What kind of bedding to use in outdoor shelter?

[Pehsness]

[QUOTE=Ruby2shoes;7875028]
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.[/QUOTE]

No, I don’t think you’re crazy ruby - I’ve thought of that. And peat moss too. But I can’t seem to find a local source for either. I was going with the pellets/shavings only because I thought they would break down the quickest and be useful for the garden, whereas straw would result in an enormous manure pile.

At any rate, it’s totally moot as my shelter blew away yesterday. We had an “unusual wind event” that blew the street lights off the poles in the city, blew roofs off of houses and barns, and my poor discount shelter was no match. So we’re back to my first idea of converting the garage.

So, PSA - when the reviews about those temp garages are mixed with “it’s wonderful!” and “it blew away”… you can be sure yours will blow away.

So, now I’ll be putting mats in the garage and going with the pellets/shavings/peatmoss if I can ever track some down. The outside shelter just had a dirt floor, and I was going on the premise that it would be frozen enough that the pellets wouldn’t mash in to that dirt.

It’s never a good idea to rush when you finally bring your horse home… It was no fun stringing more fence to create a run off the garage last night in this “unusual wind event!”

[Ozalynda]

Just bedded my shelter with a thick (THICK!) layer of peat moss. As soon as that is compacted down, I am going to add pellets.

I would be worried using sand in an area where I feed hay. Sand colic potential.

[Ruby2shoes]

[QUOTE=Pehsness;7875363]
No, I don’t think you’re crazy ruby - I’ve thought of that. And peat moss too. But I can’t seem to find a local source for either. I was going with the pellets/shavings only because I thought they would break down the quickest and be useful for the garden, whereas straw would result in an enormous manure pile.

At any rate, it’s totally moot as my shelter blew away yesterday. We had an “unusual wind event” that blew the street lights off the poles in the city, blew roofs off of houses and barns, and my poor discount shelter was no match. So we’re back to my first idea of converting the garage.

So, PSA - when the reviews about those temp garages are mixed with “it’s wonderful!” and “it blew away”… you can be sure yours will blow away.

So, now I’ll be putting mats in the garage and going with the pellets/shavings/peatmoss if I can ever track some down. The outside shelter just had a dirt floor, and I was going on the premise that it would be frozen enough that the pellets wouldn’t mash in to that dirt.

It’s never a good idea to rush when you finally bring your horse home… It was no fun stringing more fence to create a run off the garage last night in this “unusual wind event!”[/QUOTE]

Oh no!!! Lucky no one got hurt

[Bluey]

I just talked to someone that works at the vet’s office.

They said they put pea gravel down under their sheds a year ago and were going to add mats, but the horses love the gravel, stand there and lay down, in preference to laying outside, as they were doing.

She got the pea gravel when the vet clinic was building on and used that on the new stalls, that have a stall skin over them.
They love those, but agree that, if someone keeps horses there all the time, those may not be the better solution, they are still debating this.

In the old stalls, they had mats over the pea gravel and it stayed wet under there more than they liked and uneven, the pea gravel didn’t stay packed down.
That doesn’t seem to be a problem with the stall skins.

Just more to consider.

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Pehsness;7875363]
It’s never a good idea to rush when you finally bring your horse home… It was no fun stringing more fence to create a run off the garage last night in this “unusual wind event!”[/QUOTE]

Holy sh!t!!

Everyone okay??

Anywhere that sells gardening stuff like compost and top soil in bags should also have peat moss. Comes in big bricks. Home Depot, Lowes, etc all carry it here (outside, in the garden center), along with the nurseries.

[Pehsness]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7875866]
Holy sh!t!!

Everyone okay??

Anywhere that sells gardening stuff like compost and top soil in bags should also have peat moss. Comes in big bricks. Home Depot, Lowes, etc all carry it here (outside, in the garden center), along with the nurseries.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, everyone’s fine - and really, it’s a blessing in disguise because it forces my husband to let me go with my original (and much better) plan. It was his idea to do this temp shelter, so he’s feeling a bit contrite over the whole matter Other than the colossal waste of money, better now than in January, right?

I was assuming the peat would be in bulk - not the bricks you get from gardening centres. I’m not sure that would be overly cost-effective, but I’ll have to check it out. Now that I’m going to have to get mats anyway, I’ll probably stick with traditional shavings just for convenience.

[PlanB]

[QUOTE=Pehsness;7876201]

I was assuming the peat would be in bulk - not the bricks you get from gardening centres. I’m not sure that would be overly cost-effective, but I’ll have to check it out. Now that I’m going to have to get mats anyway, I’ll probably stick with traditional shavings just for convenience.[/QUOTE]

Have you ever bedded with peat before? It’s really gross, dark, dusty and dirty. They say it’s not bad for the horses’ lungs because the particles are actually too large to be inhaled deeply… but it’s gross. You will have a layer of dirt on your horses, on their blankets, on everything.

[Pehsness]

[QUOTE=PlanB;7876505]
Have you ever bedded with peat before? It’s really gross, dark, dusty and dirty. They say it’s not bad for the horses’ lungs because the particles are actually too large to be inhaled deeply… but it’s gross. You will have a layer of dirt on your horses, on their blankets, on everything.[/QUOTE]

I volunteered at a therapeutic riding school that used it, yeah, it was dark. But I’m also a huge gardener, and love to make sure things are “used up”, so the thought of my manure pile being used in its entirety on my garden is sounding really good to me… If the Peat is from a sustainable source and harvested properly… doesn’t get much better!

But, since they’re going to be in the garage my concern will be absorbency first and foremost.

As for it being dirty… they live outside 24/7, I work full time… they know dirty. I like to give them a clean house to live in, and keep their field as free from manure as possible, but they find every bit of mud to wallow in, whenever they can.

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Pehsness;7876201]
Yeah, everyone’s fine - and really, it’s a blessing in disguise because it forces my husband to let me go with my original (and much better) plan. It was his idea to do this temp shelter, so he’s feeling a bit contrite over the whole matter Other than the colossal waste of money, better now than in January, right?

I was assuming the peat would be in bulk - not the bricks you get from gardening centres. I’m not sure that would be overly cost-effective, but I’ll have to check it out. Now that I’m going to have to get mats anyway, I’ll probably stick with traditional shavings just for convenience.[/QUOTE]

Glad everything is okay (and that you get what you wanted in the first place! ;))

I’ve never seen piles of peat at landscape companies…I think it’s all sold baled and wrapped in plastic. It looks like you can get giant bales, though, intended for nurseries and such that are creating their own planting material.

Giant bale: http://canadianpeatmoss.com/images/520_sbb.jpg

Giant bale in action: http://article.wn.com/view/2000/04/19/Bale_Mum_on_Anakin_Moss_Back_in_Matrix_More/