bedding

[norseofcourse]

If I had stalls I'd probably use pine shavings, and maybe use a bag or two of pelleted pine underneath the shavings. Shavings (and pellets) are readily available almost anywhere, and fairly easy to store if you get the bagged ones. They can, however, be dusty. Straw here is very expensive, looks great when it's clean, but I find it too time consuming and too much work to keep it clean enough. It can also be dusty (and musty if not put up or stored right).

What's under the bedding makes a difference, too. If you use solid stall mats, you'll go through a lot more bedding, as it will have to soak up all the urine. I don't like stall mats, mainly for that reason. A good stall base will let liquids drain through easily, but still be solid enough to stand up to the horse and regular cleaning. Most places just seem to use whatever dirt happened to be there; some will dig the dirt out and put an underlayer of sand, limestone rock, limestone grits, or other material that lets liquids through more easily. There's not one 'best' way, you work with what you have and do what you can.

Having the pony out of the stall as much as possible is both good for the pony, and saves on bedding. My current ponies are outside all the time, year round, with access to a run-in shed that they don't use often.

Good luck with the challenge and hope you can share pics and how it's going!

 

[Latestarter]

Hope you'll share some pics when you get her home and settled.

 

[Kusanar]

I personally don't like straw in stalls, reason being, it doesn't absorb the urine all that well, so the straw is SOAKED and dripping when you remove it... Gross... also, it's hard to remove manure from straw without wasting a lot of mostly clean straw. I use sawdust (dusty but free), shavings (better than sawdust about dust but have to buy them), and lately, I've been shreading paper and tossing that in the mix in the stall. If the horse isn't in all the time, I tend to do a deep litter type method and just don't clean it, I just mix it up some (or the horse does) and let the manure mix in with the bedding, then just clean once a year or so, but that's with my horses that are only in once a day for an hour max so they don't wreck their bedding that bad most of the time.

 

[DutchBunny03]

There are alot of bedding types available. The most conventional type, straw, is moderately absorbant, but is used very quickly. My favorite type, pine shavings, is more absorbant. Pete moss is a less well-known type, but is VERY absorbant. Paper shavings could be used, but the ink on the paper tends to stain the coats of lighter-colored horses. Rubber matting is good to use under all types of bedding. Hope this helped .