Hi guys,
I’ve recently bought a stock trailer and I am wondering what kind of bedding you all recommend for this type of trailer.
I’ve tried shavings but each time I tried these, the horses unloaded covered in dust & my tack in the dressing room was also covered in dust. I then tried “watering” the shavings so they’d hopefully stay in place but then most of the shavings still “migrated” under the partition with the dressing room - so didn’t actually provide much of a bedding anyway.
What else would you recommend?
Thanks!
What else
Good mats. I only use bedding for long hauls because of the dust. Big flake shavings. They still end up everywhere.
Dust is one of the drawbacks to stock side trailers. We bag up our quantity of tack, suitcases, saddle bags, zipped shut hay bale bags, to keep it dust free. Usually hauled in the rear end of trailer, with horses in the front half, center gate shut. We have no dressing room, just a small tack area up in the gooseneck. Trailer started life as a cattle trailer, then husband “changed stuff” to the present arrangement. We do LOVE the airflow though, horses stay cool, like to view the countryside, easy to load with being able to see out the slats.
We have heavy mats under our horses, use bedding over the mats that is about 3-4 inches deep, packed down. Deeper if the trip is over a couple hours. Gives extra cushion during the ride, absorbs urine, seems to stay put if well dampened (NOT soaked down like pellets), yet is still very absorbent.
Maybe you just have not been using deep enough bedding?
I use Streufex, pelleted straw (does NOT need to be wetted down). Get it from Southern States. I don’t have a stock trailer but I do have a horse who pees in the trailer all the time. I have not had a dust problem although I know stocks are more prone to them.
A bag is inexpensive so worth an experiment.
Straw! Old fashioned straw!
[QUOTE=merrygoround;7747588]
Straw! Old fashioned straw![/QUOTE]
NO!!! That is about the WORST bedding to use under moving horses!! Straw is slippery, non-absorbent, though it ‘looks’ nice. Straw is a dangerous bedding for trailers carrying large animals.
I had one horse go down standing PARKED when bedded on straw. Then had to roll her to get legs under again, was an AWFUL thing to deal with in the vehicle.
I know other folks that had the same problem, straw over mats, horses down in the trailers.
Only takes ONE TIME of seeing a horse down, to change your thinking about straw as footing in a trailer.
BAD IDEA to use straw as trailer bedding.
If the horses are not pee in the trailer types, then nothing.
Rubber mats.
If you have a trailer-pee-er, whatever the least amount of shavings you’d need to keep things from getting slippery on the mats.
I would just put some good quality mats in the trailer.
If you want to spend some money, you can also look at spray-on trailer mats, like WERM.
http://www.wermflooring.com/
I use shavings in my trailer, on top of the mats, just for the sole purpose of their pee not splattering everywhere. 
I have used straw in my open stock trailer for 20 years with no problems at all.
I do not haul with shavings, just makes a big mess. I have good textured mats over the wood floor. Liquids just run out. I do always put a flymask on horses when hauling to keep ANY stray material (hay, bugs, etc) out of their eyes (open stock sides on top).
We don’t use anything other than the mats. Unless you count dried up horse turds which seem to make excellent footing. :yes:
As opposed to fresh horse turds? Which can be very slippery! Can you get the plexi-glass slats that fill in the openings in the stock trailer? Then bedding won’t blow around.
Thanks all! Yes, I have good mats and always trailer with a fly mask. I’ll look into the plexi-glass slats - great idea, especially with the Midwest winter coming up…
For the anti-straw amongst you guys, would the pelleted straw present the same risks in terms of slipping?
When the pelleted straw gets dirty it basically becomes the texture of fine shavings and is no more slippery than other types of bedding on the same situation, and less so than fresh horse poop on mats.
Please do not completely enclose a loaded trailer. Horses are not humans and thanks to their massive digestive tract and other physiological difference create huge quantities of body heat. Ventilation is also critical to respiratory health. These make for very stressful traveling conditions. Lots of air and very careful driving are two of my Trailer Commandments. 
straw works great in my stock trailer. Not dusty, covers the mats making it more welcoming for trailer loading practice. I don’t see how it makes it slippery. The only thing I can think of that if horses don’t have much bedding in their stalls (seems to be the current trend) that the trailer would be so inviting with gluffy straw they want to go down for a snooze!!!
Since max airflow is why I like to use a stock trailer, I don’t like to use any bedding (just mats). Just gets the horse(s) dirty/dusty. I once made the mistake of taking an almost-dry broodmare and foal to inspection with a lightly bedded stock trailer. Yikes!
I would try the doing the plexi glass on the bottom slats to see if that reduces the shavings blowing around. I bed my stock trailer well with shavings and have never had a problem with them blowing but I assume it all depends on the airflow in the trailer. I’ve bedded with straw before when I had to and it did okay (I also have heavy mats on the floors and walls). However, I’ve seen straw + wooden trailer floor and that was like Holy Ice Capades Batman:eek:
I’ve used straw in my trailer for over 20 years. I bed it almost as deep as for a stall, over mats. When I am carrying only one horse, that horse is loose.
Never ever, had a problem. Perhaps those for whom it got slippery used too little.
