Untacked

c h r o n o f h o r s e . c o m ja n ua r y/ f e b r ua r y 2 015 23 r TEsTEr's ChOiCE >> Dry Stall/Cedar Dry Kitty litter helps keep your cat's litter box dry and fresh, so why wouldn't you try it for your horse's stall? Kat Company's Dry Stall works just like it, and it can actually be used for felines as well. I tried both Dry Stall and the same company's Cedar Dry, a bedding made of cedar with Dry Stall mixed in. The former is made of a naturally occurring, lightweight volcanic aggregate. Because it's porous, it's very absorbent and can also be used for gardening and soil conditioning. Kat Company recommends using it underneath regular bedding, in outdoor run-in sheds and in muddy spots. They also claim it never needs to be removed. My horses' stalls have mats, and I bed with finely milled wood shavings, so I put a bag of Dry Stall on top of the mat in an area where one of my horse's always urinates and covered it up with shavings. Because the shavings mixed with the Dry Stall as he walked on it overnight, I did end up needing to remove some of it, and it was quite heavy. But I did seem to take out less bedding than usual, and the ammonia smell from the urine was consider- ably less than with just wood shavings. I threw a bag over a muddy spot in his pad- dock and thought it did a good job absorbing urine and rain. There was no dust factor and no smell, and it doesn't compact and get hard like stone dust can. When it came to the Cedar Dry bedding, five bags per stall was enough to get me started. It had a pleasant smell that's said to reduce fly populations and was very fine, almost like dirt from the floor of a forest, combined with Dry Stall. Cedar Dry is pretty fine, making it extremely easy to pick, like the Guardian Pine Pellets and Best Cob, but with no dust. Victory! But unlike those products, I did end up taking some of it out with each stall cleaning when I re- moved the urine spots, which meant adding about half a bag a day. Of course, great products come at a higher price. Dry Stall retails for about $11-$17 per 40-lb. bag, and Cedar Dry between $10 and $15 per bag. For more information and dealers, visit DryStall.com. >> Best Cob If you'd like to "green" up your barn, Best Cob pellets offer a 100 percent natural option that composts in as little as six months. Made of corncobs, this bedding works similarly to wood pellets, like Guardian Pine Pellets, but it can be used dry or wet. They're manufactured using only steam and water as binding agents, so no harsh chemicals. After spreading four bags of initial bedding in each of my stalls, I decided to try them dry first. Best Cob's pellets are a bit softer than wood pellets and break down naturally as a horse walks on them over a few days, but the process can be accelerated by wetting them. Within seconds of walking on the dry pellets, one of my horses started eating them, so I scrapped that idea and wet them down until they turned into a fine bedding. After that, he seemed to leave it alone. The pellets had a musty or stale smell compared to the Guardian Pine Pellets, but it was clearly appetizing to my horses! The bedding was very easy to pick and fell right through my pitchfork, and wet spots clumped well. But this bedding was also extremely dusty, to the extent that it even some- times covered up the manure in the stall if the horse walked around. It was so dusty that when picking, there was often a cloud of dust as I sifted, and it was even worse when I flung the pitchfork contents into the wheelbarrow. Again, the edges of my stalls and everything hanging in the aisle were covered in dust. But Best Cob pellets are cost effec- tive, since you only have to add about a bag a week, and the 40-lb. bags take up less space in the barn than a pile of shavings. You can find them at Tractor Supply for $7.99 per 40-lb. bag or find your nearest retailer at BestCob.com. >> Guardian Pine Pellets Made of 100 percent wood fiber, Guardian pel- lets are meant to be highly absorbent and cost effective, because you waste less when picking. Guardian's pellets come in 40-lb. bags. I used four to five bags per stall for initial bedding and wetted them down until the pellets broke up into finely textured, pleasant smelling bedding. My horses liked the bedding because of how soft it was and I really liked how easy it was to pick. It falls right through the prongs of my pitchfork, leaving only manure. And because the bedding is so absorbent and clumps together, urine spots were easy to find and remove. Guardian suggests adding one new bag of pellets per week, but I didn't have to add anything for about two weeks—a definite plus! The company estimates that one 40-lb. bag of pellets is equivalent to upwards of two bags of regular shavings, which means it is cost effec- tive and takes up less space in your barn. Unfortunately, although Guardian says they utilize a special "waste screening" process to reduce dust, I found the dust factor to be a major issue. I tried the pellets during an average late fall/ early winter in Virginia—not too dry or too wet— and they were annoyingly dusty a couple of days after putting in the initial bedding. By the end of the week, the edges of my stalls and anything hanging on them, like blankets and sprays, were covered in a thin coat of dust. And while my horses loved rolling and sleeping in the bedding, the dust was especially noticeable on my black Thoroughbred, which made grooming tedious. Thankfully none of my horses suffer from allergies, but if yours does, think twice about Guardian Pine Pellets. It's also important to take into account the water source at your barn. On very cold days when the hose froze, I had to fill buckets of water from the tack room and dump them on the pellets so they would puff up, which worked, but wasn't easy to spread evenly. Guardian Pine Pellets retail for about $6.50 per 40-lb. bag. Find your nearest retailer at GuardianHorseBedding.com. lInDSay berreTH PHoTo lInDSay berreTH PHoTo PHoTo CourTeSy of beST Cob

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