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

totally agree! there's a lady up the road from me who puts a thin layer of shavings on top of the equimats (had to be the most expensive ones of course!), about half a meter square. How are they supposed to wee on that????
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I have mats at the front and a thick bed at the back but since I've done that I've noticed that the horses stand at the back of the stables on the straw rather than in the middle like they did before I had the mats.
Mats really are purely a convenience for us mucker outers!
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Ours are on mats with a half bed at the back of about 6 inches thick of shavings. Haven't found they give a hoot if they are laid out on the shavings or the rubber and they have free choice. I find them quicker to muck out with this much bedding as its enough to soak up any wee but not so much you have to dig through a whole bed or really put your back in to hosing or sweeping out mats.
 
I have rubber mats and only use one bag of shavings a week. If I could afford more I would have a big bed as I feel it's warmer and cosier for them. My horse is only in over night in winter but I still want more bedding! Though I've been told by YO that she's always got her head over the door when they check her as she's not best keen on being in so she doesn't seem to lie down much. I like bedding though as I know some horses prefer flooring like that to wee on too and don't like weeing onto rubber mats
 
rubber matting with a sparse (i mean a scattering)/no bed makes me cringe. it stinks, their rugs get a lot dirtier etc.

I have mats and a deep straw bed. warmer in winter. cheaper than shavings. and her rugs dont stink - there clean enough to put in my machine usually. she eats the nicer batches but i just spray with jeyes (hey nothings perfect)

Yes in the wild they sleep on the ground - but I make my pony work hard sometimes at disciplines that arent neccessarily her favourite, and im proud to pamper her - condition wise she is top notch so i'm not ashamed to say i give her a 'comfy' looking bed - which she usually has a good roll in to show her appreciation !

I could not get on her and expect her to work hard every day knowing she'd been laying on a bare mat covered in wee.
 
Well our pony is in top-notch condition too, she works very hard and successfully in a huge range of disciplines and is pampered in lots of ways. However, she is bedded on top quality springy rubber mats with excellent drainage which are definitely not stinky or covered in wee! I must say I would rather see that than some of the shavings or straw beds I regularly see where horses are down to the concrete as soon as they move!
 
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I have read all the answers and I find it quiet interesting to see the range of opinions.
On a personal note I have a fully matted 14 x 14 stable with a reasonable straw bed in half of it. It is a personal thing as I don't like bedding on concrete floors and I feel that the rubber mats protect hocks ect when my horse lies down. I also found with my footy gelding that it acted as a shock absorber and that he was more comfortable standing on mats rather than concrete. I still have a full straw bed, however it is half the thickness that I would have otherwise needed. I do also feel that it insulates the stable floor to a degree.

I think my mare is a little strange though as she does seem to prefer lying on her hay when she is in the field and we had a laugh at her "nest", and since she is on her own in the field I do think she rests better in her stable. In fact she is in tonight as she looked "field weary", and I know that she won't have eaten her usual amount of haylage as she will be flat out asleep for most of the time.

at the end of the day you find a system that works for both horse and owner, and once you find this system you stick to it.!!
 
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rubber matting with a sparse (i mean a scattering)/no bed makes me cringe. it stinks, their rugs get a lot dirtier etc.


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Surely it depends on the absorbency properties of the bedding you use! Wood pellets are extremely absorbent and a small amount goes a long way, whereas straw is not particularly and most of the urine goes trough to the floor (which is why straw beds have to be lifted to dry out). Amonia smells are much stronger in stables with non-absorbent bedding like straw.

If you are interested more info:
http://www.wowhorses.com/horse-bedding.html

http://www.springerlink.com/content/d243765tm534u776/

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S073708060800066X
 
I'm only speaking of what I know. I've never seen properly installed mats used in this way for example and not often with anything else other than shavings which in a thin layer (i mean an inch or two) is not very absorbent really.
 
You see that is just like me judging users of straw bedding based only on seeing people doing it badly with a thin layer of dusty poor quality straw! Personally, I think if you are going to use rubber mats with minimal bedding then you need a well-draining stable and good quality springy mats with some facility for the urine to drain away. If you only have thin mats and poor drainage then you will need to put more bedding down.

You also have to consider the animals involved and the time spent in the stable. When I had an old Cushings pony she was very wet and spent a lot of time in the stable to prevent laminitis, so she needed more bedding on the mats.
 
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