Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Shavings
are thin, small slices of wood produced by the planing or surfacing of lumber.
Shavings are available at sawmills and cabinet shops. Shavings are difficult to remove from
a tail or mane.
Chips
are small, coarse pieces of wood produced by the drilling, shaping, turning, or
molding of lumber; they are not as comfortable or as absorbent as sawdust or shavings.
Hardwood products are generally undesirable because of their poor absorbency and in
some cases, such as with black walnut, a dangerous toxicity. Horses merely coming in con-
tact with such shavings have experienced founder and death.
Straw bedding is traditional, comfortable, and readily available but often dusty, and
many horses eat their straw bedding. Wheat straw, because of its high glaze, is not as ab-
sorbent as oat straw and so does not become as slimy and sloppy when wet and is less palat-
able to horses; it therefore may be safer to use with a horse that overeats. Oat straw is bright
but it becomes slippery when wet and it is too palatable. Barley straw should be avoided
because of the sharp, barbed awns that can become lodged in a horse's gums. Straw is the
preferred bedding for foaling stalls but is very slippery on wood floors. All beddings, even
peat moss, have the potential to be dusty. To prevent respiratory problems in your horse, be
selective and don't purchase dusty bedding material. Bedding can be purchased in bulk or
in bags and needs to be stored in a dry, weatherproof shed.
Compressed wood pellets are a recent innovation in bedding. Some pellets absorb up to
four times their weight in liquid. Use of this product differs from traditional bedding, and
recommendations vary according to manufacturer. To begin, you would spread approxim-
ately five 40-pound bags of pellets in a 12-foot by 12-foot stall and sprinkle the pellets
lightly with water, which causes them to expand. Each day when you clean the stall, you
will remove the solid waste and leave the wet bedding. After 1 to 2 weeks, you will remove
the wet areas and add more product as needed, approximately 2 to 5 bags per month.
Newspaper pellets are made of processed and compressed shredded newspaper. They
have similar properties to wood pellets but are not as widely available.
Kilned clay granules, a manufactured sand bedding, resembles cat litter. The granules
have a large surface area, which soaks up and evaporates urine. This recently introduced
bedding is reported to be nonflammable and dust-free, but it requires a specialized barn
cleaning system. It has been suggested that if a horse ingests the bedding, sand colic could
result.
Cleaning a Stall
It is far easier to clean a stall when the horse is out for exercise than with the horse in the
stall. Remove the dung piles using a steel or plastic fork with tines spaced to pick up the
manure yet let the bedding fall through.
