Bed on straw, shavings or wood pellets?

[danacat]

You’d think I’d know the answer to this by now - have taken care of my own horses for more years than I can count - but it’s alway good to get opinions when considering a change.

I have always been partial to bedding on straw and currently do. Mostly because I have this paranoia that my horses will breathe in shavings dust or wood pellet dust when they lay flat out in their stalls to take a nap.

My horses live outside 24/7 in grand run-in sheds, but I do bring them into their stalls for various reasons - sometimes for the day or overnight if the weather is horrendous - and they always enjoy sacking out for a good long nap.

Straw is great - nice cushy dust free pillow - but I really hate cleaning straw! It’s time consuming, and straw storage takes up a lot of room. So, I’m thinking of switching over to shavings or pellets.

Obvious question is (for those of you who bed on shaving or pellets): Do your horses avoid laying flat out in these products because of the dust etc.? I mean their noses are right in it. I can’t imagine they aren’t breathing some stuff in.

My stalls are pretty big - so it will be an investment to fill them up to cushy status with shavings or pellets. And I don’t want to do that only to find out my horses hate their new bed, or worse develop breathing problems.

Your thoughts/personal experiences/solutions/ideas will be greatly appreciated!

[mjs8]

We bed in a green shavings / sawdust blend. Quite absorbent and not too dusty at all. Ours are also outside as much as possible, and when they come in they all lie down to nap. No one has any respiratory issues or heaves or anything of the sort. Plus the added bonuses of being super easy to keep clean, and it composts much more quickly than straw or straight shavings. =)

[CFFarm]

I’m with you, love straw but no one around here carries it (plus I have the feeling my air fern gelding would eat it).

I use large flake shavings because they are not dusty and make a nice, cushy bed. You can bank them up when the stalls are empty and pull 'em down when needed.

[tazycat]

I bed horses with wood shavings there not dusty. Horses do lay flat out to take naps. I use a mix of saw dust and shavings even at that it’s not dusty,but i don’t bed stalls very deep,just enough to cover rubber mats.

[walkinthewalk]

I clean stalls every day. I prefer bagged/kiln-dried pine shavings. If I buy the right brand they have very little dust (if I don’t sneeze after shaking a bag out, it’s a thumbs up).

My horses are out during the day so I can let the pee spots go a couple days before I need to clean them. I couldn’t do that with straw plus I can’t stand the smell.

I also have a horse prone to thrush in his club hoof. He’s a lot healthier on shavings than wet straw:)

My horses do lie flat out if they feel like it.

We have high humidity so I run big barrel fans in the barn to keep the air moving. The dust is so minimal in the shavings I buy, that it’s the least of my worries, compared to environmental allergens:(

[Obsidian_Fire]

I use pellets in the summer and shavings in the winter. Because - my boy won’t lie down in the pellets (even when broken down). During the summer he sleeps outside in his run so I don’t worry too much, but in the winter in his stall - he will only lie down if it’s shavings. Picky picky picky…:winkgrin:

[SonnysMom]

I know a number of people that bed in a mixture of pellets and shavings. The pellets are nice and absorbent while the shavings add some fluff.

The place I board at uses bulk saw dust. A number of the horses stretch out flat to sleep.

[tazycat]

[QUOTE=SonnysMom;8811121]
I know a number of people that bed in a mixture of pellets and shavings. The pellets are nice and absorbent while the shavings add some fluff.

The place I board at uses bulk saw dust. A number of the horses stretch out flat to sleep.[/QUOTE]

Do you find the saw dust to be really dusty? I use a mix of saw dust and shavings,don’t have dusty stalls. But saw dust alone was just way to dusty,could see the dust in the air.

Had to take garden hose to barn and wash down the walls dust was just thick on everything. Killed the industrial fan motor. So i won’t use saw dust alone,with some mixed in shavings its fine.

[MysticOakRanch]

My horses don’t spend much time in the barn, but when they do, I use either large flake shavings or a combo of shavings and pellets. Only exception - when I have a mare ready to foal, then I switch to straw. NOT because of dust, but because of bacteria that live more readily in wood shavings (risk only while foal’s umbilical is open).

I HATE straw, find it just as dusty, and absolutely non-absorbent. If you don’t really stay on top of it, the stalls are wetter, and the floors become more slippery (if you are on concrete or mats) because of the lack of absorbancy. One of the boarding stables here that uses straw has had scratches and other bacterial infections, and the vet thinks it is because the stalls are just wetter with straw. Suggested putting shavings under the straw to absorb pee.

All the horses I have seen on shavings sleep just fine. And there is nothing funnier then watching the horses wait for that fresh bag of shavings so they can throw themselves in it for a good roll.

The other thing I hate about straw - some horses will eat it! And it just isn’t healthy.

[FantomsStorm]

I use shavings. My boys each have a 12’x30’ pen with a 12’x12’ portion covered by a run in shed. The uncovered portion is sand and the covered 12’x12’ portion has 3/4" stall mats. I put a bag of pine shavings and a half bag of cedar shavings in each “stall” (the covered area that has mats). I buy flake shavings, NOT fine shavings. I do feel like fine would be dusty. My boys have always had shavings and prefer them for laying down and rolling. That being said, they do love a good roll in the sand and in their turnout as well. Hope this helps!

[Scribbler]

Here in the PNW, straw is hard to get, expensive, and besides my horse would eat it all up. People will get straw for mares foaling, so the sawdust or chips don’t stick to the newborn!

Since timber is a mainstay of the economy, almost everyone uses some form of wood product. Basically, you can get compressed pine pellets that expand with water, bagged shavings, or a ton of sawdust delivered from the saw mill. We also use hog fuel (rough cedar bark and chips) for paddocks and riding arenas, also delivered by the ton.

When I was a teen, we got the sawdust by the ton, and kept it outdoors with a plastic tarp over it. We bedded deeply on concrete, since the sawdust was quite cheap. That could be a bit dusty. I didn’t think about it at the time, but in her teens, when pony was living on pasture most of the year, she started showing symptoms of heaves when she was stalled again on sawdust.

Returning adult rider, now at a self-board barn where we buy our own bagged bedding. I have extra deluxe stall mats, and a small run-out hogfuel paddock.

I started with the compressed pellets, but maresy developed a cough after a month. Took away the bedding, cough disappeared. Switched to shavings, and she has been fine.

Maresy refused to sleep indoors, only in runout paddock, until I started bedding up half her stall with a foot of shavings; now, she always sleeps inside. She doesn’t dirty up her stall at all, is totally houstrained :). That’s great, in that it means her bedding lasts forever. But it does get dusty as it breaks down over time. This would not be an issue with a normal horse, since you would be taking out dirty bedding constantly and renewing it.

So I would say that fresh shavings are not very dusty, but if you are going to leave the same shavings in the stall for five months, yes, they will break down and get dusty.

however, I think the dust of the compressed pellets it much finer, and potentially more dangerous to lungs (human and equine) than the dust of disintegrating shavings.

There is also a recycled shavings product called “Greenscene” that is dust free, but not super absorbent.

[Foxtrot_s]

Pellets have to be wet to fluff them. Then use a hose to spray when they get dusty.

[Happy_Appy]

I prefer the pellets, easier to clean and more cost effective in my area. I didn’t think they were too dusty, my mare didn’t seem to mind them. She was stalled at night all winter long and she would sleep on them, never picked up a cough or anything.

[danacat]

Great info all! Thanks!

[keatssu]

Pellets - I use around 9 gallons of water to rehydrate a bag. Every few days I spray them with a good amount of water, not just misting the surface. My mares love to lie down for naps.

We have used shavings in the past. They get very dusty, and wetting them down just doesn’t work like it does with the pellets. There is also much less waste with the pellets, and it’s very easy to take out the whole pee spot without removing excess bedding.

[Jarpur]

We’ve been bedding on pellets for many years; our horses lay down for naps, without any resulting problems.

[Salar]

Straw. Cheaper than shavings or sawdust in this area. Yes, more cumbersome to deal with but it composts very well.

[chalice18]

I use shavings and they’re not generally dusty at all, and all of my horses lay down frequently. Sawdust, on the other hand, is often dustier, but I’ve never known a horse to not lay down on it.

With mares and foals, I bed with shavings underneath and straw on top. Money and cleaning difficulty aside, it’s my favorite way to bed. But, it’s difficult (and super expensive) to get straw here, and such a pain to clean, so I only use it when I have a foal.

They all seem to appreciate their fresh shavings, so I have no complaints about it!

[DressageFancy]

I use the pellets on the bottom and straw over top. The pellets pull the wet down and the straw stays dry and fresh. Just keep the poo picked and when pee spot gets soaked remove that spot and replenish pellets. I can go a long time without having to strip a stall with this method.

[Shagyas_Rock]

Straw is not readily available here in my area (there are few bales for sale at our local farm store in the fall for decorating lawns But for the most part, the vast majority of horse owners I know bed with shavings.
My experience of straw is that it’s not that absorbent.
I like the medium flake shavings as they fall through your fork nicely and you can save more bedding when you clean the stall. My horses all lay flat out on this bedding, and no one has suffered any ill effects.