Menu

Stay in Touch
Sign up for ENews
Subscribe Now

Unlimited access >

Menu

Bedding pellets

Horse Care
#21

I’ve switched exclusively to pellets. I use Mallard Creek pelleted bedding and don’t find them dusty at all. I don’t bother watering them, I find the horses pulverize them pretty quickly and so not worth the effort. The pellets absorb a ton of moisture and do a great job neutralizing the rank mare pee smell. Go through about a bag a week. I find them to be very cushy, assuming you’re adding enough bags to the stall off the bat.

I have an incredibly messy horse and I find it takes me half the time to clean and I’m saving a ton of bedding. If the horses are stuck inside for a prolonged period, I’ll add flaked bedding to give it some cozy fluff. :slight_smile:

#22

Where do you find straw pellets, who makes them?!

I tried various types of pine pellets, but once I found Strufex straw pellets that was it for me. Loved, loved, loved them. After they stopped making them I couldn’t find any straw pellets anywhere and switched to an “easy pick” finer shaving. The compost the straw pellets made was amazing–straw has a significantly better carbon ratio for composting than pine. As a gardener I’d be willing to pay more for them just to get the compost!

#23

@Simkie I think (!!) was the one who was telling me about a source, but shipping to me was horrible, and I don’t remember the company now :frowning:

I tried various types of pine pellets, but once I found Strufex straw pellets that was it for me. Loved, loved, loved them. After they stopped making them I couldn’t find any straw pellets anywhere and switched to an “easy pick” finer shaving. The compost the straw pellets made was amazing–straw has a significantly better carbon ratio for composting than pine. As a gardener I’d be willing to pay more for them just to get the compost!

Right? SUCH good stuff! Now I use my degrading wheat straw garden bed cover to mix in with my beds to degrade there.

1 Like
#24

Anybody that uses straw pellets could find a few local gardeners and they would pay you to take away your manure pile! I was sick when I discovered I couldn’t get them anymore.

#25

Oh geez! Who was that?! These guys…I think??

https://www.whiteriverag.com/product…edding-pellet/

I’ve also heard about a new hemp pellet that’s being imported…from France. Some swear by it, but holy shit, it’s a gazillion dollars 😂😂😂

I’d still love to try those straw pellets, but not at a $$ premium!

#26

@2DogsFarm the key to using them in the trailer is to just add unsoaked pellets to the pee spot!

I put down regular shavings and then add some pellets to the center of the stall (gelding). Most awesome especially for the 7 to 8 hour trips!

#27

I used to work at a 10 stall barn that used the pellets prior to there being a shortage in this area. Personally, I found they made my normally minimal allergies flare up something ferocious. My clothes STANK. I would strip down in my laundry room as soon as I got home. (Fortunately, our closest neighbors would’ve needed binoculars to see this!) That’s never been an issue with shavings or straw. I feel like there’s no way they could provide adequate cushioning for arthritic horses lying down. Willing to concede I could be incorrect on that last point because I’ve never researched it in depth.

1 Like
#28

Cushion is all about depth. Most people IME don’t put enough bedding in when using pellets because they’re only thinking about the absorption.

When my guy had anaplasmosis a few years ago, 107* temp, and laminitis was a real concern, I put in 8 bags of pellets in his stall, watering half of them (more or less). I never realized how much broken down bedding that was :eek: :eek: Yes, there was plenty of cushion :lol: He lived in that stall for a few days so I could keep his feet iced.

#29

I don’t deal with costs- feel like I should explain that up front. But I am a barn worker and have been for 20 years (omg it’s been that long). My last barn used pellets with 25 stalls and the horses in at night or during the day, depending on season/temperatures, plus in during inclement weather (show horses). I hated working with the pellets and I do concede that it might be due to depth, but IMO they provide less depth than other types of bedding (I’m familiar with straw, shavings of all size, sawdust, and pellets). We wet down every bag that we put in so it took forever to put shavings in stalls. I would just spread the pellets out, then go back and water them down thoroughly. Super PITA.

#30

I find that pellets are easy to use and highly absorbent. You throw out poop and hardly any bedding (vs shavings). You can bed a stall to whatever depth you want with pellets. Mine is usually 4 or more inches. I don’t find them to be all the dusty.

1 Like
#31

As far as cushioning goes, I have found pellets to be much more cushy than shavings. Shavings look cushy, but compress when you step on them, especially the big flakes. Hydrated pellets make a very dense and soft surface, IMO.

2 Likes
#32

To me, bulk shavings is always the way to go if possible. Once we buy a tractor it will be possible for us and I am counting down the days.
Pellets bear out bagged shavings for me any day. I have found the rural king brand of pellets are TERRIBLE. I add water to the pellets to fluff them up, but the Rural Kings ones just would not fluff, or even absorb urine. I went through 6 bags in a week when I normally use 2 bags of the Equine Fresh.

#33

Yeah, except if you make it deep enough to be cushy, it is like cleaning cement.

Agree on big flake shavings. Just no.

A mix of good quality pellets, and shavings, works for me. Fluffy, and absorbent, and easy to pick through. I use just pellets in my sheds, and they are easy- but I only keep a couple of bags in the sheds.

I tried to go by the instructions on the bags of pellets when they first became available. I had six inches of pellets in a 12 by 12 stall. You had to have a serious workout to do a stall. And it wasn’t fluffy.

#34

Agree, deep deep pellets is insane, but I think you can manage a sustained easy to manage/clean cushion easier on pellets or pellets plus an easy pick shavings over any other option in my experience

#35

Really it’s not so bad. Just remove the saturated spots when needed. My horses are happy and dry (we’ve been having snow and rain). I’ve use shavings and I think pellets are FAR superior.

2 Likes
#36

Well, I recently did my own little comparison of pellets vs shavings. I had one stall in fine shavings with a scoop or two of pellets thrown into the pee spots. Another stall that started out with pellets and a bit of shavings on top, and a run in (used as a 3rd stall) that had pellets only. The pelleted stalls just got too dusty for me. I have since added shavings to those stalls and will quit with pellets except in the geldings known pee spots.

My horses are are free to come and go from their stalls, so don’t spend a lot of time in them. Maybe this is why pellets never work for me - I think the pellets stay in my stalls for too long, so they break down into fine dust.

#37

I too have had zero dust from TSC pellets. I don’t know where y’all are finding other pelleted horse bedding but it becomes more apparent every day that the care and practices around here are, um, minimal. I’m lucky to find any horse care products at all.

I wet mine down, even in the single digits. I don’t wet them to the point where 100% of the pellets break down. I do like to leave some pellets in tact. I also think if you bed deep enough they are more cushy than shavings. That’s just not a concern of mine. My matted stalls with a few inches of pellets are far more cushy than the ground in the paddocks which is as hard packed as a dirt road with rocks coming up due to erosion. So unless I have a legit health reason to bed deep, I don’t see it as necessary for my situation.

The minimal amount of bedding that gets scooped out with manure makes pellets far superior as far as waste.

#38

For those who leave the pellets intact and just allow the horses to break them down, I assume there have been no issues with them being unstable for the horses to walk on to begin with? Or is it a matter of putting enough down? Or is it just a non issue and I’m just paranoid? :o

Also, with straw pellets: are they tempting for horses to eat if that horse is the type to eat regular straw bedding or is it just a whole different ballgame?

#39

Non issue.

1 Like
#40

Also a non issue. If you stripped your stalls to the mats before you added pellets then I would water then.

Get your Digital Subscription here - only $21.95 / year

Subscribe here
See gift options

Sign up to our monthly newsletter!

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.

Copyright © 2023 The Chronicle of the Horse