Bedding: Make the Right Choice for Your Situation, Part 3 of 4

by Alayne Blickle

Literally dozens of bedding products on the market may confuse horse owners who are trying to choose the best product for their situation. In this series we have covered how to assess your needs and your choosing criteria for what’s available in your area. This month we'll cover wood product bedding types, their advantages and disadvantages.

Shavings
There’s nothing quite like the look and smell of a stall freshly bedded with traditional shavings of pine or fir. However, while shavings smell wonderful and horses do seem to enjoy rolling in them, they aren’t very absorbent. Some types of shavings are more absorbent than others–kiln dried shavings with a lower overall moisture content will be better than heavier and more chip-like shavings. Shavings, particularly loose shavings, are also notoriously dusty, creating a layer of dust on everything from you and your horse to the walls of your barn. In order to avoid equine respiratory problems (and a potential fire hazard when layers of fine wood particles build up in your barn and on cobwebs), good ventilation is extremely important in a barn using loose shavings. So is attention to keeping cobwebs and dust layers reduced.

Loose shavings in bulk are much cheaper than bagged, but require a dedicated shavings bin or other storage area. It is best to have the bin located away from your barn to avoid the dust problem. Be sure this area is easily accessible year-round by delivery trucks.

Bagged shavings are costly but easier to use, convenient to store, and far less dusty. Cedar is not recommended since it has properties that resist decomposition. Also, a very small percentage of horses are allergic (a skin sensitivity) to cedar.

Pellets
A variety of pelleted wood products are becoming popular in many parts of the country. Wood pellets are made of kiln dried wood (usually fir, alder, or pine and very little cedar) and sawdust. The fine material is compressed into a small, hard pellet that expands back to the sawdust stage once exposed to moisture. Wood pellets are very low in dust and are usually sold by the bag, making transporting and storage quite handy. With the addition of a cover or tarp, you may even be able to store bagged pellets outside in a very small area. The extremely low moisture of the pellet makes them highly absorbent, and the fine material afterward composts quite well. You may even be able to use wood stove pellets as bedding if you find they are cheaper, but be sure they are 100% wood products with no glue or chemical additives. Some brands of pelleted bedding contain zeolite additives to help with odor control. Zeolite, a naturally occurring mineral, absorbs ammonia and reduces what gets volatized into the air, thereby helping with respiratory issues. Zeolite products are a good addition to the compost pile, as they slowly release nitrogen back into the soil.

Stalls bedded with wood pellets do not need to be cleaned the same way as traditional shavings. Cleaning works best in stalls with rubber mats. Empty 2-3 bags into a clean stall. Hoof action and moisture (even just from the air) break pellets down into fine sawdust. If you prefer having sawdust right away, spray the pellets to gently dampen them. Cleaning the stall will be more like cleaning a cat’s litter box; remove manure but take out as little of the bedding as possible. For urine, only take out the sopping wet portion and remix the damp bedding with dry until you can’t tell what was damp and what was dry. Two bags in a stall can last a couple of weeks, sometimes more. Some horse owners just add a portion of a bag at a time.

Disadvantages to pelleted bedding include learning how to clean a stall with pellets--it takes some training to realize that you need only remove the really soiled bedding and manure. If someone else cleans for you, this could take time and training and you may end up wasting clean bedding at first. Also, in very cold climates the pellets may not be able to absorb moisture well.

Other Options
Other types of wood products can make excellent bedding materials. Alder sawdust is one of these. Alder, a deciduous tree, is a soft wood. Without the lignums of conifers, it breaks down quickly and composts very well, much better than pine or fir. It is usually sold as “green” sawdust, which means that it is not dried and that the small pieces are more like tiny chips rather than shavings. Its ability to break down quickly and compost fully makes this product popular among gardeners and composters. It is also absorbent and low in dust. A disadvantage is that it is only available regionally--usually just the Pacific Northwest, where alder trees grow naturally. So far it is only available in bulk form.

We finish up this series next month by discussing alternative and non-wood bedding products.

Happy Horsekeeping!

~Alayne