rubber matting

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pixie

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I'm weighing out the pros and cons of installing rubber matting in my stables when they are built later on in the year.
From what I've seen it should cost around £250-300 per stable.
I would be using them with straw, as we grow barley and have tons of the stuff!
I was wondering what are the downsides, and if there is anyone who wouldn't want them, why?
What is the best way to maintain them?
How much time and money do you think they save you?
What brand would you recommend, and why?
I've also seen liquid rubber, has anyone used this and is it any good?
Any other opinions would be very welcome!
Thanks in advance for your help :)
 
Haven't time to answer all your questions (sorry) but what I can say (from experience) is that straw doesn't work well with mats. I use straw over mine but put down a bale of shavings (or something equally absorbant) underneath. This absorbes the pee which seeps through the straw and stops it pooling on the mats or seeping underneath and stinking. I remove the sodden shavings once a week and relay another bale.

Straw simply isn't absorbant enough on its own to work effectively over mats. Some people put down a full straw bed over the mats to get over the problem of pee pooling and seeping out, but this makes the expensive of laying the mats rather redundant. I'd consider this before you spend the money.
 
I bought some secondhand mats just before winter, and love them. They've saved me alot of money in bedding costs. I wouldn't go near the liquid rubber stuff - mainly because i'm a livery and YO's would object, and plus once its down i dont think its easy to get back up again! Mats are just more flexible, you can move them around and reuse them where u want.

i've worked at yards with straw beds on mats, and found the only way they work effectively is if you have a deep bed, which in my mind negates the point of having mats.
When i first got mine, i was using shavings which worked ok, i could have a bed of about 3-4inches thick with no problems but it was a very smelly and wet bed, the mats wouldnt dry out in the daytime with the bed left up. I've since been able to move onto recycled paper bedding; £3 a bag cheaper, goes much further and works fantastically with the mats. There's no pooling at all, and my boyfriend has noticed that i dont stink of horse wee when i come home anymore because there's virtually no smell at all!

anyway, i think mats are worth the expense when combined with a good choice of bedding; it depends on your reasons for laying them i spose. If you're doing it to save money in the long run then a change of bedding might be necessary, but if its for a different reason then see what others think :)
 
I've used both the solid rubber matting and the seepthrough + plastic grid underneath the rubber matting. The solid has been much easier to keep clean and less odur. Also much easier to powerwash once or twice a year.
The matting has been used with no extra bedding on top but that makes rugs somewhat dirtier and they will need more frequent washing.
With straw, which absorbs less of the urine and therefore still makes it a bit dirtier and smelly.
Flax, only a thin layer to absorb urine, worked well although my mare was a bit messy in the stable so still had to use quite a bit of flax.
Shavings, same as above.
Bedmax is what I am using this year. Only keep my mare's four year old son stabled at present. He is so clean, poos in one or two places and is very quick to muck out with the rubber and bedmax combination. Much prefer this to ordinary shavings as it is easier to dig out the wet patches and the poos so therefore less wastage.
I also like to have the rubber under bedding as I think it is preferable to their joints in the long run.
If you are considering solid rubber matting make sure you buy the good quality made for horse use as some of the cheaper cattle mats doesn't seem to wear as well. I bought my latest solid rubber mats about 12 years ago and there is hardly a mark on them. Horse has had shoes and road studs whilst on it. Yard owner bought slightly cheaper mats the year after I bought mine and some of them are totally worn out with holes in them.
Go and have a look at them before you buy if you can and make sure you lay them the right way up. Someone I spoke to had bought the same as mine but complained they were difficult to sweep out. I turned out she had installed them with the drainage runs upwards!
 
Useful thread this as we are considering the switch to rubber matting. Daughter is anti though as she is concerned about the smell so the idea of paper bedding is quite appealing
 
i spent about £250 quid on my mats start of winter and to be honest i've just got rid of them! i use straw bedding and it was just gross. okay my horse isn'y the cleanest but i had pools of wee and all sorts. it was yuk. and i tried deep and small beds! i'd use them again if i changed to shavings or something similar but i have access to lots of nice straw this year so for me mats and straw just doesnt work!!
 
You need a sloping floor for it to drain away underneath the mats and no big bumps in it. If you get pools of wee there must be something wrong as ther shouldn't be able to pool on the flat urface of the rubber mat.
 
Violet said:
You need a sloping floor for it to drain away underneath the mats and no big bumps in it. If you get pools of wee there must be something wrong as ther shouldn't be able to pool on the flat urface of the rubber mat.
Click to expand...

our floors are a bit older so not too smooth, odd dip/bump in them so the wee was collecting underneath the mats so no good really on our floors
 
Violet said:
You need a sloping floor for it to drain away underneath the mats and no big bumps in it. If you get pools of wee there must be something wrong as ther shouldn't be able to pool on the flat urface of the rubber mat.
Click to expand...

What I mean by pooling, is that the urine simple sits on top of the mats under the straw - just like it would over a solid floor that was bedded with a thin layer of bedding. Most people adopt mats so that they can simply lay a small pee patch of absorbent bedding or scatter a thin layer all over the mats. This means less bedding is used, so saving money, and saves time mucking out. Most people wouldn't be happy laying a very small or very thin straw bed over a conventional hard floor, so the same applies to using the same over mats. Of course, some people do use rubber mats without any bedding over the top but I couldn't do this as the horse would be standing in its own droppings and urine between visits to skip and sweep out.

Another consideration is run-off; My stable has a forward slope which means the urine runs forwards out under the stable door if I don't use something absorbent under the straw. Fine I guess if I stabled my horses at home but I'm on a livery yard and it's not pleasant for the other people to have to walk through my horse's urine which has seeped out into the communal walkway of the barn.

Ultimately, most people laying mats wont be able to modify their stable to accommodate a slant or extra drainage - so I am advising from the experience of someone who has laid unsealed solid rubber matting in a number of stables, at different yards. Assuming you don't have a definite slope in your stable floor and drainage exits for the urine - I'd advise not planning on only using a thin layer of straw as bedding; Plan to either bed down a normal thickness straw bed or switch to something more absorbent which will allow you to use less bedding and save time mucking out.

I've had my mats about 5 years now and a have moved yards, taking mine with me. I'm very happy with them. If a problem using them develops in a particular stable, there's always a way around it. But it normally involves using more bedding!
 
Well, at the moment its just a rough earth floor in our fold yard, but it will be concreted before we build the stable walls.
So assuming that we ensure the concrete is sufficiently sloped, combined with rubber matting with the right surface, then surely the pee won't tend to pool under straw as much? Or at least no more than if it were straight onto the concrete itself.
We'd have to have the drainage channel in the front of the stables due to the layout of the buildings and existing drainage.
 
Hi there Pixie,

I've just had rubber mats installed to a fairly well-draining concrete-floored stable, and I have to say that even with a thin straw bed (with normal banks) my Arab mare's bed is drier than ever!

She was so messy and wet before that I had to consider alternatives, and researched rubber mats that have drainage.

I purchased mine from www.horsemat.co.uk - the 18mm Croctop version has small square feet underneath that allow urine to flow and drain away. They also can be connected at the seams to prevent them moving - I ordered enough connectors (less than 50p each) for 3 on each long seam and 2 on the short seams to make sure they weren't gonna budge :D

They were just under £30 for each 6' x 4' mat (special offer) and £45 delivery - I'm in North Yorkshire too so should be same delivery cost - with the connectors the total cost for my 10' x 12' stable was just under £200.

I have to say that they do appear to be very good quality for the price, and I've seen quite a few different brands of mats :)

Oh and they come with a 10-year guarantee.

Of course you have to have well-drained stables, but as yours are going to be newly built and you can specify the slant and drains etc, I would say draining mats would be a very good idea.

And as for the straw, I agree that absorbent bedding is best for solid mats, but as straw drains better, then it is the obvious choice if you have mats that are designed to drain, as then you get hardly any wet patches of bedding :)

Now all I have to do is fix the leaky stable roof... :S

Hope this helps, and good luck choosing your mats!

Haushinka
 
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