It looks likely that 2025 will be another year of pressure on your living costs, and on the costs of keeping your horses and ponies. Bedding is one of the major costs of ownership, but we can offer you an economical option that helps keep your horse healthy and happy in the stable, and don’t forget the big hidden costs of using a poor quality bedding that harms your horse’s health.
You put your horse’s wellbeing first and so do we
We know that the great majority of owners in this country put the wellbeing of their horses first and foremost when it comes to choosing the best bedding. Our latest equine health survey shows once again that this is the biggest essential priority for owners and cost comes a long way down the list.
But in these tough times, we would like to suggest that you can choose a cheap equine bedding without jeopardising your horse’s health, and you can even cut other major costs like vets bills by raising your game in the management of your horses’ stable.
Choose a more cost-effective bedding
A cheap horse bedding can still be healthy for your stable as well as for your budget. In fact we’ve launched a new straw pellet bedding called Strawmax which could be the most cost effective, high quality equine bedding option on the UK market.
The majority of owners in the UK today use purpose-made shavings like Bedmax or Littlemax (and other brands are of course available). But about 20% still use traditional straw and many use wood pellets.
The problem with straw is that it varies hugely in quality, it can be full of dust and with pressures on farming costs it is going to be very expensive this year. Wood pellets are mostly made from imported timber, which in turn makes them cost more.
So we developed Strawmax to combine all the best benefits of straw and pellets, but avoiding their downsides. Strawmax is made from locally sourced UK high quality straw. We crush it, dry it at sterilising temperatures, and thoroughly dust extract it, and it’s compressed naturally into dense pellets. Unlike straw, you can buy it from your local retailer in handy 15kg bags which are consistent in quality and price, and really easy to handle, store and use.
What makes Strawmax such a cheap bedding option?
The simple answer is that you need less Strawmax to maintain an optimum bed. It lasts a long time, and because it’s so super-absorbent, it concentrates urine in neat, isolated patches that can be removed with very little excess waste. Once you’ve made your initial bed, you only need about 1 bag a week to top it up.
So rather than calling it a cheap bedding option, a better description is that it’s an economical, cost-effective, and more affordable choice at a time when most of us who don’t own a money tree are trying to cut costs in every sensible way we can.
Don’t incur costs you don’t have to
This is our second suggestion for cutting the costs of keeping your horse. We’re talking about big costs here – the costs of health problems you might be able to prevent with better stable management.
Nearly 900 owners responded to our latest survey, and over 50% of them reported that their horses had suffered health problems that needed veterinary treatment and/or box rest.
As with all our previous surveys, the biggest health problem was respiratory disease, and the biggest cause of respiratory problems is the high level of breathable dust in poor quality bedding.
The average veterinary bill for the initial treatment for respiratory disease runs to about £2,000, but this can be avoided or at least mitigated by using high quality, hygienic bedding, and managing it properly. As any good equine vet will tell you, prevention is far cheaper than cure.
So even when you pay a bit more for Bedmax shavings, you could be saving yourself a much bigger bill down the line. And now you have the option of paying less for Strawmax – a cheap (or economical) bedding solution with high quality equine health and human wellbeing benefits.
