Hemp bedding costs more per bale than straw and usually less per month. The reason is that you throw away far less of it — and the reason people switch is almost always a horse that coughs.
The numbers people ask for, side by side. Costs vary by region; the ratios between them do not vary much.
| Hemp shiv | Straw | Shavings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Absorbs | ~4× its weight | ~2× | ~2.5× |
| Dust | Very low | High | Low to medium |
| Ammonia smell | Low | High | Medium |
| Muck heap volume | Smallest | Largest | Large |
| Composts in | 3–6 months | 6–12 months | 2–3 years |
| Eaten by the horse | No | Yes, often | No |
| Cost per bale | Highest | Lowest | Middle |
| Cost per month | Comparable or lower | Lower | Comparable |
Roughly five or six bales for an average loose box. A shallow hemp bed is the most common reason someone concludes it does not work: there is nothing underneath to absorb.
Push it up the sides 30–40 cm. Stops draughts, stops a horse getting cast, and gives you material to pull down as the middle compacts.
Hemp compresses into a firm mat over the first day or two, which is what you want. It is springier and more supportive than shavings once it has.
Take out droppings and the wet patches, which stay tight and liftable rather than spreading. Then top up with a couple of handfuls. Full strip-outs are what make bedding expensive.
Depending on how many hours the horse is in. Some yards run a deep-litter bed for a whole winter and take it all out in spring.
Respiratory disease is one of the commonest reasons a horse stops working, and stable dust is a large part of the cause. Straw is the dustiest common bedding and it also carries mould spores; a horse with a cough often improves markedly on a low-dust bed within weeks.
Hemp shiv is dust-extracted in processing and produces very little in a stable. It is not a treatment and it will not fix a horse whose hay is the actual problem — forage is usually the bigger source. Change both and you have changed the air.
Almost never. It is woody core rather than stalk, with no feed value and no appeal, which is a genuine advantage over straw for a good doer or a horse on a restricted diet.
Yes, and it is one of the better reasons to use it. It breaks down in three to six months into a fine compost, where shavings can take years and are unwelcome on a lot of land.
Many yards use it, for the low dust and because it does not tangle round legs the way straw can. Lay it deeper still and change it completely afterwards.
Five to six 20 kg bales for a 12×12 box at proper depth, then roughly one bale a week for topping up with a horse in overnight. The first month is the expensive one.