Rubber matting...am I mean?

I can take them or leave them (in that if I took over a stable with them in I wouldn't take them up, but neither would I go out and buy them), and I think that a field in the middle of a dry summer, complete with a few mole hills and skid marks is infinitely more uncomfortable than a nice deep bed on concrete, and they still lie down OK!
 
Embo said:
I use mats at the front of my stable. He has a large, thick shavings bed at the back which overlaps the mats by about a foot. I like to keep the front of the stable clear but don't like bare concrete, so have the mats for him to stand on when eating his hay or looking out.
Click to expand...

this is what I do as well.
 
No, all on matting, don't need any more capped elbows/hocks in our little herd!! Also I've seen a couple of horses up the yard who don't have matting slip over, I'm sure it can happen on matting too but I personally think it might reduce the risk :)

I think it depends on the type of matting and how well it is fitted as to how easy it is to muck out.
 
i really like mine, but they were fitted to perfection so dont move and work really well-they have been down approx 14 years never cleaned underneath and dont smell at all. Because they have full beds on top the wee soaks in to the shavings long before it goes under them.

i use them only to prevent capped hocks/scraped legs rolling and to keep them warmer in winter. I wouldnt use them with just a sprinkle of beddding, think its gross tbh!
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i really like mine, but they were fitted to perfection so dont move and work really well-they have been down approx 14 years never cleaned underneath and dont smell at all. Because they have full beds on top the wee soaks in to the shavings long before it goes under them.

i use them only to prevent capped hocks/scraped legs rolling and to keep them warmer in winter. I wouldnt use them with just a sprinkle of beddding, think its gross tbh!
Click to expand...

When rubber matting first appeared on the market mid '70s this was why they were introduced. Not as a labour saving bedding saving cost cutting but to provide the horse with something that protected them from capped hocks and elbows.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i really like mine, but they were fitted to perfection so dont move and work really well-they have been down approx 14 years never cleaned underneath and dont smell at all. Because they have full beds on top the wee soaks in to the shavings long before it goes under them.

i use them only to prevent capped hocks/scraped legs rolling and to keep them warmer in winter. I wouldnt use them with just a sprinkle of beddding, think its gross tbh!
Click to expand...
The same as this. I still use good size beds in mine with banks. The beds are put up every day. None of ours smell and we have never lifted them, this is because they were laid and fitted correctly and are sealed. If you lift them you break the seal and the urine can then get under them.
 
i think its very telling that if you walk in to a stable and your eyes water you know the owner thinks rubber mats are a bed in its self!!!!! some yards i teach at have owners who leave horses in all day on just mats and OMG the stench........the stables stinks, the horses stink, the rugs stink.urgh :(
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i really like mine, but they were fitted to perfection so dont move and work really well-they have been down approx 14 years never cleaned underneath and dont smell at all. Because they have full beds on top the wee soaks in to the shavings long before it goes under them.

i use them only to prevent capped hocks/scraped legs rolling and to keep them warmer in winter. I wouldnt use them with just a sprinkle of beddding, think its gross tbh!
Click to expand...

Agree and agree!!

Mine are on mats closely fitted, and re-fitted after they settled. 4 years now, no smell and no need to lift. Jay has a deep bed, although for summer we have just dispensed with the banks. The only concession I have made is a smaller bed that is about 11ft X 10ft, and the rest of the stable (about a third) is just the matting. This does save time, but I think 11 X 10 is plenty to lie down.



Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i think its very telling that if you walk in to a stable and your eyes water you know the owner thinks rubber mats are a bed in its self!!!!! some yards i teach at have owners who leave horses in all day on just mats and OMG the stench........the stables stinks, the horses stink, the rugs stink.urgh :(
Click to expand...
 
We have earth floors in three stabless, and one with concrete. Our earth floors are softer, cleaner, less smelly and drain better than any with rubber matting that I have seen. We are on Millstone Grit, so drain well. We are seriously considering taking up the concrete in the one that has it.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i think its very telling that if you walk in to a stable and your eyes water you know the owner thinks rubber mats are a bed in its self!!!!! some yards i teach at have owners who leave horses in all day on just mats and OMG the stench........the stables stinks, the horses stink, the rugs stink.urgh :(
Click to expand...

I do agree with this. As I said, my horse lives out, so I don't bed my stable down - it just has matting and a bale or so of shavings which I pul down in a thin layer, and can make up a half bed if for some reason he needs to be in at night. I do notice that if he wee's at the front of the box where the shavings are thinner, it can make the place reek. There's no way I;d have him in at night like that - his rugs would end up gross. But as he only comes in for an hour max, I'm not going to make up a full bed for him to dig up!!
 
I have my stable fully matted with The Black Mat co. mats, they're great, I'd not be without them now.

In theory my horses live out 24/7, but if they need to come on for whatever reason for the day, they get a day bed of half straw and the front half left with mats, if they come in for the night, they are properly bedded up. I certainly don't scrimp on bedding just because I have mats.

I'm another who never lifts them and my stable doesn't smell (well, not that I've noticed anyway!).
 
It wasn't just the smell that bothered me to be honest, it was the sweeping of the bobbley surface too. i always felt like i wanted to take them out and wash them, which,of course, isn't practical. So even if i had sealed, properly fitted mats id still have this issue unless i got the non bobble ones and i have heard they are slippery if wet.

He's been a week without them now. So far much cleaner and no issues at all :)
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i think its very telling that if you walk in to a stable and your eyes water you know the owner thinks rubber mats are a bed in its self!!!!! some yards i teach at have owners who leave horses in all day on just mats and OMG the stench........the stables stinks, the horses stink, the rugs stink.urgh :(
Click to expand...

hmm, I know of a riding school that uses straw on mats-all internal stables, it really is minging. I used to work for a local eventer who insisted all legs were hosed down year round when coming in from the field and then the horses bunged straight back into boxes with mats and literally a sprinkling of sawdust in draughty, wind swept internal stables. Felt quite sorry for them.

If I had big horses I would have mats throughout and normal beds. As it is I think its nice that they have a mat to stand on at the doorway and their hay with nice big beds elsewhere.
 
I have just mats in my field shelters and they do well in there but while they poo in there they never wee. The mats are great though I would be just as happy to have them on bare earth.

When I had them on livery and they were stabled I had one on mats and bedding and one with a mat by the door and then just bedding on the rest. It was easy to keep the second one clean but really time consuming and hard work with the first. The mats did make the stable warmer though.
 
At previous yard I had fully sealed rubber mats on the floor and halfway up the wall so NOTHING getting underneath. They were lovely and warm in winter . . . but he still had a foot-deep straw bed with 18-inch/two-foot banks. Current stable has rubber mats across the front where his hay/water/feed is put, and the rest is concrete . . . with the same size bed as previous. No capped hocks, no rubs, no smell when bed is down (although you can smell the wee as I dig it out each morning). I lift his bed (but not the banks) every day, sweep well, put down Stable Zone and once a week spray the floor with diluted Jeyes' Fluid and that seems to work just fine.

Interestingly, the first yard we moved him to after we bought him only allowed shavings, didn't allow rubber mats and (it was full livery) were rather stingy with their bedding (despite me saying I would pay for any extra) . . . Kal had capped hocks - it was the primary reason we left.

That said, I think bedding choices, really depend on horse and rider needs . . . if you had a really tidy horse (mare who lives next door to Kal falls into this category) you could get away with mats and much less bedding, but with a mucky boy like mine, the more bedding he has, the cleaner his stable stays.

P

P.S. Oh, and I know exactly what you mean about sweeping out stables with those bobbly-surface rubber mats - proper pain in the backside!
 
khalswitz said:
I do agree with this. As I said, my horse lives out, so I don't bed my stable down - it just has matting and a bale or so of shavings which I pul down in a thin layer, and can make up a half bed if for some reason he needs to be in at night. I do notice that if he wee's at the front of the box where the shavings are thinner, it can make the place reek. There's no way I;d have him in at night like that - his rugs would end up gross. But as he only comes in for an hour max, I'm not going to make up a full bed for him to dig up!!
Click to expand...

i guess its personal pref- i would not want my horses to stand in that environment for even an hour. no good for feet or lungs!

springgrass said:
It wasn't just the smell that bothered me to be honest, it was the sweeping of the bobbley surface too. i always felt like i wanted to take them out and wash them, which,of course, isn't practical. So even if i had sealed, properly fitted mats id still have this issue unless i got the non bobble ones and i have heard they are slippery if wet.

He's been a week without them now. So far much cleaner and no issues at all :)
Click to expand...

again personal pref but bobbles are worth no capped or scraped hocks for me!

MotherOfChickens said:
hmm, I know of a riding school that uses straw on mats-all internal stables, it really is minging. I used to work for a local eventer who insisted all legs were hosed down year round when coming in from the field and then the horses bunged straight back into boxes with mats and literally a sprinkling of sawdust in draughty, wind swept internal stables. Felt quite sorry for them.

If I had big horses I would have mats throughout and normal beds. As it is I think its nice that they have a mat to stand on at the doorway and their hay with nice big beds elsewhere.
Click to expand...

urgh :(
 
I think most of the problems arise when people think that if you have rubber mats you can cut down drastically on bedding. Not true, you can use a bit less bedding, perhaps 25% less, but cut it down to a thin layer and of course you'll have a smelly horse and stable.
Rather than saving bedding they give peace of mind that the horse cannot scrape the bed away and lie on bare concrete. Also much warmer in winter and nice to stand on.
 
A local riding school where I go and teach occaissionaly has rubber mats in the tie ups for when the school ponies come in. This is a massive three sided area where around 20 horses/ponies stand in individual stalls each day - well the first time I walked in the stench was so strong it actually knocked me back a step. The mats are not sealed and the urine had seeped under the mats to the dirt beneath.

At Easter, the mats were all pulled out and washed and the area beneath flooded to wash the stale urine away. Left to dry through the easter break the yard smelt a lot better. Still a faint odour. I suggested that next time they pull them out is to put a good layer of garden lime on the sand underneath them.
 
I bought some as he has a rutted bit on his floor so thought they may stop the bedding packing into it....


They lasted 2 days before I flogged them to someone as was sick of the sight of them, the pee just pooled in the gaps underneath and I had to move heavy, wet and smelly with pee mats to sweep away the pee

And yes this was with a big bed as am too soft to give him a thinner bed!
 
The problem with not having matting (IMO) is the increased risk of capped/ scraped hocks. Even with a thick bed, some horses roll and disturb the bedding so much that they always get through to the concrete below and they can end up with nasty looking cuts on their hocks :(. I'm an SJ groom and when I started my first pro job, my boss was adamant that any stable with a concrete floor (we also had some with chalk or rubber mats) ought to have a thin layer of wet left in at the bottom so the horse was never on concrete. I thought he was bonkers at first, but now I've seen the benefit!

I can't see why the bobbles would annoy people, but then I don't sweep my stables, just fork the bedding back. If the mats are laid properly, not much will get underneath and the stable won't smell.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top