stable bedding and rubber matting

[muppetisacat]

My daughter has a loan pony and we are going to stable it this year through the winter - we are new to the world of pony owning and I was just wondering if any of you have put that rubber matting down in your stables and whether you have noticed a decrease in the amount of bedding you have needed to use?

I haven't as mine live out, but I have been told that it is great, but works best with some ordinary bedding on top to adsorb the wee. One thing I have been told that it is really heavy to move - which needs to be done at least once a year to wash....

I have both of mine on rubber matting and straw. I do use much less bedding, but find that the rubber matting makes the bed sweat a bit so on straw they tend to stink. I do try to put enough down for them to sleep on though some people literally put only enough down to soak up pee. If i only had the one i would go back to shavings or the aubiose/hemp stuff, but as a months worth of straw only costs me £16 that is my only option.

Hope that helps

I want to get some this year when he comes in for winter, probably any minute now (what a depressing thought) otherwise his shoes barely last 3 weeks because he scrapes so much in there at night. Will still have a deep comfy bed though.

Any recommendations for this matting? Want to spend least possible £££!

Hey Mitchy
At our old yard i managed to salvage an old rubber mat off someone who was moving (was literally a stip about 2ft wide that i put in the front where my mare scraped and deep littered her bed which aubiose/hemcore which stopped her coming into contact with any concrete, alternatively an old bit of carpet can work.

We use rubber matting but can't really afford it in all 4 stables so just have it at the front where they often stand to look out or eat their hay.

At the back we have straw for the horses and shavings for the ponies (who would eat the straw!).

I think if you have rubber matting you will still need to put something on it in part of their stable as they are not keen to wee/poo on it but it is a saving in the long term.

If you have heavier horses it can also prevent capped hocks.

I have a horse plus daughter's pony and they are both on rubber matting (bought for approx £200 per stable - big 16ft x 14ft stables) and they have paper beds down, my costs (and the time taken to muck out) have seriously gone down (was using approx 4 bags a week of paper before, now about 1 a week between the 2)

hi alice! (8 years later )

I might try the old carpet thing then, as we quite often play musical stables in the winter - there's not really enough to go round - and it would be a pain to move all that matting very often. Carpet sounds a lot more portable.

Holding out for as long as possible though, I HATE it because he hates it and his legs get all fluidy at first so they have to be bandaged at night for the first few weeks.

LISAD1 - i noticed you said you used paper - do you have a container thing for it? or does it just go on the muck heap?

I don't think we can put rubber down throughout the stable so i will just put it at the front and then I think we're going down the bedmax route for the rest. Cheapest i can find it locally is still £6.20 a bag delivered.

Hi,

Yep, it just goes on the muckheap and rots down like the rest of it, hardly take any out either as I take out the poo with gloves on and saves loads of paper.

I pay £4.25 per bag.

Am in Surrey, happy to give you the number of where I get mine from if you want it?

email me: lisajb1310(at)hotmail(dot)com

Thanks for that LisaD1 - will email you as we are also in Surrey!