As a horse owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your horses are healthy, comfortable and safe. One critical and often overlooked way to guarantee that your horses live long and healthy lives is to provide the best living conditions possible, including selecting appropriate horse bedding. There are numerous options, but some of the available bedding materials are not ideal. Be sure to evaluate all the options to choose the right bedding for your horses.
Factors to Consider When Selecting Horse Bedding
Here are some factors that should influence your bedding selection:
1. Absorbency
Whether it’s water, urine or sweat, absorbent bedding soaks up moisture in the stall. Your horse will be more comfortable if its bedding is absorbent. When a horse stands in damp bedding for long periods, its hooves become overly moist, making them vulnerable to bacterial infections. If you are searching for high-absorbency bedding material, try wood shavings.
2. Dust level
Many types of horse bedding have a reputation for producing a lot of dust. Excessive dust can hurt your horses by causing respiratory issues and irritating the tear ducts. Kiln-dried pine shavings are great for horse bedding as the material does not contain much dust.
3. Safety
Ensure your horse bedding doesn’t contain any toxic material, such as black walnut shavings. Black walnut has a toxin that can harm horses if it comes in contact with the skin or is ingested. Also, ensure bedding is free of foreign materials like glass and metal that can hurt your horses.
4. Availability
The last thing you want to do is pick horse bedding that isn’t always readily available. Choosing seasonal bedding may force you to change the bedding you’re using throughout the year, which could disorient your horses. If you select bedding that isn’t available in your area, you might need to ship the product from afar, which can be costly.
5. Consistency
When searching for the best horse bedding, consider the product’s consistency and quality. For example, if you prefer medium wood shavings, you don’t want to buy bags that contain shavings of various sizes.
6. Storage
You’ll likely want to purchase horse bedding in bulk, so ensure you select bedding that you can easily store. If you buy bagged bedding, look for compressed and sealed, weather-resistant packaging.
Quality Wood Shavings for Horses
If you are looking for bedding for your horses, contact us at Klassen Wood Company.
Our wood shavings for horses are derived from slow planed lumber mills using fresh, high-quality timber, making the product ideal for comfort and safety.
Call us today at 888.349.1939 or visit our online shop to order your horse bedding.