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 Expert
Posts: 4625
   
Location: Desert Land | We recently built a new mare motel. I have always left my stalls with just dirt, no mats. I decided that I wanted to go ahead and lay rubber mats in the mare motel so I didn't have to deal with digging out pee holes, re-leveling, pacing horses leaving a track, etc.
So my questions are:
-What kind of shavings to you put down (specifically large flake vs. small flake)?
-How often do you strip your stalls?
-When you strip them do you rinse the mats down or use any product to sanitize or just let them dry out for a little bit and put shavings back down?
Thanks guys! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 670
Location: Running my kids somewhere. | The bedding I put in my matted stalls depends on the horse. If I have a pacer or a messing stall horse I don't bed heavy. Enough to soak up, easy clean up and ok for them to lay down. That way they are not laying directly on the mats.
I prefer small flake shavings for any of them. If I have a neat horse or one that I knows lays down a lot I will put down 2-3 inches. My shavings are delivered by dump truck.
If it is a stall for outside mares I strip and spray it down after the mare leaves. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 883
Location: Southern Indiana | I love having mats but they are a pain when one the the edges start to come up so it’s important to keep plenty of shavings and keep them raked for the life of your mats. Whe don’t use any particular shavings....our neighbor brings them to us for free. They are a finer flake. Almost like saw dust. I think something that would pack would be a little better. In the summer I probably strip my stalls once a week. I don’t sanatize as the same horses are always in there. I will sometimes put a little lime down to help the smell. |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | Pine Soft pellets as bedding, they soak up the pee that WILL gather on top of the mats if you just use shavings.
If I was able to clean daily, there was no need to strip the stalls.
When I did strip them, I would pull the mat back in the area my horse peed and sprinkle lime.
We're currently working on our new barn now and we plan to go with Stall Savers. It's a thin "mat" material that allows urine to flow through. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| I use a combo of Equine Fresh pellets, Beck's cobs and small flake shavings. I like this combo because there is less waste when I pick stalls.
I do strip on an as needed basis; typically 30 days+ unless they've been stalled a lot due to weather.
If I strip, I completely sweep out, let dry then put down Sweet PDZ stall refresher before I re-bed. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
 
Location: Pacific Northwest | My horses are never locked in so I don’t bed them at all. Even back when I used to put shavings in the stalls they always went outside to lay down so I just gave up. |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
| Is your mare motel going to house wet mares too?
I had a foal get a nasty infected hock from trying to get up in a matted stall. Could not find purchase and kept sweeping his leg trying til he wore a hole in it. He was at a vet clinic and you'd think they'd've seen it, but they didn't until it had gotten infected. Not good for a baby.
Just something to think about if you will be housing little ones.
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 Veteran
Posts: 232
Location: Winging It in KY | dashnlotti - 2018-03-29 1:50 PM Pine Soft pellets as bedding, they soak up the pee that WILL gather on top of the mats if you just use shavings. If I was able to clean daily, there was no need to strip the stalls. When I did strip them, I would pull the mat back in the area my horse peed and sprinkle lime. We're currently working on our new barn now and we plan to go with Stall Savers. It's a thin "mat" material that allows urine to flow through.
You won't regret using the Stall Savers. Best thing we ever did.  |
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Expert
Posts: 4625
Location: Desert Land | dashnlotti - 2018-03-29 10:50 AM Pine Soft pellets as bedding, they soak up the pee that WILL gather on top of the mats if you just use shavings. If I was able to clean daily, there was no need to strip the stalls. When I did strip them, I would pull the mat back in the area my horse peed and sprinkle lime. We're currently working on our new barn now and we plan to go with Stall Savers. It's a thin "mat" material that allows urine to flow through.
I had a sample of the Stall Savers sent to me and I just wasn't liking it. I felt like that material would absorb the urine smell. I wanted to visit someone who was using them for a while and check it out but couldn't find anyone near me that had them. |
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Expert
Posts: 4625
Location: Desert Land | livexlovexrodeo - 2018-03-29 11:46 AM My horses are never locked in so I don’t bed them at all. Even back when I used to put shavings in the stalls they always went outside to lay down so I just gave up.
The mare motel is just the stalls, no runs off of them so they don't have that option of going in and out. |
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Expert
Posts: 4625
Location: Desert Land | cuckleburr - 2018-03-29 12:12 PM dashnlotti - 2018-03-29 1:50 PM Pine Soft pellets as bedding, they soak up the pee that WILL gather on top of the mats if you just use shavings. If I was able to clean daily, there was no need to strip the stalls. When I did strip them, I would pull the mat back in the area my horse peed and sprinkle lime. We're currently working on our new barn now and we plan to go with Stall Savers. It's a thin "mat" material that allows urine to flow through. You won't regret using the Stall Savers. Best thing we ever did.
Interesting...how long have you had them? |
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Expert
Posts: 4625
Location: Desert Land | lonely va barrelxr - 2018-03-29 12:10 PM Is your mare motel going to house wet mares too?
I had a foal get a nasty infected hock from trying to get up in a matted stall. Could not find purchase and kept sweeping his leg trying til he wore a hole in it. He was at a vet clinic and you'd think they'd've seen it, but they didn't until it had gotten infected. Not good for a baby.
Just something to think about if you will be housing little ones.
So your baby rubbed his leg raw from the mats? That's interesting - I have never seen that happen. My colt that was born the other night has had no issue getting up in the stall on these mats, but I will keep an eye on it. |
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 No Name Nancy
Posts: 2715
Location: never in the right place | I have mats over concrete. I use fine shavings and bed deeply since pee can't go anywhere. My horse will poop outside (mostly) and pees in the stall in 1 spot so I just sweep the dry bedding out of the way and scoop out the wet. my mats fit tightly in the stall and no edges pop up |
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Member
Posts: 35
| The barn I worked at a few years back had one piece mats that perfectly fit each stall over concrete. I loved the mats, didn't like the concrete. Another barn I boarded at had regular mats (multiple mats for each stall) over compacted gravel. Didn't like the mats, loved the compacted gravel- the drainage was excellent! So my dream barn will have one piece mats over compacted gravel. One piece mats prevent shavings from getting in the cracks or under the mats and the gravel lets it drain really well when you hose it down. I like the small flake shavings, the large flake don't absorb well. |
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Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | majiksummer - 2018-03-30 8:05 PM
The barn I worked at a few years back had one piece mats that perfectly fit each stall over concrete. I loved the mats, didn't like the concrete. Another barn I boarded at had regular mats (multiple mats for each stall) over compacted gravel. Didn't like the mats, loved the compacted gravel- the drainage was excellent! So my dream barn will have one piece mats over compacted gravel. One piece mats prevent shavings from getting in the cracks or under the mats and the gravel lets it drain really well when you hose it down. I like the small flake shavings, the large flake don't absorb well.
I mentioned above that we plan to use Stall Savers...and the compacted gravel is what the base will be under so the urine can drain out. If that planned base doesn't happen, we'll probably just do plain ol mats bc it will either be packed clay or concrete, so the Stall Savers will be pointless with no drainage. |
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 Loves to compete
Posts: 5760
Location: Oakdale, CA | majiksummer - 2018-03-30 6:05 PM The barn I worked at a few years back had one piece mats that perfectly fit each stall over concrete. I loved the mats, didn't like the concrete. Another barn I boarded at had regular mats (multiple mats for each stall) over compacted gravel. Didn't like the mats, loved the compacted gravel- the drainage was excellent! So my dream barn will have one piece mats over compacted gravel. One piece mats prevent shavings from getting in the cracks or under the mats and the gravel lets it drain really well when you hose it down. I like the small flake shavings, the large flake don't absorb well.
okay so how thick of gravel and how did it drain? Was it on a slant or did it have a drain??? french drain?? Just curious...........any pictures???
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Expert
Posts: 4625
Location: Desert Land | majiksummer - 2018-03-30 6:05 PM The barn I worked at a few years back had one piece mats that perfectly fit each stall over concrete. I loved the mats, didn't like the concrete. Another barn I boarded at had regular mats (multiple mats for each stall) over compacted gravel. Didn't like the mats, loved the compacted gravel- the drainage was excellent! So my dream barn will have one piece mats over compacted gravel. One piece mats prevent shavings from getting in the cracks or under the mats and the gravel lets it drain really well when you hose it down. I like the small flake shavings, the large flake don't absorb well.
I would have loved to have 1 solid mat but I don't think a 16' x 20' mat would be easy to come by and man that sucker would be heavy! |
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Veteran
Posts: 232
Location: Winging It in KY | TheOldGrayMare - 2018-03-29 3:17 PM cuckleburr - 2018-03-29 12:12 PM dashnlotti - 2018-03-29 1:50 PM Pine Soft pellets as bedding, they soak up the pee that WILL gather on top of the mats if you just use shavings. If I was able to clean daily, there was no need to strip the stalls. When I did strip them, I would pull the mat back in the area my horse peed and sprinkle lime. We're currently working on our new barn now and we plan to go with Stall Savers. It's a thin "mat" material that allows urine to flow through. You won't regret using the Stall Savers. Best thing we ever did.
Two years. The urine runs through them into the base that you pack down under it. We have crushed limestone. I would say if you don't clean your stalls all the time you might get a urine smell but we clean our stalls 2x a day when they are inside. |
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