Monday, October 31, 2011

Bedding options - fence sitting

I am still undecided what to do about the bedding situation, if money was no object I would go the pellet route and just find a new home for the rest of the newspaper bedding.  Unfortunately money is an object, one I like to have around and thus I am still undecided.  Pellets are a 33% increase in cost over the already 43% increase of the bulk bedding.  UGH!

I really needed bedding in the boarder stall so instead of switching him over to the newspaper I bought some pellets to try out.  I've never used pellets and wanted to try them before committing to a pallet of them.  I stripped the boarder stall and put the bedding in the donkey's stall (reuse what I can!), she now has enough bedding for at least a month if not two.  Ha!  The boarder stall is a 12x10 so I put in 6 bags of pellets to start.  I will admit, I was doubtful when I started.  The pellets didn't swell up nearly as much as I expected and I wondered if I should have used the 2 extra bags I had bought.  The boarder, who has been on pellets before, said to let it stay and if I change my mind in a few days then I could add the other bags.  Am pretty glad I waited, the stall looks pretty nice now.  In a perfect world it would be bedded a bit heavier but this is still a trial and the pellets have broken down nicely.

The plus side for pellets?
Pellets are easier to store, I would have the room in my indoor back
Pellets seem to be less dusty, virtually no dust so far.
Pellets are certainly super duper easy to clean, at least so far.
Pellets can be bought locally and delivered for only $10

The down side for pellets?
Cost

The plus side for bulk bedding?
Comfortable and easy to use
Easy to clean
Easy to store

The down side for bulk bedding?
Takes up a lot of space in my indoor
Can be dusty, not bad, but not dust free
Heavy, pain to move each week
Have to buy from over an hour away, not local

I will keep using what I currently have and try to figure out what to do, I have about 3 weeks before I have to make a decision.

2 comments:

  1. Sheesh I don't envy you having to figure this out. I never realized how complicated it is. How much time do they spend in the stalls? I mentioned I used pea gravel on your last post about bedding, but mine don't spend a lot of time in their stalls.

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  2. You are back! I missed your comments. The horses are in their stalls 10-12 hours a day, they go out at 7a and come in between 7p-9p. I don't have enough pasture to let them be out all of the time (yet) and Chip has been stalled for the past 11 years, he does appreciate coming inside at night and will stand at the gate when it is time to come in lol.

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