I will probably get shouted at for this, but....

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Erehwemos

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...does anyone else hate to see a horse stabled on rubber mats with just a small amount of additional bedding or - shock horror - no bedding at all??
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I totally understand why people use mats on a concrete floor - I'm thinking of getting some myself to stop the floor being so slippery. But I would still bed up the stable exactly the same on top of the rubber, ie. a full straw bed with 3'6 straw banks, without a patch of rubber showing. But what I dont see is how a horse can ever be as comfortable lying just on rubber - how on earth can that be as cosy and pluffy as a nice deep bed of shavings or straw etc?

I'm clearly quite alone in my way of thinking as there are only a couple of us on my yard who bed the stable right up - most of the others have rubber matting throughout the box with just a small square of bedding in one corner. I just wouldnt feel right doing this to my girl - she deserves a nice deep bed and I know full well she lays down a lot at night, I would hate to think of her lying on rubber!

So am I totally alone, or does anyone else feel similar....?

*ducks*
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I don't like to see bare mats either. I am sure they don't lie down on them as often and they also seem to invite a lot of splashes whereas shavings or straw just absorb it. Sure, it's easier to maintain but I prefer a traditional bed on top.
 
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I don't like to see bare mats either. I am sure they don't lie down on them as often and they also seem to invite a lot of splashes whereas shavings or straw just absorb it. Sure, it's easier to maintain but I prefer a traditional bed on top.

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Yay!!!! LOL
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mine are on a small amount of bed but still with banks round the edge. I have limited time to muck out and it is much quicker this way. I also use a lot less bedding. She is wearing a rug and the mats are very soft. In summer she lays on the ground and that's pretty hard at the moment!
 
Agree
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2 horses on my old yard were like that. When they got turned into the school for a leg stretch, they'd lie down for a rest as it was so comfy compared to what they had to sleep on
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Nope, totally agree with you. I am going to buy some rubber mats so I can have a slightly thinner bed, at the moment the banks are about 3ft6ish same as yours and the bed bit is about 2ft3
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Awww quirky that is sad, and what's more, that's exactly what I know Ellie would be like. She loves to lie down in a nice deep bed - I couldnt ever take that away from her, even if she does cost me a fortune in straw!!
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She's not a duck, she doesn't need a nest, a small amount of wood pellets to soak up the wee are ample.

TBH unless we have a really wet winter I would much rather she stayed out all night in the field and she certainly hasn't got a bed out there.
 
I'm with you on this. Hovis and omar are on rubber matts but also get a fairly big bed each too. Its not deep litter but is a reasonable size - about half the width of the stable leaving them a clear are at the front to stand on just the matting. Both tend to pull thier bedding all over though to lay down fully stretched out (they are also in 14 by 14 stables)

My reasons are simple - i like to think they're comfy and they can lie down but more importantly both wee and poo quite a lot so it a) stops the wee etc coming out under the door and b) keeps them (and their rugs in winter) cleaner.
I must admit most on the yard only put a small square of dust down but heh each to their own.
 
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She's not a duck, she doesn't need a nest, a small amount of wood pellets to soak up the wee are ample.

TBH unless we have a really wet winter I would much rather she stayed out all night in the field and she certainly hasn't got a bed out there.

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Point taken, but it still doesnt seem right to me. I agree, out in the field and in the wild they lay down on grass no matter what the condition, but so many horses I know love to lay down in a deep straw bed, that although it may not be considered 'natural' for them, it is still something I think they deserve...
 
I think if it were in the day I could see the benefits of just having a small patch of bedding. However at night I would put a bed down so they've somewhere to lay and go to the toilet. With horses being the awkward creatures they are if they only had a small amount of bedding they wouldn't go to the toilet on it but on the mats instead. And so would be left with no option but to lay straight down into it. Plus in winter I like to think a good straw bed is not only comfy but also warm.
 
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With horses being the awkward creatures they are if they only had a small amount of bedding they wouldn't go to the toilet on it but on the mats instead. And so would be left with no option but to lay straight down into it.

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That's a bit of a generalisation. However much bed I give D she will do all her poos and wees right on top of eachother in in one neat little patch on the wood pellets. Her rugs don't get stinky so I know she isn't lying in it but she definitely lies down every night.
 
Obviously I meant not all will, I meant most I know (sorry should have clarified). I think we each know our horses and our schedules and know what works best. Just for me, I prefer a nice straw bed.
Just yesturday I watched one of the horses on the yard pee on the mats at the front of his stable (and himself) and turn around to eat the straw patch of bed he had at the back. Silly horse
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I think if it were in the day I could see the benefits of just having a small patch of bedding. However at night I would put a bed down so they've somewhere to lay and go to the toilet. With horses being the awkward creatures they are if they only had a small amount of bedding they wouldn't go to the toilet on it but on the mats instead. And so would be left with no option but to lay straight down into it. Plus in winter I like to think a good straw bed is not only comfy but also warm.

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I'm not commenting on the OP at the moment, but I found your reasoning very odd. Horses don't sleep like we do. They don't come in at night and think 'ahhh bed time' and if they come in in the day time think 'oh ffs now I've got to sleep in the field tonight'. Horses have short sleeps throughout the day, and a lot of the time sleep standing up so they can flee danger. My horses' sleep patterns change depending when they are out/in.

My warmblood doesn't tend to lie down in his stable which is a deep straw bed on mats; my cob has a half bed of aquamax and always pees and poos on the bed, but won't lie on it - he lies on the mats, despite the fact that half the aquamax bed is dry as a bone.

I'm with Daisy's owner (sorry, forgotten your username!) - they don't need a nest! Lanky has a big straw bed for ease because he is so messy, but otherwise, he'd not have quite so much.
 
Well in my experience horses that are in in the day don't have the same toilet habits of those that are at night and don't lie down as often. Just what I've experienced with every horse on my yard. Obviously I don't know your horses sleeping habits but as far as I'm aware the OP was asking us individually what we think. Which is why I wrote what I think about the horses I know. As I said previously that's just what works best for me but we each know our own horses individually.
 
I read somewhere that horses are 'not nest builders', and I think that's the way to look at it. As someone said, they lie quite comfortably on the hard ground in the field to sleep.
Having said that, I have rubber mats and I put a quite thick layer of straw in the back half of the stable so that my horse can lie on them if he wishes (and he does). I think it's the best compromise: only half the stable to muck out and supply straw for, whilst giving my horse a soft 'bed'.
I think one of the downsides of having very little bedding on rubber mats is the way the horse and rugs get so dirty. Wouldn't do for me!
 
Yes but you were talking about horses lying down to sleep and saying you'd give a deeper bed to a horse that was in at night so it could lie down to sleep, but a smaller bed is OK for daytime, presumably because they don't lie down and sleep during the day? That is what I found odd - poo and wee at whichever time of day did not come into it, and my horses do produce different amounts of poo overnight than they do during the day, but the difference is small (I do count poos when I poo pick their field) and more than likely down to the fact I poo pick at 8am in the morning and 5pm at night, so less are done during the day because they have had less time to do them.
 
How much bedding do they lie on in a field?

rubber matting is best used with just a sprinkling of bedding..there is no need for deep beds on rubber.
 
Yes don't like it either, nothing beats a thick straw bed..so pretty and warm looking
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..+ it's not nice to see any horse covered in crap and wee from lying on bare rubber matts, it's disgusting.
 
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Horses don't sleep like we do. They don't come in at night and think 'ahhh bed time' and if they come in in the day time think 'oh ffs now I've got to sleep in the field tonight'.

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Mine does!
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Honestly, she loves nothing more than to snuggle up in her bed. And she actually does 'nest' in it - I have watched her paw great amounts of her banks into the middle (as if being 2ft deep in straw wasnt enough
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) and sink into it - she really does love it. Maybe she's just unusual then? I cannot deny that I have known many horses who dont lie down that much, so perhaps Ellie is just an odd bod
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it's not nice to see any horse covered in crap and wee from lying on bare rubber matts, it's disgusting.

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I don't think that's much to do with the bedding, more to do with the horse. Some of the horses with the deepest beds on our yard use their poo as pillows, trash their beds and end up generally stinky by morning through no fault of their long suffering owners. It's each to their own. I'm very lucky that D is a neat and tidy mare who does not think poo makes an attractive pillow.
 
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Yes but you were talking about horses lying down to sleep and saying you'd give a deeper bed to a horse that was in at night so it could lie down to sleep, but a smaller bed is OK for daytime, presumably because they don't lie down and sleep during the day?

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Like I just said I'm baseing this off horses I know, I don't know your horse and know they're all different. However the majority of the horses on my yard ar in during the day and not one of them lies down. I know this because I'm there most of the day and when you muck them out and check them over you can tell if they've lay down or not.
So yes I know every horse is different but I'm not saying it's the same for every horse I'm just writing about how I find it works for me and the horses I know.
I know many horses sleep during the day, mine being one of them, both standing and laying down but she's out so she just lies on the floor.
 
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How much bedding do they lie on in a field?

rubber matting is best used with just a sprinkling of bedding..there is no need for deep beds on rubber.

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I'm sure you're probably right, I think it's one of those motherly treat pony like a child thing with me
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Although horses can choose not to lie in their own mess and wee out in a field.
 
Im with dwi on this, they're horses, not birds, they cope out in the field, and mats are more comfortable than frosty mud in the winter, or hard mud in the summer. When horses are out 24/7 they are fine, so dont see why deep beds are nessacary.
Saying that, our two OAPS do have slightly thicker beds on their mats compared to our other two.
But I dont think that a small amount of bed on mats is nessicarirly(sp) bad....
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I haven't read other posts but I agree with you. I hadn't had experience of just rubber matting until I sent my horse to a professionals yard and when we went to see him he was in a right mess. His rugs stank, his hay was strewn on the p@ss soaked floor and it was awful. In fact we had to muck him out before we could get in the stable to say hello. At a grand a month that was not acceptable and every time I went afterwards he had a proper clean straw bed.

IMO although I know they don't have to be kept dirty like that , I think rubber mats with no proper bed are for ' tight' or lazy people who can't be bothered to bed a horse nicely.

My lot definitely sleep lying down and I found the welshie in the field yesterday asleep on a massive pile of haylege not on the mud or grass floor so that tells me where he is most comfortable.
 
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How much bedding do they lie on in a field?

rubber matting is best used with just a sprinkling of bedding..there is no need for deep beds on rubber.

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Yep, I see your point - but it's the whole 'domestication' argument isnt it? Yes, a horse in the field or in the wild has no choice to lie on anything but grass, but *if* you were to offer a horse a huge stable with one area of plain matting, and another area with deep straw/shavings, I would place a large bet that the horse would choose to lay on the bedding, not the mats....
 
I don't like rubber anyway, I would personally never use it.
My horse has a HUGE straw bed. I know he is not a duck, and I know he has no bed in the field- but in his field he does not have four breeze block walls to scrape his precious legs up... hence my complete obsession with HUGE banks.
My friend at uni kept her horse on a tiny amount of shavings- it was constantly cast and had bumps and scrapes all over it, which I think is horrible.
 
I like big straw beds, but for the sake of expense and practicality I've ordered mats and will just be giving her a little square of shavings in the corner.

She's a very messy horse, box walks occasionally and pees for Britain. I need to be able to muck out before work and turn up afterwards not stinking of wee. Furthermore she eats her straw (even choosing it over her hay sometimes) and I get through loads of it. With shavings at £7.50 a bale I can't afford to maintain a big shavings bed, especially since she's just as messy on shavings.

I've just moved to a yard where she will be in overnight, all year round. Before this, she lived out and was very happy to sleep in the field- she doesn't need a 'bed' to sleep on.
 
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I don't like rubber anyway, I would personally never use it.
My horse has a HUGE straw bed. I know he is not a duck, and I know he has no bed in the field- but in his field he does not have four breeze block walls to scrape his precious legs up... hence my complete obsession with HUGE banks.


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A very good point, and I totally agree! The stable is a totally different environment to the field.
 
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