I’m going to continue on with answering popular questions that we get here at IGK Equestrian. The past few weeks I covered questions on our foam, and how it has less than 1 percent compaction over time, and now I will tackle (drum roll please) how much bedding to put in the stall on top of our SmartStall™ Mattress System.
My biggest pet peeve when I travel to different horse barns is seeing very deep bedding in stalls. I have seen stalls bedded up to four or five inches before! Now if you have clay, cement, or thin rubber mat in your stalls; you may need this amount of bedding in order for you horse to have some cushion. To me, all I picture is how much time it takes to have to muck out the stall and differentiate what needs to be taken out and what needs to be kept in order to save on bedding. I have seen barns where the deep bedding system works for them, or for specific horses with certain habits like doing their duty in one exact spot. The trick to these deep bedding methods is to have machinery such as a tractor or skidster to clean out these stalls four times a year. But with bedding that deep, there could come other issues as more flies in your barn (Check out my blog on getting those flies out of your barn!).
With our SmartStall™ System
, you only put enough bedding down to soak up the urine in the stall. There is no need for deep bedding with our stalls. Our foam that cushions your horse, is a little over an inch thick so you horse gets enough the perfect amount of comfort while still getting enough traction from the durable rubber topcover. Using so little bedding, the SmartStall™ pays for itself in a year and a half! The picture to the right of this can help you understand just how little bedding you need; it is less than an inch. Mucking becomes a quick easy task.
