Stable flooring when concrete is not an option?

[applestroodle]

I was just wondering what people put down as stable flooring when concrete is not possible. I have been looking at the wooden stable and field shelters you can move with the thought of moving different fields but I am worried the ground would get pouched and very muddy in the winter around and wondered if anyone had any tips, advice, thoughts or alternatives. Also this would be a field with no electricity does anyone use a generator?

Many thanks

 

[batty100]

I have stabling just inside a large barn that is open-sided on two sides with earth floors. They drain beautifully and don't get poached, but the ground must be soil and not clay, and obviously protected from the rain. Two horses are on straw whilst the third is on miscanthus, and all three beds are kept fairly thick and deep. If the ground gets a bit damp (I have one very wet mare who seems to have a bladder the size of an oil drum...), I just put some miscanthus underneath the straw which dries/firms up the ground. My husband did once offer me several loads of concrete as a birthday present a few years ago (I guess I need to remember that, although not romantic, this would have cost a lot more than a pair of earrings) but I refused as my earth floors work so well and I still wouldn't consider changing them for concrete.

 

[pottamus]

I have a mobile stable and I put some good thick mats down and then have a shavings bed on top of that. My horse uses it all year and is in every night and I have been able to use it as a normal stable for several years now with no trouble...I am on clay and the field gets sopping wet in the winter but the stable has been fine. I do find that the bedding finds its way under the mats so the stable floor is a bit bumpy but my horse does not seem to mind and still lies flat out in it every night.
Outside the stable gets very wet and boggy if it is not carefully managed so I get a lorry load of bark chippings dumped outside every year and that stops the area getting muddy even though my lad is in and out of it every day.

 

[Happy Hunter]

i have a field shelter with Bricks laid out herring bone style for entrance bit then earth inside. works a treat.
I have heard of people putting sand down (Must be the right sort as some is very acidic or something?!?!)
Or wood bark - like in kids playgrounds (before the health and saftey elves laid rubber down)

 

[Bowen4Horses]

we have mobile stables, and they are on normal soil but with stable mats. we used equimats (i think that's what they're called - the green jigsaw ones) because they fit together without any gaps. we've never had any problems at all. in fact, you wouldn't know they weren't on concrete when you were in there, except one of them is a bit uneven!

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Our stables have earth floors and we have had both straw and shavings beds very successfully. Our fields can get very muddy in winter but we have no trouble at all with the stables which are in the yard, just a few yards from the field gate.