Reducing Bedding, Part 1

Save money and ease your workload, part 1 of 2

By Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water

Reducing bedding usage is a smart management idea for any size horse property. Less bedding means cleaning stalls will be easier and faster, since you won’t have to hunt around for manure in mounds of shavings. It also means you end up with less stall waste to deal with. If you compost, that means less carbon in your bin or pile so it will all compost better and faster and you’ll end up with a nicer compost product that will be more useful for your pastures.

I'm not suggesting reducing bedding use at the expense of horse health, but it is important to note that most of us like to bed our stalls the way we like our own beds: nice and deep and fluffy. Horses don’t need a soft, fluffy bed and your horse management situation may not require this.

Matting

The key to reducing bedding use is to start with rubber stall mats. Stall mats are excellent for horse health. They provide a level surface for a horse to stand on—much healthier for hooves than holes, rocks or wet spots. Stall mats also have a good amount of cushion, which is important for joints and soft tissue. Talk with your farrier or veterinarian for recommendations; most are staunch advocates of stall mats.

Using rubber stall mats makes chore time much simpler. A stall mat offers a firm, level surface that allows you to easily scoop up manure and soiled bedding and leave clean bedding behind. You can reduce the amount of bedding you currently use in the stall or bed only in “potty spots,” minimizing the amount of stall waste you must dispose of.

Stall mats should fit snugly in a stall, from wall to wall, to avoid urine seepage underneath. Horses tend to urinate in areas where it won’t splash, as urine is mildly caustic to the skin. Keep this in mind if you want to train your horse to urinate in a specific portion of the stall or the paddock instead. Insert photo Derby, by Alayne Blickle

Bedding Reduction

The primary purpose of bedding should be to absorb urine and moisture. Examine your situation: Do your horses have 24-hour access to a paddock? Are their stalls primarily for feeding and protection from severe weather? If so, they may not need as much bedding. Consider reducing bedding to just the “potty spots” or using a slight layer, like a litter, across the whole area. Better yet, you may be able to eliminate bedding completely, especially in the dryer summer months. Just remember that horses confined in a stall will still require bedding to absorb urine and moisture.

Next month we'll talk about alternative bedding products.