# Best bedding in a stall?



## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

I REALLY like that wood pellet bedding. 
I put about four 40# bags into my mare's 12x12 stall, pick the poop and pee spots daily (she's in at night so I do it in the morning when I let her out), and add a new bag every week. 
So far, using that method, I haven't had to strip the stall at all and it still smells fresh!
It soaks up water like crazy, doesn't smell if you get the pee spots out on a daily basis, and it's super easy to shake off poop piles = less waste of clean bedding. 

Bottom line: it's my favorite. haha


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## Delfina (Feb 12, 2010)

A mixture of sawdust and shavings. Sawdust to soak up pee and dribbled water, shaving for nice fluffy bedding. 

Straw is the WORST, as is large-flake shavings. Straw is slippery, absorbs nothing and cannot be picked around. Large flake shavings are slippery, absorb next to nothing and stick to the poo way too much.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

Straw is great for warmth, but I've never been a fan. Too much waste.

The best and easiest to work with is sawdust, if you can get it. Many sawmills used to sell it by the truckload, but so many have contracts with actual businesses that it's difficult to find a mill that will deliver a whole load to an individual now.

Small flake pine shavings are the next best, but they run about $5 a bag, and I have very large stalls. I use two bags every other week in each of my 3 stalls.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

86 the straw, yesterday - the most inefficient bedding you can use, not to mention slippery as heck.
I am a pelleted bedding fan here - it's just so easy to use. It *can* be a bit dusty depending on the brand and your general housekeeping approach, so if you have a horse with respiratory issues it might be better to go with a large flake shaving.


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## MeganJoey57 (Aug 1, 2012)

I love pine shavings! Absorbent and fluffy! I usually put two bales of it in a stall at a time. And I love the price too-- $5 a bale
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## Prismis (Aug 18, 2012)

I've heard all good things about the pellets. I don't know how much they cost though. 

I used the pine shavings for my chickens and rabbits and those are $11 a bag! Huge difference from $5!

My horses are going to be stalled until I get a new fence up. (Hopefully no longer then a week). I'm cleaning it about 3 times a day right now. The straw was free: leftovers from a farm themed party & photo shoots lol
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## wetrain17 (May 25, 2011)

Straw is cheapest and easiest to get rid of (in my area). The mushroom houses will come clean out the manure pit and pay you for it. But, as others have said, it absorbs nothing. I will sprinkle some shavings down in order to absorb the urine in stalls. 

I generally use shavings/sawdust in the stalls. I know a few people who use the pellets. They say the pellets get dusty when they break down, but generally like them. I dont know enough about them to really weigh in.


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## Fulford15 (Oct 17, 2012)

I really like the wood pellets as well, I find it cheap and efficient.


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## Prismis (Aug 18, 2012)

I think I'm going to give those pellets a try... Depend on how much they cost

Mushroom place across the street from me, maybe I'll go talk to them.
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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

*I think we had these threads last winter, too*

EVERYBODY has their favorites. I use 1-2 bags of "Equine Fresh", the extruded, super-dry pine pellets/stall/horse, in the stall where my horse pees . If you use them, do NOT follow the instructions which tell you to mist them with water, first. I put a package of pine shavings and on top of them. They soak up urine, turn to a powder, then soak it up a 2nd time.
USUALLY, with daily turnout, I don't have to fully strip a stall for one week. BUT, we live in IL, which used to be a swamp and is often cold and damp in the winter, so sometimes I have to replace it sooner.
Don't look down on straw. Sometimes we have dropped down to a low of -20 degrees F in January. When that happens my horses really appreciate 3-4 flakes of straw to lay to radiate their heat back on them at 5-6 am, when the radiational cooling, on a clear, cold, night, is the worst.
You need to watch to see how each horse decides to use his stall for placement of the pine pellets and where you pile on shavings and maybe use some straw.
I just bought 10 bales of straw, and it may last the whole winter. My supplier has more, if I need it, too. =D


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## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

Availability and budget will play a part in your choices. Where I am straw is cheapest and easiest to find so that's what is used. Shavings can be gotten but are more costly so I use shavings in the horse trailer only. In the perfect world, I'd probably go with shavings.


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

I use pine shavings that I get in bulk from a local lumber mill. It saves us SO much to buy in bulk, as bagged shavings here have gone up to $8 a bag, and I use a lot of shavings for my stalls. We had 8-ft sides built on a 20ft long flatbed with no top, and we're able to drive right under the chute and let them fill it up for us. It's hard to beat $4/cubic yard!


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## Prismis (Aug 18, 2012)

I'll definitely look into the lumber yard. Good idea!
I just bought 5 bags of shavings (stallion) at $8.99 each! The pellets are $5.69/bag. I like your idea of using both. Especially since my boys are going to spend more time stalled then I would like. 
Straw is about $6/bale here and I just tossed 2 bales in 2 days so I don't see how that is cheaper in my case. Except that I was given the straw lol. I will keep it aside for cold nights. My horses are messy and will poop anywhere... I wish they were like my llamas. They always go in the same spot.
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## minstrel (Mar 20, 2012)

I'm a big fan of rubber matting. The yard I used to work at used rubber matting with a thin layer of shavings to absorb the urine, and we only needed a bale of shavings every two weeks or so with horses being stabled during the day every day. At the moment, I'm back on a shavings deep litter bed in my new yard, but have just ordered the matting for my stable as, whilst more expensive to start, saves a lot of money on bedding over time and is so easy to hose down and disinfect regularly to keep the stable super clean... and skipping out has never been so easy!


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Prismis, you chose the wrong straw. If it was oat straw they'll be in to that before you finish bedding. What you want is wheat straw. We used that in Winnipeg, same as the race track, and it is great bedding material. AND the horses don't eat it. There is a bit of an art to bedding with straw to get the best mileage out of it yet do the job. If you go with wheat straw pm me and I'll give you some pointers.


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## Prismis (Aug 18, 2012)

We converted part of greenhouse so they're floor is actually like a landscaping canvas/tarp material. Quite easy to sweep and hose off  
Saddlebag- thank you. If we decide to try straw again i'll let you know
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## Sharpie (May 24, 2009)

I LOVE the bags wood pellets for my single horse. When I was a barn hand we used shavings/sawdust, which was great too, but I think you have to have more horses for it to be economical to buy, transport and store loose shavings. I don't bother with the bagged shavings, as I think the pellets are better value.


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## westdressgirl (Dec 13, 2012)

Like pine shavings but can get expensive by the bag.


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## Sunny (Mar 26, 2010)

Equine Pine is what we use and I really like it.


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## cpr saves (Dec 5, 2012)

Rubber mats are wonderful and I love having them, but some are led to believe they provide cushion. They do to some degree and are better compared to concrete for sure. BUT as far as cushioning your horse's joints, they don't when laying down. Just try laying on it yourself and see how comfy it is.

I also use Equine Fresh pellets. As previously mentioned, don't add water to the pellets. It only reduces the amount of urine they will absorb. The pellets are very hard though and certainly not comfortable to be laying down on. Plus they are slippery and unless covered, can cause people and horses to slip.

For that reason, I top off the pellets with deep shavings. I prefer aspen because the turpentine oil in pine can be very irritating to their skin.

The pellets act like kitty litter and are easy to get the wet spots up, which I do every morning. If they end up in their stalls on a blizzard day, I clean 2X more per day. On an ongoing basis, I just put down a thin layer of pellets to replace what has been taken out. If your horse always pees in the same spot, you only need to put the pellets there and not in the entire stall.

Straw is your horse's best friend on a cold winter night! I put 4 or 5 bales in to start (12x15 stall) - on top of everything else. Yes, there is some waste, but the warmth factor is fantastic. After you get the hang of it, it's not all that difficult to pick out the manure. There will be some waste, but the compost is like black gold in the spring and can be used for mulching or in a garden.

I know my 27 yr old loves the cushion when he lays down and extra warmth that his own thermostat is no longer able to maintain. It has done a lot to keep arthritis at bay. 

Straw is cheap too. I only have to add more on an infrequent basis to re-fluff. If you try it and find they eat it, after several days they lose interest in eating it and you're good to go after that.

Sorry for the long post.


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## BlooBabe (Jul 7, 2012)

I'm a fan of pellets myself. They crush easily and after I place new bags in I have the kids run and jump in the stalls to break them down before the horses go in. Cleaning's easy it's like sifting rocks out of sand and it clumps around pee spots so five minutes in each stall for cleaning and it's usually on to the next. If you're horse has respiratory problems misting it will keep the dust down, though it will lessen the absorbancy. I wouldn't recommend them for deep bedding though, as they will pack like dirt but mixing with shavings would help the bedding last longer as long as you do a thorough clean and try to keep as much as you can. Pellets are usually a cheaper option because you don't have to strip as often and they keep the smell down because you can get more out without taking too much bedding out.


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## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

I highly recommend Stall Pro if you can get them there. Fluff up better, last longer and are easy to pick through.


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## Prismis (Aug 18, 2012)

Thanks for everyone's input! A lot of great advice!
We have shavings down now and it's been very easy to clean up. I am going to add pellets to the mix they're cheaper. 
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## cakemom (Jul 4, 2010)

I like Pellets under shavings.
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## RedHorseRidge (Nov 3, 2012)

I, too, prefer the pellets. Up front the cost is higher, but I have found out that in the long run I not only save money, but also time, as they pick easier and there's less of them in the manure pile, meaning we don't have to haul it away as often.


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## amberly (Dec 16, 2012)

During a short time we had our horses in stalls, we put down shavings for them. It worked really well and a bag was under 10$. It worked for us.


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