Cheapest bedding for use with mats?

Spyda

Spyda

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I'm going to lay my rubber mats shortly. The stable floor is concrete (with good drainage slope) and the mats are those really heavy 6'x4' solid rubber ones. The ones with the drainage grooves underneath and the large bobbles on the top surface.

Are these really soft enough for the horse to lie on comfortably without bedding? I've seen them used with a small rear corner of bedding to urinate on only, so assume these horse lie mainly on the bare mats.

My filly is disgustingly dirty, so the mats and use of minimal bedding is an attractive prospect, as long as I know she'll be comfortable. She wears a nice thick stable rug at night, but I wouldn't want her to scrape her hocks or elbows on the bare rubber floor. Is this likely to be a problem?

And what bedding is going to be most cost effective this year? I can get straw from the livery yard but assume I should use something else with the mats. I'm in East Devon. What's going to be 'cheap' (ha, ha, ha!) bedding this winter?
 
The best way to answer your question is to try the mats yourself! If they are soft enough for you to lie on then they should be fine for the horse! I use Fieldguard M2 mats and lay down on them myself when I first got them to test them for comfort! In fact, I have just got my horses in for a few hours today, as they are out at night, and two out of the three have already been down for a nap in that short space of time!
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As for bedding, I've used Aubiouse, Hemcore, Equisorb and Megazorb with my mats at various times and all work well, although I don't personally like the Megazorb when used as a full bed.
 
Wood pellets I would have thought which means you can lay a decent bed (4" or so) in the top half of the box so no chance of scrapes and for half the price of shavings and they are so much easier to muck out, very cost effective and just right for a wet horse. Only downside if you can call it that is they are brown as opposed to white shavings.
I also had a filly on Sundown Yellow which was very good and absorbent, meant she could have a bed instead of just a sprinkle. I'd put just one bale in the middle of the box as she always walked around the outside of it, skip out every day and rake over; that bale would last nearly a week without adding more so quite cost effective too.
 
OK. I have mats they are only about 25mm thich and have a blunt 'tread' on them. I use sawdust and shavings because neither of mine have respiratory problems and I can get it for free

I know both mine lay down and so far (six weeks) neither of them have any marks on them that I can attribute to the rubber - bear in mind they lie on the hard, lumpy ground out in the field without a second thought and a rubber mat is much more comfortable than that.
 
I use a sprinkling of shavings
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. All our neds are happy to lie down on the mats. Two of mine are disgustingly dirty and we've gone from a couple of hours mucking out to ten minutes or so
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. Horses are happy. I'm happy.

(I actually love seeing deep beds! Love doing them when I have time, etc., but the above works better for us all these days
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).
 
wood pellets for us too, would never go back to using shavings now after having these, they are brill, work out cheaper, much more absorbent, hardly any smell, easier to muck out and less waste
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Well, the mats are now down. Blinking heck what a job that was. I'm knackered. They were buried under loads (and I mean LOADS) of horsey junk, in my old horse trailer. OH had removed the mats from the old stable and hadn't hosed them off, so they were thick with musty crud and goodness knows what else. The whole trailer had to be emptied out and each mat rolled up, tied with a lunge rein and then lugged 600 yards to the barn. I only had help from my 10 and 11 year old sons, too. It's taken us HOURS and I doubt either of them will be speaking to me for at least a week
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Anyway, tG they're now scrubbed clean and are drying in the stable (the mats, not my sons
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)

The wood pellets sound an interesting option, but I really don't know how much to put down. Inevitably, unless I deep-litter, I will have to muck out everything each day. My filly really is foul over night. If I used a thin layer I'd probaby end up using 3 or maybe even 4 bags a week, I expect. So, not that cheap really.

When I had the mats in my last stable I used to hate them looking grubby and would end up throwing a bucket of dilute Greengloop over them each morning and sweeping them clean. Then I'd lay the bedding down in the evening. Soooo, again - not the most time saving method.
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THIS TIME I want to benefit from having them
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Hm. Think sons deserve large bar of something suitable
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We have the thin layer of shavings. When neds are in, I go through about a bag a week (three stables). Most of what is in the stable comes out. Dizz is disgusting. She poos just off the mats so I swill that area with a couple of buckets of water. Takes no more than ten minutes to muck her out now, swilling included
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[ QUOTE ]
Hm. Think sons deserve large bar of something suitable
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[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely! They're are presently tucking into a huge dinner cooked by my OH. They had missed lunch, too, so were starving, as well as knackered. Bad Mummy
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So, you only sprinkle a tiny layer of shaving over your mats then? Do you just do a 'pee patch' or the whole back wall? My filly tends to pee along the left wall of her stable, about midway along. She pees for Britain and I just can't imagine a mere sprinkling of shavings would be enough to absorb the amount. She actually holds her urine in the winter, until she comes in. It's the first thing she'll do when she comes in, and she also does one straight after her breakfast feed just before she goes out
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That said, any excess urine would just seep underneath the mats, and run down and out the stable door into the yard gully. I am just wondering if a sprinkling of shavings is actually worth putting down?

Also, (okay, dumb question coming now) when you shovel up the poops, do you just sweep the mats as clean as you can and then leave the mark that's left, to dry? I've got the mats with the bobbles all over them and they are hard to sweep clean, especially the 'older' piles that have started to dry. If I don't physically wash where she's pooped, the mats end up covered with dried on poop patches. I don't suppose this matters, and I am just being anal about it, but is this how the mats are supposed to look when being used?
 
We usually have about 20 in - on mats - and use paper (proper shredded newsprint - NOT the plain white paper shreds you can get down south which are NOT absorbent!!)

Use just under a bale to start a bed from scratch - and 1 bale a week to top up. We don't deep litter - just remove droppings and any VERY wet paper, pull the used paper to the middle and a bit of fresh around the outside.

We've tried almost everything - flax - not as absorbent and more expensive; shavings - ditto; cardboard - useless!

Paper bales cost us £4 a bale - delivered in loads of 70.
 
I was interested in using shredded paper but don't thinks it's that easy to obtain locally and as I don't have storage space for more than 4 or 5 at a time, I can't buy in bulk.
 
The layer is to stop the wee splashing back up
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. I do just over the mats, and where I know she will poo as it makes it easier to clean up
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As to sweeping: I can get a bit carried away, and the bobbles are definately harder to sweep than the mats with the grid lines on! I find that either use a brisk/short sweeping action and it all comes up, or use one of those desk brushes on a long handle - they are brill for actual washing of mats
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. Once a week or so I'll whoosh the whole stable with buckets of water with cleaner in (can't think what it's called), the stable drains very well so all is good. It's more of a drag when the stable doesn't drain well.

People say that rugs get manky this way, but our neds lie down no matter what is on the ground - they'll just as happily lie in a pile of poo in a straw bed as they will a pile of poo on mats
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. Haven't noticed a need to wash rugs more often. Most of our rugs go in the washing machine and hubby is pretty understanding lol.
 
I use paper too. My big messy horse has one bale a week. I tip the whole bale into a corner then take a bit from it each day to replace what I've taken out. The actual bed is about 2" thick as he won't lie down if it's any thinner.

I'm in West Devon and can get it easily. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get it from Town and Country out near the airport. Mine is made by Bystock bedding and is about £5 a bale.

I've tried lots of other things but this def is less dusty and more economical than anything else.
 
I have 30mm EVA mats in my stables and still use a 3" bed plus banks (shavings at the moment as we still have plenty). The trouble with mares is - if they have banks in the stable the pee goes into them, and they can be semi deep littered ie wet bits hunted for every 2nd or 3rd day. If no banks - then there is an awful lot of moisture on the floor (which any bedding will be hard pushed to mop up).

The other problem with using no bedding (or just a pee patch) is that rubber mats with tramped over pooh gets EXTREMELY slippery in a matter of a couple of hours (believe me I have tried).

I use my method on a very dirty TB mare who boxwalks, and mamage to use less than a bale per week shavings. Mucking out time is approx 15 min, perhaps 20 at the weekend.

Fiona
 
I use straw with my mats. Also i would swap her stable rug for a NZ as they have waterproof outers and will last longer than a stable rug.
 
It's interesting the comment about slippery. Our mats don't seem to get slippery (the rubber bobbly ones). The shavings seem to soak okay, and the stable drains extremely well, though I don't remember the last stables, which were less well draining, as being a problem.

Ah well. Horses for courses
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One of my mares is the cleanest creature - I have watched her step over a pooh rather than stand in it. She would be fine whatever combo of mats/bedding was used though I still think a big bank soaks up the pee better.

The other mare who walks (and there are a lot like her including the OP's horse I think) can turn pooh into a mush in minutes, and have seen her slip in a relatively short space of time. I'm not even thinking of pee adding to the mess here, just pooh.

My advice would be to use more bedding than you think you might need at the start, and if it stays tidy/dry then try to cut down slightly.

If my method used loads of shavings then I would definitely be looking for advice on changing, but less than one bale a week for a very dirty mare is quite good I reckon.

Fiona

Fiona
 
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