Rubber matting - what do you do?

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ali87uk

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Hi,
I have decided to get rubber matting to enable me to spend more time riding and less mucking out in the dark evenings.
Just wondered what ppl do with bedding? How much etc? She will be on straw as is provided at yard.
Do u not find rubber matting makes the horse smell (a friend suggested this).
Thanks!!
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I use just slightly less amount of bedding in half the stable, I found doing the you use less bedding method you just get stinky horses with pee stains or disgusting filthy rugs. I just could not abide by it so I do not think it save me much time or money actually.

However we all differ and others may have less dirty horses also.
 
I use a deep straw bed as usual and deep litter but I only have ruber matting covering the front half of the stable.
Prince used to be really messy so he had a whole stable of matting and a very small bed at the back, just enough to soak up the pee.
Re the smell princey's rugs smelt but Lacey's aren't too bad because she has lots of straw
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Personally I think its great stuff, you do not need to use as much bedding, but saying that some horses are very mucky, my horse is not and has been brilliant over the last 4yrs when she is actually stabled
 
My horse isn't too mucky, but she does like to lie down. Her stable is big so takes a while to muck out hence me thinkin rubber matting is the answer!
 
It depends a lot on the horse. All mine are on rubber matting, and I use a varying amount of bedding depending on how clean they are. Six of mine are actually cleaner on matting, I just put in a few shovels of shavings at the back in the middle, and they all wee and poo at the back of the stable. Makes mucking out a doddle!

It took one of them a few months before he worked it out, at his old home he would poo in his deep shavings bed absolutely everywhere, and when he first came to us I gave him a much more generous bed than the others, but now he makes the effort to walk to the back and go in one place - result! He still gets more shavings than the others as I find he won't lay down otherwise.

Rather than spread a few sections of straw around, try making a definite bed area and see if yours gets the message and goes in one place. If he is very smelly, maybe buy a bale of shavings if you are allowed, and just put a shovel or two in every night and cover with the straw, to soak up the urine.

I also use indoor/outdoor rugs, so although they get a bit smelly sometimes, they go out in them, roll in the mud and get rained on, and the smell comes off (well, most of it
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I've just remembered an old trick a neighbour told me - he used to put some stallion's manure at the back of his stables (he had a stallion so that was easy!) and the others would walk to the back, sniff it, and dung on top, and that would become a habit. So failing stallion manure, maybe put some from another mare at the back, and if she is a clean mare, she will poo on top of it to get rid of the smell of the 'intruder' - worth a shot!
 
I use half and half. A deep straw bed at the back of the box and rubber mats at the front. Horses really love deep straw and like them to have a warm bed in weather like this.

I have small rubber mats at the front which is where I put their feed and water. I like small mats (Robinsons have them) because I can lift them easily. They do stink underneath - but small one are easy to lift and you can wash out the pee. I skip most days and muck and wash once a week.
 
I'd seal the mats, in between the cracks and around the stable edge, with black silicon. It can easily be cut if the mats need to come out but this really helps with smell. The urine cannot seap underneath and fester. It also stops the mats moving.

I use one bale of cheap wood shavings per week; laying them in the area where the horse pees. Or you could use a bale of hemp based bedding if shavings aren't permitted at your yard. Then I lay a straw bed on top. The shavings prevent urine running and pooling under the straw. I muck the straw bed out daily, removing the poohs and any wet straw (although there rarely is any, as the shavings' base absorbs the wet). I leave the shavings' base alone. Once a week I fork back the straw and remove the wet shavings, sweep the stable clean and replace with a fresh bale and relay the straw. Being only 1 bale's worth of shavings, this maintenance job doesn't take long at all.

I've found this method quickest and best for using straw over mats, to reduce the problem of urine pooling under the mats and keeping smell to an absolute minimum. Without something underneath to absorb the urine you'll really need to bed the mats with a full straw bed which defeats the purpose of having the mats....
 
I bed mine on half a stable of straw which is thick, but not as thick as I'd have it without mats, I also do a normal sized bank (he likes to use that as a pillow
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He is still as messy as usual, but with much less straw it takes a lot less time to muck out, so well worth it imho
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i got various drainage points under my stable so i leave a small gap between my mats to ensure it can still drain. i then use a half bed of straw of medium thickness. mine is a mucky bugger tho so doesnt really matter what i do, i end up with a pig sty the next day!!
 
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