What kind of bedding to use in outdoor shelter?

[Pehsness]

I’m sure this has been asked many times before…

Our temporary shelter is a shelter logic “garage”. It’s working out just fine. One old mare and a mini.

Right now the only bedding in there is wasted hay (long story, there’s LOTS of wasted hay, and it’s deep enough that should someone choose to lie on it, there’s lots of bedding between them and the ground).

The hay waste will be a thing of the past with better quality hay, so now I am deciding what to put in there. Winter has arrived with some snow, some wind. Old mare likes to lie down at night, at least for a little while, but to date she seems to choose to lie down outside. So I would like the bedding to be easy to clean, even in the dark (with an outside pole light), be absorbent enough, but I’m not going to be overly fastidious, and (if this is possible) encourage lying down inside.

From what I can see my options are pellets or shavings from TSC, or straw. I’m leaning towards a mix of the pellets and shavings, but am just not sure how practical that is in a temp outdoor shelter like this, bedding on the bare (but very compacted) ground.

Straw seems like it would be warmer, but a nightmare to keep clean outside of the weekends and I worry about the monster manure pile I will generate.

Any ideas? I was reading up on the TSC brand pellets (Canadian manufacturer) and they say they are virtually dust-free, which is appealing.

[SCM1959]

I use the TSC pellets in a totally outdoor pen. My horse goes into a very large pen every night so that he doesn’t run all over going nuts with our pony (long story … we have had 2 years in a row of a suspensory injury in the winter caused by ??) and we are going to keep him in the pen this winter to see if that helps him stay injury free.

Anyway, the pen is very large and it is outside, although the back 1/3 is sheltered by trees. I have at least 30 bags of pellets in this pen, covering the entire middle area. My horse lies down and sleeps there all the time. He also uses one extreme edge area to pee and that is easy to clean. I add about one bag of new pellets every other week or so, but it is so easy to maintain. I just rake it up and fluff it up a couple of times a week. I also did a smaller area in the top corner of the pen using about 8 bags of pellets and that is the “big toilet”. All of the manure is there and I clean it up a few times a week.

My Rocky is a very neat horse, ha, ha.

I think your Mare would sleep on the fluffy pellets. They are fairly dust free and if they do get dusty at all, you can just mist them with your hose and then rake them around and mist them again.

My horse looks like he has been in Shake & Bake every morning.

Good luck.

SCM1959

[A3dayeventer2009]

When I was self care with a run-in shed we used the pellets as well. It worked perfectly.

[Pehsness]

Thanks - I’m going to try some I think. I’ve been reading the threads, not realizing it was something even available around here, but whaddya know, TSC up here has them.

[saultgirl]

I just have sand in my shelter this year for bedding, and it’s been great so far. I clean the shelter a few times per week. It’s high and dry and they sleep in there when it’s wet (if I don’t bring them in). Now that snow is on the ground, they usually sleep out in the snow.

[Pehsness]

[QUOTE=saultgirl;7860660]
I just have sand in my shelter this year for bedding, and it’s been great so far. I clean the shelter a few times per week. It’s high and dry and they sleep in there when it’s wet (if I don’t bring them in). Now that snow is on the ground, they usually sleep out in the snow.[/QUOTE]

What about when the ground is frozen under the sand? Where does the urine go? I would probably worry about it puddling and then soaking in to the hay. Is that a concern for you?

[saultgirl]

[QUOTE=Pehsness;7860758]
What about when the ground is frozen under the sand? Where does the urine go? I would probably worry about it puddling and then soaking in to the hay. Is that a concern for you?[/QUOTE]

They don’t really pee in there much. This is the first winter with the sand, so I’ll see if it ends up being a problem. I have 2 horses, and my gelding makes a point to keep the shelter clean! The mare, not so much.

[Simkie]

I’ll say this about pellets–I find them tough to clean without much light. It can be tough to tell the “wet, needs to be removed” spots from the “darkish but still good bedding” spots unless you can SEE. My stalls are not terribly well lit and I have this frustration when cleaning when it’s overcast or windy enough to have the barn doors closed.

Do you have a tractor? I would at least consider the deep litter method with straw if you can scrape out the whole lot in the spring. (But you don’t want to sign up to clean that out by hand.) Bonus if you can find a mushroom grower to take away your straw compost.

[Pehsness]

The deep litter method has been suggested. We don’t have a tractor but could put a blade on the lawnmower and/or we’ll be renting equipment in the spring. It’s doable.

[PlanB]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7861140]
I’ll say this about pellets–I find them tough to clean without much light. It can be tough to tell the “wet, needs to be removed” spots from the “darkish but still good bedding” spots unless you can SEE. My stalls are not terribly well lit and I have this frustration when cleaning when it’s overcast or windy enough to have the barn doors closed.

Do you have a tractor? I would at least consider the deep litter method with straw if you can scrape out the whole lot in the spring. (But you don’t want to sign up to clean that out by hand.) Bonus if you can find a mushroom grower to take away your straw compost.[/QUOTE]

I have a headlamp for cleaning the shelter from November - March; it’s perfect for this!

[Pehsness]

[QUOTE=PlanB;7861896]
I have a headlamp for cleaning the shelter from November - March; it’s perfect for this![/QUOTE]

This is a great idea!

[neversaynever]

I have mine bedded with shavings. I tried the pellets, but they dried out too frequently and ended up very dusty. I also hate spraying down the pellets in really cold weather and worrying about fully draining the hoses to prevent freezing. In winter, depending on where you live, if you overwet the sawdust or in pee areas, it can also freeze.

[AmarachAcres]

Similar situation here. Wearing a head lamp in the dark has helped me.

[QUOTE=Simkie;7861140]
I’ll say this about pellets–I find them tough to clean without much light. It can be tough to tell the “wet, needs to be removed” spots from the “darkish but still good bedding” spots unless you can SEE. My stalls are not terribly well lit and I have this frustration when cleaning when it’s overcast or windy enough to have the barn doors closed.

Do you have a tractor? I would at least consider the deep litter method with straw if you can scrape out the whole lot in the spring. (But you don’t want to sign up to clean that out by hand.) Bonus if you can find a mushroom grower to take away your straw compost.[/QUOTE]

[Pehsness]

New Question… How many bags?

I’ve decided to go with pellets as a bottom layer and shavings on top - for now. See how that works out, if it doesn’t work nothing says I can’t start a layer of straw and go to the deep bed method.

How many bags of each would I need for a 12x20 shelter? I’m not looking for it to be a foot deep corner to corner, but deep enough. Is this just a trial and error situation? I’m going to pick some up after work and I’m not even sure where to begin with the number of bags.

[Simkie]

Pehs, I start with 6 bags of pellets in a 12 x 12 stall, and that gives me perhaps 4" of bedding across the whole thing once I wet it a bit to expand the pellets. If you were doing JUST pellets, I’d think 10 bags would be a good guess. So maybe 8 pellets and ~6 shavings?

[Against_All_Odds1]

Anyone done peat moss in the run ins?

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

My horse uses this as her preferred bathroom, to the exclusion of the field and dry lot, so I put down mats and nothing else and made a pee area with pellets outside.

I have a broken foot and I’m cleaning it every day or every other day–just stripping it all out. There is no way I could keep up with bedding too since three animals are using it as their poop house. Plus it would mean more wheelbarrow trips, which is not great for me right now.

The mats have been a life savor. Before I was stripping out way too much gravel. They like to sleep on the grass, so they have two acres of “bedding” for naps. Plus they prefer sleeping in the sun.

I think you will still want mats. You can always use them elsewhere when you have a permanent solution. They will provide more cushion than gravel underneath and a barrier with the frozen ground. I just fear your will have to bed insanely deep if your goal is a comfortable solution for an old horse. But I think Simkie is probably right on with how much to start with.

Againstallodds–there was just a big thread about someone using peat moss.

[saultgirl]

[QUOTE=Pehsness;7874027]
I’ve decided to go with pellets as a bottom layer and shavings on top - for now. See how that works out, if it doesn’t work nothing says I can’t start a layer of straw and go to the deep bed method.

How many bags of each would I need for a 12x20 shelter? I’m not looking for it to be a foot deep corner to corner, but deep enough. Is this just a trial and error situation? I’m going to pick some up after work and I’m not even sure where to begin with the number of bags.[/QUOTE]

It depends what you really need the bedding in there for. Is the floor concrete?

[Ruby2shoes]

Well call me crazy but…

I think y’all are silly to bed an outdoor shelter with $6 bags of pellets or shavings. #1 they’ll just get mashed into the ground really quick and need replaced #2 they’re a pain to clean and will make horsies think “ah potty!”
The best/most cost effective would be to get some hogsfuel. Just wood chippings. Easy as pie to clean too. And don’t worry about the pee. It’s outside. It will drain out no big deal. Lay it at least a few inches thick and it will last you years. Seriously. Years. Ask me how I know horses have been absolutely fine on our pine tree chippings for going on three years now.

[Ruby2shoes]

It depends what you really need the bedding in there for. Is the floor concrete?
Ah didnt think of that. That would change the ball game. Yes if that’s the case I think mats would be safest.