Equine Bedding | Preference, Behaviours & Resting
Bedding material is necessary for the stabled horse, to allow them to lie down, provide insulation, comfort and to drain away excretions (Manual of Horsemanship, 2011).
Straw is a popular bedding choice, which is the stalks of different grains, such as wheat, barley and oats (Britannica, 2023). It has been used by humans for many years for animal bedding, human bedding and even baskets and hats. Top reasons for use of straw are that it is usually readily available, it drains well to keep horses dry and tends to be on the cheaper side compared to other beddings.
Wood shavings have been another popular horse bedding choice for many years, and are often used for horses sensitive to respiratory issues, or those that tend to eat other bedding types. The quality of wood shavings can vary quite a bit, particularly when it comes to the dust content. Dust extracted shavings are the more popular as they are of a higher quality and have a low dust content (BHS, 2023). Shavings are also wrapped in plastic bags, which makes them easy to store, even if you are short on space in your yard.
Straw and shavings are the two most common beddings, but there are a few more. Beddings can range from peat moss, to shredded paper, cardboard, sand and shredded phone books. Absorbent pellets also come in wheat straw or a variety of wood types.
Resting
In a study conducted on the effect of bedding on six warmblood horses behaviour, had some interesting results. The researchers found that the horses spent statistically significantly longer lying down, on straw bedding than compared to wood shavings and straw pellets. Straw pellets resulted in the shortest time spent lying down per period of the behaviour. The horses were also found to have shorter periods of time spent standing and other behaviours on straw than the other beddings (Werhahn et al., 2010)
Similar results were found in a study on ten geldings, bedded on straw or shavings. Of the total time observed, the horses bedded on straw spent 29.3% of their time lying down, while it was only 12.2% of the time, for the horses on shavings (Greening et al., 2013).
It is crucial that horses have time spent in recumbent behaviours to allow them to get REM sleep (Staff, 2020).
It was also found that horses spent three times longer in lateral recumbency on straw, than shavings (Pedersen et al., 2004). It was said by the researchers that because horses must lie down for sleep, the reduced time spent in lateral recumbency for horses on shavings, could have an impact on the horses performance and welfare.
Behaviour
In a research study surveying flat racehorse trainers, found that the risk of horses performing abnormal behaviours increased when beddings other than straw was used. Other factors such as forage type & amount, number of horses in the barn and stable design also increased the risk of showing abnormal behaviours (McGreevy et al., 1995).
Looking further into undesirable behaviours, a study investigated the effect of stable bedding on horses behaviour (Kwiatkowska-Stenzel et al., 2016). The beddings that were used were straw, peat moss, shavings and crushed wood pellets. Out of all the beddings, horses bedded on straw expressed the least amount of undesirable behaviours. These behaviours included box walking, biting bars, aggressive behaviours and kicking the box.
Bedding Preference
When given the choice, which bedding do horses pick? This was investigated using eight ponies, having access to bedded and unbedded areas of a stable. The ponies spent more time (66%) on the bedded area than unbedded, with no instances of lying down on the unbedded area. When given access to a stable half wood shavings and the other half with straw, individual ponies had preferences to a bedding type, but varied between ponies (Hunter & Houpt, 1989).
When looking into the bedding preferences of thoroughbreds (Mills et al., 2000), it was found that within the beddings choices of straw, paper and shavings, horses clearly showed a preference for straw bedding over the others. Shavings was also chosen more than paper bedding.
Conclusions
Overall we can see from the studies that straw bedding is preferred by horses, they sleep more on it and show less undesirable behaviours when stabled on it. So when it comes to your horses sleeping & behaviour, straw is seen to be the better bedding option.
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References
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "straw". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Oct. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/straw. Accessed 4 May 2024.
Werhahn, H. et al. (2010) ‘Effects of different bedding materials on the behavior of horses housed in single stalls’, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 30(8), pp. 425–431. doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2010.07.005.
Greening, L. et al. (2013) ‘Investigating duration of nocturnal ingestive and sleep behaviors of horses bedded on straw versus shavings’, Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 8(2), pp. 82–86. doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2012.05.003.
Staff, K.E.R. (2020) Sleep requirements of horses, Kentucky Equine Research. Available at: https://ker.com/equinews/sleep-requirements-horses/ (Accessed: 04 May 2024).
Pedersen, G.R., Søndergaard, E. and Ladewig, J. (2004) ‘The influence of bedding on the time horses spend recumbent’, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 24(4), pp. 153–158. doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2004.03.013.
The Manual of Horsemanship (2011). Kenilworth: Pony Club.
Horse bedding: Advantages & disadvantages (2023) The British Horse society. Available at: https://bhs.org.uk/horse-care-and-welfare/health-care-management/stable-management-and-bedding/bedding-types/ (Accessed: 04 May 2024).
McGreevy, P.D. et al. (1995) ‘Management factors associated with stereotypic and redirected behaviour in the thoroughbred horse’, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 44(2–4), pp. 270–271. doi:10.1016/0168-1591(95)92358-z.
Kwiatkowska-Stenzel, A., Sowińska, J. and Witkowska, D. (2016) ‘The effect of different bedding materials used in stable on horses behavior’, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 42, pp. 57–66. doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2016.03.007.
Hunter, L. and Houpt, K.A. (1989) ‘Bedding material preferences of ponies’, Journal of Animal Science, 67(8), p. 1986. doi:10.2527/jas1989.6781986x.
Mills, D.S., Eckley, S. and Cooper, J.J. (2000) ‘Thoroughbred bedding preferences, associated behaviour differences and their implications for equine welfare’, Animal Science, 70(1), pp. 95–106. doi:10.1017/s1357729800051638