Rubber Matting - Yes or No?

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lizzy28frank

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Hi, just wondering who has rubber matting and whether it is worth getting? What are the advantages and disadvantages? And lastly where did you get it from?
Thanks
Oh forgot to add that their is no official drainage system - would that affect anything?
 
hmmmmmm I like my deep bed, and would put a deep bed down even if i had matting so i tend to just have one of 2 mats at the front where I don't have a bed so he has somewhere to stand

However, my mums horse is disgusting in his stable and we'd end up taking the whole bed out each day, so he has matting and then a small amount of straw to soak up the wee and lie down on.

upsides- can use less bedding and saves concrete getting wrecked and eroded away by wee.

downsides- bloody smelly when you clean them out!
 
Love 'em
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Have 'em with m'dirty mare and no smell issues (do have good draining stable though).

Have mats covering most of the stable floor, then just have sprinkling of shavings so soak up wee. Takes no time at all to muck out
smile.gif
so we get to spend more time with neds. Horses all happy to lie down on them. Rugs no worse than when we had deep beds.

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Oh yes! Got mine from Horse Mats in South Suffolk/North Essex - good value.
Have the wet mare on Bliss bedding - very deep, but in a smaller area than when she was on straw. Only have to 'dig-out' once a week in winter and once every 2 weeks at other times. Much less work and less smelly.
We remove the mats once a year and then disinfect the floor -should really do it twice/year, but don't find it necessary.
 
Wouldn't have anything else! How did people manage before it was invented?!

I've not found a lack of drainage a problem - mine have a 1ft wide gap from the wall front and back (there's channels on the underside on the matting so that's the ends the gaps are at) so the pee runs out and is soaked up by the bankings.

I put in two bales and bank it all up round the edges (covering the 'bare' edges). Some gets dragged down every day to soak up wee and is then totally removed daily and new stuff dragged down from the banks. Once all the clean stuff is gone from the bankings (roughly every 1.5-2 weeks) the wet stuff at the bottom of the banks is removed too, everything brushed out and left to dry during the day then 2 new bales added and banked.

Takes 10 mins for a full muck and it it doesn't smell, even with a big mare messy mare. Plus 3 bales every two weeks is so much cheaper!
 
Definite YES from me! I love our rubber matting, so much warmer and nicer for the horse rather then standing on concrete. We still do decent beds on top of the matting too but as the wet soaks in and drains away we end up taking out much less bedding, and takes much less time to muck out. I wouldn’t want to be without them now. I can’t remember where we got ours from but it was somewhere local to us in Kent.
 
I say no unless you have excellant drainage.

All the rubber mattings at our yard smell, now that may be because they are not laid so well.

I use a thick bed of megaazorb with my very messy horse remove the wet patches when they show and use about 5 bales a month! So imo mats are not worth the expense of the initial outlay.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Love 'em
grin.gif


Have 'em with m'dirty mare and no smell issues (do have good draining stable though).

Have mats covering most of the stable floor, then just have sprinkling of shavings so soak up wee. Takes no time at all to muck out
smile.gif
so we get to spend more time with neds. Horses all happy to lie down on them. Rugs no worse than when we had deep beds.

grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Mrs M I totally agree!!!
grin.gif
They are my best purchase
grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Wouldn't have anything else! How did people manage before it was invented?!

I put in two bales and bank it all up round the edges (covering the 'bare' edges). Some gets dragged down every day to soak up wee and is then totally removed daily and new stuff dragged down from the banks. Once all the clean stuff is gone from the bankings (roughly every 1.5-2 weeks) the wet stuff at the bottom of the banks is removed too, everything brushed out and left to dry during the day then 2 new bales added and banked.

Takes 10 mins for a full muck and it it doesn't smell, even with a big mare messy mare. Plus 3 bales every two weeks is so much cheaper!

[/ QUOTE ]

I have today started this system. My horse began digging up his straw to get to the seeds at the bottom to eat them, so I switched to shavings and last week got through five bales!
So as there are mats covering the whole stable, today I have put down a very thin bed which can be taken out each day - half a barrow a day rather than the three or more last week - and more put down each day. I can't afford anything else, and the straw was a nightmare where he had churned it up so much.
*shakes head*
frown.gif
 
I have rubber matting wall to wall in my stable because i was not allowed to put hard core down due to planning and it being classed as a movable structure. Not sure of the technical words, they have kept my stable floor dry as they are down on the earth and it would of soon mudded up with horses coming in and out.
I love my mats you would not know there was no concrete under them. I bought mine from ebay me and a few friends ordered 3 stables worth and the delivery cost was cheaper because of the amount we ordered off them.
 
I invested in lightweight EVA interlocking mats. I was really worried before I bought them because I couldn't fit them wall to wall, but so far they are holding up really well, and I am really happy. Cleaning is easy, they interlock and stay locked, and they are not shifting around.

The boarding barn beds with straw (thick), but the reason I bought them wasn't to save on bedding, only to provide insulation and a bit of softness on the concrete floors. My mare's back legs are less swollen in the mornings...

I am glad I got them.
 
can you guys give some guidance though on what sort of matting you should use? I had a look to start researching and ended up getting up totally confused. Logically I wanted something which allow underneath to drain, but there seemed to be a world of difference in suggested thicknesses?
 
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