Bags Required

The average empty loose box or stable should require 4 – 6 bags of shavings to create the best depth of bed. Each 20kg GREENWOOD SHAVINGS bag is pressure-packed and contains a consistent volume of shavings that will cover about 2 to 3 square metres.

Fluffing Up

Use a shavings fork to loosen and aerate the packed shavings, and spread them evenly. (We recommend a Multi Mucka 10-tine fork for GREENWOOD SHAVINGS. The same fork will be ideal for mucking out with minimum waste.)

Create a level bed 6 – 8 inches deep covering the entire floor but leaving space at the doorway to minimise spillage. This is important both for your horse’s comfort and welfare, but also because a deeper bed manages moisture more efficiently and requires less replacement bedding.

Depth

Banking

Some owners like to bank shavings about 12 – 18 inches high around walls as a ‘reserve’ of clean, dry shavings. Heaping banks when mucking out will also prolong your bed life. Rubber matting is increasingly used as a substrate on stable floors.

This is how our experts recommend that you make a bed that will be best for your horse and easiest and least wasteful for you to maintain:

Make an ideal Bed

Maintaining an Ideal Bed…

Horses should be removed from their stable if possible while mucking out.
Droppings should be removed as soon as possible using a shavings fork.
Shake the fork gently to loosen any clean shavings back onto the surface and avoid waste.
Loosen the surface of the bed with the shavings fork after mucking out.
Every two or three days, heap loosened surface shavings into banks at the sides, remove any concentrated areas of wet shavings and pull banks back into the main area of the bed..
Add fresh shavings to maintain optimum depth. Most customers report using 1 – 1.5 bags a week, depending on your horse’s ‘housekeeping habits’.