Mats and Straw?

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rowdreyer

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I am planning ahead for bedding this winter and considering choosing rubber mats. I've always used deep shavings in the past but can get straw a lot cheaper. However my boy digs his bed up and I worry he ends up on the concrete when lying down!
Does anyone here use mats and straw? Worried the straw isn't that absorbing and the pee will sit under the mats smelling!!

Any other (cheap!) ideas?!
 
Yes I use mats and straw, just moved yards so moved mats, one stable bone dry underneath, yearlings stable quite wet in places under mats but he is generally messy boy!
 
This is what I'm worried about, he rearranges all the bed but he's also very wet and the floor is level so can't drain. Straw is so cheap though at £6 a big bale!!
 
I use the mats. I still use straw on top but you dont have too.
you will have to take them up now and then to clean underneath. Mine havent been cleaned underneath for ages and there is no smell from this. Not a nice job to pull them up and clean. I love the rubber matting, cant bare the thought of my horse laying on the concrete. Would recommend it.
 
You can get liquid rubber matting and there would be no gaps for it to leak through but I don't know how that would compare in price to the seperate mats or how long it would take to put it down.
 
What about still using straw as the main bedding but having a layer of shavings as your first layer on top of the matting and under the straw... this would absorb all the wet if you were aiming for deep litter/bed
 
I use mats and straw and have a wet 18hh i find that as long as i take the wet out everyday it doesn’t smell at all. If i leave the wet for a couple of days then yes it does smell.

I find it so much cheaper and i love the fact that i can put more bed in whenever i want without thinking of the cost. He has a massive bed far bigger than i could afford with shavings.

I will say that straw takes slightly more looking after than shavings but if time isn’t an issue then go for it. I love a nice straw bed i think it looks really comfortable.
 
I do fully muck out every day and time is not so much an issue, (I say that now in the middle of summer though!!). I''m on livery so unfortunately a permanent rubber floor isn't an option. I agree BFG a big straw bed is so much more appealing until he digs it up into a mountain in the middle of his box, he really doesn't appreciate the effort I go to to make the banks all level!!
 
We have a minger of a mare....and having tried every possible combination going she is now on mats and a thin bed of straw.

The straw is mostly soaked and mucky so if there are any clean bits left I will save them but the stable mostly gets swept clean every day and allowed to dry out properly and I fling a few flaps down at night. In winter I use about a bale a week...possibly 2...but seeing as I only pay 75p for straw I thinks thats fine!

OH does lift the mats up every couple of months and gives the stable a good clean out.
 
I use straw and mats, they're fab, but I do pick the mats up and out every 2-3 months and wash them down as the two mares are really messy!!
 
I have mats, straw and a very wet mare and as long as I do a full muck out I don't have a problem. Some weeks I top up with one bale others two
 
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