# Wood pellets?



## BugZapper89 (Jun 30, 2014)

I love them. I only use the Woody pet brand as I have found the others to be dusty. To do it correctly you need to use properly installed wall to wall mats. It's just like scooping a cat box.


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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

Guardian wood pellets and Woody Pet are the two I've seen the most. Guardian recommends you wet them down (they puff up to 4x their size when wet) and use them that way. I'm not sure about Woody Pet's pellets. If you do moisten them you'll need to make sure the particles don't get dusty by misting them down every so often.

I like the pellets, the initial cost is greater but you wind up saving more down the road.


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## Spiritandjuniper4711 (Apr 12, 2014)

ThaNk you so do you soak them, or leave them in the Pelleted form? Or does it depend on the product.


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## BugZapper89 (Jun 30, 2014)

I leave the woody pet in pellet form. It takes 8 bags to do one if my stalls and my horses are show/race stock so they spend a lot of time in. 8 bags last me almost 8 weeks


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## cakemom (Jul 4, 2010)

I use two bags under the fine shavings not soaked in my hard clay stalls. Lasts about a month to six weeks, then I get hubby to take the tractor bucket scrape and start over. I'll add fine shavings in as needed depending on the weather- as my stalls get rain blow in.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Spiritandjuniper4711 (Apr 12, 2014)

BugZapper89 said:


> I leave the woody pet in pellet form. It takes 8 bags to do one if my stalls and my horses are show/race stock so they spend a lot of time in. 8 bags last me almost 8 weeks



Wouldn't that be uncomfortable if the horse needed to lay down? I don't know the hardness or texture of the pellets so please correct me if I am wrong.


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## Gizmo (Dec 19, 2010)

I have only used them once and not totally sure I did them correctly. It took a few bags and they came out like pellets like grain, but my horse crushed all the pellets into a powder. It was weird and seemed to get really messy. But again I probably didn't do them right it was a while ago and my mom bought them because the lady at the store suggested it. I have always used shavings. They also seemed exspensive I think she payed 20 bucks for a few bags and it didn't even cover my whole stall and only lasted me like a week.


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

I only buy my own bedding when I take my horse to shows. In the past I've used the bales of shavings, but the shavings are too big to fall through the manure fork, so I always feel like I'm throwing out equal amounts of poo and shavings and _still_ not getting the stall as clean as I'd like. 

The last show I went to I switched to pellets. (Nature's Bedding brand, IIRC) It was a bit strange to use because the stalls were temporary ones set up on a mowed field. So I was putting the pellets down on top of grass...

For the first couple bags, I cut an X in the plastic bag of pellets and dumped about a gallon of water in them, then let them sit for a few minutes to puff up before I dumped them out on the ground. The rest of them I just threw in as-is. I figured this gave me a good combination of softened, fluffy pellets for comfort and completely dry ones to absorb urine and moisture from the ground.

Even picking the pellets through the grass that was there I thought it was easier than using the baled shavings.


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## BugZapper89 (Jun 30, 2014)

The horse will crush them down pretty quick on their own


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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

You can do it either way. Moisten them down and fluff them up, or leave them as is, or as Verona does mix them in both ways.

If you moisten them cold water takes a while, but warm or hot water will fluff them up in about 5-10 minutes.

It can be a bit uncomfortable for them to lay on un-moistened pellets, and a bit slippery as they will roll, which is why I prefer to wet them down.

You can leave them in the bag and cut an 'X' into it and pour the water in that way, or you can dump them into a muck bucket or wheelbarrow and moisten them that way.


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## RedHorseRidge (Nov 3, 2012)

verona1016 said:


> For the first couple bags, I cut an X in the plastic bag of pellets and dumped about a gallon of water in them, then let them sit for a few minutes to puff up before I dumped them out on the ground. The rest of them I just threw in as-is. I figured this gave me a good combination of softened, fluffy pellets for comfort and completely dry ones to absorb urine and moisture from the ground.
> 
> Even picking the pellets through the grass that was there I thought it was easier than using the baled shavings.



This. Exactly. And our manure pile is significantly smaller than when we used shavings... we only haul it off twice/year now (before it was easily every other month).


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