If you run a stable, bedding isn’t a detail — it decides how dry the box stays, how much ammonia your horse breathes, and how long you spend mucking out. Straw is the traditional choice, but peat starts from a different place. Here’s the material-by-material comparison to see which really suits your yard.
In short: peat absorbs far more, keeps ammonia down thanks to its naturally acidic pH, and composts at the end of its life. Straw is cheaper up front but saturates sooner and works harder against odour.
How much does peat absorb compared with straw?
This is the difference you notice first. Arber’s peat bedding absorbs up to 5–7 times its own weight in water: the bed stays drier for longer, with fewer top-ups and fewer full changes. Straw holds much less liquid and tends to saturate and mat in the wet patches, where it has to be replaced often. More absorbency means less daily work and less material to handle.
Peat or straw: which controls ammonia and odour better?
This comes down to chemistry. Peat is naturally acidic, and that pH limits ammonia formation by up to 90%: less sharp smell in the box and better air for the horse and for you. Straw doesn’t buffer pH; with urine the environment turns alkaline — exactly the condition that drives ammonia. It’s why a straw box “smells” of ammonia before a peat one does.
Which bedding is healthier and less dusty?
Arber’s peat has a low microbial load and releases little dust — both matter for the horse’s airways, which are sensitive to dust and mould. Straw of variable quality can be dusty or mouldy, and some horses eat it. A cleaner, lower-dust bed means fewer irritations and a cleaner coat.
What’s left to dispose of at the end?
Spent peat is compact and, above all, returns to the soil as natural compost: it closes the loop instead of piling up. Straw produces a larger volume of waste bedding and breaks down more slowly, leaving more to manage. If you want a more circular routine, that difference counts. See how Arber approaches a responsible supply chain.
And the day-to-day?
Peat is light to handle and quick to muck out, and it keeps a thermally stable base under the horse. Straw is familiar and easy to source, but the greater bulk and more frequent changes mean more time and more disposal. Straw’s upfront cost is usually lower: the real comparison, though, is the cost of management — absorbency, change frequency, disposal, animal health — not the price of a single bale.
So, peat or straw?
Straw stays an economical, available option. But if your priority is a box that stays dry for longer, less ammonia and a healthier, compostable bed, peat starts ahead. Arber’s natural bedding draws on the company’s experience in professional substrates — Baltic peat, from the same extraction sites year after year — and comes in three formats (70 L bag, 250 L bag and Big Bale) for stables of any size.
Want to try it in your yard? Ask for information or a sample and tell us how many boxes you manage.