We have a raised barn,about one and a half foot up and a large ramp for the horses ,made of steel and covered with strips of skidoo treads to help with slippage.
I would like to replace those strips with a full mat or something like it to cover the whole area since the strips leave the middle and part of the sides free and my old mare has difficulties placing her feet just so that they land on the strips and not in between.
Any thoughts on what would work well and where to purchase ?
Our maritime winters can be harsh with lots of mixed weather ,ice,snow and slush so anti slip would be best.i keep lots of sand handy though 
stall mats? or a Coco ramp mat?
But,is there a specific reason for using a steel ramp rather than having an earthen or compacted road base ramp whose sides could have been sloped?
Even with having a steel ramp covered with a nonslip surface, what happens when a horse steps or falls off the side of the ramp?
Around here if I have envisioned this ramp correctly I would wonder what will move in to live under it
I would think that stall mats would be slippery on that much of an incline, even more so when wet.
A coco mat is what I was thinking.
then is no mention of the ramp’s slope if steep personally I would remove it and replace with earthen
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Well, I assumed some steepness because they are talking about slipping, and lots of people complain about stall mats being too slippery when flat in an aisle so I assume any slope is too steep for for the average stall mat.
Heck, even look at how many threads we have about needing something to make the trailer ramp less slippery.
I do agree that earthen might be the best answer here.
my husband has a wrought iron work shop so steel was “handy” even though not the perfect choice you are quite right ! but fingers crossed,never an accident in 30 some years 
and the ramp is very broad which helps,of course.stall mats will be too slippery ,have to google coco ramp mat.thanks for your input !
the ramp is a good 3 meters long and about 4 meters wide ,so the angle is not very steep.the skidoo treads are great for traction and if they came in 4 meter width,they would be the answer.
Perhaps tacking down a heavy expanded metal sheet would provide good traction? Like this stuff:
Not sure how much weather coco mats can really take? Like, if they go through some freeze & snow cycles outside, are they still non slip? They’re great to toss down when things are slippery, but not sure you want to be rolling them out every time you need to bring a horse in.
Is there a reason you can’t build an earthen ramp? A load of rock would be as non slip as you can get in any weather.
yes a metal sheet is on there right now - too slippery when wet or icy hence the skidoo treads.looked into coco mats,likely will not hold up for long.we’ve been considering earthern /crushed rock ramp ,husband thinks it is the best way to go but i still worry about slippage when we get icy weather.but so far,all good suggestions to ponder !
Random google search came up with this product. I can not really tell if it would be grippy enough or not. It looks like it might work.
An earthen ramp will likely be better than anything you can build. Keep a few coco mats rolled up in the barn to pull out on those ice storm days (although, when it’s that slick, the ramp isn’t the only hazard, just getting across the yard is scary! I keep mine in when it’s that bad.)
the link does not work but got me the word trailer ramp mats ,been googling anti slip mats so far.thank you!
no kidding especially with a 34 year old …we have a large load of sand handy in the winter for the paddock.glad to hear all the recommendations for eathern ramp,i did not know that people use this for the barn,my husband thinks it is the best idea to use a base of crushed rock
kind of what I expected, we had an overhead door company and used a lot of door sections for alternate uses
Regarding stall mats, I know there are ones that one side is smooth the other side is more of a grip as we have some in our barn aisle that are set both ways. The smooth surfaces are easy to sweep while the grip side in near impossible to sweep (these were purchased from Tractor Supply).
Our actual stall mats we have in our stalls are thirty five year old ones that have a knobby top surface and the bottom side is grooved with channels, these are not slick either
that sounds like the right type ,with knobby top surface.can’t seem to find them but still looking.earth/crushed rock is still another good option.although when iced over,that would be slippery no doubt and one cannot fasten mats to it…
As long as your ramp drains it won’t ice over, short of those ice storms, where everything is coated with ice. A textured, rocky surface will be less slippery than just about anything in those conditions.
Whatever surface you end up using, add cleats. You can make them out of long slices of Stall mats, or they can be wooden.
There’s even been a study of sorts, by Temple Grandin!
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Cleat-spacing-for-steel-or-wood-ramps_fig3_43202698
If not changing the ramp out to earth put outdoor carpet on the steel plate, screw it down using fender washers with self-taping screws rather than gluing the carpet down
Also look at gutter tape to mount under the plate to heat the steel in the winter, my company used gutter heat tapes to keep security gates from freezing to the ground tracks, we ran the tapes inside the guide rails
We use these in our cattle working facilities.
The lighter mats, baler belt mats, may work for what you need:
Our concrete over decades had become slippery.
We added the heavy mats in front of the tub, inside and down the snake alley the lighter mats.
They have standard sizes and also will make any size you need:
good idea ! thank you 
