To use rubber mats or not? What do u do?

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ali87uk

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Hi,
I am wondering whether it is worth investing in rubber mats. On one hand will use less bedding and easier to muck out (i work full time) but on other a friend said they cause the horse to smell and they're not worth it.
What are your thoughts? Are they worth buying?
Thanks :0)
 
best investment for me if im honest. yeah the outlay is a lot initially bit my first set will be 13 years old now and are still in great condition. I only clean mine in the spring (disinfect underneath and on top adter winter) and they dont smell. If seriously cut down and now dont really have anything down although my horses live out 24/7 now but they use the stables a lot. it cut down on my time as well when i was mucking out and working 12hr shifts
 
Definately!!!!!!!!!!!! Warmer, softeron the limbs , less mucking out. Buy the thickest you can afford and not the cheap onesmade out of reccycled rubber as they fall apart. I use mine with wood chip and spend £2.50 per week on bedding due to less wastage. Mucking out takes less than 5 mins, every day and only 10 mins on the weekend when I do a finer filtering. Put the bed only on one half of the stable floor only.
 
I bought mats for my boy - he has a half bed at the back which I know isn't quite the idea but I wanted him to have something to lie down and soak up wee! So they do reduce the bedding (a lot) - I dont muck out my horse (hes on part livery) but wil skip out in the evening - he tends to be obliging and poo on the matting bit. If your mats dont have the gaps underneath to allow them to drain then I could see they would make the stable smell, likewise if you have no bedding in the box at all, then it stands to reason your horse would at some point have to lie in urine. A friend had matting put down as her horse was superb at getting capped hacks due to always digging up his bed... and it was really deep as well!
 
oh, and it doesn't smell. Don't cut it to size, let some of it come up the wall and it is easier to sell when you don't need it and acts as a better insulator - and pee doesn't go down the crack beween the wall and the mat. Expect to pay about £38 per mat. I needed 6 for my stable and can take it with me when I leave.
 
best investment we have ever made! i can muck out 6stables (1 foaling box which has 2 very messy foals in!) in about an hr, including the sweeping & putting beds down. I also only get through 2-3bags per wk for the lot. Iv not had any issues with any smell & one of mine is very wet.
Got ours off ebay for about £28/mat
 
If you seal them water/pee cant get under to make them smell!!
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My bedding is included in what I will pay for my livery, so it's purely whether it would help with mucking out and is beneficial!

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what bedding do you use? I haven'ttried them with anything but wood pellets.
 
dont have a smell issue, but only downside is i tend to get a bit sweep happy. find them harder to sweep than concrete floor so always sweeping them clean. thats just me tho - i'm sad!!!!
 
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But do you not want to seal them otherwise pee stays on top of the mats?

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the bedding soaks up the pee, the mat shouldn't unless it's cheap recycled rubber, as otherwise it'll smell.
 
Go for the eva (equimat) type if you can afford it. We have those at the back with a layer of shavings so they can lie down comfortably - but only black rubber ones at the front - they don't seem to mind though!
 
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But do you not want to seal them otherwise pee stays on top of the mats?

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I don't seal them, just have them come up the wall abit, as they'll be picked up every 6 months hosed underneath and disinfected. Also sealing will effect resale.
 
I find mats save me so much time i wish i had changed to them earlier. Less time mucking out and fewer trips to the manure heap! I went for equimats as they are so light and when I researched them it was clear they didnt cause horses to smell. I have some heavy ones that I bought before the equimats which also dont create a smell but are a nightmare to move on my own. It is worth doing some research into the types of mats available.

You can use straw on mats but many people dont as the reason they opt for mats is due to breathing probs. I am also not sure you would get the full benefit if you used straw as I think you would use more than necessary. But maybe it would last longer. Personally I like mats and paper or cardboard bedding. But i also use shavings if i cant get paper etc.
 
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best investment we have ever made! i can muck out 6stables (1 foaling box which has 2 very messy foals in!) in about an hr, including the sweeping & putting beds down. I also only get through 2-3bags per wk for the lot. Iv not had any issues with any smell & one of mine is very wet.
Got ours off ebay for about £28/mat

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Ditto! 7 boxes and 1 foaling box in just over an hours and about 4 bags shavings a week..Much better than the 4+ hours it used to take me
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they're brilliant and i wouldn't be without them. i've done 3 yards with them now (purchasers always want them and pay extra for them), i wouldn't have plain rubber again though, the mayomats cowmats are much warmer and lighter, and show no sign or wear at all after a few years.
 
I have straw on my mats and it has made this winter so much easier for me. I still give him a decent bed, so his rugs don't get horrid, but he gets much less thick straw than he used to, and only half a stables worth, wheras before it was pretty much up to the door.

My horse is pretty messy and it has probably cut my mucking out time to about half I think - sifting through a massive bed of straw with a messy horse is not fun
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Mine extend up the walls a little, and I think it possible smells a little more than last year - but not offensively so. They just need to pulled out and given a good clean in summer.

Get them, you won't regret it
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