Does anyone use it? What are the pros and cons?
Nobody? Anybody tried it?
do you have a source to buy it??
Yup it s on offer at my local feed store which is why I searched coth
I’ve never heard of it…
used it
pros - attractive, easy to muck, no dust,absorbent
cons - slippery when fresh out of the bag, came in paper bags so storage was a problem for me, travels a lot/non supportive with it being so fine - would not want to use it in a trailer or injured horse
I have used flax straw for bedding and loved it. It doesn’t freeze down in the winter because of the oil content, is soft and fluffy but horses will eat the fine bits where the seed balls were. The worst part is it never breaks down, ever!!! The innards of the straw are linen fibres and that takes eons to decompose; linen is what the ancient Egyptians wrapped mummies in.
Just an aside - flax straw is what makes some brands of paper towels so tough. Kimberly Clark buys up all they can get.
I have used flax bedding. It’s shredded straw (flax shives). Pro: really absorbent, I use it in the wet spots in my regular straw bedded stalls, and have a neat filly bedded completely on flax.
Cons: the bedding company seems to have gone out of business, and it’s no longer available. 
Love it. Cheap , super absorbent, no dust and easy to pick. Unfortunately flaxbed (the brand I used) is no longer operating
http://dufferinbeddingmaterial.com/flax-bedding/
They were at Rolex last year. I’d love to try it but can’t find a vendor. Didn’t want to commit to a semiload from Canada.
I managed a barn that used flax when I first started, after a year I made the call to switch to half flax/half shavings.
Pros: absorbent, easy to pick out (especially with a clean horse)
Cons: not as “fluffy” as shavings, a freshly bedded flax stall doesn’t look as aesthetically pleasing as a freshly bedded shavings stall. The paper bags that the flax comes in is a PITA, if you drop one it’s almost guaranteed to explode and then you end up with little flax bits everywhere.
It’s used a lot here in the Netherlands! I hated it at first. We have concrete floors and it’s slippery (as was said above). A friend at the barn told me to stop treating it like shavings and to deep litter with it – amazing difference. I now love it!
Super absorbent, no smells, doesn’t freeze (although it doesn’t get nearly as cold here) and I go through much less of it then I was shavings. It’s also not very expensive (at least here…).
Two thumbs up from me!
Anyone have more recent experience? I saw an ad in In Stride. I can get it shipped to me for a $1 more per bag than shavings. It appeals to me because I use a ton of shavings and struggle because they are pretty inconsistent (pestell). When I’ve tried to branch out I end up with dusty shavings, not ok. My horses are in their stalls 16-22 hours per day, are are heavily bedded. They also have mattresses. I go through so many shavings… And dispose of waste with garbage cans that our trash company picks up. The issue is that in order to try this, I’d have to commit to 300 bags. What if I hate it?
I liked it. It was pretty absorbant and very easy to muck with. It did get a bit “staticky” though so would stick to your clothes while mucking. The smell wasn’t as nice as pine shavings, and the stalls were very flat not “fluffy”. For mucking and absorbance is rate it really high. For price and small I’d say shavings are better.
Does it smell bad? Or is it just that you missed the small of shavings? How it looks does not matter to me, as long as it’s comfy for the horses… It’s a private barn with 4 stalls. We bed deeply, so ammonia smell is not an issue.
I love love love flax bedding. I have one horse who is very wet and the flax does a much better job soaking everything up than shavings. Mucking out is much quicker as the flax falls between the pitchfork tines easily just leaving the manure in the fork. Much less waste.
I do miss the smell of shavings though, but not enough to go back to them 
Flax doesn’t smell badly, just not the nice shavings smell.
I was so happy when our supplier was able to get flax bedding back in after a small hiatus; definitely did a happy dance 
Does it dry the horse’s hooves?
How is the flax bedding if a horse is a stall walker and churns everything up?
Would you need to strip the stall every day?
I have had no issues with it drying hooves out.
No experience with a stall walker.
Definitely no need to strip the stalls daily. I go through far less bedding with flax than with shavings. The urine kind of clumps like kitty litter in a way, leaving the rest of the bedding very dry.
[QUOTE=Justice;8871048]
Anyone have more recent experience? I saw an ad in In Stride. I can get it shipped to me for a $1 more per bag than shavings. It appeals to me because I use a ton of shavings and struggle because they are pretty inconsistent (pestell). When I’ve tried to branch out I end up with dusty shavings, not ok. My horses are in their stalls 16-22 hours per day, are are heavily bedded. They also have mattresses. I go through so many shavings… And dispose of waste with garbage cans that our trash company picks up. The issue is that in order to try this, I’d have to commit to 300 bags. What if I hate it?[/QUOTE]
Have you thought about getting someone to split the load? I’m not far from GR and I’ve been wanting to try it too. Might be interested if we could get a few people to go in on it to minimize the investment in case we don’t like it.
Yes, I use it for my allergic to life horse. It’s great for her allergies, but it’s not as easy to pick as shavings or pellets. You’d think it would be a breeze to sift, but it’s not.
Also, major caution, when it is brand new it is as slippery as all get out. That can be countered by using a hot water hose to draw a grid in it. The top will stay dry, but the water will sink down and help create a less slippery surface.
