# Bedding



## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

What is most available in your area? What is priced the best?

Other than that, horses get along well with either, usually. It's a matter of practicality or economy.


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

You can use whichever type of horse bedding you want. It's personal preference. I use pelleted bedding with my horses. They are slightly more expensive per bag than shavings but I waste less of them, and therefore buy less so they are less expensive overall for me. I also find that they are heavier and less "floaty" than shavings so they tend to stay put in the middle of the stall better. I hate when shavings get pushed out to the edges of the stall so your horse is standing on bare floor in the middle of the stall with 3ft of shavings piled around the edges! This happens a little with the pelleted bedding, but not as dramatically. I just don't like straw because I don't think it's very absorbent and it's impossible to sift through. This is just me though. Other people have different stall cleaning regimens and different opinions, so you should really just try each one for a while and see what you like best!


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## caseymyhorserocks (Apr 5, 2010)

I like shavings more than straw. Easier/faster to clean stalls- 15 minutes verse 30 minutes. Straw is warmer though. If it got cold here I would bed mainly with shavings but with a thin layer of straw on top for cold days.


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## Darrin (Jul 11, 2011)

Straw is much harder to clean up then shavings and makes for heavier loads to haul out too. But straw often is cheaper so pick your poison.


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## LadyChevalier (Apr 19, 2013)

I used straw once in my main run, and had a gelding colic cause he thought it was tasty... He had free access to good quality round bales so no he wasnt starving but cuz he ate enough it bound up his guts. He recovered A-ok but ever since I didnt want to take a chance on it. So now in the main run I bed using corn fodder. Its economical around here, absorbs more, and its safe for my horses to eat if they like. They love it when I bed them with a new bale so they can rut around in it for corn cobs. 

For my stalls i have rubber mats covered with a bale of sawdust. Sawdust is just easier to remove than corn fodder with pitchforks. I do use fodder though in colder months for my stalls, just takes a little longer to muck out lol

So its just personal preference as others already said.


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## quinn (Nov 8, 2013)

Since this thread is about bedding, I've got a couple questions too...i don't mean to hijack but the questions apply to this topic...

For those who use pellets- do you "fluff" them first or put them in the stall as pellets? I saw a video clip of a lady using water to expand the pellets before adding to the stall. I thought the point of pellets was that only the needed/peed on/ fluffed parts were removed. But, do the horses seem to mind standing on pellets? 
If you are supposed to "pre-fluff", how do pellets differ from regular pine savings?

Has anyone tried the corn cob bedding? How does it do?

Thanks in advance for any info!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## quinn (Nov 8, 2013)

Ladyc, have you compared the fodder to pine shavings?
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

A prominent farrier researched various bedding materials and it's effect on horses and their hooves. His preference is straw. With shavings the horse's toes dig in and the horse stands heel high especially on the fronts. His concern was that this could have a detrimental effect on the front legs.


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## pineapplepastures (Nov 12, 2013)

Shavings drive me mad. I like to use pellets. The kind they carry at my feed store break down and turn into super soft fluffy sand like stuff. It absorbs his pee way better and sifting through it while mucking is much easier. Less waste!! And cheaper. Ideally i use two bags a week. 

Shavings are more expensive (in my area at least) and they get disgusting when urinated on. I have bought an occasional bag just to up the fluff factor when I have extra cash flow, though. I've never tried straw before!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## pineapplepastures (Nov 12, 2013)

quinn said:


> Since this thread is about bedding, I've got a couple questions too...i don't mean to hijack but the questions apply to this topic...
> 
> For those who use pellets- do you "fluff" them first or put them in the stall as pellets? I saw a video clip of a lady using water to expand the pellets before adding to the stall. I thought the point of pellets was that only the needed/peed on/ fluffed parts were removed. But, do the horses seem to mind standing on pellets?
> If you are supposed to "pre-fluff", how do pellets differ from regular pine savings?
> ...


I don't prefluff because they break down under the horses feet. I mix it up a little with the older pellets and remove the pee soaked pellets. Pine shavings float everywhere and like I said in my previous post, they are disgusting when used. Pellets just seem to go the distance, pine shavings are constantly needing to be replaced.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

On the topic of pellet fluffing, I am one that pre-fluffs my pellets. We have one horse that will try to eat the pellets if they are dumped in her stall directly. This horse also attempts to eat straw. Anything that remotely resembles food (and sometimes things that don't resemble food at all) go straight into her mouth! We have packed stone dust flooring, with fitted rubber mats, in our stalls. The floor is very flat, and smooth and whole pellets on the floor actually make the stall slippery because they roll under your foot. Pre-fluffing prevents these issues.

I just lay the bag flat on the floor of the stall, cut an "X" on top and peel back the corners. Then I dump half a bucket of water in the bag. Wait 10 minutes and it's popped out of the bag like pop corn. I then just pull the bag out from under it, and spread it out. It dries quickly, so contrary to what some people think, pre-fluffing should not make your stalls wet. It's still easy to clean when done this way, because peed-on bedding is wet, dark and sort of sticks together compared to the clean, fluffed stuff, so you can distinguish it that way.

I like the pellets because they tend to be much easier to sift through than shavings. This is because the fluffed pellet pieces are smaller than the shavings so clean, dry pieces can easily fall through the tines of a standard, plastic pitch fork, while wet pelleted bedding sticks together and is easy to scoop up and remove. This cuts down on waste and speeds stall-cleaning time. The pelleted bedding is generally less dusty too. The pelleted bedding can get dusty as it gets old and continues to break down (ie if you leave it sit pre-fluffed in an empty stall for 2 months), but if you're cleaning your stalls on a semi-regular basis, this shouldn't be an issue.


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## Darrin (Jul 11, 2011)

quinn said:


> Since this thread is about bedding, I've got a couple questions too...i don't mean to hijack but the questions apply to this topic...
> 
> For those who use pellets- do you "fluff" them first or put them in the stall as pellets? I saw a video clip of a lady using water to expand the pellets before adding to the stall. I thought the point of pellets was that only the needed/peed on/ fluffed parts were removed. But, do the horses seem to mind standing on pellets?
> If you are supposed to "pre-fluff", how do pellets differ from regular pine savings?
> ...


 My parents use pellets, they just open the bag and spread them. They've never fluffed them and they absorb moisture just fine.


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## Kotori (Jun 18, 2012)

I've been told the best of both worlds would be pellets with straw over top. Urine runs down into the pellets, and soft bed for horse. The woman who did this at her barn also did deep bedding, but it worked well for total cleaning too- just peel straw layer back.


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

I really like the shavings my barn gets (in bulk from a local wood mill). They're somewhere between fine shavings and large sawdust. Large enough not to hang in the air and create dust, but fine enough to make picking the stall easy.

When I've gone to shows in the past, I've bought bales of shavings from my local feed store and HATE them. The shavings are so large I can't easily sift the soiled stuff from the clean stuff and have a huge amount of waste.

I only used pellets once when a show provided a bag for the first day's bedding. I couldn't reach the stall with a hose to fluff them up (kiltsrhott's method sounds interesting, though, so I'll have to try that next time!) and 1 bag was not enough to even start to cover the stall floor. I ended up adding my baled shavings before even putting my horse in the stall.

I have a couple of bags of pellets purchased for my next show and am going to see if I can get them working better for me. Even if it takes me several bags to bed down a stall, I think I'd prefer the added expense to the frustration of the large shavings. I only show a few times a year, so in the big picture it's not a lot of money


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## caseymyhorserocks (Apr 5, 2010)

quinn said:


> For those who use pellets- do you "fluff" them first or put them in the stall as pellets? I saw a video clip of a lady using water to expand the pellets before adding to the stall. I thought the point of pellets was that only the needed/peed on/ fluffed parts were removed. But, do the horses seem to mind standing on pellets?
> If you are supposed to "pre-fluff", how do pellets differ from regular pine savings?
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


You should add water to bedding pellets. Otherwise they are very hard and not comfy for the horse to lie on- they very easily cause sores. If only the pee spots are fluffy the horse will either lie in soft pee shavings or hard pellets. Just sprinkle the top layer with some water so there is a thin layer of soft on top.


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## Sharpie (May 24, 2009)

Straw- hate it. Would only use it if I knew the horse wasn't inclined to eat it as that can make them colic if they're not accustomed to it and with deep bedding I if I wanted the horse to be laying down a lot, as with some types of leg injuries or laminitis. HATE picking through it and it's not very absorbent at all.

Large shavings- again, a pain to pick through if they're bigger than the rakes you have and not very absorbent, useless except to keep mud down and do landscaping IMO.

Fine shavings/sawdust- I like it well enough. Easy to clean, and so long as the quality is there and you use them quickly enough not too dusty or gross. They do break down and get dusty or moldy if they sit too long or are exposed to the elements. Provided as part of the board contract at my current barn and were the default bedding at the Vet Hospital I worked at. 

Pellets- My favorite! I do not pre-fluff. I just bust the bag open and pour them out. Though with a brand new stall I might pre-fluff half a bag or toss in some sawdust, with established stalls it is easy enough to get all the muck out that I rarely need to strip it, so there is still plenty of powder from the horse crushing them and them breaking down that it doesn't have the rolling/slipping/uncomfortable to lie on effect that people seem to worry about. They're less dusty and more absorbent IMO and I waste less. My guy did try to eat them the first time though. I laughed, watched him try to chew up a mouthful or two and then make that funny face they do. He never tried to eat them again after that.

I've never tried the corn products- too concerned about mold spores and dust to feel comfortable with them, let alone colic or mold poisoning from actually eating it.


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

verona1016 said:


> I really like the shavings my barn gets (in bulk from a local wood mill). They're somewhere between fine shavings and large sawdust. Large enough not to hang in the air and create dust, but fine enough to make picking the stall easy.
> 
> When I've gone to shows in the past, I've bought bales of shavings from my local feed store and HATE them. The shavings are so large I can't easily sift the soiled stuff from the clean stuff and have a huge amount of waste.
> 
> ...


I just wanted to let you know that 2 bags of ABM or TSC pelleted bedding (the ABM bags are 35lbs and the TSC are just a little bit heavier) when pre-fluffed is sufficient to cover the floor of a 12x12 stall with rubber matting. If your horse is on concrete, you should use more for added cushioning. Another benefit to pre-fluffing the pellets is that they expand to a larger volume so you don't need as much to cover the stall floor.


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## ama (Feb 20, 2014)

I will, in the near future, be building a new barn. I don't know anything about the rubber mats that folks speak of. Can they be used on top of concrete? How long do they typically hold up? Is it really necessary to use bedding on top of the mats? Thanks for your help!


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

ama said:


> I will, in the near future, be building a new barn. I don't know anything about the rubber mats that folks speak of. Can they be used on top of concrete? How long do they typically hold up? Is it really necessary to use bedding on top of the mats? Thanks for your help!


Rubber mats are wonderful! When you have your barn built, they should know what you mean when you mention the rubber mats and should be able to fit them to your stalls and install them as a part of the construction of the barn. This is how we did it. But you can also buy them separately. Places like Tractor Supply sell sheets of rubber matting for use in horse stalls or on trailer floors etc.

If you have dirt or packed stone flooring in your stalls, the rubber mat on top will protect the floor to keep it from getting dug out with repeated cleanings. Cement can be hard and abrasive so putting a rubber mat on top makes the stall much more comfortable for your horse, and cuts down on soreness and hock rubs, so yes, rubber mats can (and should) be used on top of cement. 

It's best if you get mats that are fitted to your stall. If they don't cover the whole floor the edges can get pulled up and your horse will make a mess under the mat.

You do still need to use bedding with a rubber mat because mats are not absorbent. However, you do not need to use as much bedding. The rubber mat offers a decent amount of cushioning so you only need just enough bedding to cover the floor and absorb any moisture.


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

Since you're building the barn, you have a great opportunity to make sure the flooring is done well for both simple upkeep and drainage. There are a lot of good resources out there to help you figure out your best options: http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/ub036.pdf


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## Nickers2002 (Nov 25, 2009)

I use pelleted bedding on top of my mats. I bed my mares a little lighter and my gelding deep. For him, if it's deeper he doesn't turn his stall into a pigsty lol. My mares are pretty good...for the most part.

I did use shavings for a long time because I had a bad experience with the pellets (barn that I boarded at barely used any and I always had issues with it) but when they're done correctly, they're so much easier!


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