Bedding - what's best for messy horses?

Hi!

The bedding you choose can come down to several things:

💰 Cost. Different beddings vary in price, often depending on availability and whether you have to pay for delivery to the yard.

💩 How clean your horse is. As you say, yours is a bit messy in the box. That can be a sign she needs more to keep her occupied. Straw might be a good option, as she can pick at it and chew on it throughout the day.

😊 The working environment. Depending on how experienced you are, what tools you have to hand and how the yard is laid out, you may need a bedding that is quick to muck out and produces little waste. Shavings products are often a little better and easier here, but only if you bed down with enough of it.

🌾 If you give your muck to a local farmer, they may have requirements and views about which bedding you use. This often depends on what they want to, and are able to, spread on their fields.

🐴 For the horse, the most important thing is that the bed is dry, dust-free, does not give off too much ammonia and offers a reasonably soft surface to stand and lie on. Different beddings can all meet the horse's needs. It is often how we manage the bed and the material that decides how well the horse settles on it.

➡️ Bed down with enough material. Skimp on it and everything turns wet and dirty.

➡️ Think about where you place the manger, water, feed, window and box opening. Wherever the horse stands with its head, you will inevitably get muck and urine at the other end.

➡️ A bigger box is often better if you have a messy horse. Horses would rather not walk or stand in their droppings, but with no alternative they will do exactly that if they are anxious and moving about.

➡️ Could there be reasons the horse is messy in the box that you can change? Noise levels and traffic on the yard? Where the horse stands in relation to other horses and everything else going on around the yard?

🦄