Straw bedding useage with rubber mats?

TJ&Ozzie

TJ&Ozzie

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I am looking to get rubber mats in my 2 stables this year and wondered what peoples experiences were regarding straw useage? I am hoping it might save me some money in the long run?
 
Depends on the horse.. I had two in that would do a big square bale in +6 weeks..

Also one that ate all the straw, every night, and walked circles in the poo.. Didn't matter how much hay or haylage he got.. Just didn't suit being in! So on his own, a month or less depending on the size of the bed..

Perhaps a month on average then?? At £20-25 a bale..
 
My 2 are quite clean and I am a bit anal (poss not the best choice of word for this subject! lol) about skipping out, especially during the evening before I go to bed. If they are in at all during the day I lift the majority of their beds up. I am hoping with rubber mats their beds won't need to be as big full stop.
 
When I was younger we used to have rubber mats down with a scattering of shredded paper on top, it was very easy to clean although never looked very snuggly! I have no idea if shredded paper is still an acceptable form of bedding, things have changed so much in the decade I missed, but it was quite cheap and easy :-)
 
I use straw on rubber mats for my 3. 2 have just a pee patch and the 3rd has a full bed. I have small conventional bales and would reckon to use 2 bales for the full bed to start and then a bale a week to top up (I am a demon mucker outer though, nothing goes out if clean and reusable) and just a section a day on the pee patch ones. So about 2 bales per week and at current cost that would be £1.20 a week. (Yes I am lucky to have a very lovely farmer to supply at cost)

I find it works well but it does depend on good drainage. We have a good "fall" on our stable floors and nothing puddles anywhere which would then render straw worse than useless.
 
Agree with Suelin, drainage makes the difference.

If the stable drains well, the straw is fine, if the stable floor is one where pools of urine collect, shavings will mop it up better, but you'll need to use more.
 
i find small straw bed on rubber matting stinks i ended up keep washing stable out-maybe drainage could have been better though
 
Quite a few of us use straw on rubber matting with no problems at all,no nasty smells or pools of urine as the stables drain really well.Mucking out's easy too and i put down a good bed so so scrimping there.I use 1-2 bales a week,depending on which horse as two are messier than my Arab who is very clean and tidy.
 
Don't forget that when you lay your mats the ridges need to run to the door otherwise they won't drain, I found it easier to leave a 4" gap at the front of the box so that when you sweep the floor you can sweep it off the front of the mat and out of the door otherwise sweeping across the ridges doesn't work very well. I also didn't cut them to size of the box but allowed the excess to curl up the walls at the sides a few inches which stops the edges collecting dust and muck.
 
We have ours on straw over mats. They were a bit more smelly than shavings, but quicker to muck out and the muck heap rots down better (and it saves a fortune!). We have our beds fetlock deep and right up to the front. My clean mare uses 1-2 slices a day, our dirty gelding uses 4 slices a day, so we use just over a bale in two days.
 
Not a fan of rubber mats . . . especially since I helped a friend move hers . . . oy the smell!

Kal is on a (deep) straw bed on a concrete floor . . . good fall, no lip at the stable door so it's easy to muck/sweep out. I dig out the poo and the wet patches every day and lift the whole bed and let the floor dry/air once or twice a week. It's never smelly and is easy peasy to muck out. The key though is establishing a decent-sized bed . . . straw covers the whole floor, except for a small semi-circle about a foot around the doorway. Bed is at least eight inches deep - usually deeper - with high banks. After mucking out, I use the rest of the existing straw to form an ok base and the banks and then top up the base with clean straw. Once the bed is established, I probably go through half a small bale a day, at a cost of £1.25/day.

Hope that helps.

P

P.S. Edited to add, Kali is a very dirty boy . . .
 
Put rubber matting in 4 of our stables and tried cutting down on the bedding, worse in winter as their stable rugs got very wet and messy and stank to high heaven, none of the horses liked having their legs sprayed by urine. So am back to a nice deep straw bed,did try shavings(still have 30 bales) and I didn't like using them as they got dirty very fast, plus very wet and the fact they don't break down vey fast.Also straw easier to muck out, and the fact that if I think it's good enough to have a kip on so will my horses.:):)
 
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