Your rubber matting stables - questions :-)

Supertrooper

Supertrooper

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 March 2010
Messages
14,077
Visit site
Do you firstly have - no bedding, a strip of bedding or a full bed?

How often do you lift mats to clean under them?

How long does it take you to muck out (shavings)

We've brought some this morning for the big boy, just need to get my friends son to fit it now xx
 
I have a full bed with banks that covers approximately two thirds of the stable, it's not a particularly thick bed but it seems to do the trick.

I have had my mats down for years and have never lifted them, they don't smell at all, the concrete slopes to a drain away so I think this probably helps.

It takes me about 30 minutes to do a full muck out and re-lay the bed, I could do it quicker but I tend to do quite a thorough job.

I use approximately 2 bales of shavings a week but they are smaller then average I would say, once the bad weather really hits I'll probably make the bed a bit bigger and deeper and use 3 bales of shavings a week.
 
I have the eva light weight mats and use three bales of bedding to start with then add roughly on ebale per week. Takes me 20 mins to muck out each stable. I take the mats out once a year (in the summer) to give them a clean and clean underneath them.
 
Fully rubber matted. The bedding is Beddown Excel (so shavings/straw combo) and that covers about 1/2 the stable at the back.

I use about a bale a week and there are no banks and only a thin sprinkle. I would put more but is a very messy b&gger so I would only end up throwing more out if I put more down!! The bedding is simply to help soak up as the rubber matting is thick and comfy enough for lying on without any bedding.

Just think, they lay down out in the fields in either mud or on solid ground (if it ever stops raining!) so we pander too much sometimes in the stable!!

Mats come out twice a year - Spring and Autumn - for a good clean, and the stable gets cleaned, repainted and aired at the same time! It takes about 30mins, but that is doing it whilst chatting and drinking tea so not rushing at all.
 
half a bed for some horses, a strip of bedding for the really mucky one (who makes the whole stable disgusting no matter how much bed I put down). about 4 mins per stable in the mornings.
I never lift the mats, I use homemade disinfectant on the wet patches every day and the stables smell lovely all year round.
The only thing is that I think you have to use absorbent bedding not a drainage bedding such as straw. I use cardboard and it's great.
 
I have rubber matting down, it only really comes out for a clean when he flicks an edge up and then gets shavings under it, so then it all comes out to be cleaned under, but this has not happened for a few months now. I was on shavings, but since my boy has come in over night now, he has been filthy, getting through 3 bales of shavings a week, which I just can not afford any more (worked out to about £84.00 per month, but was only paying £14.00 in the summer!), so he is now on straw, with some shavings underneath to help soak up the wee, and I can honestly say it is much improved, and he does not drag it all around. I did not ever think I would go on straw, but it is so easy to clean out, so really pleased so far, and it is very cheap too, my saviour!
 
Do you firstly have - no bedding, a strip of bedding or a full bed?
A full bed which is a mixture of shavings and wood pellets.

How often do you lift mats to clean under them?
Once a year in the summer when the stables are steam cleaned.

How long does it take you to muck out (shavings)
20 minutes at the most.
 
I have rubber matting i love it but i use straw not shavings and i go through 3 bales a week approx £7.50pw mine are quiet tidy ponys, i lift the matting at least every 2 weeks and mine are in every night, some might go longer if you have shavings as it does soak up alot of wee. but im for straw as it keeps them warmer, just my opinion, hope that helps :)
 
I challenge everyone who thinks it's perfectly all right to give a horse on rubber mats no bed to set their stable up with a bed on the left and no bed on the right and see what the horse would choose.

I HATE seeing horses on no mats with no bed, forced to lie in their own urine. Horses in fields DON'T lie for any length of time on flat hard ground - go and check the field and you will find that they either seek out or create a little saucer into which to fit their bellies.

I had mats until I moved to keeping them in a barn. I never lifted them and they were fine. I had a bed big enough for the horse to lie flat out on, deep bedded and used less than one bale of wood shavings per week.

Mucking out took less than 10 mins per stable. Taking out the deep bed once every sizx to eight weeks took about an hour.
 
I have matting and use Miscanthus bedding, we have a thin bed of about a bale across the back of the box, and use one bale a week tops evey 10 days to top up between 2 horses, miscanthus is more absorbant than shavings , cheaper than hemp, and most importantly rots , so makes a small muck heap!
 
I have rubber matting, last year I had horses (4) on shavings, you cann't keep it clean and was cold and for 30 bales £195 and have one boxwalker and one fretful mare, going through 30 bales a month. Now back on straw, it takes me less time to muck out, thicker beds and they are warm, have noticed they lie down more. The boxwalker is still doing it but whether because he has thicker bedding it doesn't look so bad, I'm throwing out less and bedding cleaner. Fretfull mare, I'm still putting a bale a day in to keep it thick as there are more droppings, so she must be eating it, but it's much cheaper and she is looking happier and must admit so am I.:D:D:D
 
full mats with full beds. approx 10 mins to muck out. use approx 1 to 2 bales of shavings to maintain full bed. take out all poo and all wet every day.
 
My mats have been down for years and I never lift them - I would never get them back down as tight as they are now if I lifted them. I have a full deep bed of Bed-down Excel/Sundown Red (whichever is on offer!) and skip out daily, taking out the wet once a week. I add one bale on the day I take out the wet.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
full mats with full beds. approx 10 mins to muck out. use approx 1 to 2 bales of shavings to maintain full bed. take out all poo and all wet every day.
Click to expand...

How do you muck out in 10 mins?

Not being funny, seriously. I keep trying to make it quicker but it still takes me at least half an hour. Used to take me an hour on Easibed but I've got Aubiose now and that's a lot easier but - 10 mins? Howhowhow??

I find the most time-consuming thing is not the actual mucking out but the sweeping up. I've got fab Kreiberg mats at the back but I've moved to a much bigger stable and bought some cheap ones for the rest and they have sharp pimply bits on and take AGES to sweep.
 
Do you firstly have - no bedding, a strip of bedding or a full bed?
Full bed of Aquamax wood pellets, was shavings until a month ago. One of the reasons for switching over to pellets was that I thought the stable smelt (bad) because the wee was getting under the mats and festering :(

How often do you lift mats to clean under them?
I don't, the Aquamax is absorbing the wee, with the shavings it was needed once a week, her peeing spot just happened to be right over one of the joins :( Smell is definitely improved, and no yukky gunge seeping out from under the mats at the door any more.

How long does it take you to muck out (shavings)
Was 15 minutes on shavings, I had it down to a fine art, that was poo and the wet every day, getting through 3 bales/14 days. Slightly longer with the Aquamax at the moment, the bed is still settling down... I take out the bulk of the wet every day, and need 2 bags a week to replace.
 
I still have banks and a bed nearly as deep as if it was on concreate, I did use straw but moving yards this week and ive got to use shavings, but il still have it quite deep.
It hate him to lay down on a hard floor.
It does seem quicker to muck out and the wee seems to go under the mats so doesn't waste as much matting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top