Los Angeles Equestrian Center

[Harriet1]

@Peggy

@Harriet1

And what about bedding expenses in SoCal? I know good grass hay is prohibitively expensive in certain regions… is bedding insane as well?

I pulled up one website that said $13 for 11 cubic feet (once freed from the plastic wrap it’s sold in). You can do better buying large quantities. Some of the stables that have been around forever are grandfathered into a bulk shavings company that I’ve been told is way less expensive. The quality is a bit more variable than the bagged shavings—sometimes it’s in larger chunks, sometimes part of it looks more like sawdust, occasionally there are curlicues. Usually access to that shavings pile is controlled by the barn.

Hmmm. That’s not too far off from cheaper areas. It’s about $10 for a 10 cubic foot bag near me, without any discount. And same thing… you can do better if you buy large quantities of bagged shavings all at once for farm delivery, and even better still if you get shavings in bulk from a local mill (but there are quality issues like you describe).

I really like the community wide waste management by centralized composting of manure that has been described on this thread. That’s wonderful. Wish more communities would do that!

[endlessclimb]

A field full of barbie horses. how fun!

[rothmpp]

@quietann

Jack Russell Terrors as a trainer I know calls them.

I have often called my yorkie a terriorist.

[BrownDerby]

I boarded at a large Nor Cal barn that bedded with local straw. A huge semi would come and empty the dumpsters and haul it away to compost for a mushroom farm on the coast. Win-win.

[findeight]

Back in the days before fancy footing, we used to just dump the manure in the arena and harrow it in. Between the dry air and mostly alfalfa diet not requiring a lot of bulk passing through the horse, it broke down cleanly and quickly.