Find out how to properly clean and maintain horse bedding pellets for good hygiene
Horse bedding pellets are one of the most effective beddings when it comes to ease of maintenance, and hygiene. They also reduce the amount of waste coming out of your horse’s stable when compared to traditional bedding like straw. But how do you properly clean and maintain horse bedding pellets?
NB: Bedding pellets are designed to be re-hydrated prior to use. This turns them into soft, fluffy sawdust, so you will be cleaning sawdust, not pellets.
Cleaning Horse Bedding Pellets
1. Remove the manure
Hopefully your horse is one of the considerate ones who poops in a pile and doesn’t spread it everywhere! Unfortunately, though, most mares, and many geldings, are messy creatures. Nervous and restless horses also have a tendency to spread manure everywhere as they move around the stable.
If that sounds like your horse, unfortunately you’re going to be removing a fair amount of soiled horse bedding each time you muck out his or her stable. So grab a good manure rake, or a pooper scoop and get to work. Try to shake as much sawdust out of the manure as you can whilst ensuring you still get most of the manure out.
2. Remove wet patches
After removing the manure, it’s time to clear out the wet patches. Fortunately, horse bedding pellets are super absorbent so the wet spots should remain relatively contained and be easy to scoop out with your rake.
The worst of the moisture will also drain to the floor where it creates a compact lump.
If your horse doesn’t pee a great deal, you may get away with only needing to remove the worst spots daily, and just do a major clean once a week. However, urine soaked bedding emits ammonia and in poorly ventilated stables, can pose a considerable health risk to your horse.
So – if your eyes water when you walk into your horse’s stable, it’s definitely time to completely remove all the urine soaked bedding.
3. Finish with a rake over
Finish with a quick rake over to level out the bedding.
Maintaining Horse Bedding Pellets
Add fresh pellets as required – Depending on how messy your horse is, you’ll need to top up the bedding regularly. Most horse owners find they need to do this weekly but messy horses may require more frequent top ups. Adding fresh pellets helps absorb any moisture and odour, and keeps the bedding fresher. When the existing bedding becomes overly soiled, it’s time to remove it all and put in completely clean fresh pellets.
Fluff out the sawdust – Fluffing up the sawdust helps keep it aerated, which helps remove odours and lets it dry out.
In dry climates, you may need to lightly spray the bedding with water every few days to stop it getting too dusty as the sawdust breaks down.
Recycling Horse Bedding Pellets
Horse bedding pellets can be composted, which is a great way to reduce waste and save money. Simply empty the soiled bedding, manure and all, into a compost bin as you clean the stables, or pile it up in a corner somewhere. Keep it damp so it decomposes better, and within a few months you’ll have a lovely pile of rich compost for your garden or for top dressing your paddocks.
Frequently Asked Questions About Cleaning And Maintaining Horse Bedding Pellets
How often should I clean my horse’s stable?
If your horse is stabled daily, you should clean the stable daily.
Can I reuse horse bedding pellets?
You can reuse horse bedding pellets in the sense that you don’t need to completely replace them every time you clean your horse’s stable. However, once you have to clean out and totally replace all the bedding, that’s the end of their life as far as horse bedding goes. You can however turn them into compost!
How do I dispose of horse bedding pellets?
The best way to dispose of horse bedding pellets is to compost them! If you don’t need the compost yourself, advertise it and you’ll have a queue of people lining up to take it off your hands.
Final Thoughts
If your horse is stabled regularly, keeping its stable clean and dry is important for its health and wellbeing. That means removing manure at least once daily, and urine soaked bedding as often as necessary. If the ventilation in the stable is not good, the latter should be done when you clean the manure.
Some types of bedding, like bedding pellets, make this job a lot easier.
Caring for and maintaining horse bedding pellets properly not only means a healthier environment for your horse but also extends the life of the bedding.
