Bedding

[PinkBiteyPony]

Hi,

I’ve been using shavings + wood pellets for my youngster. She’s the first pony I’ve owned (looked after others for years) so it’s the first time I’ve had to think about wintering a horse.

I’ve been thinking about trying aubiose (I would like to deep litter) but it’s a massive financial investment.

I’d like something that’s as low maintenance as possible as when I’m at work she’s skipped out by others, and I’m quite time poor.

She does track her litter around, stable is rubber matted entirely. Straw looks lovely but is so smelly.

What do you use and why?

It's been years since I had my own horse but I always liked a thin layer of shavings with straw on top. The shavings soaked up the wee but the straw provided a lovely thick bed that was easy to control. I'd skip out the poos and any soiled straw daily then once a week scrape the straw back, dig out any wet patches in the shavings and start over.

It worked well, wasn't labour intensive, always looked nice and controlled costs.

I use straw. Don’t find it smells too bad. I usually skip out on days I’m pushed for time, and dig it out properly every few days.

We use chopped rape straw bedding - we get the bales from a local farmer which is much cheaper than buying branded bales. We have two in overnight at the moment (one for medical reasons and one to keep her company) but usually they’re only in in extremis so we don’t use that much. Stables are skipped out daily and get a full dig out once a week. We can’t use proper straw because one of the horses has asthma triggered by mould spores in straw. The chopped rape straw is very absorbent and seems comfy (judging by the poo stains and bed head manes in the morning!)

I use aubiose for my gelding. It is cost effective in the long run. Wouldn’t use anything else.

Definitely not straw, it stinks, takes ages to muck out and can be full of spores.
i use unbranded chopped rapestraw, with wood pellets underneath for the very wet one. Quick to muck out, much less dust/ spores, like it a lot