flax/hemp bedding

[zoon]

after years of having horses I finally found a perfect bedding - paper Loved it! So my yard decides I can't have paper as the muck heap people won't take it with paper in (fair enough but very annoying)

So I'm back to crappy old shaving and I hate it

Two people on my yard use aubiose (hemp) and I'm thinking of trying it. My horse is incredibly messy though and I'm not sure a deep litter bed will work

Also wondering what the difference between equisorb (flax) and aubiose (hemp) is as they look the same? I know they are different plants I just meant as a bedding! Would equisorb be just as good as aubiose as it is quite a bit cheaper?

[racaille]

Aha! My area of expertise!!!! ;D

We've used both at the club. There's really not, in my opinion - and I am the champion of the boxes - a great deal of difference in how they work. I really like them both and would never use anything else. There is no smell - you can imagine how stinky it can get here in the heat! - and they are both easy to manage. I would say that chopped flax is slightly 'silkier' the first few days, but this makes no practical difference.
Of our eight 'indoor' horses, we have some real mucky pups. Our system is this: we completely clean out and disinfect, then put four bales in each box, which will last about a fortnight. We do not top up. How long they last depends on how good you are at mucking out: I'm pretty careful and fork out just the droppings (and really fork through to find them) but others lob out a good amount of bedding with every forkful, which is a waste. I am also careful to 'dig out' the sides every day so that fresh bedding is redistributed to the middle. We do not remove the wet stuff underneath, that's the whole point. Two of our boys like to scrape holes in the middle but this isn't really a problem as when it is new it is so silky that it mostly slips back again, and when it is near the end the deep bit seems to stay put.
One thing to bear in mind is that as both materials are hyper-absorbent, if a horse stands in it all the time it can dry out their feet a bit (in my experience).
Once you've got the hang of it, it is fantastically quick to muck out, and even the once-a-fortnight clear out only takes minutes. Even a pig like Paco doesn't (usually) eat it! Both materials compost very quickly and we sell ours to farmers and gardeners.
We switched to flax from Aubiose because it got too expensive (apparently it is also used as insulation for houses) but both are great.

[madcatwoman]

taking a bit of a side step here but a friend i used to know used to smoke the auboise , as she said it was a legal and had the same effects of the non legal version