Stall bedding for your horse serves several functions. Like its name suggests, it is to encourage the horse to “bed down" or lie down to sleep. Doing so, takes some of the pressure off the horse’s legs and joints. Even when standing, a horse’s legs are cushioned under his bedding. Bedding also serves as the absorbent material to retain urine. Climate or season can also factor into your decision.
Several different bedding options exist including the more commonly used wood chips, sawdust, straw and peat moss, among others.
How does one determine the best bedding for the job? Bedding that is easily attained is far simpler to restock, so its availability in your area is a key consideration. You want bedding to not be eaten, so any bedding that discourages a horse from nibbling on it is a better bet. Bedding needs to be efficient in absorbing urine so it does its job and it needs to be easily removed, disposed of and replaced. Bedding cost needs to be ascertained as well as its frequency of requiring replacement, which will affect cost. Additionally, other factors may affect the type of bedding selected including whether the horses have respiratory problems that require especially non-irritating bedding, and whether foaling will take place in the stall. (Foal bedding has its own requirements, which will be discussed below.)
Wood chips and shavings/sawdust are some of the most common bedding. Their plusses include ease of availability, absorption, odor reduction and cost. Wood pellet products are becoming increasingly more common. The drawback to shavings is that you need a lot to fill a stall adequately, and that may not be very cost effective. You may also need to know what types of chips or shavings you’re getting. You can find pine and cedar, and some horses are allergic to cedar. Black walnut shavings can also cause a horse problems and has been fingered in numerous laminitis incidents because of its toxicity (signs of toxicity occur within 12-24 hours of exposure). Drawbacks to chips and shavings also include the dust content…they can be dusty. And you need to check for larger splinters of wood that can be a hazard to your horse. Also, the aromatic oils that make these wood products smell nice can worsen respiratory problems.
Peat moss is also used and is very absorbent. Its plusses appear in its ability to benefit hoof health as it almost becomes a natural packing material. Some have found it reduces incidence of thrush. Peat moss is also easily disposed of as mulch. Drawbacks are that it is expensive and requires proper maintenance with watering down to prevent the bedding from being too dusty. (Those who complain about peat moss bedding being too dusty have not done proper watering down maintenance.)
Veterinarians also recommend peat moss for horses stall bound with specific injuries, such as laminitis. Why? Peat moss is less abrasive than wood shavings and is less likely to cause ulcers on horses who may be spending much of their time lying down.
Owners of horses with less serious conditions, such as foot abscesses, often relay their preference for peat moss because it seems to help prevent or treat abscess conditions because of its fluid drawing properties.
On the minus, peat moss also has a tendency to attract moisture from the air, so in damp, wet weather, it can become too wet, cold and heavy. Another minus is that peat moss gets deep into the horse’s coats. Though it doesn’t do damage, it makes gray or white horses look dirty sometimes.
Straw is the bedding most preferred by veterinarians when bedding is being selected for foaling stalls. Because of its larger size, it is less likely to irritate a foal’s airways. The downside is that it’s not as absorbent as finer particle bedding, is difficult to clean and dispose of. Because of its size, while it can be a comfortable nest-like material for adult horses and cradling to foals lying down, for foals born with leg conformational problems, standing in straw may be difficult. With straw, the drawback is also size…when you clean out the manure, you end up removing a lot more bedding that will have to be replaced.
Like chips, there are different types of straw—oat and wheat. Oat tends to be more absorbent, but horses also tend to nibble the oat straw more than wheat too.
Shredded newspapers are being considered as an alternative horse bedding; however, some studies found that it easily blew away or compacted in parts of the stall. The researchers found that the stall required more maintenance. When compared to sawdust bedding, sawdust retained a more event coverage of the stall. The study also found that horses ate the newspaper bedding when their hay was gone. However, other studies found that there was no toxicity to be concerned with if horses ate the recycled newsprint.
Compressed wood bedding and is basically wood shavings compressed into a pellet. Many pellets require some water to get the bedding to loosen and decompress to a soft bedding for horses. When used without water, the pellets can be uncomfortable. Wood pellets are typically very absorbent and cost effective. If watered correctly, the bedding breaks down practically into wood shavings! Drawbacks include the relative availability. It might be hard to come by in your area and, therefore, hard to replace.
Many facilities use stall mats beneath bedding. This helps give cushioning to horses while also allowing for the use of less bedding. Care needs to be taken that too little bedding isn’t used with stall mats because they can become relatively slippery when covered in urine when there isn’t enough bedding to absorb.
Bedding choice can be a personal one made based on your likes, dislikes, budget and maintenance preference; however, you must also consider your horse’s health. Make sure you know exactly what it is that your horse beds down on for the night.
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Article added to SearchWarp.com on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 View other articles written by Ron Petracek(572)
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