Rubber Matting with NO Bedding at all, Does it work?

[Fransurrey]

I used to regularly trim a horse's feet that lived like this. He absolutely stank all over. Really terrible. His feet were always soft and the frogs thrushy. She did finally listen in the end and moved him - he was on full livery there and they were just too tight to do a proper bed. He had enough shavings in there to bed a guinea pig on, I reckon. As Skewby says, it's just as bad with a sprinkling as it is none at all. Full bed for me, every time!

 

[kerilli]

i do a 1/3 or 1/2 bed of normal depth Ecobed cardboard bedding, so they can use that as a loo. one of them wees on it but always poos at the front of the stable on the mats, keeps his bed clean to lie on!
i'd never have no bedding, i think it's disgustingly dirty!

 

[Spirit7]

Sounds horrid, looks horrid! Would you want to sleep on a bare mattress while watching your sister/ man/ dad/ mum going to bed in a big warm clean smelling bouncy bed?

Hmmmmnnn I think not!

If people cant be bothered to muck out...why dothey keep horses? Its the first thing you learn in any stable managment!

 

[Indie72]

hi i have a mare with c p o d and i use rubber matting.i put a covering of shavings down at nite.i muck out every day get half a barrow full and wash the mats down daily with no smell and a happy horse..now when she was on straw bed i would take nearly 4 barrows out as she is so messy .i think its whot works for u best.xx

 

[PapaFrita]

Very smelly and any money you might have saved by not buying shavings or straw you'll have to spend on getting your rugs cleaned.

 

[Tia]

[ QUOTE ]
Would you want to sleep on a bare mattress while watching your sister/ man/ dad/ mum going to bed in a big warm clean smelling bouncy bed?


[/ QUOTE ] Hmm, I think the poster was asking about horses ... you know as in animals who live outside, not people.

[ QUOTE ]
If people cant be bothered to muck out...why dothey keep horses? Its the first thing you learn in any stable managment!

[/ QUOTE ]
What's the first thing you learn in stable management? If it's mucking out you are claiming is the first thing you learn (

), then I certainly never read that anyone on this thread wasn't mucking their horses out?

What should those do who keep their horses out 24/7? Just interested in where you go from here, Lol!

 

[Spirit7]

Maybe Tia should go back and read the thread a little closer, comments about saving time on mucking out were what I was referring too and when I am talking about beds I obvioulsy mean in comparison to the other stables.....I would not want a horse to have less then an another next door if you get my drift.......Take care, by the way I didn't notice you actually responding to the question or offering any advice, which ofcourse was the purpose....not to critize other people.LOL

 

[LankyDoodle]

QR

My YO uses no bedding for her nasty little Exmoor. It seems to work because he's small and the stable si quite flat.

However, when I first got sealed mats a few years ago, I went for the banks only option with bedding in both stables. Other liveries started complaining that there was a puddle of wee in front of each stable.

I went back to half beds anyway because my horses lie down and were getting wet, but really - a puddle of wee?

Another lady on my yard uses just a scattering of bedding in her mare's stable and that seems to work fine.

 

[LankyDoodle]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe Tia should go back and read the thread a little closer, comments about saving time on mucking out were what I was referring too and when I am talking about beds I obvioulsy mean in comparison to the other stables.....I would not want a horse to have less then an another next door if you get my drift.......Take care, by the way I didn't notice you actually responding to the question or offering any advice, which ofcourse was the purpose....not to critize other people.LOL

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm

 

[Tia]

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmm

[/ QUOTE ]
*snigger*

Exactly what I was thinking LD

. Perhaps someone else would like to "take care" and re-read the thread ... and then they will see that I did actually respond to the original question and as I have re-read it again, I have not seen anyone saying they are not mucking out; saving time is something quite different from not doing. Doh!

 

[Spirit7]

Apologies Tia, I read the threads but do not really bother with who writes them so thought it was your first response, anyway as I said no point critizing, just here to learn........Still think I have a point though, long slog and hard work is what horses are about and when your horses live out surely you have to take the poo out the field? feel free to correct me as I'm sure you will.

 

[Tia]

No probs.

No I don't poo pick any of my pasture fields. In the summer they are all harrowed and in winter you couldn't even pick any of them up with a bulldozer so they are left until they thaw out in late spring. I do have large fields and own a fair sized farm, so running this farm is fairly easy particularly as I have the machinery and vehicles to do so efficiently.

Horses don't have to be hard work - I have 50 here and I'd say they're pretty easy to look after really because I work smarter not harder.

 

[TGM]

[ QUOTE ]
Would you want to sleep on a bare mattress while watching your sister/ man/ dad/ mum going to bed in a big warm clean smelling bouncy bed?

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
when I am talking about beds I obvioulsy mean in comparison to the other stables.....I would not want a horse to have less then an another next door if you get my drift

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, Spirit7, but those two comments really did make me giggle! I have this vision of all these horses straining their necks to see inside each other's stables, to see if they are getting less bedding than the others! I can just imagine the dialogue now:

"Oi, that's not fair - I reckon Fancy has got 2mm more bedding than I have and she is on the most expensive dust-free shavings whilst I'm on straw.

"

"Well, what do you expect - you're just a bog-standard cob, not an expensive warmblood like me. I notice you only have a cheap stable rug too, whereas my owner cares enough to ensure I have a top of the range one."

"You are such a snob, but at least we are both better off than those lowly chavs out in the field on grass livery - they don't get any bedding at all and some of them don't even have rugs. How very common!"

 

[Lady_Bug]

^ *snigger* ^

 

[Lady_Bug]

In reply to the OP, no I wouldn't use mats with no bedding at all.
A girl on my old yard fully matted her stables out and used a sprinkling of sawdust to soak up the wee. The stable was disgusting 10 minutes after the horse had been in it, unbelievable in the morning. All she'd do was sweep all the cr@p into a pile, scoop it into barrow, rinse stable down. Once it was dry some more sawdust was added. Very quick and easy but horrible for the horses. They both smelt quite bad.

I've only had my mats since Monday, but have been giving my horse fairly large banks and a thin layer of shavings for his bed. This is still a pretty large bed as he's a big horse. Rugs are fine in the morning and he isn't lying in poo and wee all night. Might not be as nice as lying in a really fluffy bed, but his old bed took ages to muck out as he'd kick the cr@p around, and my last shavings bill was ridiculous so something had to change. Mucking out is much quicker now - problem solved I hope

 

[k9h]

10Yrs ago I worked on a private hunt yard.
We use to have sawdust beds that were imaculate & had 3' banks. We use to buy the sawdust from the estate we were on & it cost 10k a year! We went on to rubber matting & sprinkled sawdust over the matts to soak up any pee.
The horses would still liedown & roll. The floors were dry in a morning (no puddles of wee).
When we put breakfast in we took off top rugs & put them in passage. Then to the wash room where we washed & dried them to put back on that night. That we did every day.

The rubber matting paid for itself in the 1st season. The horses hooves never went bad, no thrush ever. The stables did have top drainage though.

We could muck out all 20 in 30 minutes! passage was washed down daily & it never smelt of amonia. End of season matts were lifted up & everything power washed.

Here is the main passage with 14 stables.

Then us turned out for hunting with our huntstaff horses under the Barbican. No stains on our lot!

It worked very well for us but we had the facilities to cope with it propperly.