Hey I thought the same thing but once I started to use them I found that they are really cheaper to use. I tried using one bag of pellets vs one bag of shavings and trust me the pellets went way farther ! really surprised me. I clean my stalls daily and with shavings I end up muckign out 1 1/2 - 2 muck buckets per stall, that adds up fast in the spreader when you have 7 horses. When cleaning out the pelleted stall I only end up with 1/4 - 1/2 bucket! and I only add one bag per week, even though the pellet bag is almost a dollar more per bag if you add up how much you have to put in and how much compst you take out the pellets are way cheaper.
My girlfriend Ginger tried to tell me this for over a year untill I decided to test it myself and now I'm totally sold!
Try it, use one in one stall and the other in another stall you'll be very surprised!

Oh I also love using it under straw at foaling time! it is so much easier to keep the stall clean and dry plus it takes half the time to clean it. It's great!
Cathy C

I guess I am lucky, being here in Arizona the pee spots dry quickly, we also have open air barns so they are not closed up with only a window and a door. As far as the sand goes as long as you feed Psyillium then you shouldn't have a problem with sand colic. Our horses are kept on dry lots here and we feed psyillium every day to every other day year round. Years ago I had a horse that had to have colic surgery (he rotated his colon 360 degrees). After they untwisted his colon they emptied it. I asked the doctor if they had found any sand in him and they said he was free of sand. This clinic also did a study on different products that are said to remove sand and Psyillium is the only one that did the trick. To each there own but I just wanted to say that sand is not all that bad if you take the proper precautions. We also feed out of 55 gallon plastic barrels that are laid on their sides and have an opening cut in them. Then on the bottom side we drill holes that let the dirt/sand fall through (since hay always seems to be a little dusty here). It has been several years and we have not had to add sand in any of the stalls yet.

I have used the pelleted bedding in the past for show livestock and it works great. But for our horses I find I like the sand over everything else that I have tried. For some reason my horse like to dig up the mats and play with them.

See that is what is great about getting into a forum that has such knowledgeable members.

I get my sawdust for free. ($5 to load onto my truck)
I think the pellets are $5 a bag.
But I also know from picking my stalls and my paddocks daily that the amount of waste can increase rapidly.

Here in Central Pa, we have such varied weather.
Our summers are shorter than most.
Our winters tend to be cold longer.
We have humidity in the summer, but probably not as bad as the southern states.

I really appreciate the info that other members have posted here.

I just tried the pellets and they are similar to sawdust when wet but swell to at least 3 times their original volume so they do go a lot farther. They also smell great and if put on top of hydrated lime, stall odor is much less.

I didn't replace all the sawdust though, i just tossed a couple bags of pellets on top of the sawdust and it worked fine. Stall cleaning seems easier since the urine spots seem easier to spot and stay more contained in swollen pellet patches. Once the urine patches dried outside they seem reusable actually. The odor went away and they just look like fresh sawdust. I am tempted to toss them back in the stall but i wont.