Pictures Stable floor, bare or matted?

[The Trooper]

Hey!

Over the last few days i've been thinking of ways to make my life easier when it comes to morning muck outs without Bonnie's level of care being compromised, i'd like to bounce an idea off you guys.

Her stable is 18ft wide x 10ft long, cobbled stone floor and seems to drain reasonably well. She is bedded on straw, each morning she gets a full muck out and the straw gets pulled back and banked to let the floor dry out throughout the day. Where needed i add fresh straw at night. Currently when I lay the bed i leave around 18inches clear at the front (Where the drain is) but bed the rest. Now, this is working ok, but i'd ideally like to streamline my mornings if possible.

My thoughts are as follows, immediately infront of the door, put down rubber mats (24mm) spanning the full width of the stable, less 1 or 2 feet in order to leave the drain clear and put a deep straw bed down on the rest (Back right corner). So the matted area would be approx 8ft long and 6ft wide.

My reasoning for this is that she stands just inside her door and munches haylage, currently where she stands has straw down i'd like to replace said straw with rubber matting to save costs and allow me to give her a bigger actual bed with the same amount of straw as i was using before, I may be penny pinching here but i'm thinking long term (years).

Would this be beneficial to her, or do you think she will be ok having her bed in one place and her standing in another to eat her forage? She does lie down, but it tends to be closer to the middle of the stable and away from her haylage.

I hope this all makes sense, if not please ask for clarity, thanks.

 

[hollyandivy123]

is the door in the middle of the stable or to one side, if it is to one side i have flipped the bed round so i have straight matting from the door to the back wall, tied net so pony normally stands eating on the matt and left the bed to one side. obviously the pony can move so stand on the bed but normally would poo on the mat, and therefore easier to muck out.

 

[The Trooper]

is the door in the middle of the stable or to one side, if it is to one side i have flipped the bed round so i have straight matting from the door to the back wall, tied net so pony normally stands eating on the matt and left the bed to one side. obviously the pony can move so stand on the bed but normally would poo on the mat, and therefore easier to muck out.

The door is to one side, flush more or less to the left wall.

If i get a chance i will upload a sketch to try and show what i mea

 

[meleeka]

There’s little point in bedding the area she doesn’t lay in really, so rubber mats there would work. That’s what I do.

 

[The Trooper]

Not to scale, but this gives an idea of what I am proposing. Smell is my biggest worry really...

 

[gina2201]

My stables are fully matted and 14 x 12. I also only bed large half of the stable and leave the other bit where they generally stand to munch. My mare is the best and poos on the mats leaving her bed really clean and easy to muck out the poo!
My stable layout looks like your sketch only my door is in the middle though so my hay haylage is in the corner.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I do a similar thing I only have a mat at the front with the shavings right up to the mat so they never stand on the concrete, I think it works well for mine.

 

[The Trooper]

The part at the front i've left clear is the drain, the actual drain runs the length of the stable at the front and drains down just under her haylage net.

 

[Surbie]

Does she have a particular spot to wee in and does she kick her bed about?
I have Eva mats covering the whole floor in my stable - and bed half of it without banks. It means less bedding for me and I am currently easily managing on 3/4 - 1 bale of shavings per week with him in 5pm-8am 5 nights per week. He kicks his bedding about a bit but is otherwise an obligingly tidy chap (wees in one spot only and poos along the back line).

 

[The Trooper]

The bed can get moved around abit, but it's usually only round the edges where she has trailed it when wandering around.

She seems to choose a different place each night to wee and poo, occasionally we find 'ninja jobbies' that have been flatened and buried.

 

[Abby-Lou]

Just a suggestion ! lay on the floor yourself both no matting with straw & plain matting - Matting would win hands down the cold does not strike through the floor and its so comfy

 

[Goldenstar]

My experiance is mats don’t work well with cobbles

 

[splashgirl45]

my question is why is your haylage over the drain, i would thin it would be better to have the hay and haylage well away from the drain so it can be kept clear...my stable was fully matted and i had the back half covered with shavings so her front feet were on just matting . this worked well with shavings but friend tried the same with straw and found it didnt work for her so she just had mat in the front and straw on the concrete as the concrete seem to absorb some of the moisture

 

[The Trooper]

my question is why is your haylage over the drain, i would thin it would be better to have the hay and haylage well away from the drain so it can be kept clear...my stable was fully matted and i had the back half covered with shavings so her front feet were on just matting . this worked well with shavings but friend tried the same with straw and found it didnt work for her so she just had mat in the front and straw on the concrete as the concrete seem to absorb some of the moisture

It's not directly above the drain as the drain is offset from the edge of the stable and closer to the door, the above was just to give a general idea of the layout.

I happened to grab a photo per below.

I've bought 3.6m x 3.6m of rubber matting locally for £90 today, i will collect it tomorrow when i'm off work. I intend to mat the part without the straw in the below photo but unsure whether to cover the drain or not, i'll probably life the mats daily to let the floor dry during the day when she is out.

 

[ester]

What do you want the mats to do? I’ve never really seen the point of having them at the front tbh and I suspect you’re going to get wavy bits, and edges that stick up so you can trip over them. - having had mats on a not flat chalk floor.

 

[The Trooper]

I just don't want her standing on the concrete for hours on end. This may be an expensive failure but time will tell. I can always resell them if needed as they seem to hold their value.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

I'd go with your plan above. Just make sure wherever she spends most of her time standing theres a mat there.
I have mine fully matted now on shavings but when I used straw I had 3 mats down, 2 on the front and 1 on the side where there was no bedding, no edges stuck up and they led flat, they were 18mm mats I got them on offer at £32 a mat from Country wide years ago (was £47) I'm like you and don't like the thought of them stood on concrete for hours.

It will be fine smell wise as long as you have no matting where she pees, urgh, straw and matting underneath, now that does stink.

I'd cover the drain, the wee should run under the mats - depending where she wees? Trust me, you won't want to be lifting the mats daily.

 

[9tails]

I can't imagine that mats will work with that floor. They're not bendy enough to mould to such an uneven surface.

 

[The Trooper]

I can't imagine that mats will work with that floor. They're not bendy enough to mould to such an uneven surface.

I'm somewhat hoping they don't mould to the surface in order to leave some drainage channels underneath. Fingers crossed it works out the way i've planned.