Let’s save you some time, energy, and money. Chances are, mucking out mountains of shavings was not the reason you got into horses. If you could cut the time you spent mucking shavings in half, what would you do with that extra time and energy? Sometimes, folks don’t actually know the answer to that question right away, so we encourage you to think about it! It’s a good time to ask yourself, “why did I get into horses in the first place?” “How do I actually want to be spending my time?”.
Anyways, let’s take a look into how hemp bedding can make this conundrum a reality by saving you time, energy, and money, while improving your horse habitat, performance, and health!
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Advantages of Using This Hemp Horse Bedding
“What caught my curiosity was the health benefits. I’m all about what’s better for my horses. Whatever makes them just a little bit better- physically, mentally or emotionally- is going to help me tremendously in my training. I think a lot of people feel that way.” – Mette Larsen, USDF Silver Medalist and FEI Champion, Aubiose Hemp Bedding Customer
How to Use Hemp Horse Bedding
When used properly, Aubiose is actually a very economical bedding because you use so much less of it. In most cases it should not cost you more than $200/horse/month to use hemp bedding. With proper practice and ordering in bulk, you should be able to get your cost below $100/horse/month.
Here is the technique for getting the most out of the bedding:
- Start with a clean stall.
- For a 12 x 12′ stall, add 7-8 bales of Aubiose (each bag weighs 20kg / 44lb). For larger or smaller stalls, increase or decrease proportionally, you want a 6-8″ depth. *Starting the beds this deep will ensure you don’t use too much bedding in the long run. Don’t be cheap here! It is an upfront investment that will pay off for you in the long run.
- Optional: You can wet the bedding to hold it in place, but use no more than 1 gallon per bale. The horse will likely activate and hold it in place themselves by urinating on it, but if they are a box walker it helps to wet the stall.
- Poo pick the bed daily. Aim to remove the smallest amount of bedding possible; the pitchfork should be 99-100% manure with little to no bedding. Do not dig into the bed after droppings are removed.
- The top of the bedding will remain dry and soft for the horse. Once a week, rake the dry bedding to the side, and inspect the wet, capped layer at the base. If the bedding is brown “stamp it back down”. Do not remove brown bedding. Only remove bedding that has turned red.
- Replace whatever wet bedding you have removed with a corresponding amount of fresh Aubiose. Average usage is 1/2-1 bale per horse per week (the bedding costs $33-44 at your local feed store).
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Hear Advice from Other Aubiose Users
“Aubiose is pretty economical. The biggest expense is stall set-up, but after that, stalls need on average about a half bag of bedding per week. Despite the up front cost, it doesn’t really cost more than shavings over a year, and it works much, much better. It also sifts so much more easily that you’ll save money because you’ll have so much less waste of good bedding.
I have found there are a few tricks to getting the most out of the bedding and making it the best thing you’ve ever used:
–Don’t take urine out daily. The bedding soaks up the urine best if you allow it to create a urine pack. You’ll also remove less bedding overall if you remove the urine less frequently because hemp initially becomes more absorbent when it gets wet, so less bedding does more work. We remove urine only once a week, and some horses could go longer. And it really doesn’t smell. When I tell people I take urine out once a week, they can’t believe it.
–Don’t strip your stalls. The bedding gets more absorbent as it gets trompled on, and it packs better, creating a more dense urine pack that’s less likely to get dragged around and mixed in the dry bedding. Plus, the expense of re-bedding a stripped stall will make it prohibitive. If a horse really destroys a stall, I just keep taking wet bedding out over the course of several weeks until I have enough left for just the urine pack, and then I add new bags on top of that.
–Bed stalls deep enough that that horses’ feet don’t get down to the urine. I’ve found that horses who trash their stalls need more bedding, or need it piled more deeply over their urine spot. It saves money in the long run to add more bedding if a horse is digging into his urine pack.
–Invest in a stall sifter. The sifter made it feasible for me to bed my stalls 6-8 inches deep. The time saved in cleaning and the additional bedding saved will pay for your sifter in a short time. I have six stalls, and I cut my stall cleaning time in half with at least 3 times as much bedding and paid for the sifter in 3 or 4 months. Imagine if you have 30 horses what that would do.
I recently had to clean shavings after not having done so for many years, and it brought home to me just how superior Aubiose hemp is to shavings, sawdust, or any other wood bedding product. I think you’ll feel the same if you give it a shot and follow the guidelines for getting the most out of the bedding. I’m also pretty sure if you give it a shot, you’ll be wishing you’d found it sooner.”
-Sue Krenselewski, 5 year Aubiose USA client
Renowned Dressage Rider & Trainer Mette Larsen is Testing the Claims About Hemp Bedding
Mette Larsen had been thinking about using hemp in her barn for almost 3 years before finally deciding to try it for her 19 horses in Ocala, Florida.
“What caught my curiosity was the health benefits. I’m all about what’s better for my horses. Whatever makes them just a little bit better- physically, mentally or emotionally- is going to help me tremendously in my training. I think a lot of people feel that way.”
“For years I’ve been saying I really want all our horses to be on hemp bedding. I kept hearing all the benefits, and I’d do a little research here and there… And I kept getting drawn back…. I wanted to see. How do I make hemp worth it?”
Suppliers of industrial hemp claim that it can cost less than conventional shavings in the long run if the bedding is managed properly. Mette is particularly eager to test this claim. “I’m going to be in the trenches mucking stalls again to figure out how to make this work, because it smells good, it looks good, it should financially work out even- or better- if done right.”
“When I look at stalls, I look at the cost of shavings, dumpster, staff, time, & health. That’s how I’m going to look at everything from a cost perspective, shavings versus hemp”.
“When you do shavings, you have shavings in- shavings out. Dumpster in, dumpster out, and whatever staff time and wheelbarrows back and forth. With hemp it is the manure, and then, on occasion, the urine.”
Mette’s 19 horses are now bedded entirely on premium Aubiose hemp bedding imported by Chanvra from Europe. Her team is meticulously recording their time and usage of the product while following the best practices imported from Europe.
At the time of writing (July 22, 2024) they are now 55 days into the trial and still collecting data. This is an ongoing learning experience and Mette & Chanvra will continue to post updates. One pleasant surprise Mette noticed: “Our fly population is 1/ 20th of what it was three weeks ago, and for Florida, that’s huge. The only thing that changed is that we went to hemp.”
Aubiose Horse Hemp Bedding is Also Endorsed by International Showjumper Catherine Tyree
After watching one of her top performance horses, Bokai, struggle with respiratory issues, international showjumper Catherine Tyree wanted to do anything possible to help him live a better life. After some research, she found that using a high quality bedding was one of the best ways to create a healthier environment and prevent further issues for Bokai. That is when she found Aubiose. With the difference it has made for the 16-year-old KWPN gelding, Aubiose has become a staple product in her barn. She is now joining forces with Aubiose and Chanvracor to spread the word about this incredible product.
Her list of impressive accomplishments include second place in the 2016 HITS Saugerties $1 Million Grand Prix, third place in the 2019 $130,000 Longines FEI World Cup President’s Cup Grand Prix at the Washington International Horse Show, as well as FEI wins at the Winter Equestrian Festival, the Palm Beach Masters, the Devon Horse Show, the American Gold Cup, Jumping de Dinard, and the Royal Winter Fair. She has represented Team USA on five occasions, including at Hickstead and Falsterbo.
In August of 2023, Catherine Tyree and Chanvracor announced their partnership.
Today Aubiose is imported from France, where they grow the best hemp in the world, and have the largest supply. Our hemp is the product of a farmer owned cooperative who have been processing hemp for 50 years. They are the world experts and our goal is to recreate their success in America! Our hemp bedding initiative creates demand for high quality hemp bedding, which can eventually be grown in America by American farmers. We are creating these partnerships now. If done properly, farming hemp can help rejuvenate and regenerate America’s farmlands, ecology, and economy; but it’s up to us! Want to grow hemp? Or be involved in the hemp industry in America?