To rubber mat or not to rubber mat?

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Alphamare

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The stables are concrete. I use wood pellet bedding (no deep litter) should I mat the stables out? The floors are sloping but not 100% level. This will be my first winter here. I have found some nice matting on ebay (thick enough but sold in metre squares) which I could potentially glue down? The stables are quite large so I don't want to mat the entire thing if I do, just the bed area. Would 10 foot by 10 foot be big enough to sleep on?

Any advice appreciated :-)
 
I use wooden pellets also, but I have 34mm thick easimats wall to wall. I'm trying to visualise how u use pellets without mats??? I do know someone who does but I dread to think how many bags were needed as there's is deep.

The thing with horses, who's to say they will lie down on the matted area?
How big are your stables? Mine are 12x12, so 6 mats fitted well x
 
I like rubber mats. I have stables both with and without them. The horses definitely prefer the matted stables, because they lie down in them a lot more than those unmatted.

I use cow mats, they are very light and so easy to take out when you want to give the stables a thorough clean.
 
The stables are about 14 by 18. I definitely don't want to pay out to mat the entire stable for all the stables I'd pretty soon go broke :)

I've only just switched to pellets for this winter so not used them yet :-)
 
I would recommend you mat the whole stable, trust me it will be worth it!

You really do have to mat with wood pellets but well done for opting for these as I am a massive convert!! You only need to lay 3 inches or so of bed and no banks really to talk of so mats are essential.

God, I cannot believe we are all starting to think about winter bedding again!!!
 
I have rubber mats. The stable is 12' x 14'. I only bed down 12' x 12'. He never stands on concrete. I like the mats 'cos he used to have bare bits having moved his bedding about even on a 12' x 12' stable. I hate the idea of his hocks being capped and I have no worries about him lying on concrete. He does lie down a lot more with the mats.

Jane
 
Janah said:
I like the mats 'cos he used to have bare bits having moved his bedding about even on a 12' x 12' stable. I hate the idea of his hocks being capped and I have no worries about him lying on concrete.
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Exactly the same reason why I have them.

My big lad just scoops up bedding without mats and gets to the concrete no matter how thick his bed. With mats I don't have to worry.

I have a full shavings bed on top of the heavier, thinner style mats which our local feed store has for about £40 a sheet
 
With rubber matting you need to have good sloping drainage in the stable coz if not it just gets all horrible, smelly & gunky underneath and the whole place will begin to pong PDQ!

Also - IME you need to make the decision of all or nothing, what I mean is that its no good just putting a bit of matting down say where the horse sleeps and not wall-to-wall; coz if you've gotta horse like mine all he'll do is just lie down and paddle his feet around and get all the bedding underneath the rubber matting and it'll be a helluva mess by the morning! - all piled up in a heap and with bedding underneath the matting (delightful creature :))

So at the moment I'm strongly considering having a professional job and going for wall-to-wall, to stop this happening.
 
I have an approx. 10'x10' stable, with 3 6'x4' mats in. I have some gaps at the edges and at the front, but my horse doesn't make a mess and all his bedding is still on the mats in the morning. I wouldn't be without mats now - he lies down a lot more, and I use a lot less bedding!
 
Yeah I have to agree, I'd mat the whole thing. I like the mats because my mare will stand looking over the door at what's going on, and it's good to know she's got something softer to stand on at that time. As for lying down, if I only did half the stable she'd end up digging up the matting and I'd come down to find she'd gone missing in a pile of rubber and shavings!
 
you may not find it saves you much on bedding! my old mare had to have a full bed on top of the mats otherwise she got wee splashes all up her back legs where it splashed off the mats:rolleyes: she was a bit of a box wlaker though so only using the minimum amount of bedding meant it all got walked out to the edges and none left in the middle:rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the thoughts. I plan on using the bedding as directed so am not hoping to save any money there (expect i imagine without mats i would be using a lot more of it so maybe a little!!!) its more for the comfort of the horse when laying down.

I dont intend to mat the whole thing just the bed part, i thank you for the suggestions but i have seen a lot of larger stables set up like this and it seems to work well. I will mat the entire back bed section and leave the front without.
 
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