Stall Bedding: Choosing the Right Type for Your Horse
The type of horse bedding that you choose to use will have both economic and health effects for you and your horse. Economically, different types of bedding will cost you varying amounts of both time and money. As well, bedding can greatly affect a horse’s health. Therefore it is important to choose the right type.
The health of your horse can be impacted by the amount of dust in their bedding as well as the type of wood that it is made from (if you are using bedding that is made from wood by-products). Too much dust can harm a horse’s respiratory system and certain types of wood including black walnut, bitter wood and yellow poplar must be avoided, as they can be toxic to horses.
Whether or not your horse will eat their bedding is another factor that can affect his or her health. Most types of bedding should not be consumed by horses and can cause colic or other illnesses that can be fatal. Each horse is different in the types of bedding that they will and will not eat. It is therefore important to consider each individual horse when choosing the type of bedding to use. It is important to select a bedding type that the horse will not consume. In the case that you cannot find bedding your horse will not eat it is best to use a product that will be less likely to cause harm when consumed. For example, straw is more digestible that wood and so, in the case that your horse will eat both, straw bedding is a better choice.
Stall Bedding: The Declining Use of Straw
For hundreds of centuries straw has been the most popular, widely available and most affordable option for horse bedding. However with advancements in technology, a better understanding of environmental factors, and the increase in prices and availability many new products are beginning to gain popularity.
In the past straw has been readily available and abundant allowing it to be relatively inexpensive and easy to get a hold of however the development of bio-fuels has created a new market for straw, the rising cost of fertilizer has forced farmers to plow the straw back in to their fields to reduce their fertilizer consumption and the development of new types of grains with shorter stalks have reduced the amount of straw produced. All of these factors have contributed to the reduced availability and increased price of straw.
