Do rubber mats really save money and how much?

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zoeshiloh

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OK, so I've been thinking - I have rubber mats in the my stables, more to save time than money, but when working out how many bales of shaings to order this year, I think I will be using the same amount as I always have done;

On a deep litter bed I normally add one bale per week. On rubber matting I am guessing it will also be one bale per week at least. The only big difference will be not having to use eight bales to start the bed off, which will save me approximately £42. This does not cover the cost of the matting and wont do for some time.

For me the cost isn't a major issue, as I did it to save time more than anything. I was just wondering after reading loads of posts about saving money, how it has saved money for them - are people just putting a handful of shavings in every now and then, or are they going without bedding at all?
 
I think they save money by just having banks and then just a sprinkling of shavings to soak up the wee. But if your like me i still like to put a good bed down plus the banks.
 
I still put a good bed down on the mats, but if I didn't have the mats I'd be putting a full size bed down which would cost about twice as much. So yes, I'd say I save money/
I'm also on the pellet bedding now (well, the horses are anyway!) which is about a fifth of the price of shavings/hemp bedding so I save that way too.
 
Mine has a small bed (about 2 inches deep), and before I was using a bale of shavings a week.

Now I use about one a month. So a big saving. I only need to add a couple of bucket fulls a day to replace the wet bits I have removed.

I don't have banks though, I use anti cast strips instead. The horse tends to just drag them into his bed and then wee on them.

Edited to add that he had a proper bed before I had mats!
 
i recently got given some mats. my mare was previously deep littered on straw , with me mucking out properly once a week.
So with the mats she has a bed 1/3 the size...which i have to muck out properly every day so doesnt really save me time. I end up using the same amout of straw per week as well. However, i do love having her on mats as i hated her standing on concrete at the front of the stable or if she dug up her bed. i rekon you only save money if you use a teeny tiny bed which you clear out each day.
 
i think they save a little, and they save horses from skinning/capping their hocks on concrete floors etc unless you have very thick beds, which is worth ££s to me...
i take the same amount of wet bedding and muck out of every stable, but it takes about half the time, so that's valuable too.
 
We have the minging mare on mats with a thin bed of straw.

Its costs £1.50 for her bedding per week
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The stable is cleared out daily and ries off during the days, and I sprinkle a couple of flaps down each night.

Sorted
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I definately use less shavings now that I have rubber mats. It's also is a huge time saving device when it comes to mucking out.

I paid around £300 to fit out a regular sized stable - however my new stable is twice the size so am about to fork out another £200 to put the extra matting in. For the horses comfort and the time it saves though - I do feel it's woth the expense.
 
We put beds down on all our matted stables, we have 4 on straw and one on shavings and it saves a lot of money and a lot of time, ive found it halves mucking out time because you dont need as much bedding, some people dont put any bedding down but I like to put some down and bankings, not only to absorb the wee but for warmth too, also rubber mats are good for horses stood in stables for long periods as its much softer and kinder on the joints than been stood on concrete.
 
I think you save the most money if you were not deep littering before having the matting put down. I have never deep littered and having rubber matting has saved me a fortune on shavings, i used to add almost 1/2 a bale a day, now i add 2 bales a week!
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No I take the wet out every day and bank the clean up until tea time for the mats to dry out, I use a bale of shavings a week and the bed is still about 5 inches deep and the bankings are the height of 3 breeze blocks, I dont think the straw goes as far as the shavings at all because I find you cant rescue as much, so we do use more straw but then again its a lot cheaper than the shavings, we take the full straw bed out every day, leaving the bankings and then put about 3-4 sections of straw down a day.
 
My horse doesn't have matts, but all the other stables on our yard have them - I haven't got round to buying them (although I think they all belong to the YM anyway!), but I makesure my horse has a thick bed as I don't want to run the risk of capped hocks as he's taken to lying down quite often in his stable now.
 
I have horses both on rubber mats and off. The rubber matted have about half the beds that the none rubber matted have. I find that rugs get dirtier quicker on rubber mats. Also the rubber matted horses get stinkier back legs and tails! My farrier always moans about rubber mats saying he can always tell which yards are rubber matted cause the horses reek! Having said all that, I think that they are very good for horses that have joint problems.
 
I had my old lad on deep litter last year, and was putting in one bale a week. The other horse was on rubber mats and shavings, with wet removed daily, and he was using up a bale a week also. We were looking at putting rubber matting in the old boys stable - I use the thick EVA matting, and still put a decent bed down, however I don't bed all the way to the door as I do in the stable without matting.
 
Before I had mats, I would deep bed all the way to the door with shavings or straw. Now, with the mats and using wood pellets, I bed only 2/3rds to the door. Saves a fortune on bedding and time plus the horses are happier too, very rare to go in there without at least one taking a nap during any time of the day. I wouldn't like to go back to no mats at all again. Although I wouldn't like to say when they will have covered their costs (8 boxes @ £180 each) the saving in time and labour is worth their weight in gold to me.
 
I would never bed a horse without matting on a bed where the fork tines would go through to the floor - it's just not thick enough IMO to prevent capped hocks/scrapes/lying on concrete.

However since I have had matting, I am happy for them to have a thin bed, and inch or so thick, which just soaks up the mess. My mats paid for themselves in one winter!
 
My Mats have created small savings for me, im on year 2 of having mats & i was able to swap to Wood Pellets instead of shavings because of them. I wouldnt of swapped to pellets if i hadnt had mats.
So my savings are in the actual cost of buying the bedding & as long as the buying cost stays down i will save a bit every year.

I did do away with Banks after fitting the matting as i matted the stable walls as well.
As for the bed depth it's only slightly thinner sometimes with mats, i do like deep beds.

The thing i have saved is time & thats the most important thing for me, i wouldnt be without my mats & im very glad i did the floor & walls.
 
I think, on the whole, mats save on labour more than money unless you use them with only a sprinkle of bedding which I think was the main idea behind rbber matting.
Of course they probably save money on verts bills as there will be no more capped hocks and scraps from a concrete floor.
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I have saved a fortune myself because I use them in my field shelter which is concrete based. I was bedding it down rather than have them stood on concrete but now just have mats down and no bedding.
 
Mine do save me time, but I still have pretty much a full bed - shavings with banks up to approx 2' high, with the bed at about 3-4 inches deep (used to have it much deeper). So it's quicker and easier to muck out.

I can't say it's saving me much money though. I use 1 bale a week plus 1 extra a month. About the same as I used to use before matting (3 per fortnight, so only saving 1 bale a month). Where it has saved me money though, is where my current stable leaks. Moisture comes through the wall from where the ground is higher at the back of the stable (if that makes sense!). So OH fitted some waterproof flashing to the wall of my stable, which channels the water down to the floor. Matting on top means my bedding stays dry. I was using 2-3 bales a week before putting matting down in this stable, so it has saved me money. If I didn't have a leaky stable though, it wouldn't have done...
 
I use about a bale of shavings per week per horse on top of my equimats, maybe a shade under. They just have a covering over half the stable so that you can't see the mats through it.

Regarding smell: my stables don't smell at all, infact they smell better than traditionally kept horses. The horses wear turnout rugs at night as these repel the wet rather than soak it up. Having said that, they don't lie in puddles as the bedding absorbs it. Their rugs get aired daily & rained on outside so they never get smelly.
 
I don't think they save loads of money but def much quicker. I have tried 3 options on mine - shavings semi deep littered took muck out daily & all the wet at the weekend (used 1-2 bags per week). Straw used about 3 bales a week, full muck out every day, cheaper but more labour intensive. Now just bought some wood pelletts which if I use the estimated 1-2 bags per week will be much cheaper. I still have a decent bed with banks. I found if you have a smaller bed you have to chuck most/or all of it out each day - some people do this but you can smell their horses rugs 5 miles away as they basically lay in there own urine all the time....yuk. Also I can't think that can be v. good for their airways. The other benefit is that you can chuck your horse in it's stable safely with no bedding, e.g. if being brought in for the farrier, or if someone gets your horse in for you before you arrive at the yard. Esp handy in the summer when my horse lives out.
 
Mine save me money as I've got very stingy with my bedding since having them! My horse doesn't care, he still lies down. I use roughly a bale a month instead of 1 1/2 a week. I'm lucky that his stable is huge (12'x16') so although it cost a lot for the matting, he now has matting all through and bedding only on the back half of it (had it all through before). I put a whole bale in, bank it up and just pull a little (2/3 shavings forks full)down each day to cover the area he wees in. I then top it up when the banks get small. He always stands (and therefore poos) at the front (either head over door or by his hay bar) so I actually have very little bedding to take out, just one small patch of wet. It's saved me about 1/2 an hour a day and a fortune in bedding. It all depends how you manage it, if you continue to put a lot of bedding down it won't save you anything, if you use it how it's meant to be used it will.
 
I use Stablelite which are not cheap - £430 for a 13 x 10 stable but they are good, drain pee, very thick and soft.

I have a set which have had the clydesdales on them and they are now 8 years old and have no wear or tear on them. My set before that were bought in 1997 and are still going strong in a field shelter.

Delia - box walking TB went from 10 bales of straw a week to 1 bales of shaving every 10 days - put put a thin pee area in daily and washed out. Used to take out 4 barrows a day reduced to one.

Cairo - was the same - filthy on straw and again down to a bale of shavings a week with a half bed bed.

Farra - has always been on them with megazorb - I use 1 - 2 bags a week as she pees for king and country. I would hate to keep her on a full shavings/straw bed. She has a 3" bed over half the stable.

This winter they are both on mats and I am using wood pellets which should save me even more money.

For me the mats have paid for themselves over the years - I pay for skips rather than full muck outs, use far less bedding and take less than 10 mins to muck out rather than 30 mins plus and time for me is precious, plus a single trip to the muck heap for both horses rather than multiple ones per horse.
 
Mine live out 24/7 but they always have access to 2 large stables (I just leave the doors open). In one I have rubber matting and its been brilliant for wet/muddy horses walking in and out all day and night. I simply sweep every day and it takes me 5 mins to muck it out (which is pure poop and bits of hay they drag out of the manger). The other stable doesnt have any matting so I have to deep litter it which is a pain as it can get so messy when snow etc. blows in the front soaking it. Would love matting in there but its about the size of 2 stables so bit expensive.
 
In the winter I use a bale for three neds
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. Just a sprinkling to soak up the week. All neds happy to lie down. Rugs don't suffer any more than with a deep bed. Darn sight quicker to muck out!

I love deep beds, but Dizz trashes them,and quite honestly I'd rather be spending time with her than mucking out
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