Last updated: September 27, 2026
If your bedding bill has started to rival your hay bill, you’re probably looking for ways to bring it down without leaving your horses on a thin, wet bed or fouling the air in your barn.
Quick answer: The biggest bedding savings come from comparing what each option costs per stall per week, buying the bedding that makes sense for your area (and buying in bulk if you can keep it dry), removing only wet spots instead of stripping clean bedding, and not bedding deeper than your horses need. Rubber mats can help too when they fit your setup. The goal isn’t the cheapest bag — it’s the lowest weekly cost while keeping your horses comfortable and your stalls dry.
I’ll show you how to figure out your real horse bedding cost, how I buy bedding for my own horses, how the common types compare, a mucking routine that stops clean bedding from going out with the wet, when mats make sense, and the places I wouldn’t try to save a dollar.
Table of Contents
Figure Out What Your Bedding Really Costs
Most owners look at the price of a bag or a load. That’s not where the savings hide. What matters is what each stall costs you every week, including the bedding, the hauling, and your time.
Run the numbers this way: (bags or bales used per stall each week × price per bag or bale) + your weekly hauling cost per stall. Compare that total, not the price printed on one bag.
Here’s how the math works using sample numbers. If shavings cost $6 a bag and a stall goes through three bags a week, that’s $18 per stall per week. If pellets cost $9 a bag and the same stall uses about one and a half bags a week after the first fill, that’s $13.50. The pricier bag can be the cheaper bedding. Plug in your own prices and hauling costs before you decide.
Before you change anything, track one stall for a couple of weeks: how much bedding goes in, where the wet spots are, how long it takes to clean, and how it smells. Then change one thing at a time. That tells you more about your own barn than any general recommendation will.
Horseman’s Take: In our stalls at the Folsom training facility, we used to run deep pine shavings on clay floors. Once we tightened the mucking routine, started buying by the truckload, and put mats in the stalls that needed them, our monthly bedding cost dropped from about $950 to around $540. That’s roughly $4,900 a year less, plus more than an hour of mucking time saved every day and less than half as much bedding and manure to haul. Your numbers will be different, but the principle is the same: track what you’re actually spending per stall per week, then attack the biggest leaks.
Buy What’s Cheap Where You Live, and Buy It in Bulk
The best-value bedding is often whatever’s produced close to you. Freight is a big part of what you pay, so a bedding that’s a bargain in one region can be expensive a few states away.
Horseman’s Take: I keep seven horses in stalls at a training facility in Folsom, Louisiana, where I’ve kept horses for more than 30 years. We bed with straight pine shavings. In south Louisiana, pine trees are everywhere, and there’s a mill not far from the facility, so pine shavings are the least expensive bedding we can get. We buy them by the truckload instead of by the bag. Before you settle on a bedding, find out what’s milled or grown near you.
- Buy in bulk. Truckloads, pallets, and seasonal sales usually bring the price down. If you’re in a boarding barn, going in with other owners gets you bulk pricing without needing the space for all of it.
- Only buy what you can keep dry. Store bedding off the ground and under cover. A cheap load that gets ruined sitting in the rain isn’t a bargain.
- Count your hauling costs. Less bedding in means less going out to the manure pile, fewer dumpster pulls, and fewer trailer loads. If you compost on your own place, see my guide to composting horse manure.
How the Common Bedding Types Compare
How much of each bedding you’ll use depends on your stall size, bag size, climate, and horses, so compare these on what they’ll cost you, not on anyone’s usage numbers:
| Bedding | What to compare | Cost notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pine or other wood shavings | Weekly use, dust, how easily it sifts | Comfortable and familiar, and cheap where there’s a mill nearby, but a deep bed gets expensive fast |
| Wood pellets | First fill, weekly top-up, absorbency | Usually cost more per bag, but may lower weekly use and manure volume |
| Straw | Bales used, local quality, labor, disposal | Can be economical where it’s grown, but it’s bulky to muck and haul |
| Paper or cardboard | Availability, dust, absorbency | Low dust, but supply and price vary widely by location |
Some horses show a preference for lying on straw, according to Kentucky Equine Research. That matters, but comfort is only one part of the decision. Cost, dust, absorbency, labor, disposal, and what your horses do in their stalls matter too. I cover each bedding type in more detail in my guides to the best horse stall bedding and pellet bedding.
Muck Out Only What’s Wet
Even cheap bedding gets expensive when clean bedding goes out with the wet. Most horses have favorite spots where they urinate, and learning those spots is where the savings start. A simple routine works with any loose bedding:
- Pick out the manure first, leaving the bedding in place.
- Starting at the door, work around the stall, sifting clean bedding and banking it against the walls.
- Uncover the wet spot last and remove only the soaked bedding.
- Add a little fresh bedding to the wet area.
- Pull the banked bedding back over the floor and level it.
There isn’t a trick to it. You’re handling each forkful fewer times and keeping clean bedding where it belongs. A fork that suits your bedding helps too, like a fine-tine fork for shavings.
Every horse is different, though. One will stand in a stall all day and barely dirty it, and another will churn his bedding into a mess in an hour. Your routine has to work with the horses you actually have.
When Rubber Stall Mats Make Sense
On bare clay or concrete, you usually need a deeper bed just to give a stalled horse a comfortable surface. Good rubber mats take over part of that job, so bedding can focus more on moisture control and comfort instead of building a deep base. In the right stall, that can mean using less bedding, but mats still need enough clean, dry bedding over them for the horse to rest comfortably and the stall to stay dry.
Horseman’s Take: I use rubber mats in some stalls, not all of them. It depends on the horse and the stall. I had one that pawed and dug holes in his floor, so I put down a thick rubber mat and covered it with shavings. That stopped the digging and kept him from turning a clean bed into a pit every night. For horses like that, a mat earns its keep fast.
Mats help in another practical way: on a level floor with tight seams, wet spots are easier to find and pull without taking clean bedding with them. If you put mats in, level the base first so urine doesn’t pool underneath, fit the seams tight, and buy heavy mats that won’t curl or shift.
They can pay for themselves through lower bedding use and faster cleaning. How fast depends on what the mats cost, what your bedding costs, and how much bedding you can safely cut. Where bedding is already cheap, the payback takes longer. Run your weekly numbers first. If money’s tight, mat one or two stalls at a time and see the difference before you do the whole barn.
Mistakes That Waste the Most Bedding
- Bedding deeper than your horses need. Test a shallower bed gradually while watching comfort, dryness, and hocks.
- Throwing out clean bedding with the wet. Learn each horse’s wet spots and sift before you strip a stall.
- Buying cheap bedding that’s dusty, moldy, or doesn’t absorb well. It isn’t a bargain if it makes more work or worse air.
- Ignoring moisture. Humidity, leaks, wet storage, and poor drainage can make any bedding expensive and unpleasant fast. In a humid place like south Louisiana, stalls dry slower and ammonia builds faster.
Where I Wouldn’t Try to Save Money
Saving on bedding should never mean leaving a horse in a wet, hard, dusty, or ammonia-smelling stall. Bedding has two jobs: giving the horse a dry place to rest and holding urine and manure until the next cleaning. Horses need the chance to lie down for normal rest. And ventilation matters just as much, because no bedding fixes a closed-up barn with poor airflow.
If you cut back and notice any of these signs, reassess the whole setup, including the bedding depth, the floor, drainage, ventilation, turnout, and the horse himself:
- A stall that stays wet or smells of ammonia between cleanings
- New hock rubs, a horse that avoids part of his stall, or one you rarely see resting
- Coughing, nasal discharge, or heavier breathing
- Visible mold, caking, or a dust cloud when the bedding’s stirred
If you can smell ammonia at the horse’s level, the air needs attention. Pull wet bedding promptly, improve airflow, and check for damp spots under mats or around water buckets. My guide to barn air quality goes into ventilation. If a horse is coughing, breathing hard, has a history of airway trouble, or starts eating his bedding, get your vet involved instead of assuming the bedding alone is the answer.
Horse Bedding Costs FAQ
What’s the cheapest bedding for horses?
Usually whatever’s produced near you. In south Louisiana, where pine is plentiful and there are mills nearby, pine shavings bought in bulk are hard to beat. Elsewhere it might be straw, pellets, or paper. Compare them by cost per stall per week, including hauling, not by the price of one bag.
How much should bedding cost per horse?
There isn’t one normal number. It changes with local prices, stall size, turnout, climate, the floor, and how each horse uses his stall. Track your weekly bedding use, hauling cost, and mucking time for a couple of weeks to find your own baseline.
How deep should bedding be on rubber mats?
There’s no single depth for every horse or bedding. Start with enough clean, dry bedding to soak up urine and give the horse a comfortable place to lie down, then adjust for his size, how long he’s stalled, the mats, and his hocks. If the stall stays wet or smells of ammonia, add bedding or reassess the setup.
Are rubber stall mats worth it?
They can be, especially for horses stalled a lot on hard or uneven floors. Mats may reduce bedding use and cleaning time, but the payback depends on the mat price, installation, your bedding cost, and how much bedding you can safely cut. Where bedding’s cheap, it takes longer to earn back.
The goal isn’t the cheapest stall on the property. It’s a clean, dry stall without paying for bedding that ends up on the manure pile. Use the best-value bedding available where you live, pull only what’s wet, and watch your horses and your waste. Every barn is a little different, so adjust from there.
About Miles Henry
Racehorse Owner & Author | 30+ Years in Thoroughbred Racing
Miles Henry (legal name: William Bradley) is a professional horseman based in Folsom, Louisiana. He holds Louisiana Racing License #67012 and has spent over three decades managing Thoroughbreds at premier tracks including Fair Grounds, Delta Downs, and Evangeline Downs.
Expertise & Hands-On Experience: Beyond the track, Miles has decades of experience in specialized equine care, covering everything from hoof health and nutrition to training protocols for Quarter Horses, Friesians, and Paints. Every guide on Horse Racing Sense is rooted in this “boots-on-the-ground” perspective.
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