Pros and Cons of Earth Floors?

[kit279]

It has rained like the end of the world all week and I am feeling a wee bit smug as now on sandy soil and not a speck of mud in sight! This has made me think pretty seriously about leaving the floors of my stables as earth - the soil drains SO well that it seems mad to spend a fortune on concrete just for the pleasure of catching all the urine and having to muck out. I seem to remember that we never had concrete in France, we deep littered and then did a full muck out every 8 weeks, which worked wonderfully.

Can anyone talk me through the pros and cons of earth floors?

I am planning to have internal barn style partitions though. Do I need something to bolt them to the floor with? The walls of the stables would be concrete blocks (reinforced). Any thoughts?

 

[buzzles]

In the old yard I kept my pony we had old fashioned wooden stables with earth floors- well they were dug out about 2 feet and then filled with peat and I used shavings on top. It worked really well- all the the urine drained away so only droppings to be skipped out and maybe a little bit of wet stuff- I only used about a bale of fresh shavings a month so very economical. The stables were also always really warm too, the only thing was my pony used to kick the door and so had a big hole dug out by the entrance from pawing the ground!!
Now I have a barn with concrete floors and rubber mats but when I got a lean-to built on for extra stables I didn't bother getting it concreted, just dug it out and put a load of hardcore down and then a deep layer of peat on top and it works fine.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

We have earth floors in 2 of our stables. They are warm, drain well and are not smelly. We deep litter on them. The only drawback I can find is that one mare always wees in the same place and this makes a dip in the floor.