Stable flooring, bedding, mats etc

Maggity

My ponies are out all daylight hours and in at night. I have a modified dairy in a farmyard as a stable. It has concrete floor which is deeply bedded down with straw with a constant layer of dirty bedding under the fresh straw to provide grip. They seem fine on it, but it never occurred to me that it may be unsuitable. I can't really afford getting stable mats, surely they are just a new product that we may not need? Horses have been around for generations without rubber matting...Any opinions on what I have in the stable and should I change to something else on the floor?

PS one pony is eating all the straw at night which is a real pain. Don't really have good storage for shavings that is dry enough, whereas straw is readily available on the farm. Opinions on that also welcome.

Cherry Blossom

Deep litter or semi deep litter are not acceptable in my book and definately not with straw that rots quickly and is a breeding ground for bacteria and mould. I don't use anything other than a deep bed of clean shavings with high banks which is thoroughly mucked out at least once a day and I'd happily live in there myself which is as it should be. I find shavings lower labour than staw and they can't eat it. I have rubber matting for one of mine as she is very accident prone and digs a hole in the middle of her bed to lie down in.

I know rubber matting is expensive but it is a once off expense. It sounds like the best option for you would be rubber matting and straw. You will get away with less straw when combining it with the matting. It still should be thoroughly mucked out on a daily basisand I'd strip it completely and hose the whole thing down once a week and hose off the mats and leave to dry during the day.

Just on the shavings again the initial outlay can be expensive but you are only throwing away soiled and wet shavings and replacing with new stuff. It would be much easier maintenance as it's very absorbant and you won't have urine running under it to the same degree you would with straw. I'm sure wrapped bales of shavings could easily be stored outside on a pallet raised off the ground and covered with a tarp.

convert

'Deep litter' bedding is used quite a lot still. So long as you remove the dirtiest/wettest bedding every day and then do a 'big' clean out once a week, the horses should be fine on it once you provide them with sufficient new bedding regularly. Obviously you'll need to check their feet frequently.

Re. the eating of bedding: you can try spraying the straw with some form of disinfectant which helps stop them eating the straw. I've had to do it in the past and it worked a treat. You don't need to spray so much that the straw is saturated, but enough to ensure that the horse(s) won't eat it. It's best if you can do it in the morning when the horses are let out so that it's dried in by the evening. However, you may need to check with your vet for a 'gentle' spay incase your ponies would get an allergy to it.

Chicken Run

I have rubber matting but not over the whole floor (stable built straight on the ground as couldn't run to concrete when we put it up)

Was advised that 2 or 3 sections of matting 6ft x 4ft was plenty for a pony to lie on - the rest is left. I use a layer of shavings to soak up urine/provide a barrier between urine and lying-down pony

doctor evil

Mayo mats are meant to be very good, it is an Irish company. It was initially manufactured for cows so is hardwearing and soft which encourages the cows to lie down. Due to it being soft you can get away with a half bed of shavings or something else to soak up the wee.

Ave Sodalis

You say they are only in at night and they are out during the day? Would it be possible to have a bedding of sawdust? Not the dusty stuff, that's a horrible thing to bed a horse with. However, the larger pieces (look sorta like the sawdust you bed small animals with) is quite aborbent and it is easy just to muck out what is necessary and leave the good sawdust behind. They are got in any local saw-mill.

I find both straw and mats annoying. Straw tends to stick in the grate and the grate gets stuck in the mats

Maggity

Thanks everyone for replies, apologies for delay in replying was away for a few days. One pony is absolutely fine on the straw and doesn't eat it. It's lovely barley straw and seems very palatable to the other pony - I mix in the clean with the lightly soiled stuff and chuck the really wet and dirty. Still every morning I go in and no matter how much hay she gets at night, I find her having eaten every single scrap of dry straw and she's standing on a layer of wet soiled bedding. Her feet are fine but I hate the thought of her lying on damp wet bedding it's only a matter of time before she gets sick. Shavings I think are the only option have to investigate that, not sure of cost versus straw. I pay 20 euro a large round bale but last winter I only needed one bale every six weeks with different ponies this year it's a new one every two weeks as she is eating so much...

Kalina

I use shavings from the local sawmills. I bought 6 bags (1 tonne sand bags) for €10 each and they have done ages. I clean out the dirty stuff every day and put in more clean dry shavings. My mare loves to roll in it, much handier than straw which I used to use!