what are your thoughts on a handfull of shavings on rubber matting?

I've seen stables like you mention (handful of shavings in a corner . . . . ) and I believe it is just an excuse to be lazy re mucking out. Rubber mats are flooring not bedding and if you have a "dirty" horse, they will be much cleaner with lots of bedding. Anyone who has kept anything that needs bedding, be it horses, rabbits, guinea pigs etc, will tell you that they are much easier to keep clean on lots of bedding.
 
I have only kept my horse on mat once, I didn't buy them so i don't know of the quality they seemed ok, except after about a fortnight on these mats I found the hair on my horses elbows and hock was getting rubbed from the getting up and down on the mats, she also got cast twice trying to squash herself on the tiny square of shavings I was allowed to put down, I moved form there very quickly. If I had the money and could buy decent mats I would give them another go but with a total floor covering of a couple of inches , thankfully my mare is very clean and her deep litter bed suits us just fine right now. Especially when all the rubber mat people are going through shavings like there is no tommorrow and I haven't had to put a bale in for ages as I started the bed huge and downgrade it through the summer when she is out more, now I'm popping a bale once a week again but that is on a par with what the rubber matting people on the yard are using!
 
I know some horses who wont pee unless there is a decent amount of bedding down - my horse being one of them. There is no way J could only have a handful of shavings, he would be unhappy and would cross his legs all night, it would not be fair to him.

Not only that, he has a large stable and when he gets sleepy, goes and stands in his lovely deep bed to sleep and relax.
 
Never...ever...EVER again would I have H stabled where they use minimal bedding - It just doesn't work - it's way too pissy for my liking!
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Unless the stable has amazing drainage the pee just sits in puddles and doesn't get absorbed at all - the bedding ends up soppy and horrid - your horse's coat and rugs gets saturated and smelly - eeeewww not for me!
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H is now on a massive straw bed and is very happy!
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Kate x
 
I have used the minimal shavings over rubber matting method- it is significntly quicker as you just sweep the lot out and scatter new shavings each day. I do agree it is more smelly and not so nice for the horses, and now I am at a yard with an indoor barn I will continue with deeper beds - but to do notice it takes much longer to muck out each day.
 
For me it totally depends on the horse. Some of our horses have lived perfectly on rubber matting with just sprinkles of shavings, others mush it around so much that you really need to put down a bit more of a bed. My stables were huge, were built with slopes on the floor and drainage channels, so wee never lay on the matting, it simply drained away. The horses lay down anywhere in the stables and didn't seem to bother whether they were on the matting or the bedding. Only one very dirty horse used to have smelly rugs and he was the one that I started using more bedding for; he was still dirty so didn't really help much.

Most definitely used far less shavings than if I had been making up full beds. The time to muck out was significantly shorter - only takes a couple of minutes to muck out a sprinkled bed.

I do think though, that if you are using rubber, you should go for the best rubber mats you can, make sure your stable has been built to cater to rubber matting ie. there MUST be a slope and drainage holes/channels, and I find it works so much better when used in large stables rather than the more usual small stables.

For anyone interested in Carbon Footprints; rubber matting and sprinkled shavings is an easy way of helping to reduce yours - or use straw.
 
We were on straw in the first place but decided for drainage reasons to go on shavings. We put in a big bed and deep littered for about 2 months, it took me a great deal of willpower as a "clean freak" who likes their horses bed dry, for me not to go through it all looking for the pee. But as a typical youngster mine dragged the bed around soaking the lot in the process, so our friend gave us her spare cow mats (firm and medium thickness, bumpy on one side with grooves on the other) and we covered half the stable, I put in my very thick and high banks and just put a single bale of shavings down so it covers the floor up to about 2cm. My horse seems a lot more awake as he has better rest, no trashing, banks left well alone and his bed is spotless every day as I take out all the dirty (which is less than a bucket full of shavings and poo) :) mind you its only been a week so fingers crossed it stays like that.
 
Nor do they go and make a nice deep bed for themselves....


I use rubber mats and minimal bed, I find that even the 'dust free' shavings have dust in them and with a mare with COPD and a gelding who tends to get a cough in the winter then the less bed the better. They live out 24/7 and generally only come in if the weather is extremely nasty or if we have a show/hunt the next day. Their rugs don't smell and neither seem to lie down in their stables much.
 
I should imagine time and cost, although the rugs will stink

I use a shavings bed on rubber mats, my horse is 32 and lays down now and again so for his joints I have a decent bed
 
I did it with Mazzie. No matter how big and deep the bed was you ended up having to take out the entire middle of the bed every day, so she ended up with just a sprinkling and then that was taken out and a new sprinkling put down. That way a bale of shavings lasted me 2 weeks instead of 2 days.

Genie on the other hand has a big thick bed of Aubiose, with the wet taken out once a week and I use 1 bale a week. Titch has woodpellets with the wet taken out once a week and I use 1 - 2 bags a week.
 
I love my deep clean beds far too much to even try it!, if i'm allowed to be honest, and i do not wish to offend anyone when i say this- but i really don't like rubber matting and minimalistic beds! I just think it's nicer for the horse to have a good thickness of bed to lie down on and it supports and cushions them (i know rubber matting does to a certain extent) and it's healthier for them not to stand or breathe/lie in their own pee, which makes their rugs stinky!
i guess I just must be old fashioned, and i know it's a personal preference thing! I was wondering the other day why i bother with having rubber matting under their beds!
 
I have used rubber mats for over a year now and arrange Arion's bed in a 6'6 square in the top left corner of his stable which is 12x14. He moves on to the bedding to pee - he wont pee without shavings as he doesnt like to, its just the way he is. He poo's off the shavings mostly as his hay ring is above where his bedding is so his bum is on the other side of the stable - yes strategic planning was involved and I spent a lot of time with bedding in different places :D What bed he does have is thick enough for him to lie on - and he does lie on it - and cause he poo's on the matting, he doesnt get that all over his rugs.

I use a bag of shavings a week on a normal out during the day/in at night week and more if hes in more. Summer time hes out 24/7

eta - there is a yard nearby who only do full livery and they operate with rubber mats and a sprinkle of shavings - apparantly liveries are never done washing stinky rugs :(
 
Wouldn't ever do it. Have seen people that do and you seem to end up with both stable and rugs smelling foul. I doubt it does their feet any good either. I like a nice deep bed with decent banks. :)
 
If they don't to have a deep enough bed on mats when geldings/stallions pee, they can get urine burns. You will not see these burns but it can make a horse difficult to groom on their legs/belly and make them sensitve to girth up.
 
ours all have good quality rubber matting i would happily sleep on and a blumming good bed very nice and deep shavings.
No offense to anyone who stables horses in turn out rugs,i can see the side of less dirty etc but i personally would rather sleep in my comfy pj's than in a waterproof coat meant to be worn outside.And i think i t should be the same for horses i could never make any of mine sleep in there outside coats.
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a lot of the outdoor rugs these days are probably just as comfortable as the indoors! On a clipped out horse, i think its kinder to him not to rip all his toasty rugs off on a frosty morning and put a cold one on... saves a lot of time too! I don't think a horse would notice the difference to be honest!
 
HammieHamlet said:
a lot of the outdoor rugs these days are probably just as comfortable as the indoors! On a clipped out horse, i think its kinder to him not to rip all his toasty rugs off on a frosty morning and put a cold one on... saves a lot of time too! I don't think a horse would notice the difference to be honest!
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I completely agree - and so does my horse. The few times I have taken off his outdoor rug to change into an indoor stable rug, the ears are back and hes head shaking in protest. So unless his rug is soaking wet I leave his outdoor on - hes built up lovely toasty warmth under it whilst out and who am I to take away his cosy :D
 
This is the method I use for my mare, it may not look pleasant, but she quite happily pees, poops, lies down and rolls (i have seen and seen evidence of all of the above) and the stable get completely cleared everyday (3 times a day if she is in all day) and new shaving put down. What ever bedding I put in (and believe me I tried for a long time doing big, medium, small bed) I came to in the morning and was absolutly trashed and absolutly every where, I was taking out 3 barrows a day at least and quite frankly I can't afford that! So yes it maybe cheap and easy and not look as pleasant in the morning but my girl is happy at comfortable and that's all that matter :D Oh and with me on rubber matting she has never capped her hocks, yet she goes to Rossdales has a mahoosive bed on concrete, but because of the amount she walks around she created massive bare spaces and came back with capped hocks, so for some horses rubber mats and a sprinkling of shavings are defo the way forward :)
 
I have tried both ways with both shavings and straw, in the end have found my older horse is cleanest on a full straw bed over mats. Unless you can train your horse to wee on command or in a bucket, mats with minimal bedding tend to be wet and smelly.
 
I have an extremely dirty grey gelding - he has a very large stable, with rubber flooring, and I use wood pellets, just in a quarter of the space. The main problem is he box walks, so we leave him in the evening with a clean floor and clean bedding, and in the morning he has literally trashed the whole bed, and it is circled around the floor. At least with the way we manage it, it only takes a short while to sweep up everything, hose the floor and start again. The longest time is spent on washing him every morning!
I've tried everything over the years - the best way was in a small stable where I put down a deep bed and he stayed on top of it, rather than being able to swoosh it around. He still managed to lay on every pile of poo though, and get it on his legs, and tummy and head and neck, and I was getting through double the chips with him compared to the others.
It's the same when he goes out - he rolls and rolls as soon as he is out and just loves getting dirty!
 
druid said:
If we're going to be scientific then all you shaving lot should switch to straw as horses ALWAYS prefer that according to the research done


(Will dig out the papers if anyone wants them)

Also there is a big differece between rubber mats and rubber matressing
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I'm sure you are right as a deep straw bed looks very inviting. It's also very cheap too, but the worst thing to handle if you have asthma! (Wouldn't want the horses on it either, purely for this reason). Also one of my horses is such a piglet, he would scoff it!
 
Don't get me started on the "handful of shavings and rubber mats" thing. Rubber mats are a FLOOR not a bed. OK, they are softer than concrete but no way would anyone just use a handful of shavings on a concrete floor. I have rubber mats in my mares' stable but she has a full bed apart from a foot wide strip at the front of the stable where I put her hay on the floor.

One of the girls at the yard only uses a handful of shavings and moans that her gelding's rug is smelly . . . . poor lad has nowhere nice and dry to lie down so of course it gets smelly.
My mare's rugs stay clean (and, god knows, she can pee for England) because she has a dry bed! It's the same for any animal with bedding, the deeper the bed, the cleaner they are. Simples. . . . .
 
Well I visited a yard where the horses had rubber matting without any bed at all, apparently they are more interested in riding than wasting time with mucking out ect.
I reminds me of a dealers yard I don't like it at all.

I still gave mine a proper straw bed with the mats but you can use a lot less bedding, a sprinkle just doesn't look very cosy
 
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