rubber matting + shavings.. what to get?

charleysummer

charleysummer

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I am fed up of the hassle of mucking out a thick bed of straw in the winter, and with A levels this year i would really like to save some time! So i've decided to move onto shavings and rubber matting, but i haven't got a clue what to get really... what type of matting (i've seen all the studded/diamond etc but dont know what's best) and also what shavings.

My friend reccomended 'bovine' matting which is apparently used for cattle and a lot cheaper- although i'm not sure how much it costs to kit out with the horse matting-
and someone i know uses industrial shavings- is this bad?.. i've heard it is,

so basically...
-what matting should i get, (the type of equestrian or bovine)
-What shavings should i use
-How much will it all cost!

thankyou :)
 
I don't know what you should get but we are getting Kraiburg rubber matting and will use prob just normal shavings on top. The Kraiburg is pretty expensive compared to others but will be worth it in the long run xx
 
I think horses can make holes in bovine matting with their hooves, because horses aren't cloven-hooved. WHen I asked someone advice about what rubber matting to get they replied "the cheapest, because it's really expensive!" but I never actually got round to buying, which I kind of regret, but still.

As fair as shavings are concerned it must be dust extracted. I don't quite know what you mean by inudstrial shavings, but as long as it's clean, dust free and only has shavings in I can't see the problem. If this person is using it go and take a look at it.

I thought this looked interesting btw http://www.stablesoft-uk.co.uk/sealed-rubber-stable-flooring/

I think shavings are about £7/8 a bale. It was about £5 when I was using it. I used easibed. Seemed quite good.

Rubber mats looked like they were at least £45 for 4" by 6"
hope this helps
 
If you want to save yourself time then consider deep litter.

Cover floor of stable with some Garden Lime, then a good thick layer of sawdust of shavings - 15cms deep, then a thick layer of straw.

Remove only the droppings, leave the wet patches as they drain to floor level. Top up with fresh straw as required.

At the end of winter muck out the whole lot in one go. Great for the garden

Rubber mats are very expensive and are not designed to replace bedding - they were originally intended to soften the surface a horse had to stand on when stabled 24/7. They still need to be used with a good bed which protects the horse from draughts and wicks away moisture from urine.
 
I just bought rubber mats - they were £51.99 each - weigh an absolute ton and were a nightmare to move but I wouldnt be without my mats - they save me time and money. They started at £34.99 at the place I bought them from but they had none of the cheaper ones in stocl - just my luck lol

The person who had the stable before me had bought rubber mats last February - they had a horse who box walked, they bought cheap mats and when I moved to the yard, the mats were full of holes and she left them behind when she left - you get what you pay for. I had rubber mats at my last yard but they belonged to the yard so I had to buy my own when I moved to current yard. My boy has a 12x12 stable - he has a square bed 6'x6' on one corner of his stable. Through observation I have worked out where he is most likely to poo and pee - he is a creature of habit luckily for me - so he poo's on the mats for the most part and wee's on the shavings. This makes for fast mucking out as I just scoop up the poo, take out the wet, turn the bedding and set it back down again - I use one bag of shavings a week
 
thankyou for the repies, ahh yes i never considered that with the bovine- i think it's worth buying decent matting,

and it won't be replacing a nice bed, she will hav shavings on top (i do pamper her and i like to think of her with a nice bed to lye on in the winter!)

so what type of matting? does it really matter? because i've seen all different surfaces!
 
Evelyn said:
If you want to save yourself time then consider deep litter.

Cover floor of stable with some Garden Lime, then a good thick layer of sawdust of shavings - 15cms deep, then a thick layer of straw.

Remove only the droppings, leave the wet patches as they drain to floor level. Top up with fresh straw as required.

At the end of winter muck out the whole lot in one go. Great for the garden

Rubber mats are very expensive and are not designed to replace bedding - they were originally intended to soften the surface a horse had to stand on when stabled 24/7. They still need to be used with a good bed which protects the horse from draughts and wicks away moisture from urine.
Click to expand...
at the yard i go the ponies are on deep litter where some of the liveries have rubber matting,wheather its hasnt been put down right once wet and no bedding on top or very little bedding used the urine leaks through out into the yard/outside of the stable which stinks..deep litter helps to keep the horse warm aswell once established..not for everyone but works for some
 
There is a company called belvoir matting who deliver I believe. Their mats are under £30, and good quality. I was lucky in the fact I got given some mats and brought the rest for a very little outlay, but they are great quality and help HUGELY. I use bedmax shavings now (the little max ones in the winter) which are designed specifically for horses, in the fact they are dust extracted and made from pine wood so have antiseptic qualities :) .

Wood pellets are also great, and will make a good bed on mats :) They could be more economical too, depending what make you go for :)
 
I had the same problem 3 years ago, if you look on eBay you can get really heavy weight black rubber matting for £20 a mat! I still have the mats and they are not worn at all, they have also been fitted to three stables and ive never had any leeks but always put garden lime down before laying them.

The best deal I found for shavings is by sundown products, if you google them they have a website and if you ring them they will let you know your nearest stockist, they are bigger bales than bedmax and other brands and I'll be paying £6 a bale this winter! X
 
Try horsemats on Essex/Suffolk border - good selection with a wide range of prices.
I use Bliss (rape straw) on rubber mats and "dig out" once/week - works well with a VERY wet mare. I top up during the week as and when necessary.

PS I'm very fussy about deep, clean beds and no ammonia smell, so this system seems
good.
 
Can someone please explain to me why we use mats and bedding? I have over the past couple of years seen several different ways of using mats:

Some just lay a normal quite deep bed over the whole matted stable.
Some half fill the stable with mats - just for the uncovered with bed part
Some cover the whole stable with mats and half with bed again quite deep
and lastly some cover the whole box is mats and then just cover a very small amount of the back of the stable with thin bedding.

If horses are happy and naturally lie down on mud/dirt in their fields then why do we use any bedding at all - why not just use mats?

Trust me - I come from the old fashioned massive banks and deep bed age so coming back to horses after a 10 year break has been a bit of an eye opener - your comments would be appreciated.

Ta
 
I only use a small amount of bedding in a 6'x6' square area in the corner of his stable on top of mats and its pretty much there to catch the wee. He doesnt like it splashing on his legs and will dance around his stable if he doesnt have any shavings to wee on :D
 
charleysummer said:
I am fed up of the hassle of mucking out a thick bed of straw in the winter, and with A levels this year i would really like to save some time! So i've decided to move onto shavings and rubber matting, but i haven't got a clue what to get really... what type of matting (i've seen all the studded/diamond etc but dont know what's best) and also what shavings.

My friend reccomended 'bovine' matting which is apparently used for cattle and a lot cheaper- although i'm not sure how much it costs to kit out with the horse matting-
and someone i know uses industrial shavings- is this bad?.. i've heard it is,

so basically...
-what matting should i get, (the type of equestrian or bovine)
-What shavings should i use
-How much will it all cost!

thankyou :)
Click to expand...


There were about five of us six years ago who bought 'seconds' from a mat manufacturer who gave us a good price simply because the mats had slight defects, i.e a small split or a slightly raised bubble. The defects are hidden under my shavings bed (shavings are free from timber yard). THe mats were approx £180 which included delivery and VAT. I really can't remember who we got them from now and there is no makers name on them. But the point I am trying to make is that if you contact the major mat manufacturers you may find that they sell seconds and therefore you can get them much cheaper. Ive had mine for six years now and love them. I got them because my horse used to roll right over in the stable and smash his legs into the concrete floor. You can get various thicknesses, I think mine are twelve milimetre thickness. - Excuse the typos - its 5.21am and I'm tired.
 
I invested in rubber mats earlier this year and opted for the EVA mats because theyare lightweight and durable. They weigh about 6kgs each so easy to remove for cleaning and only takes one person to move! They also have more 'give' in them :)

I bought them from Easimat. I got 6 mats measuring 6x4 each (filled a 12x12 stable), and delivered for a total of £234 :D

I am not keen on shavings or straw so I changed over to hemp beddings years ago. My preferred choice being Aubiose or Hemcore. They are perfect deep litter or semi deep litter beddings which don't tend to smell like shavings, quick and easy to muck out and also rot down quickly :cool:
 
People use mats for many reasons;

To save money in the long term,
To help with allergies,
Help prevent knees and hocks becoming capped,
To create a warmer environment
More grip for naught horses
As a substitute bedding for box walkers!

People use different amounts of bedding for their personal preferences really with a very wide range of beddings available more people tend to use whatever is best for them and their horse x
 
I've just had my stable done out in brand new rubber matting. It cost me just under £200 for a stable roughly 12x12 I think. Really nice stuff, not the really thin stuff that doesn't soak up the wet! And other people down my yard saw them and have put their order in aswell now cos they like them so much! They are made at the factory where my OH works. If you wanted any more info PM me.
 
I use Stablelite matting - very thick, soft and allow pee to soak through. My original mats bought back in 1996 are still going strong in a field shelter. The mats in Farra's stable are now nine years old and despite having Clydesdales on them, are still in great condition and show little wear or tear. I also put them in Stinky's stable last year. To do a 10 x 14 stable cost me £444 - which was 12 mats and delivery. I cut them into shape with an electric saw but you can do them with a stanley knife or hacksaw. I did the job single handed.

These are not the cheapest mats, but I can't recommend them enough in terms of how long they last and how good they are. I take them out every other year and wash the floor and it is a horrible job, but I pay two teenagers £20 to do it.

They are designed as a no or minimal bed system. I have in the past used a pee spot shavings patch and hosed and disinfected the stable daily in the past for a mare that was a bad box walker. The stable was an outside one and had a drain at the front that wee and water could drain into. I could leave the door open whilst she was out during the day to dry out the floor. She was the type that never laid down in the stable so I did not have a problem with rugs. If she did, I would have kept her in t/o rugs when in.

I am now in a barn environment, the above would not work as it would smell and pee would run into the yard - not nice for anyone. I have a 3 - 4" deep bed over half the stable and this means no wet messy rugs, no smell, no wee running out the stable as the bedding soaks up most of the wee. Straw is this case was not suitable as it is not absorbant enough.

I have used shavings mixed 50 - 5 with chopped straw, megazorb and just shavings but last year switched to wood pellets and won't go back as they save me a small fortune and are so quick and easy to do.

For me the perfect solution is thick porous mats with wood pellets as I have large messy horses.
 
Oh gosh so many type i really am confused now :O !

but at least they all sound good and not bad ! i don't know how big the stable is but it is pretty huge- really old fashioned brick ones that must be hundred odd years old, so i can guess i'd need a few mats.. i'll measure up tomorrow and look for somewhere local i can go and look at mats :) thankyou for all the comments i'll have a good reread before i decide what i want.. probably quite a few re reads
 
mcnaughty said:
Can someone please explain to me why we use mats and bedding? I have over the past couple of years seen several different ways of using mats:

Some just lay a normal quite deep bed over the whole matted stable.
Some half fill the stable with mats - just for the uncovered with bed part
Some cover the whole stable with mats and half with bed again quite deep
and lastly some cover the whole box is mats and then just cover a very small amount of the back of the stable with thin bedding.

If horses are happy and naturally lie down on mud/dirt in their fields then why do we use any bedding at all - why not just use mats?

Trust me - I come from the old fashioned massive banks and deep bed age so coming back to horses after a 10 year break has been a bit of an eye opener - your comments would be appreciated.

Ta
Click to expand...

When mats first started to be used in the mid 70's it was because many horses stabled 24/7 found concrete a hard surface to stand on. Even under the straw it was an unyielding floor. At the time it was never meant to replace a good deep bed but just to make the horse even more comfortable. A deep bed protects the horse from draughts and from getting cast. Rubber can become very slippery when wet and unless there is a good covering of bedding some horses will not lie down on them or may injure themselves trying to get up. Deep beds stay cleaner and drier than shallow beds. Plus they look so much nicer. I love seeing a horse in a stable with a deep straw bed with big banks.
 
You can save money by covering only part of the stable but there is a possibility that the mats will move. If you cover the whole stable and cut the edges to fit then they can't move.

The thick mats insulate the concrete floor keeping the horse warmer. Thin mats don't insulate as well but can make mucking out easier than without.
The bed you put on top varies with the horses needs and the owners preferences. The smallest you can get away with is a bucket of shavings to soak up some of the wee. If you do this mucking out is really quick and the muck heap small. We do this in good weather.

When it gets colder we use a thicker bed and banks to stop the draughts. None of our horses have issues and they go out during the day which gives the stables time to dry.

I'd recommend thick mats (18-25mm) over as big an area as you can afford. Start off with your preferred choice of bed and be prepared to be flexible when you see your horses reaction. Our fillies waited to get out in the morning rather than pee on the nearly bare rubber mats in the stable! We had to increase the amount of shavings they had.
 
KatB said:
There is a company called belvoir matting who deliver I believe. Their mats are under £30, and good quality. I was lucky in the fact I got given some mats and brought the rest for a very little outlay, but they are great quality and help HUGELY. I use bedmax shavings now (the little max ones in the winter) which are designed specifically for horses, in the fact they are dust extracted and made from pine wood so have antiseptic qualities :) .

Wood pellets are also great, and will make a good bed on mats :) They could be more economical too, depending what make you go for :)
Click to expand...

I got mine from Belvoir Matting as well. They were the cheapest I could find and local as well so picked them up in the horsebox. I used their thicker version and laid them ribbed side down (pimples up) and that way they are easy to sweep.

I installed them myself which was backbreaking (3 stables). The most important thing is to get them tightly butted together. To achieve this I cut the last ones at the edge oversize so they buckled up and had to be treaded flat. That way they have been down 2 years and haven't budged a millimeter.

Two of ours have no shavings and one has a small area for him to pee on.
 
Not really, if you start bandaging you will always have to bandage every time the horse comes in, leg wraps on the other hand don't offer support but do help to keep legs warm and clean! :)
 
i've got Mayomats cowmats. they've been down 3 years and no horse, incl an 18h shod wb, has marked them. they've had overnight studs in too and no damage to mats.
they're foam not rubber, so far lighter than rubber mats. also, thicker and more insulating from the concrete. highly recommended.
 
kerilli said:
i've got Mayomats cowmats. they've been down 3 years and no horse, incl an 18h shod wb, has marked them. they've had overnight studs in too and no damage to mats.
they're foam not rubber, so far lighter than rubber mats. also, thicker and more insulating from the concrete. highly recommended.
Click to expand...

This sounds interesting- are they grippy? and how much were they?
 
I use equimats - more expensive but think you get what you pay for with rubber mats. In summer no bedding as they just use the stables as fly shelter or shade.

Horses are happy to lie down on them without any bedding and when the ground is hard in summer I have seen them go and lie down in their boxes instead of in the field.

In winter I put shavings bank round to stop getting cast when in overnight and a thin covering of shavings for them to pee on

Have used Kraigberg (or however it is spelt) mats at a livery yard before with straw but that matting not so comfortable to lie down on without some form of bedding.


Only thing I'd recommend with the equimat mats is don't trim them as much as the instructions say as they don't spread out that much!
 
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