Peat Moss for Stall Bedding?

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Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on September 25, 2009 at 11:57am

Peat moss works great at absorbing urine. Peat moss bedding often gets gardeners very willing to take your used bedding off your hands!
The peat moss bedding can work against keeping your horse super shiny, their coat may be a little duller inspite of a lot of grooming.
I used peat moss as bedding when I kept my first stallion in my back yard in Charlotte, N.C., mainly to keep the smells down. It worked very well.

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Permalink Reply by Shirley on September 25, 2009 at 12:34pm

Have you ever heard of peatmoss bedding causing problems with horses hooves.
Where I am boarding there is an unusual amount of abscess problems. Where I used to board I think we had maybe 3 or 4 abscess in over 4 years. When I am now there is often 3 or 4 horses at a time with an abscess (out of 14 horses) pretty often. There is almost always at tleast one off pasture. But one of the horses is lame more then she is sound. The poor thing had three abscess' at one time...3 feet had an abscess. This month we had 6 horses with this problem. The lots are dry, This was a problem last year too. There is more small stones then I'd hope to see. The stalls are kept very clean and seem to be dry. Since no one can figure out why the feet are such a problem they tend to want to blame it on the peat cause it's not commonly used around here.
The barn owner really likes it cause he can easily dispose of it. Our barn very seldom smells of urine. My gut is that it's good stuff but that isn't based on much factual information.

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Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on September 25, 2009 at 1:33pm

These quotes are from M. Horace Hayes' "Stable Management and Exercise",

p. 234 "like peat moss, ... a bad conductor of heat, and which is liable to become retained ('balled') in the feet in a more or less compact form. When the feet are allowed to continue in this state, even for a few hours in some cases, the soles and frogs, as we may find on removing the offending material, become unduly heated, with the result that in time, if the cause be permitted to remain in action, thrush will become developed and the heels as a rule will become contracted.... Frequent picking-out of the feet will keep them sound as far as the bedding is concerned.

p. 238 "Unless foul moss (peat moss) is scrupulously removed, horses' fet are undoubtedly injured by it. Liability to heat and to rot the horn of the hoofs is undoubtedly the chief drawback to the use of peat moss, which disadventage can be obviated by extra care in picking out the feet and in removing soiled litter.

So--keep the stall clean, and clean out the hooves frequently and you should not have many problems. I know I did not for the 4 or 5 months I used it for bedding.

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Goucher on September 25, 2009 at 11:23pm

Peat moss bedding is a good choice for arthritic horses, as it seems to provide the appropriate footing to ease the pain in the joints. The drawback I found with it is that your horse seems dirty, your water buckets are often grotty looking and need frequent scrubbing out, and if you have a dimly lit barn, it makes it look even dimmer. I have had the best luck mixing the peat moss with shavings or other bedding, or using under straw.

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Permalink Reply by Shirley on September 26, 2009 at 8:53pm

So far after 1.5 years of living with the peat-moss bedding my only complaint is the dust it produces. Everything quickly is dust covered with the dark brown filmy dust. I have a copper colored horse so I don't notice it affecting him. We've always dumped buckets daily and and where I am now they are scrubbed out daily too. My clothes get much dirtier and even get dark brown smudges on my face pretty often. I think it's a little harder sometimes to see pieces of pooh in the peat to keep it cleaned out. But that does seem to depend a little on the one doing the cleaning. Really?!

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