They âfluff out a bitâ because they absorbed something. They are quite absorbent un-fluffed.
I use pellets under my other bedding to better soak up the urine. I promise they soak up wonderfully when put in there as pellets.
Consider yourself lucky to have always lived in areas that had an easily accessible source of bulk sawdust.
That is not the case everywhere.
Now days the bulk sawdust (in my part of the world) is not so much cheaper that I would find the amount lost because of bad tarp use would make it not worth the hassle to use them. The majority of the people in my part of the world that use bulk do have a designated location inside for their sawdust.
If you were to change this scenerio to rows of dog cages with the dogs standing and sleeping in their own urine and feces, well, then youâd have an spca commercial.
Why is it acceptable when itâs horses!?
IKR - they are LESS absorbent once theyâve absorbed something. They are most absorbent in their pelleted form.
And I am still laughing at the post indicating they are dangerous. They are nothing like ball bearings. They are round-ish but they hardly roll like ball bearings. If they are rolling around, more bedding is needed.
Me too. They smoosh quite easily too, unlike ball bearings.
My horses will take a nap outside on rocks and other stuff that looks horribly uncomfortable to me. I doubt some pellets of bedding mixed in with the sawdust are causing them any discomfort at all.
Does anything cost what it cost in the 90s and early 2000s?
The cost of bulk sawdust has doubled in the 10 years I have had my horses at home. That does not include delivery (we pick it up). I am sure delivery has gone up too, for those that have it delivered, since the price of fuel has gone up since then too.
Well, ok, some things have gone up more dramatically than others.
I was asking as I truly didnât know if the cost of a dump truck load of sawdust had actually become so expensive that bales of shavings actually made senseâŠ
I try not to think about it and just think about how much turnout my guy gets. Positive thoughts. Its a small barn that the owner uses to subsidize her own horses. I went into this knowing it. Just didnât expect to get push back after asking and getting permission to bed how I want with my own purchased shavings.
FWIW, itâs highly unlikely that anyone is âsubsidizingâ their BOâs horses.
First of all, it is highly unlikely (anyone with fingers and a calculator can work it out) that your BO is making much profit, if any to âsubsidize horsesâ with. If she is making any âprofitâ it likely is in the form of a less than minimum wage payment for her labor. People look at their board check and then subtract the cost of feed, hay and bedding and think that what is left over is âprofitâ which is ridiculous. In fact, owning and maintaining a horse property is incredibly expensive with tons of overhead (mortgage, insurance, taxes, repairs, equipment that has to be maintained and replaced, etc.)âand thatâs without actually caring for the horses. There are many threads on this topic on this bulletin board.
Secondly, this kind of attitude is incredibly rude. Do you begrudge your dentist or plumber the fact that they make money from what they do? Donât you think that people deserve to earn some money for their investment and hard work? Is it any of your business how they spend their earnings?
Buy your own farm if you want, but donât do it expecting any cost savings. You may have the pleasure of caring for your own horse (and bedding its stall) exactly as you wish, but you will pay for the privilege. Anyone with a calculator and some common sense can see this.
Interestingly, in my years in the horse world I have seen many people go through the process of deciding that they want to get their own place. For some people this works out greatâgenerally for people who derive intrinsic pleasure from caring for their own animals, and have the time/patience/skill to deal with the work of keeping up with a bigger property, barn, fences, grass, landscaping, repairs etc. (or plenty of money to comfortably pay other people to do it). Other people find it to be a disappointmentâgenerally because it is more expensive, isolating, and time consuming than they thought. However, invariably peopleâs standards drop drastically when they bring their horses home when they realize how much work and $$ it is to clean and bed a deep stall or change blankets twice a day, how much it costs to replace old fence, etc.
Eh, subsidizing their own horses is pretty common parlayence in horses for a private barn not looking to make a profit, just maybe âhelpâ pay for their horseâs expenses, which probably means pay for grain, or bedding, not equal an income. I donât think anyone means it offensively; I certainly didnât read it that way. Itâs basically a pat phrase in the horse industry.
According the BO if they didnât have boarders they couldnât afford to rent the barn for their own horses so⊠I donât have a bad attitude, I just get tired of not receiving what is in the signed contract. Nothing more and nothing less. Thatâs all I want.
Actually I would save money buying my own place after 3 years. Iâve done the math. My guy is very cheap to keep. 1 lb ration balancer, 15 lbs of hay ( heâs only 600 lbs). I was on self care at a prior barn and loved it.
I think this is brilliant. What an excellent counterpoint to the other thread where the poster is complaining because the paddocks arenât being cleaned in the middle of winter. You identified something important before you moved in, made sure it was in the contract, and when it wasnât being provided per the contract terms you had a lovely straightforward discussion. Yay! Thatâs how itâs supposed to work!
But the barn owner is probably kicking herself now :lol: Not only are you no longer providing bedding, but she no longer has the answer of âluvmyhackney provides that extra beddingâ when other boarders ask why your horse is bedded so much deeper. She could have left things alone and just had to deal with the questions. Now sheâs going to have others demanding their 8 bags/month! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Iâm thinking that maybe the profit was in charging for 96 bags of shavings a year per stall and only using 40. Thatâs $392 per horse per year.
I âsubsidizeâ my personal horses with race horses since that allows me to write off lots of stuff I would do anyway, like reroof a leaking run in shed.
Oh but there is approximately a 100% chance you still wonât get eight bags in your stall this month but that your stalls look like garbage will probably result in your board being raised because âyour horse obviously has extraordinary bedding needsâ :lol:
Iâve boarded at a couple of barns and this must be a new phenomenon of using as little bedding as possible. They all had mats but the bedding covered a small corner in the back with the rest swept clean. The barn Iâm at now, only beds half the stall and sweeps back the front and the half thatâs bedded is very thin. I was raised to bed the whole stall to about 3 - 4" and thatâs what I do now since Iâm on self-care. My mare is a slob and pees a lot so of course use extra in her pee spot. I also use pellets without wetting and havenât found her skating around on them yet. I do spend a lot on bedding but I donât mind, my horseâs comfort is important to me.
The problem I donât get with the light bedding is you have to strip it almost daily, let it dry, then add more shavings. That is so much more work then picking up 3-4 small pony poop piles, pee spot at the front center, and pull shavings down from the banked sides and move to the next one. He doesnât stir his poop and keeps a beautiful stall.
I donât care if they use the 8 bags, I just donât want a puddle of pee in the stall. Why I offered to pay for shavings. I didnât think adding a bag a week was unreasonable and the BO didnât when I asked before doing it. As long as there is enough to absorb the pee, Iâm good.
This is precisely why I have always found deeply bedded stalls EASIER and quicker to clean than thinly bedded ones (assuming the horse isnât a pig who grinds everything into a soggy mess). With deep bedding - I prefer just under fetlock deep - the manure and urine stay mostly contained in one place rather than spreading all over the stall.
@luvmyhackney for me it depends on the horse. My older horse is reasonably clean in a stall, so I can clean his as you describe. My younger one, no matter if he is bedded light or deep, will destroy his stall because he is not only a piglet but he drinks a lot and eats a lot. Then he rolls around in it and lord knows what else all night to make sure its all drug around the stall. So its a matter of having to pull a muck tub or three each day. He is way easier to manage if he is bedded light (and honestly, i put him out as much as I can only leaving him in when its below 30).
