Bedding and well-being

The bedding present in the horse’s stable should be perceived as a comfort and safety area, where the animal can rest and move around without risk of injury. Rest/ sleep is a factor contributing to memorisation, thermoregulation and recovery.
Studies have demonstrated that horses prefer some types of bedding, based on the time they spend recumbent. Thus, horses spend more recumbency time on straw bedding, compared to on wood shavings, straw pellets, and bare rubber matting. They appear to favour ground covered with bedding, to a bare surface. However, it seems that horses do appreciate rubber matting when it is covered with a thin layer of straw or wood shavings (Raabymagle and Ladewig, 2006 ; Briant, 2017).

In his natural state, the horse spends 16h a day feeding, and 4 h is the maximum stretch observed without eating. When the horse is deprived of feed for more than 4 consecutive hours, and recurrently, he may develop stereoytypical behaviour (wind-sucking…) and digestive problems (colic, stomach ulcers, constipation…) accompanied with pain.

Consequences of two differnt types of bedding on the horse’s behaviour, when forage is not made permanenetly available

Presentation of the consequences of two types of bedding on the horse’s behaviour, when forage is not made permanently available (Baumgartner et al., 2020) :

Horse on straw	Horse on wood shavings
• Increase in the number of times the horse takes food • Spends less time immobile • Less aggressiveness	• Eats faster when feed is given and does not stop until the entire ration is ingested (forage and concentrated feed) • Modifies his natural time pattern (4h/24h spent feeding versus 12-16h/24h in his natural state) • Long periods spent fasting > 4h (detrimental to digestive health) • More frequently presents stereotypical behaviour (wind-sucking...)

In this study, it is demonstrated that straw bedding is beneficial for the horse’s mental and physical well-being, as it represents both a food resource and allows a more natural pattern of constant feeding.

Straw bedding

Straw bedding is a non negligeable food resource, providing together with the other forage used essential fiber for the stabled horse’s healthy digestive system. However, one should be careful of excessive straw consumption, which can cause colic (impaction or obstruction colic). It is recommended that straw should not represent more than 30 % of the daily forage intake for a horse who does not present any signs of a digestive condition (Harris et al., 2007).

Non edible bedding

When using non-edible bedding (wood, plant fibers, peat), it has sometimes been observed that the horse will ingest up to several kilograms a day. Do not forget that one cannot stop a horse’s natural feeding pattern. A more frequent distribution of forage (more than twice a day, and especially for the night), or distribution ad lib when the horse is not bedded on straw, are essential to avoid the horse ingesting inedible bedding. A study on the prevalence of stereotypical behaviour in stabled horses, fed on low quantities of hay (less than 8kg /day) showed that 29 % of these horses ingested wood shavings or sawdust bedding (Hanis et al., 2020).

Providing a fibrous forage on top of the daily ration (forage and concentrated feeds) can be an alternative for the horse stabled on non- edible bedding.