Using complete system mats instead of bedding

frazzled

frazzled

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 July 2008
Messages
1,520
Visit site
I was just wondering if anyone uses or has used the mats that are supposed to replace bedding (complete system). If so how have you found it? They are a considerable upfront investment ,almost double normal mats. The ones I have seen are made by Fieldguard.
 
just googled it. so if the wee seeps thro just leaving a damp patch on top, surely you must have to hose it down and underneath quite often or the wet will just lie underneath and be pongy? or perhaps i am missing something. plus i like them to have a nice comfy bed.
 
Thats one of the things I wondered about, the wee on top. I should imagine they only work with stables with very good drainage. I have a slightly strange horse who does not like much of a bed, tends to kick it out of his way and likes to wee on concrete, so a deep bed is not an issue for us!!!
 
I ride a horse that is stabled on this system along with a retired brood mare. The mats themselves are about 18" square approx and the underside look like the inside of an egg box which in turn slot into a flat mat with holes punched in it to stop them from becoming dislodged. The mats in question have been down for 15 years and get lifted once a year, thoroughly cleaned and put back like new. The horses themselves have no issues with them. They lie down as normal, empty bowels etc and in general are more than happy with no risk of slipping. The only thing I have never seen them do is roll but they do go out into the field and are therefore not confined to their stable 24 x 7. Mucking out is so easy and you just wash over the urine which does seep between the cracks. In winter I usually put a handful of shavings over any damp patches as they tend not to dry out so well as they do in the summer but all in all it is a great system and of course almost dust free. You do however need good drainage to allow the urine to drain away - these stables slope gently into a gutter and then this can be washed away to avoid any unpleasant build up.
 
Thankyou Cashew, that is really helpful. Do the horses get particularly filthy on this system or no more than on normal bedding?
 
No different really albeit they do have a rug of some sort on when they stay in overnight. At present they are in all day and out at night so perfect as very little in the way of skipping out to be done and no bedding for them to eat either!
 
I've never understood the idea of having no bedding, just mats. Some will try the old argument that horses in the wild don't make themselves snuggly "nests". That argument is nonsense since horses in the wild don't choose to stand in a tiny 12 x 12 area of ground for 18 hours per day (or more) and whilst they're in it, poo, pee, eat, sleep, rest, you name it. Absolute codswallop. The concept of a bed of eg shavings, whatever, is that it is a COMPROMISE between what the horse would do in the wild (ie walk miles and never, ever lie in its own poo or pee) and the need to restrict its movement for management purposes. There was a livery on my yard that used rubber mats with - literally - a handful of shavings lobbed across a tiny area at the back. Let me tell you, the stable stank and the ammonia was somtimes strong enough to make you gag. The horse eventually contracted a nasty infection on the underside of her belly through lying in her own urine and her coat, rug or not, was always minging. Is it so difficult to at least try to provide an environment where the urine and faeces aren't at least partly mopped up by decent bedding? I've had a deep litter shavings bed down in my veteran's stable for over 5 years. His stable always smells fragrant, his coat always shines, and he lies flat out snoring in any one of my 3 deep litter stables that he can find empty and with the door open. I've never ever dug it out = all I do every summer is move more wet out than clean shavings going in, or it would be 3ft high!
 
So agree with Box_of_Frogs.

Rubber matting was never meant to replace bedding but to provide the stabled horse with a kinder surface to stand on.

You need bedding to protect the horse from draughts - they whistle under the door and make your horse cold.

Bedding also absorbs all the urine, covers up dung so your horse doesn't lie in it.

A horse in the wild or even in the paddock will lie down in a dip or a sheltered area and they don't suffer from draughts.
 
I also use the Fieldguard M2 mats and find them excellent. Because of the rubber studs underneath they are very squidgy and comfortable to lie on - I reckon if I am happy to lie on them then they are fine for the horses and they are happy to lie on them too. Because the mats are quite small, there are plenty of joins for the urine to seep through. It is important to have good drainage though - we have sloped floors and the urine runs under the mats to a gully outside. Then you just need enough bedding to absorb the small damp patch that is left.

Most of the people who are anti-mats haven't actually experienced the system using decent mats (like the Fieldguard system) and good drainage, but have witnessed people using thin mats with poor drainage and often not skipping out enough!

You do have to adjust the amount of bedding to each individual horses circumstances - mine aren't particularly wet and are out all day, so don't need a lot. However, when I had a Cushings pony who had restricted turnout and was quite wet, then more bedding was required.
 
I bought some rubber mats years ago that were porous, the wee was supposed to drain through, they were disgusting, I had 2 replacement sets of mats as they were disintagrating (sp) the company was from Kent, had my money back in the end, as it wasn't working and for him to keep travelling back and fore with new mats wasn't cost effective !

I have different mats now, they are soft, not porous but I still like to have a bed to soak up the wee and the rugs get disgusting and minging with no bed, plus my horse doesn't like weeing on bare floor, they are the black cheaper version of equimat
 
Thankyou TGM. I guessed that the amount of additional bedding would be dependent on the horse. I think I shall try and get a sample sent to see the mats for myself. The stables have good drainage and this may be a solution for our horse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top