To fulfil all the conditions of comfort, health, cleanliness, and economy, a bedding should be dry, soft, elastic, absorbent of watery fluids and gases, clean in use, easily procurable, fairly cheap, and free from decomposing matters, disagreeable and unhealthy odours, and corrosive and astringent properties. It should be a bad conductor of heat, and should not be hurtful to the health, if it tempts horses to eat it. For appearance sake it is well to have it of a light colour, so that it may brighten up the stall or box by the light reflected off its surface. The possession of a pleasant smell is of course a strong recommendation.

Dryness is essential to the horse's general health and to the strength and soundness of his feet, the horn of which becomes decomposed by the prolonged action of wet. If the bedding, like peat moss, is highly absorbent of moisture, it will aid, as far as its absorbent capacity goes, in keeping the floor dry. But if, like straw, it possesses this property to only a small degree, it will need to be of such a nature that it will readily allow of the downward escape of fluid which falls on it, and it should be of good depth, so that its surface may remain dry. Even then, there will be the difficulty of removing the urine which has drained through the bedding on to the floor.

High capacity for absorbing gases is very useful in a bedding; because it helps to prevent the atmosphere of the box or stall from becoming contaminated by injurious gases which result from the decomposition of urine and dung, and which, in this case, will become imprisoned to a greater or less extent in the material of the bedding, and can then be removed out of the stable.