Anyone use aquamax bedding??

mcqsusan

Has anyone tried this stuff? I saw it advertised and it looks good because my stables have poor drainage and this claims to be super absorbent.

Just wondering if anyone tested it out. Would be good to have other views before going to the expense of changing over!

Hobbidance

I'm might be changing onto it aswell. I'll be testing it out as soon as I get new stables because I think it will definately need a rubber mat base for maximum comfort.

However my ISH tends to always make quite a mess and he's fairly large. He's a great bedding tester. So I'm only going to use it on trial, a pallet should last my horses 4 months according to the supplier. (1 pallet; 80 bags, should last a horse a year so one pallet should last my 3 for 4 months.)

I also e-mailed Aquamax 2 months ago, asking them about prices, if they could deliver to my house and just asking about how they would think the bedding will support my largest horse. This was their reply.

"Thanks for your enquiry into Aquamax bedding.

Aquamax really is extremely effective at soaking up urine and ammonia and
if you muck it out with a fine tined fork it just falls through the
fork so your waste is be halved in comparison to normal shavings.

The way we sell it is to deliver pallets direct to the customer as we
found that it was cheaper than the stockists as they wanted to add on too
much of a percentage and the customer was having to pay too much for it.

A delivery of Aquamax is 80 bags on a double wrapped pallet (that you can
store outside). The price per pallet is €600 delivered to your yard
inclusive of VAT (if you can provide us with a VAT number you are exempt
from paying VAT which will bring it down to €510.00). A pallet will last
a stabled horse a whole year including bed set up however you can change
your horses over from your current bedding one bag at a time which will
make it last longer.

We can work with you on quantities more or less than this if you are
interested in trying it (40 will be the minimum to start with). If you
have rubber matting already it really is an excellent way to bed your
horses as it will give the comfort your horses need as well as removing
all smell and harmfull bacteria with its superior trapping and drying
capacities.

If you have any further enquiries or require any further information
please don't hesitate to get back in touch."

I don't know anyone who uses it though but hope some information here helps.

eegeet

Woul be interesting to find how good this is.

I am surprised at their criticism of their stockists though. The stockists would naturally need a reasonable mark-up. How will the supply work if they have insufficient orders?

As a matter of interest, what is everyone paying for shavings?

Hobbidance

9-12 euros per bale of shavings. It really varies, was quoted 12 per bale before winter so went with straw this year instead. If I had a better place to store them then I'd order truck loads instead, far cheaper than bagged stuff.

Socos

Do you have to have rubber mats to use the aquamax?
Currently paying about €10 a bale for sawdust but it is very hit and miss whether they have any in stock or not. The quality of some of it is very poor also moisture content is too high so it can't absorb anything.

Hobbidance

It would be more cost effecitve I think Socos, as each bag is only 13.6kg's so you might need quite alot of bags to make a supportive bed without matting. If you're not getting good quality supplies of shavings then maybe you should look into some rubber matting. I can stress how much good rubber matting can save you in bedding costs in the long run and makes standing in the stable easier on your horse. You should look into it, crunch a few numbers and then decide which situatuion is better for you.

(Also if you move stables and where you're stabling your horse isn't somewhere permenant then maybe look for the smaller squares of rubber matting that you can easily remove, clean and adjust to another stable instead of the long strips or liquid rubber that sets permenantly.)

Socos

Anyone recommend a supplier of rubbermats? PM if you want. Thanks

mylittlepony

Would like to know best supplier of rubbermats
Can you use cattle rubber mats??
I would be interested in this aqaumax too as have been using straws and its just a messy job.
I help out in a yard recently with sawdust dusting and I realised how much easily it would be to manage weekly compare to straw bedding.

Would love to see feedback from someone that use this product.

mcqsusan

I made the change to this stuff a few weeks ago. Have to say it is excellent. Very highly absorbent so it contains the wet patches in one small area instead of letting it seep right through the bed. Only need to take out the really wet stuff every day then shake the rest through with the dry, which absorbs it.

When first laid the bed is supposed to be sprayed with a hose which has the effect of making the wood pellets soften and expand into a fluffy type substance. The supplier advised me against doing this as she says the horse will eventually do this process themselves with urine. But I find that if it's not activated at first then it takes a couple of days before it expands and before the horse has a proper bed to stand on. So through personal preference I did wet most of mine.

Bedding down only needs to be done once a week or twice with very dirty horses. ONLY ONE BAG A WEEK at a cost of €7.50 = HUGE SAVINGS!!!!! I have one very dirty mare who I bed twice for the huge cost of €15:D Also muck heap is hugely reduced. I take the droppings out and then spread the wet stuff on the land. Apparently it is very fast to decompose so you can do this with it.

The original bed was quite expensive. A large stable took about 10 bags which was €75. But another option is to leave in the banks of your existing bed, and put this stuff in the centre which would save a huge amount as well.

My only problem with it is that it is so absorbant that the droppings tend to dry up and fall apart into little bits which can be quite time consuming when trying to skip them out. Apart from that Im very very satisfied:)

that's right

Hi you should try "KosiBed", its excellent and is delivered from the people that make it, no middle men, the barley version is a little difficult to muck out compared to shavings, but its clean, dust free, very consistent and cheap, I only use 1.5 bales per week with most horse's and 2 with the very dirty ones. The manure can go straight to the garden.