So many barns I’ve seen only use a smattering of bedding in the stalls. I can only think of one barn that beds the entire stall. Is it to save on bedding? I would think a horse would be more comfortable being able to lie down on cushy bedding and not hard rubber mats. Also, if forced to sleep on the mats, they would be more likely to develop hock burn. The barn I’m at now only beds 1/4 of the stall, the one before 1/2. I’ve also seen barns where they have just a very small amount in the corner. For the amount we pay for board, I think additional bedding should be a given.
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LOL, that is a problem as old as prefessional boarding barns.
currently I would winder if there is a correlation between the price of bedding and construction lumber which has sky-rocketed since last year. Less lumber being cut, less sawdust to be had.
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My horse is pasture boarded, but at the barn he is at, stalls are matted (the mats are actually laid into the flooring and interlocking) and the entire stall (except for about 2’ on the side the feeders are and the wall the hay bag is), is bedded with about 10" of sawdust/shavings. It’s intense. Maybe even 12". They used to have show ponies/jumpers, so I guess this is how they do it. And 2 more loads are added each time a stall is cleaned.
Edited to add: the barn contracts with local cabinet makers and lumber yards to get free shavings.
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I have my horses at my house, and I’m the one bedding the stalls. I don’t bed deeply because:
Bedding is expensive. You’re literally paying money to give your horse something to poop on.
Deeply bedded stalls take longer to clean. It’s a hell of a lot easier for me to get through stall cleaning quickly if I bed lighter.
My horses have large runs off the stalls, and they prefer to sleep out there. Even if I DID bed deeply, they’re not lying down in the stalls. So why would I go to the expense and time investment of doing that?
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Once folks shifted to bagged bedding on rubber mats, the cost of bedding became prohibitive. The old style sawdust pile was much more affordable.
My mare has a paddock runout so her stall stays quite clean. I deep bed half of it and sweep the other half clean to eat off. She has a lovely bed to sleep inside, especially when it rains. I don’t see any point to bed the whole stall.
As a kid with concrete floors, I did deep bed the whole stall from the sawdust pile. I stripped it every week, 20 wheelbarrow loads. At almost $10 CAN a bag for shavings, that would cost me close to $100 a week to do now. More than my stall rent and hay combined.
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besides, people would call the SPCA on you for not cleaning it every day.
If you have to pay for the bedding and the removal ot becomes a big ticket item really quicklike.
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I’ve boarded for years as well as having my retirees at home. Bedding is hella expensive! There aren’t sawmills producing waste shavings that you can load up for cheap anymore, or farms to haul off straw that you got from the farmer down the road for $1/bale. I use pelleted bedding and only bed the centers of my 12x12 stalls (which the horses are free to come and go to their paddocks at night) because: they are geldings and pee in the middle, they a fed hay on the swept clean 2 feet under the feeder mats to keep hay out of the pee, and I can clean much, much faster, and on my limited land, I can compost just the poop and urine soaked fines so I have much less waste. I have 6" of fluffed bedding right where they lay.
At the boarding barns I’ve been in (lots and lots of them over 30 years), the bedding situation has run the gamut from deep shavings to a ridiculous feed scoop of pellets tossed on mats. The best are those who bed judiciously, clean more than once a day (a deep clean and a pick) with lots of turnout, and bed according to the needs of the horse-- centered for geldings, banked for rollers, swept back from hay/grain/water, back wall fluffed for mares. But it all comes down to economics-- bedding is spendy, horses can waste it, cleaners need to be smart and how do you dispose of it all?? Are boarders willing to pay for deep, fluffy bedding and the man power to clean and dispose of it? If so, then there you go!
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Well that really depends on how much you’re paying for board and where you’re located.
Bedding is pretty spendy ya know
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Well, the one place that beds the entire stall charges $500 a month full board and the one that only beds 1/2 is $550.
500 doesn’t cover much bedding in my area. 700 doesn’t cover much bedding in my area. It’s super annoying no doubt. Locally, I couldn’t find a barn that would let me pay extra for extra bedding. Locally, even bulk shavings are pretty high. Then there are the costs of delivery, storage, labor and disposal.
I’ve got my two at home now and my bedding costs look to run 50 to 60 per month per horse. (2 bags per week per horse) That’s using pellets (cheap cheap compared to shavings) and turn out 12 hrs daily. And my stalls aren’t super fluffy bedded.
If I used shavings, I’d have to use twice as many bags at least. Cost would be about double as well.
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Depending on location, disposal of used bedding needs to be included in the cost-especially if it has to be hauled off. What do you think big barns with limited space in urban areas do with used bedding for 30+ with all that muck? Even suburban and even close in rural barns are now dealing with watershed and groundwater anti pollution regulations, cant just put in in a big pile as in the old days.
Little wonder they don’t want to deeply bed. Even if the boarder wants it and pays extra, the boarder isn’t the one cleaning the stall (hopefully) twice a day.
Even the pellets have gone way up as fuel for stoves and they weigh the same as shavings for disposal. Its not as simplistic as it was back when, Not as cheap either.
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In my opinion, anyone who includes “for the amount we pay” in their vent about boarding is screaming “I have no clue what goes into the math of boarding”.
Maybe the people who charge $500 per month get an amazing deal on hay so they are allowed to spend more on bedding? Maybe they have owned the property for so long that they do not have a mortgage to consider when figuring out the cost of things? Maybe they do not take into account what it costs them in labor for that extra bedding? Maybe they have enough land that they have no disposal costs. Maybe the place that charges $550 pays for full medical insurance for their laborers and the $500 only pays under the table? Maybe the place that charges $550 buys better quality hay/grain than the $500 place and that is part of the math that figures out less bedding but better feed? Maybe both places are under charging. The list of maybes is endless.
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This was my reaction to the OP as well.
Also, maybe it was poor word choice, but “additional bedding should be a given?” As in, if you want more bedding than the barn provides in their standard services, it should just be done without question or further fees? Sorry not sorry, it doesn’t work like that.
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Welcome to the current way of boarding horses. Minimal hay, no bedding but they charge plenty. With no bedding I wonder what soaks up the pee? Or are all these horses laying on wet mats or slipping on them as well.
Both hay and bedding should be supplied as needed to adequately feed and give the horse a soft & absorbent place to spend the time they are in the stall.
I bed a place in my run-in big enough for my horses to lay down if they choose ( and they do) It took a few bags to get it deep enough, but now I just add a bag every couple of weeks.
If they aren’t spending on hay and bedding where is the board money going??
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It certainly give me that first impression as well.
As far as the one barn is higher board but less bedding, the list of maybes is sooooo long in my mind that I didn’t even register the fact that the OP might have been frustrated to pay more for board and get less bedding.
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I totally agree. I would have liked to have been able to purchase extra bedding, but the barns I was interested in don’t offer that normally nor were any willing to accommodate that request. And I understood why and was willing to live with that. In my mind I summed up the why as “general PITA” lol.
My observation:
Every time I muck a stall & add pristine new bedding (recently switched back to shavings from pellets < that were misted to fluff them) horses could care less.
Mini is the only one who likes to roll in a freshly-bedded stall.
They sleep in the stalls only in bad weather, though they occasionally nap in them during the day.
Otherwise they prefer the pastures, or the dried-out mix of bedding & hay directly behind the stalls that they drag out onto the hardpacked gravel over geotex of the paddock.
As evidenced by the horse-size indents in that material.
And in the shallow dirt of the paddock itself.
IMO, uber-deep bedding makes humans happy. Horses? Not so much.
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I mean it never hurts to ask about a custom option, but I’m always prepared to get a “no” answer. It’s boarding, not McDonalds.
Or is it Burger King that had the get it your way motto?
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These days I would try hard not to keep my horse in a stall that didnt have an open runout of some kind. That said, my mare only learned to sleep inside during a 3 day rainstorm with a freshly deep bedded half of her stall. Sleeping inside is nice for her in winter. She almost never poops inside so I keep the bedding deep and actually ignore any pee spots underneath until I decide to strip the stall.
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My horse never had an issue with slipping, but yes to laying in piss saturated shavings floating in a puddle of pee. It was much better of course in the stall with the attached 12x50 run as my horse is quite tidy and naturally opted to not lay down in his own urine when given the choice. I
The money goes to land costs, facility costs and labor. All high as the cat’s back.
