My Grooms Are Happy And So Are My Horses!

“I have used many different conventional types of bedding before including shavings and straw but I found the prices increasing dramatically over the last year or two.  I came across The Green Mile Company cardboard bedding when I was at Your Horse Live last year and I was so impressed with it that I moved all my horses onto it straight away.  It’s not only cost effective and readily available in bulk but it’s also virtually dust free for my horses.  I also love the fact it’s biodegradable and friendly to the environment.  The long strips of corrugated cardboard are much easier to work with compared to other bedding products we have tried. The horses all seem really comfortable on it and I am surprised how far a bale goes.  I would recommend anyone to try this bedding I know they won’t be disappointed.”

Tried And Tested - HorseMart Magazine

Tweed 15.3 Irish bred Pintaloosa (middle weight)

Stabled at night - out in the day.

Tweeds habits are:-

He has a tendency to be very wet.

He has clumsy ol' feet and he likes to dig and scurf up a chopped straw/shavings/hemp.

He's a poo burier!!

Stabling

Stable size is approx 10' x 12' Rubber matting on base - draining runs forward to stable door. Bedding covers 1/2 to 3/4s of the stable floor (because he scuffs and drags most bedding forward - so kicking it out of the door (waste/mess etc.).

Tweed has lived on shavings for most of our lives together. Due to the astronomical increase in all bedding, I have experimented with many different types and putting cost aside have sought the most cost effective type of bedding.

I am really impressed with the Green Mile chopped corrugated cardboard - which really isn't as 'hard' as it sounds. I found it to lay a really good bed which packs down comfortably and settles well. I initially laid half a normal sized bed (i.e half of stable) using 3 bales- and then increased it to a 3/4 sized bed by adding 2 bales more.

In being offered this 'Tried and Tested' trial I have attempted to test this bedding as robustly as possible in respect of its absorbency. I am not sure if it is recommended to use Green Mile s in a 'deep litter' manner - but this is how I have set about my testing.

For the half bed I did not remove any wet for 5 days. During this time (bearing in mind the drainage of the stable is to the front) I had none of the 'leakage' that I usually find when using other bedding i.e. where moisture is unable to be fully absorbed - it takes very little unabsorbed urine to cause a 'smelly' stable!

As the company literature says, the urine travels through the top layer and spreads out at the lower layer eventually rising upwards. The absorbed bedding becomes 'congealed' on the floor, but at no time during my experimentation did the surface become wet.

Having increased the area of the bed to a 3/4 bed, I have not removed any wet bedding for 7days - but will do so tomorrow. I am checking the underlying wet every day. The top layer is still dry - there is still no leakage and nor obvious 'squelching' underfoot. The remaining bed continues to 'fluff up' for that newly laid bed look. When I remove the absorbed bedding, I will only need to replace with one new bale of Green Mile!

I see the absorbency of this bedding a great advantage in the Winter when the time Tweed spends in his stable is increased.

Nervous about change?

I am not a person who changes the way I look after my horses on a whim, moving from straw to shavings took some time and a great deal of thought. I had been using shavings for longer than I would like to remember, but over the past few years the price had escalated and availability decreasing. 

Taking the affect on the environment into account it was time for a change. When Joey's father, Phil, first mentioned the idea of cardboard to me I must admit I had reservations. I had heard poor reports in relation to people using shredded paper and it turning to 'mush', with having an old horse who was suffering like many old men with bladder problems, I didn't think it was for me.

After further discussions with Phil, I decided to give it a try with my younger horse, a clean and tidy male!

Joey supplied me with a trial pack, and after a week of having my young horse on the bedding I was sold. You could use the bedding in whichever way you wanted - taking out wet patches each day or leaving it a number of days, in fact you could use it in any way you wished and it adapted well. 

I now use the bedding for all my horses, even the dirty old man!. 

I use it in conjunction with rubber mats for the bigger horses and without for the Shetlands who share a box. 

As well as it being so adaptable I also find it a lot cleaner, no shavings blowing around the yard or entwined in the tail the morning of a competition.

All this together with mucking out has become a far less strenuous and time consuming, which my partner greatly appreciates.