Concrete floor - no mats - advice?

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brightmount

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We're shortly moving to a yard, and the owner asked if we were bringing rubber mats! This was a new one on me, is that normal? They have always been down and fitted to the stable where we have been in the past. The answer is no, so I guess we need a really deep shavings bed. How many bales do you think a standard 12x12 stable would need with no mats down? Anyone got any tips?
 
I am on trial on a yard at the moment who only deep litter, as in been there 6 years and only taken the bases out once when there was ringworm on the yard. Even the dirtiest horses only use a bale of shavings max a week and it works well, have to just lift the bed and re level the bed each day so its quite quick. Dont know how many bales it would take to start though, when I started mine in a 12 X 16 stable it took 5 bales of hunter shavings so probably 7 or 8 bales of normal shavings (hunters incredibly densley packed - better value for money imo). :)
 
I have never been on a yard which provides mats! I bought sone for my daughter's mare as she is so mucky! My mare has no rubber matting and I usually start her bed on around 8 bales of shavings and then add more if necessary! There was one girl at our yard who started with 3 or 4 bales and the poor mare was lying on bare concrete!
 
I think I must have been living a sheltered life! I assumed rubber mats came with the stable, pampered southerner that I am! But thanks for the estimates to start the bed off. I'm a bit nervous of capped hocks if she churns it all up and leaves bare patches, so will probably go a bit OTT with the shavings to start with!
 
I don't use mats under beds, some horses have them at the front of their stables where there is no bedding. My beds are about 9' x 12', so 3/4 of the floor. I semi deep litter or deep litter depending on the horse. I start the bed with 3 bags of megazorb and 4 bags of shavings, in the first fortnight I add 2 bales of shavings per week, after that it is a bale a week and a bag of megazorb every 5-6 weeks. Haven't had a single horse dig to the floor yet :)
 
I have never been on a yard that provided matting and I have been on some nice yards. I rent my own yard now and I still don't have matting. I do sometimes feel like I must be the only person left not to have them but I do have decent shavings beds for them. Starting at about 8 bales. Exactly the same as before when matting wasn't even around :)
 
I've never used rubber mats for mine - I don't much like them as I all those I have come across smell, whatever the mucking out regime.

Neither do I deep litter. I make sure there is enough bed down with banks so the horses don't uncover the concrete in the middle, although the front of the box by the door is bare.

I haven't ever had a problem with cuts/scrapes/capped hocks etc.
 
I have to say I dislike mats, unless the floor in the stables slopes well towards a drain, urine just pools underneath and not only gets really yucky but also over time damages the concrete. Bedding gets into the spaces between mats, it all bulges and just looks horrible :o
I put a single mat by the door for the floor scrapers, if I must. Only other option I would consider now is the liquid rubber sealed floor, but concrete and decent bed does just fine, IMO.
 
I used 10 bales of approx 25kg shavings bales to bed the whole box to approx 8 inches and good big banks. Don't try mucking that out to the floor every day tho! That was setting up a deep litter box.
 
My boy is in a 12 x 12 concreted stable. He started off with 7 bales of miscanthus (not as dusty as shavings) covering 2/3 of his stable and in the depths of winter I probably add 1 bale a week sometime 10 days. I keep adding and adding so he has a deep bed, come the spring the whole lot gets turfed out.

This works very well for us and is very quick in the mornings with only just having to poo pick and sweep back to the bed. My sister has her mare on mats using the same system but takes her longer to sweep up as the mats have knobbley bits on and takes ages to sweep clean, also, come the spring clean what is under the mats is disgusting!:eek:
 
We have had to have 4 stables redone due to rubber matting urine acid eating into the floor and causing damge which is about £500 a stable which aint cheap so we wont have rubber matting now but if you have a deep enough bed then there isnt any problem. I am on straw and my stables are 16 x 16 so I use about 1 - 2 bales a week which costs about £5.50 and I find this more than sufice.
 
I deep litter with shavings and the bare bit at the front of the stable has 2 rubber mats there just to 'stand on'. I think my stable is about 14x10 and I started the bed off with 6 bales of equibed. If he starts wintering in in say, October, then I would take the bottom of the bed out end January and re-start and that will go through til end April when he goes out 24/7.

2 people on my yard have their stables fully lines with rubber mats and the YO hates them (as do most of the rest of us). YO said if she had realised how smelly etc they would be she wouldn't have let those liveries have them. I have the problem that urine from the stable next to me, runs past the door of my stable and so I have to step over it all the time and if a headcollar gets dropped on the floor - well it might as well just go straight in the bin! This winter YO is keeping watering cans of disinfectant by those 2 stables so that the urine running out can be slooshed down every day.

If she knew about the urine eroding the concrete, at £500 per stable for repairs I think she might just ask for the rubber mats to be taken up!
 
I just have a good old- fashioned stable with no mats. Used 10-12 bales of Nedz Bedz to start off and muck out fully each day- I hate deep litter! His bed is nice and deep so no exposed concrete and never had problems with this. It doesn't take too long to muck out- 20 minutes tops and I put in 2 bales per week to keep the bed nice and thick.
 
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