Straw beds on rubber matting......

With the rubber mat I only put straw in about 1/3 of the stable - a plenty big enough space for them to lie down and much easier to shovel poo off the bare mats. The every few days I rotate which corner of the stable the straw is in so the mats stay dry underneath the straw. I get straw from lovely nextdoor farmer in return for a few sunday dinners so buying shavings as well seems excessive. But because of that I throw away all wet straw every day so maybe that helps too.
 
Yuck! Straw is a draining bed that is not very good at absorbing and definately not nice on matting. Shavings would be better than nothing underneath but my advice would be to use a layer of woodpellets. They absorb so well there is never any seepage so therefore no stink!
 
I've just switched having matted out the stable. I've bought a mix of very short straw and shavings with added eucalyptus. I'm going to stick in a could of bales tonight.
 
This intresting, I've just put mats in buds stable. So people would suggest a sprokle of shavings under the straw to soak up wee?
Or as the stable is well sloped am I better leaving gravity to let it drain through and down?
Thanks :)
 
If it wasn't for gravity and the particular shape and slope of my stable :rolleyes: I probably wouldn't bother. See what works for you. I do find it 'tidier' but have never done this before now; we always used just one or the other beddings plus mats they became commonplace.
 
Those that do, how do you muck it out?

With straw on mats, I flick it all up to the sides each day, and sweep out - surely you would get a mix of shavings in the straw..?
 
Honey08 said:
Those that do, how do you muck it out?

With straw on mats, I flick it all up to the sides each day, and sweep out - surely you would get a mix of shavings in the straw..?
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The shavings tend to be soaked, so you pile all the dry straw in one area, take out all the wet (straw and shavings) put fresh shavings down then re-lay the bed as normal.

Equisorb/hemp bedding works better than shavings though because it's more absorbent. :)
 
On straw with rubber matting yuck yuck tuck on pellets next month. My stable stinks unless I bring mats up once a month, just tried to deep litter on it just failed. So she gets a 10ft by 4ft bed atm. Works as long as wet out every day!
 
I use straw on rubber mats and don't have a stinking problem, no wetter than on concrete tbh.

The trick is to go for the expensive heavy mats and fit them tight with the drains running together underneath and the pimples up. I never move them but when I Have to swop stables it was dry.

Then I put a good deep big bed down at the back of the stable and build up high wide banks which get pulled down daily, one bank per day.

They joke at my yard that my horse sleeps in a duplex.:D
 
Ive been thinking of changing to straw as since chsnging yards and going in a smaller stable my horse is filthy. The girls on straw complain it stinks, one tried shavings underneath the pee area and says its worked great. She doesnt disturb the shavings in this area for a few days, then gets rid of it and replaces with fresh. She isnt on mats though and I worry that the wee will get under the mats and stink. Fine at weekends but mucking out during the week before work, not good :confused:
Cant decide what to do :confused::confused:
 
I gave up putting straw on rubber matting very quickly, just wasted straw trying to get out the poop and the mats were all soaked from the pee. Before I had rubber matting I would deep litter over the winter with shavings and some straw on top, that worked well.

Now I just spread out a thin layer of shavings to collect pee (would use wood pellets if it were available nearby) my horse is happy to lie down on the rubber mats (she is young and cobby though so not very bony) and it's really quick to muck out. I can get a bag of shavings to last for a week :-)
 
Polos Mum said:
With the rubber mat I only put straw in about 1/3 of the stable - a plenty big enough space for them to lie down and much easier to shovel poo off the bare mats. But because of that I throw away all wet straw every day so maybe that helps too.
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This is what I'm doing currently too. I always give it a proper muck out every day and pile up the straw for a few hours so I can chuck a bucket of water on the bit the straw has been (to wash away the wee) which sorts out any smell. I have sealed mats though and a big drainage grill along the back so the pee does tend to drain well. I imagine it might be different if you dont have a stable like this or have unsealed mats etc.
 
MagicMelon said:
This is what I'm doing currently too. I always give it a proper muck out every day and pile up the straw for a few hours so I can chuck a bucket of water on the bit the straw has been (to wash away the wee) which sorts out any smell. I have sealed mats though and a big drainage grill along the back so the pee does tend to drain well. I imagine it might be different if you dont have a stable like this or have unsealed mats etc.
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My mats are small Field Guard ones and not fixed, not that keen on them but they were cheap 2nd hand off some one who left the yard.
 
I used to put a 2" inch thick bed of wood pellets under my skinny straw bed. Over the week, the pellets packed down solid and I just scraped the straw off leaving a pellet bed underneath. Every week I dug the pellets up and took out the wet which took about 15 minutes. Saved a lot of time during the week and didn't smell at all.

Towards the end of last winter I just had them on pellets but might put a bit of straw down again this year as it looks nice!!!!
 
I've used Megazorb under the straw before and it worked really well. Soaked up the wet and stayed in place enough for me to brush the mucky straw off the top. I removed any really wet bits, and forked the rest over so it can dry out whilst the straw is banked up for the day - smells so much better! :)
 
For my large, restless, very wet/dirty boy I found that straw on rubber matting needed to "establish" and be deep enough to start with. I had some leftover Bedmax so did put that underneath when I set up the bed, but I don't bother now and his bed only smells when I disturb the wet. His bed is nearly a foot deep and has two high banks along the back and righthand wall. I remove the poo every day, turn the banks every day and remove all the wet every day . . . then I pull the banks down to fill the holes where the wet was, rebuild the banks and top up the base with clean straw. Once a week I lift the whole bed, sweep and leave to air/dry . . . sometimes more often in the summer or if he's been in more. In between whiles, I use Stable Zone to help absorb the wet/limit any ammonia smell.

My rubber mats, though, are triple layered and sealed - so there is absolutely no leakage.

Oh, and I routinely remove two wheelbarrows of muck a day . . . but as I pay a flat fee of £20/month for all the straw I can use it isn't an issue.

P
 
I've used straw on mats in the past and had no problem. I used to remove all the wet daily so it never had a chance to smell. Actually, due to my stables being free draining, I found the straw easier to muck than shavings. Unfortunately my boy randomly decided one day to eat 3/4 of his rather large bed and had a nasty impaction colic, so back onto shavings he went.
 
another straw and mats yuk I'm afraid. I think unless rubber mats are fitted to the stable are a complete waste of time. Personally I think a well maintained deep litter shavings bed or a daily mucked out straw bed are much nicer!
 
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