Brilliant Bedding
www.theeverydayequestrian.co.uk
I’ve tried most types of bedding over the years, from straw to shavings to paper. I admit that I haven’t used cardboard! But my all-time favourite is wood pellets. I’ve been using them for about 18 months & they are officially ACE!
Why do I love them?
- Easy to muck out
Soo very easy. Basically, I use approximately 10 bags to set up the bed, and then maintain it by taking out the droppings each day (my boys are turned out in the day and in over night). I don’t touch the wet until the weekend when I take it out once each week. I’m a busy mum, so I just love the speediness of mucking out in the week, then restocking with 1-2 bags at the weekend when I remove the wet.
- Very little wastage
Using a shavings fork, I remove the droppings and any clean bedding just falls through the fork and back into the bed. Virtually no wasted bedding! And a far better smaller muck heap.
- Easy to store
We order our wood pellets in bulk, so they arrive on a single pallet. The companies we use generally offer 65 bags per pallet, but they take up so much less space than shavings bales, so we can actually keep them covered rather than losing bales to the weather. Equally delivery to the yard means that we don’t have to keep going to pick up bales from local retailers.
- Simple to set up
We simply partially slit the bags, pour some water in, wait 20 minutes and mix.
- Cheaper to use
Partly because there isn’t the wastage of bedding when mucking out, but mainly because we pay between £3.50-£4.00 per bale when bought directly from the supplier. I don’t believe there is any real benefit in using the ‘premium’ wood pellets; I’ve tried all sorts & the cheaper versions seem to work just as well as the more expensive ones.
As you can see, I’m a big convert to wood pellets. I guess the only downside is that you don’t have that gorgeous big deep bed that you get with shavings. Maybe that’s because I don’t use as many as I should to set the bed up in the first place, but then I don’t really see the point.
My horses love their beds and seem really happy, so I’m happy! So if you haven’t already, give wood pellets a go – I bet you don’t look back!
