Advice on rubber mats please

[Rubbermats]

I have 2 ponies aged 15/16 - during the day they are out on their field - overnight and In really awful weather I keep them on the yard and they have access to a large shelter with rubber mats down (concrete floor underneath ) we hang their overnight haynets in there .... the yard area is MOT hardcore that’s drains well and is fairly flat (without too many large stones ) anyway my question is can I just put a thin layer of shavings on top of the mats - would that be enough ? They are only rugged if it drops below freezing and I can’t use straw at all (we tried it and one of them ate the whole lot!! - nice vet bill) please be kind I’m a bit new to this .... ps we don’t have a manure heap (and we don’t want one) we have to badg it and take it to the tip fortnightly....

 

[holydaysandholidays]

If you put a thin layer on they might just turn it to mush...

 

[Rubbermats]

So one of the main problems is that it’s hard to get rid of any bedding - is there anything like vet bedding (which people use for dogs) that would be suitable for the ponies or lie on ? Then I could wash those and reuse them but I’m not sure if they may caught up in them if they lie down ?

 

[be positive]

Most are happy enough to lie down on mats without bedding, my only concern would be whether they will pee happily somewhere overnight, I keep mine on a similar set up and had to use bedding to encourage one to pee and not hold on all night, annoyingly they walk to the bedded area and do their droppings on it so mucking out has become more full on than I had hoped, they are in a 20ftx40tf shelter with about a 12ft square of bedding which works well, I semi deep litter it.

 

[Rubbermats]

Most are happy enough to lie down on mats without bedding, my only concern would be whether they will pee happily somewhere overnight, I keep mine on a similar set up and had to use bedding to encourage one to pee and not hold on all night, annoyingly they walk to the bedded area and do their droppings on it so mucking out has become more full on than I had hoped, they are in a 20ftx40tf shelter with about a 12ft square of bedding which works well, I semi deep litter it.

Thanks for your reply - they can access their outside yard area - tbh they usually just eat their haynets in the shelter (standing on mats) and then spend the rest of the time outside unless it’s raining really heavily then they stand in the shelter - my concern is that the outside area is just hardcore so it’s not somewhere they will lie down (they will wee and poo out there always )

 

[be positive]

Thanks for your reply - they can access their outside yard area - tbh they usually just eat their haynets in the shelter (standing on mats) and then spend the rest of the time outside unless it’s raining really heavily then they stand in the shelter - my concern is that the outside area is just hardcore so it’s not somewhere they will lie down (they will wee and poo out there always )

I would leave it how it is, a small amount of bedding will probably just encourage them to use it as a toilet and become a mess, it is not the same as being stabled in a 12x12 box with no choice but to lie down, pee and eat in much the same area yours can mooch about and are likely to lie down on the mats or in the field during the day, my 16.2 and 12 hander were happy to lie on their mats but the big horse was starting to rush out of the yard and pee each morning so I put bedding down for his comfort.