those are the draws to it. Also takes too darned long to compost down and nobody wants to take manure for fertilizer if it's from shavings bedded stalls. But if you have manure removed on a regular basis then it's no big deal.
Pellets...what I use. I prefer WP brand...the generic or copycat brands we have available near me are poor substitutes. Wish we had another good type of pellets near me but no such luck yet. The imposter types don't absorb as much or they don;t neutralize the urine fumes like the WP does. I like the WP for the previous listed reasons: Easy to get and keep the stall *clean.* And I don;t mean for my ease of use...I mean getting the stall actually clean, really clean. I have a small property and compost my manure. A neighbor takes my manure pile every other year or so. (for his little vineyard) My manure pile composts well and stays small due to the lack of excess bedding in it. WP also keeps my barn from stinking like urine/ammonia. I abhor a barn stinking like pee...it's bad for the respiratory system. And I can keep the stalls bedded deep so the horses have decent support standing or laying down and when they do sleep they're not flat out urine soaked bedding. The horses seem to adore it, they sleep flat out for long periods of time. I use a bag of bedding per week in the slob's stall and a half bag per week in the neater guy's stall. 6 bags per month on average for 2 horses.
I haven't tried peat personally. Back when I boarded the barn tried the straw pellets for a short while. They got smelly quick even if they were clean, but the barn had a few marathon urinators so that could have contributed to the ammonia smell.
I used sawdust growing up. Liked that very well too, as did the horses. Does make for an epic manure pile over time though. Not as epic as shavings but quite a bit more over pellets. But manure pile size aside I thought it was a decent bedding and made a great base support in the stalls. Not tough to clean but had to be cleaned well daily to remove urine to keep the smell down. If the horses were in due to bad weather you'd want to go pick a couple more times those days to get the urine spots out if you want your barn ammonia free. Unless you deep litter bed with sawdust, then there's no urine smell at all until you finally strip the stall. (and then once you break the bottom level up the smell can knock you over, LOL) We did deep litter bedding back then and I liked it just fine. If my barn was set up to have deep litter stalls I'd probably be doing that now. Sawdust can be very cheap if you have a mill nearby but you need to be able to mmove it home and then store it since it doesn't come bagged. And then there's the possibility a huge sawdust pile can combust so you don't want to store a mountain of it at a time or if you do you need to turn it once in a while to keep it cool.

[ASB Stars]

EH- the reason that I use the shavings mixed with the pellets over my rubber mats is to get a better cushion to the stall- the pelleted bedding alone, IMHO, doesn't give me that- and I am just anthropomorhic enough to want truly cushioned stalls.

Having said that, I also like to have the stalls be easy to clean- you CAN get cushion with pellets, but you wind up putting so much in, that it is a nightmare to clean.

I loathe straw- I used it when I ran a big boarding barn, because you really have no choice, with regard to disposal of the manure, around here. But I always kept shavings underneath, to keep the stalls dryer.

Thanks for the input so far... :yes:

[MistyBlue]

ASB for a long time I did use pellets and shavings mixed for bedding and I did like it quite a bit. I also did it for the same reason you did...it looked fluffier to me. :winkgrin: My mix was about 75% pellets to 25% shavings. Basically I'd start a 10x12 matted stall with 4 bags of WP and activate it and then dump on a bag of shavings on top. Looked lovely and smelled like a big hamster cage, LOL!
I stopped using the added shavings about 6 months or so ago I think. For a few reasons:
If I bedded the stalls as deep as I like them it was harder to clean out every shaving piece that was urine soaked and the bedding overall didn't last as long.
The horses started to get a few urine stains here and there and with plain WP I can bed really really deep and have nobody sleeping in pee.
My manure pile was growing faster than it was composting and the folks who do take my manure off my property for growing stuff can't use manure with shavings in it.

My stalls are bedded on the pretty deep side in pellets, and you're right about cleaning them completely is heavy work. Well, not so much cleaning them is heavy since I can pick the manure off the top and then dig out the pee spots but to keep a pelleted stall working right the while thing needs to be either turned or sifted and lifting that much pellets is hard heavy work. But I only have 2 horses so it's not that bad for me plus it's a really good exercise for my arms and shoulders. If I had a bunch of stalls to do though me arms might fall off. :yes: My neat horse's stall is started with 7-8 bags of WP and after activated is a good 12-15" deep. My slobby pig-boy's stall is only started with 5 bags of WP because he grinds everything into flat broken up pieces no matter how deep or shallow I bed it. So I bed it somewhere in the middle to reduce wasted bedding while providing him enough support.
But yes, a deep bedded pellet stall is *heavy* work to sift it all.

But the shavings mixed with pellets worked pretty well for me for a couple years. Mainly it was the inability to get rid of the manure pile and the extra cleaning with bedding it deeper that made me switch back to pellets only.

[Jleegriffith]

I have used a variety of bedding over the years but I really love the sawdust. We get it from a local mill and it is around $30 to fill up a whole dump trailer and the bed of the truck. I can bed deeply and I find it easy to clean. It smells fresh and provides nice cushion on top of the rubber mats. Different mills seem to have different consistencies. One is really fine almost like power while the other mill must cut wetter wood and the chunks are a bit bigger.

My family has always used straw and I hate a wet straw stall especially when you have messy horses. It creates a huge manure pile and the stalls just never seem dry to me.

[Deuce]

Sawdust, sometimes with shavings added for a bit more fluff, sometimes without. It's inexpensive and easy to clean. The downside is storage. Here at my house I had to keep it a great distance from the barn as I had no other choice... which added extra snow removal in the winter. But it's so much cheaper than shavings it's worth it.

I do like wood pellets dumped in the pee spot for super messy horses as they absorb wonderfully.

[lalahartma1]

Best bedding probably depends on a lot of different things. Such as size of stall, type of manure disposal/handling, size of facility, equine preferrence, budget, etc.
Straw for foals...more dust free if it's good straw and has a really high insulation rate...it's warmer. However...IMO....makes manure piles gross, doesn't absorb anything and is tough as hell to clean the stall and have it immaculate unless it's almost stripped and restarted. To me cleaning a straw stall is like trying to comb half-melted raisinettes out of long tangled hair with a comb missing half it's teeth. :lol:
Shavings...probably the most common and most loved of beddings. However, costs a bloody fortune to keep a stall bedded *deep* like I prefer mine to be because so much is thrown out all the time if you want to remove all used bedding. Tougher to clean. But it does look pretty and fluffy and smells nice so I'm guessing those are the draws to it. Also takes too darned long to compost down and nobody wants to take manure for fertilizer if it's from shavings bedded stalls. But if you have manure removed on a regular basis then it's no big deal.
Pellets...what I use. I prefer WP brand...the generic or copycat brands we have available near me are poor substitutes. Wish we had another good type of pellets near me but no such luck yet. The imposter types don't absorb as much or they don;t neutralize the urine fumes like the WP does. I like the WP for the previous listed reasons: Easy to get and keep the stall *clean.* And I don;t mean for my ease of use...I mean getting the stall actually clean, really clean. I have a small property and compost my manure. A neighbor takes my manure pile every other year or so. (for his little vineyard) My manure pile composts well and stays small due to the lack of excess bedding in it. WP also keeps my barn from stinking like urine/ammonia. I abhor a barn stinking like pee...it's bad for the respiratory system. And I can keep the stalls bedded deep so the horses have decent support standing or laying down and when they do sleep they're not flat out urine soaked bedding. The horses seem to adore it, they sleep flat out for long periods of time. I use a bag of bedding per week in the slob's stall and a half bag per week in the neater guy's stall. 6 bags per month on average for 2 horses.
I haven't tried peat personally. Back when I boarded the barn tried the straw pellets for a short while. They got smelly quick even if they were clean, but the barn had a few marathon urinators so that could have contributed to the ammonia smell.
I used sawdust growing up. Liked that very well too, as did the horses. Does make for an epic manure pile over time though. Not as epic as shavings but quite a bit more over pellets. But manure pile size aside I thought it was a decent bedding and made a great base support in the stalls. Not tough to clean but had to be cleaned well daily to remove urine to keep the smell down. If the horses were in due to bad weather you'd want to go pick a couple more times those days to get the urine spots out if you want your barn ammonia free. Unless you deep litter bed with sawdust, then there's no urine smell at all until you finally strip the stall. (and then once you break the bottom level up the smell can knock you over, LOL) We did deep litter bedding back then and I liked it just fine. If my barn was set up to have deep litter stalls I'd probably be doing that now. Sawdust can be very cheap if you have a mill nearby but you need to be able to mmove it home and then store it since it doesn't come bagged. And then there's the possibility a huge sawdust pile can combust so you don't want to store a mountain of it at a time or if you do you need to turn it once in a while to keep it cool.

What is WP?

[TrueColours]

What is WP?


That would be "Woody pet"

[Mendin Fences]

I like the "Equine Fresh" pellets, but I hate driving to TSC to get them.

So, where do you all line up on this?

I like Equine Fresh the best as well. We tried another brand of pellets from a local store that were cheaper and delivered by the pallet, but they don't break down as well.
How can you not like going to Tractor Supply? Unless it's really far from you. It's one of the highlights of my month. :cool:

[MistyBlue]

Oops, sorry...yes, WP = Woody Pet. :yes: Thanks True Colors...I didn;t realize I had abbreviated it the entire post. Usually I type it out once and then shorten it to WP to save time the rest of the post.

[bit-o-honey]

I'm currently doing a bedding experiment comparing StreuFex pelleted straw bedding with bagged wood shavings. My horses are out most of the time but when they do stay in the barn, all 5 horses laid down every night in both types of bedding.

The pelleted straw is the only bedding I have ever seen in 35 years of horse care that absorbs the urine entirely and neutralizes the odor. Very easy to clean the stalls. Basically you remove only the manure and the clumped urine spots. When the pellets break down it is quite fine and soft but still not as dusty as some sawdust or straw. You can spritz it with a little water to help this. It is somewhat expensive to initially bed the stall (I needed up to 10 bags per stall at $7.25 per bag), but have not had to add much at all. When it comes out of the bag, it looks like large pelleted grain. My ponies dove face first into their stalls thinking I had bedded it down with grain for them - quite comical!! After a couple of mouthfuls and confused looks, they decided maybe it wasn't a buffet and quit trying to eat it.

The bagged shavings stalls smell great and are fluffy, but you do have to remove more of the the bedding with the manure and it doesn't absorb the urine quite as well as the StreuFex. I haven't tried shavings on top of StreuFex but it sounds nice for the cold winter nights.

Straw - HATE IT!! It can be dusty/moldy, slippery, doesn't absorb urine and some horses eat it all night. The stalls stink no matter how heavily bedded or thoroughly cleaned they are. I find it more labor intensive, and less economical than any other type of bedding. I do understand the need to use it for foaling situations however.

Sawdust can be variable in quality and the type of wood used to make it. In the past I had to replenish the stalls much more than with the wood shavings or StreuFex. But it is comfy and fairly economical and moderately absorbent.

What's "Best" is really what works for both the horses and the humans given the constraints of time, budget, amenities, amount of time the horses are in the stalls, etc. What a horse likes best is to eat grass outside in good weather with no flies and some good buddies 24x7. And treats. :D

[JHUshoer20]

Anyway, horse's bedding preferences have been researched. All the studies I have read have found horses have a strong preference for straw as bedding.


I still think your ATTITUDE is sad - your attitude that the horse's preference or comfort is not as important as your preference or comfort.

Excellent post. Straw is best. Anything else is for cheapskates and gyps:yes:
George

[TBlitz]

I want to become a Woody Pet person! All their products look so cool. Has anyone used their stall mattress? They look really comfortable.

My barn is starting to be built today!!!!! It's pretty much just a run-in with 2 stalls, a feedroom and loft. I'm thinking of putting a pelleted bedding in the stalls that they will be eating and sleeping in. My older guy will sprawl out and sleep for hours in a stall, but he will almost never lay down in the pasture. The baby sprawls out anywhere and everywhere (on rocks) everyday, so I'm not too worried about making him a cushy stall.

[meaty ogre]

Here's what I've used and my thoughts on each (for reference, I have 12x12 matted stalls):

Straw - doesn't absorb wet spots. Horses layed down most in it, but also had runny eyes and respiratory issues as a consistant, quality source is hard to find. Often was dusty. On the PITA scale of clean-up, with 1 being easy and 10 being a total PITA, straw gets a 10 from me.

Pelleted bedding - never got the hang of it (either not wet enough or too wet) got tired of slipping on marble-like pellets that didn't break down so I moved on as I'm apparently too dense to figure it out! Did seem to be easiest on the PITA cleaning scale, maybe a 3.

Wood shavings from mill - too inconsistant, opted not to even use them after I saw the large variance...basically lots of dust but also with huge, splintery chunks of wood too...couldn't bring myself to try it, though I can see how it would be economical for larger barns if you can get a consistant provider.

Bagged shavings - what I currently use. They are clean and consistant. I mix in cedar during the buggy months and it does cut down on the pests, in addition to smelling heavenly. I bed a little too deep so it's harder to pick out, but I can't stand seeing a horse with hock sores, and I have some big/old boys. No respiratory issues or runny eyes.

Chopped corrugated cardboard - my least favorite of all time. Had eye problems with EVERY horse bedded on it. Particles are about a quarter of an inch square, blew everywhere with any type of breeze, I don't think they were clean enough (ink...who knows what else all over them) and like I said everybody's eyes objected. I'd expect more eye problems with a dusty bedding, and the cardboard wasn't dusty, but it definitely didn't absorb well. Cleaning was easy, but again, not worth it.

Finally, I have sand in one of my run-ins. FWIW, the horses love it. They lay down a lot in it, even though the stalls are a little smaller, and I think it is more comfy to them as far as relieving pressure on their feet and their bones when they are recumbent. I don't really like it because they pull their hay out and then eat it off the sand and I'm convinced they will all drop dead of sand colic, but it drains beautifully (its on packed ground, no mats...no wet spots ever) and is super-easy to pick out. If it weren't for hysterical fear of sand ingestion I might consider using it in other applications because the horses do seem to love it. Oh, and I did pay extra for washed sand for fear of silicosis/lung irritation with cheaper, dustier forms. But worth it as you really never have to add more.

[Cloverbug]

We primarily use shavings or sawdust. I've tried the pellets and hated them. Straw is too hard to get in my area and if you find it it's very expensive. Not to mentioon too many farmers are bailing in the large square bales and not the small square bales. I can get sawdust from a local sawmill. It's free for the hauling. There's also another local pallet shop that is doing pine shavings and we tried them. He bags them in 55 gallon bags and they are wonderful. He charges $3.75/bag which compared to the low quaility stuff you end up getting at the feed store in the shaving's bales is not bad. Unfortunately 3 years ago I ended up spending more to bed my horses than to feed them. With the economy that's the big determining factor in my barn.

Here's some information that came from a research project conducted by Ray J. Antoniewicz, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

WATER ABSORPTION OF BEDDING MATERIALS
Material Pounds of water absorbed
Per 100 lbs. of dry bedding
Barley straw 210
Corncobs (crushed or ground) 210
Corn stover (shredded) 250
Cottonseed hulls 250
Hay (mature, chopped) 300
Leaves (broadleaf) 200
Oat hulls 200
Oat straw (long) 280
(chopped) 375
Peanut hulls 250
Rye straw 210
Sawdust (top quality pine) 250
(run-of-the-mill hardwood) 150
Tree bark (dry, fine) 250
Wheat straw (long) 220
(chopped) 295
Wood chips (top quality pine) 300
(run-of-the-mill hardwood) 150
Wood shavings (top quality pine) 300
(run-of-the-mill hardwood) 150

[amastrike]

I like Equine Fresh the best as well. We tried another brand of pellets from a local store that were cheaper and delivered by the pallet, but they don't break down as well.
How can you not like going to Tractor Supply? Unless it's really far from you. It's one of the highlights of my month. :cool:

Even though Equine Fresh is better, I think saving 54 cents a bag delivered is worth the reduced break-down.

[kookicat]

I love my flax bedding. It's super easy to muck out, is very cushy/soft to stand on, asorbs wonderfully, and the horses love it. I semi deep litter it because the wet clumps to the bottom to form a base. I've never had a smell problem and it breaks down super quickly.

I cannot stand straw. :no: It is a PITA to work with, the horses are dirty, it dosen't absorb urine and takes forever to rot. Just not worth it IMO.

[SquishTheBunny]

My guys are bedded on chopped straw. Stalls are dirt-base, then a layer of shavings, then a ton of chopped straw. Its homegrown, so never mouldy. Yes, more labour intensive...but it still isnt back breaking work. Horses are out 9 hours per day, more in the summer.

For the most part, the majority of the horses seem to do very well on daily mucking, and having shavings topped up once per week. The really wet ones need the shavings replaced two or three times per week.

Was at a barn that did pellets, loved the idea, but found them to absorb a lot of moisture from the floor (concrete floors) and we were adding new bags daily. I think the problem was more the floor than the bedding...

[Trevelyan96]

I've tried it all, except straw,as the past year was an endless search for a new bulk sawdust supplier, and I'm definitely a plain old sawdust person. Shavings are nice and fluffy when brand new, but as almost every poster here has pointed out, a PITA to clean, don't compost well, and are EXPENSIVE. Plus, the only places I can get them around here are TS and SS, and the quality is not consistent... sometimes its so chunky that they legally shouldn't be called shavings.

Tried pellets... if you don't strip the stall every 2 weeks they just get too dusty... for the few months I tried them the dust in my barn was awful. DD had a hissy fit over them, and I started having resp problems.

In winter, however, I do like to do a 3/1 mix of sawdust to shavings. I like to bed deeply, and sawdust seems to work the best for my stallwalker as well.

[marta]

how do you clean it?
my BO is thinking of switching back to straw after we finish going through pelleted straw bedding (works well but we seem to go through it a lot faster than anticipated). she swears to me that it's easy to clean. my only experience with straw bedding is in deep bedded stalls. but if you were to clean it on regular basis, what's it like? and do you put a layer of shavings underneath?

[Miss-O]

I tried cross cut shredded paper bedding about a year ago. It's absolutely the best bedding I've ever used. I'm so happy with it I will probably never use anything else.

For me the paper is 100% free. I started out(and still have) with an el-cheapo shredder from Staples and shredded old newspapers. When I realized junk mail doesn't clog the shredder up like newspaper does I started using that instead. I shred when I'm watching T.V. or just relaxing so it's actually kind of nice. Soon after word got out on what I was doing I started getting paper from a lady who works at a medical office. They even got rid of their shredder that cuts in strips (so paper acts like straw and is a PITA to clean) and bought a cross cut shredder for me. :yes: Then my recycling center got a big box and has people put their shredded paper in there for me.

The most rewarding paper I've ever shredded though was my organic chem notes when I was finally done with that class. There was just something so satisfying knowing that my notes would be put to good use getting crapped on, after all the crap that class put me through :D

The shredded paper is virtually dust free so it's great for horses who have breathing issues but it's also got to be healthier for healthy horses as well. I no longer have to hold my breathe when I'm adding paper to the stall like I did with other bedding types. Plus I don't have to dust my barn and tack room out nearly as often either, come to think of it I haven't had to do it at all.

It makes the most beautiful compost I've ever seen and it makes it FAST. I don't do anything special to my compost heap either. I just dump the manure and leave it alone in about 2 months it's the blackest, wormiest, spongiest dirt you've ever seen.

It's recycling.

It's nice and fluffy and stays that way and it's just as easy to clean as any other bedding I've ever used.

It's also more absorbent then wood pellets, shavings or sawdust. So smaller amounts go longer. I normally bed deep and haven't had any problems with urine seeping into the stall floor so paper is IME more sanitary.

The only problem I've heard about paper is that it blows around the farm. I haven't had that problem at all, at least not any more then shavings/sawdust do and even then it's not really a problem. But I also built my barn so that the back faces prevailing winds. So maybe that's why I have no problem. If some does get out of the stall it rakes right up. I love this stuff!

[deltawave]

Straw's OK if you can find non-dusty straw and if you have the means of storing or getting rid of the dirty stuff. Neither applies to me, so it's off the list. Plus, I don't care to spend 30-40 minutes per stall getting them clean enough!

Yes, I use Swift-Pick shavings with a small bucketful of pellets just on the spot where the horses always pee. I find this helps more with odor than even Stall Dry, and keeps the wet spot more localized and easy to get rid of. Never had a problem with the swift-pick being anything less than soft and fluffy--the horses lie down in it and rest very comfortably. They also did on the pellets and frankly, when the weather's nice, they do so outside on the good old ground, too. :) They have a choice of slieeping "in" or "out" and if the weather's good mostly it's "out".

[marta]

frick that. if she switches to straw i'll have to quit since there won't be enough time in the day to do the work;)

[Daydream Believer]

Excellent post. Straw is best.
George

I can't believe it but we actually agree on something! :cool: I love straw. I don't find it smelly or hard to muck at all and my horses lay down and rest well in it. I can also breathe when I get done mucking it. Shavings or wood products like those pellets are so much dustier and if I have to clean the grit out of my eyes and nose when I'm done, imagine your horse in that all night or all day. :no:


On speed of mucking, I can muck a straw stall much faster than shavings. It's all in your technique! I hate having to sift through sawdust or shavings looking for turds mixed or pulverized or trying to find the wet spot. Straw is so much easier and I rotate clean fresh bedding in daily. I find it a bit less expensive to use straw also.

[Daydream Believer]

how do you clean it?
my BO is thinking of switching back to straw after we finish going through pelleted straw bedding (works well but we seem to go through it a lot faster than anticipated). she swears to me that it's easy to clean. my only experience with straw bedding is in deep bedded stalls. but if you were to clean it on regular basis, what's it like? and do you put a layer of shavings underneath?

I could do 12 stalls in straw last winter...mostly broodies..in less than two hours. About 10 minutes a stall. No, I don't use shaving under it unless a horse is really wet and then only in the wet spot. Straw/shavings mix is horrible to clean.

What I do is I start by picking up any obvious piles (I use a shaving fork...one of the plastic ones) Don't worry if you get a little straw with it. It's not a big deal to take a little with the poop.:)

Then I start at one side and work my way around the sides and rake the good straw to the walls and pull it back away from any soiled and wet bedding in the wet spot...I pick up poop as I uncover it and rake the good clean straw from the mess. The remaining bad/wet straw in the middle gets picked up in one or two fork loads and then your wet spot is open...I rake up any left and I'm done...good straw on the sides and then I sprinkle Stall Dry on the urine spot and try to let it air until a hour before chores.

To rebed, I pull the older straw to the middle or to one side. I always add fresh straw on the outside so bedding is rotated constantly. I used an average of about 1/4 to 1/2 bale of straw a day per stall if it is good fluffy straw. The short cut stuff is useless....you want long stemmed straw. .

If I have a major pig, I might put some sawdust or pelleted bedding in the wet spot but in 20 horses last winter, I had one mare that was really bad. She also stall walked badly and was just terrible no matter what I put her on.

I have made believers out of using straw by almost everyone who's worked here now to include my parents (who helped me for a year or so), one of my boarders, and my working student. Everyone says that it really is faster to much than shavings as you aren't so picky about what you take out and you don't have to sift through so much to get at the poop and wet bedding. I also find horses don't stir it as much as shavings stalls.

I won't use anything else for a foal up until after weaning. They lay down much more than adults and I think the shavings gets in their noses and eyes and is irritating to them. JMO...I know some folks hate it.

[Indy-lou]

I have also tried every kind of bedding. I love shavings just for the smell of them, but too expensive and often too dusty. I have used the pelleted stuff, and only like that for the pee spots if used. We live in an area that produces a lot of straw, particularly oat straw, and one farmer we buy from bales the cleanest, most beautiful straw you have ever seen. The horses love it and roll in it immediately. They also love to pick through it for the missed grains they can find in it (keeps them occupied). I was using shavings on the bottom layer for better absorption, with straw on top until I recently read here on COTH about using shredded paper. I have to tell you, it's been a life-changer! I get it FREE from a business that shreds paper for other local businesses and they are thrilled when I come pick it up. They actually call and ask when I am coming again. Not all shredded paper is created equal, however; you want the cross-shredded stuff. It absorbs better than shavings, there are no puddles or wet spots at all. And the most awesome thing about it (besides being free) is the fact that it is absolutely DUST FREE. We horse people seem to get accustomed to choking on dust, and now that I don't have to, I really appreciate this. I compost my bedding and with the straw, I have a large mountain. Using the shredded paper now is helping me to cut down on the amount of straw needed, and the shredded paper decomposes much faster and takes up less space. It doesn't blow around much, but would not be desirable for folks in crowded suburban settings.

[TrueColours]

God - count me in among those that detest straw for bedding! I cant wait to get the broodmares and foals off of it once they foal and I found if you dont put something under it that absorbs the urine, it is totally and completely useless for absorption ... I love the pelleted compressed EcoStraw and the chafe is acceptable if it is chopped fine and short enough but no thanks to regular straw!

Miss-O - funny - I heard nothing but good things about cross cut paper bedding so I shredded up some phone books that we werent using and dumped that in a stall to see what I thought
I ended up with single cut, but I shredded it in such a way that it was being shredded down the short side and not the long (does that make sense???) and I quite liked it but wished the particles were much smaller
It also got mixed in a lot with the hay and I worried about the horse ingesting the paper shreds (have you ever had a problem with that at all?)
I tried contacting the shredding places but due to security regulations, even though the particles arent any bigger than confetti by law they have to dispose of it so that eliminated any possibility of me going to pick it up

Has anyone used the Klacon HS bedding out of Chicago? Its a red clay bedding and supposedly you only need to use a few bags per YEAR once the stall is set up as you keep drying out and re-using the previously wet bedding. Ive never met anyone that has actually tried it before!

What about kenaaf bedding? Has that come back to life once again in the Carolina's?

And has anyone used the pelleted cardboard bedding at all?

[SquishTheBunny]

10 minutes per stall???? It takes me MAX 5 minutes to do a 12x12. They are NOT deep bedded (use a layer of shavings, followed by a few bales of straw). The horses poop you pick out, and the wet straw...which is usually just a small amount because it soaks through to the underneath (which you also pick out), leaving mostly dry straw on top.

I find it just as easy as mucking shavings and pellets....I dont understand how it could take someone 40 minutes? Although, we do use CHOPPED straw, that makes a huge difference.

[Daydream Believer]

Squish...they were broodmares and pretty messy! I was just trying to give an average also....some take longer than others and some less. Shavings takes me way longer to do right. I'd say ours were fairly deep though.

[TrueColours]

Shavings takes me way longer to do right

I guess its all in what you get used to doing ... Straw took me 20ish minutes per stall, at least and more if the babies did burnouts in there!

The straight EcoStraw stalls take me 5-8 minutes on average as everything clumps and stays put and I am mixing them now with a medium flake shaving to let people know how it works out and I find its a longer process - probably 10-15 minutes on average. We tried mixing it with a fine granular shaving as well and that worked perfectly - that was about 5-8 minutes per stall as well.

I also had a straight BestCob stall set up as well as a BestCob/EcoStraw combined one and those are quick to do as well - about 5-8 minutes on average

The next plan is a peat moss/EcoStraw stall to see how that combination works out

[amastrike]

As far as pelleted bedding being dusty... I have not had that problem at ALL. And my horse coughs something fierce if he's in dust, so I would definitely know.

[Twiliath]

I have been sold on pelleted sawdust since I first tried it. I have not noticed the issues other people have with it. I use 3 bags a week in each stall once it's bedded. I usually put in one bag every other day (M-W-F). Sometimes I have to add one more to get the depth.

I get my delivered and stacked from William Beam Farm in Chester Co., PA. That way I don't have to go find it nor do I have to unload it. The brand is Boreal. I call them and leave a message. They deliver it when they can and leave me a bill. I don't have to be home.

[marta]

it is really easy to clean but i have to wear a respirator to do the stalls otherwise the next day i'm wheezing and coughing as if i smoked a pack of cigarettes. i never had to wear a respirator w/ shavings. the horses don't seem bothered by it but they do get much dirtier than on shavings because everything stays on top. so as soon as they lay down, they're on top of the manure.

[rmh]

Grass or what ever they want to lie on. They are outside 24/7, thank god.

[ASB Stars]

Well, I trekked out to TSC yesterday, and I am trying their store brand shavings. We'll see!

Of course, I also grabbed up a bunch of Equine Fresh.

And managed to escape without buying anything else. :lol:

Thanks for all of the input! :yes: