How much bedding do you use on rubber matting?

i have rubber mats and use hardly and bedding, my stable is fully equiped for rubber mats and has drains at the back so all urine runs straight out so he is not stood in his own excrement!! it depends whether your stable has these drains!!
 
Hollysmum said:
IMO it depends on the mats you have! The thick EVA 'spongy' mats are much more comfortable for them to lay down on than proper tyre rubber mattiner!
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I agree with this, as matting varies so much - I use the Fieldguard mats with rubber 'legs' underneath, which provides good drainage and makes the mats springy to lie on. I know because I tested them myself and feel if they are comfy enough for me to lie on then they are fine for the horse! However, I have seen other types of matting which are very thin and hard and I wouldn't use those types without significant bedding on top.

Other factors to take into account is the amount of time the horse is stabled, what the stable drainage is like, how often the animal is skipped out and the horse's dunging and urinating patterns. Different circumstances dictate different amounts of bedding.
 
Faithkat said:
Agree whole-heartedly with pony person, teddyt and Evelyn. Rubber mats are a flooring, they are NOT a bed and where on earth this ridiculous notion of just putting down a sprinkling of shavings came from, goodness only knows. Bedding is to sop up the "bodily fluids" and a sprinkling won't do that. Would you like to have to lie in your own mess?????
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I understand what you are saying, but there are exceptions. For example my loan horse has a huge stable with rubber matting all over and part way up the walls. He then had a third of it with a thin layer of shavings which is where he wees and poos (due to the drainage of the stable the wee does not come into the 'unbedded' area). This leaves him with the remaining two thirds of dry clean rubber to lay on, which he does, happily. In my mind this is no different to lying down in the field? With this method he only gets through a bale a month (he is out for the majority of the daylight hours).
 
A good bed is needed - when a horse lies down in the paddock he does not have to deal with draughts - it may be a cold day but he can get up and run around to warm up. The moment you shut the stable door you have draughts whistling in - for the horse to be warm in a confined area where he cannot exercise himself to get warm he needs a deep bed; a draught increases the effect of cold


If a draught of cold air is capable of freezing central heating pipes - it can chill your horse. (Dad - a plumber had to defrost a house's central heating system, a gap in between two bricks allowed cold air to flow over a central heating pipe - it froze and split the pipe despite the heating being on.)
 
TGM said:
I agree with this, as matting varies so much - I use the Fieldguard mats with rubber 'legs' underneath, which provides good drainage and makes the mats springy to lie on. I know because I tested them myself and feel if they are comfy enough for me to lie on then they are fine for the horse! However, I have seen other types of matting which are very thin and hard and I wouldn't use those types without significant bedding on top.

Other factors to take into account is the amount of time the horse is stabled, what the stable drainage is like, how often the animal is skipped out and the horse's dunging and urinating patterns. Different circumstances dictate different amounts of bedding.
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My mare just mangles the pee and poo all in together so doesn’t really matter how much shavings you put it she seems to meet the shavings to poo ratio 50/50 lol! Our stables were built with rubber matting and minimal bedding in mind as they are sloped to the back where there is brilliant drainage :) I also only use turnout rugs both indoors and outdoors.
 
My gelding is the same as above, & the stables! although I wash my boys rugs myself so do use a stablerug when needed. Xx
 
Hollysmum said:
Our stables were built with rubber matting and minimal bedding in mind as they are sloped to the back where there is brilliant drainage :)
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Same here - our stable floors slope to either the rear or the front and then into a drainage gully. That and the design of the mats means there is little wet left in the stable, so not a lot of bedding is needed to soak it up. Plus our stables are very sheltered so not cold and/or draughty either.
 
I have a fully matted floor but still have big deep bed. I take the poo out daily, the wet every other day and lift all banks weekly. I used to put in 5 a month but recently went down to 4 as i found the bed started to get dusty.
 
BALE A DAY????

I have 4 and use 2 bales a fortnight when they are in a lot in the winter between all of them!! 3 on rubber, 1 not as she is very wet and it sits under the rubber and smells bad.

I do top up with shredded paper which I get free from work every couple of days.

The 2 'normal' girls have about a 2 inch bed across half the stable, my princess has a good 5 or 6 inches across half as she has very sensitive skin and a history of capped hocks and the mare without rubber has similar as no rubber!

Can;t imagine how long this is taking you to muck out!!

Look at the type of rubber you have and your horse, my mare without rubber is cleaner without.
 
This is my bed at its smallest!!....

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I use wood pellets on full rubber mats. I cover the back third of the stable wi a bed a couple of inches thick.
 
tinap555 said:
For 1: 2cm is a sprinkle to me

2: Please don't patronise me regarding patting myself on the back! The thread was started as a general question on what people do, so i replied, then more or less got told i stink for not doing it someone elses way!

3. I'm not going to waste money that could be better spent elsewhere on extra bedding that he is just going to drag all round the box. Yes he has had a bigger bed before but was reduced.

3. I will be patronising now, the pony is a he.
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So you keep your pony short of bedding to save money. Not a claim I would want to broadcast myself. Messy horses are messy horses. They cost more to keep. I've had a few in my time. It doesn't justify keeping them short of bed on non-EVA mats in my book.
 
lara b said:
I understand what you are saying, but there are exceptions. For example my loan horse has a huge stable with rubber matting all over and part way up the walls. He then had a third of it with a thin layer of shavings which is where he wees and poos (due to the drainage of the stable the wee does not come into the 'unbedded' area). This leaves him with the remaining two thirds of dry clean rubber to lay on, which he does, happily. In my mind this is no different to lying down in the field? With this method he only gets through a bale a month (he is out for the majority of the daylight hours).
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Lara it doesn't compare with lying down in a field. In the field the horse will either find, or create for itself, a dip, and it will lie with its belly in the dip. If you check any field where horses have lived for long enough out full time you will find these areas, which are often patches of mud with no grass on them. Rubber mats are dead flat and the non-spongy ones put pressure on the ribcage.

I really don't think it's possible to say a horse lies "happily" on minimal bed or on bare rubber unless the horse has the alternative of a decent thickness of bed and then chooses to lie on the mats instead. Try a test and see what your horse does.
 
TGM said:
Same here - our stable floors slope to either the rear or the front and then into a drainage gully. That and the design of the mats means there is little wet left in the stable, so not a lot of bedding is needed to soak it up. Plus our stables are very sheltered so not cold and/or draughty either.
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All stables are draughty - unless the doors are fitted with draught excluders!
Try this experiment - Choose a door that has no draught excluder, close the door and lie down beside it - you will feel the cold air which because it is channelled will feel more than just cool.

A deep bed keeps your horse warm and comfortable.
 
Well that's in your book isn't it!! Come off your high horse!! Yes I do it to save money, AS HE IS PERFECTLY HAPPY & HEALTHY!! i would be doing different if needed.
I'm not ashamed to say I have to save money, I work bloody hard to keep my daughters pony. Why feel the need to slag people off if not doing it your perfect way???

OP, I apologise for your thread turning into this but I will defend myself to self righteous numptys who feel the need to attack peoples methods, when all I did was answer your original post!!
 
Good grief, I bury my rubber matts and only use 2 bales of shavings a week. I did have a cushings horse (eg wee'd for England) and he had 3 max every other week in a 12x12 box
 
cptrayes said:
I used to get through a bale of good shavings a week. I put a full depth bed of half the size that I would use without mats. I absolutely loathe stabling horses on mats with a sprinkle of shavings:


no horse would choose to lie on a rubber mat if you gave him the option of a bed. If you doubt me on this one, try it, put half a bed in a corner of your stable and watch where your horse lies down. No, they DON'T lie on flat hard fields if they have a choice, they dig a hole for their bellies and lie in that. Check any big field with horses in and you'll find the bare holes.

no horse would choose to lie in a pool of his own piss.

people and dogs of people and rugs and horses stabled this way STINK

Did I mention, I don't agree with keeping horses on mats without a bed :) ?
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Totally agree.
 
In fairness, I did say that I bury my matts and overdo do it completley. By rights I would guess that a bale a week would more than enough in a corner
 
My girl has a full very thick shavings bed and big banks on top of the rubber matting.

This is for two reasons a) its just my personal preferance for keeping a bed and b) because she is an old lady with stiff joints so I want to keep her as warm and comfy as possible.

Sadiemay
 
I have the nice soft green jigsaw mats for my mare. When she is in for the day she has about a 3' strip across the back of the stable around 6" deep. Being a mare she wees out the back so that works.

Overnight when she lays down she has around a 12 x 12 bed about 6" deep.

I use my mats as a protection from the concrete for her hocks. If there was no matting she would need a much thicker bed not to get through it.
 
Mine have rubber matting but i keep thinking i may as well not bother with it as you can't see it underneath their beds apart from at the front of their boxes near the doors!- i like my huge deep beds and big banks I do! I use 2 to 3 bales of paper on average per week per horse, and one gets 2 paper and 1 shavings bale per week.
 
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