Best Base for Stall Mats

[seabreeze]

I can’t get the search function to work today, so here I go…

What has been your best base for stall mats? Sand, sand/clay, crusher run, crushed limestone/stone dust, asphalt millings? In my area crushed limestone/stone dust is hard to come by, but I think I have found one source for it. All the others are readily available and fairly inexpensive.

Years ago I had mats over sand/clay, and they held up for a long time, but once they started getting “holes” under them, it was a mess. I eventually pulled them out. Now, I’m ready to re-do the stalls. So, which base would you recommend? Thanks for your feedback!

[Simkie]

Screenings. Whatever type of screening you can get locally. Pack it, level it. Needs to be hard and perfectly flat.

[fordtraktor]

I have mine done with 6 inches of gravel, geo textile, then the geo grid (light hoof type) stabilizer, then tamped with a machine. Then stall savers on top. They are 5 years old now and solid as concrete, the base is perfect.

IME (this is my third barn) it pays to do it right the first time because otherwise it’s going to shift and you have to redo it, to more hassle and expense.

[Demerara_Stables]

@fordtraktor

I have mine done with 6 inches of gravel, geo textile, then the geo grid (light hoof type) stabilizer, then tamped with a machine. Then stall savers on top. They are 5 years old now and solid as concrete, the base is perfect.

IME (this is my third barn) it pays to do it right the first time because otherwise it’s going to shift and you have to redo it, to more hassle and expense.

Not to hijack, but do you find this set up drains well? Also what’s your climate? I really want to do the stall savers next time but I’ve heard mixed reviews - I’m specifically worried about drainage and smell. I despise mats as the shavings have to absorb all of the urine.

[fordtraktor]

It drains beautifully and smells HORRIBLE unless you bed deeply! I try to bed deeply enough so all the pee get soaked up in the bedding and doesn’t make it to go through the stall savers, because otherwise it stinks.

I also use barn lime to neutralize when they are in. Honestly I keep my horses out so much it’s hardly relevant any more…My show horse stayed in one night this winter, despite subzero temps a lot of the time. The night he stayed in I had a late lesson and it was 35 and raining, so I left him in for my convenience.

I would NOT do the stall savers again because of the smell, and because really big horses punch holes in them. I had an 18h WB boarder who tore the crap out of the bottom of his stall. I had to put mats over the stall savers. The base was good though! sigh. I ended up closing my barn to boarders last summer after 5 years with the setup in heavy use, and never solved the stink issue other than heavy bedding stalls which is $$$$$$. Not sure what I would do if I was doing them again. The stall savers do fine with enough bedding and not too heavy of horses on them, but the bedding issue is real and expensive for a professional program. As I use them (for cool down after I ride, to let my horse chill for an hour in his cooler with hay), it’s fine as is for now. Someday I’ll put in a stall mattress system for him maybe.

My climate is midwestern seasons (northern Indiana).

[Luseride]

Twenty plus years ago we did 1/2" Crusher Run followed by screenings, granite as that is what is available here. Has held up very well.

[Demerara_Stables]

Ah bummer! If they drain well, any idea why they smell? Is it ammonia smell from urine?

I’m in a dry climate (NorCal) and my stalls (mud grids with sand over base rock) get a little smelly in winter when the horses are in and pee inside a lot but don’t smell at all in the dry season mostly because of the lower humidity. I’m wondering if lower humidity would help with the drying out/ammonia smell.

These stalls will be used for overnight but horses will be in the field during the day unless it’s really storming. I do bed on the deeper side (10-ish 11cu ft bags of shavings that get fluffy when they expand in a bare 12x16 stall - I top up with 3 bags at a time when they get low) but a smelly barn is a no go for me. Doing 20 stalls in the first phase so don’t want to make the wrong choice!

[seabreeze]

How deep was your layer of screenings on top of the crusher run? Thanks!

[fordtraktor]

With that amount of shavings I think you would be OK. Mine are fine if deeply bedded, unless the horse has a medical condition. We had one mare who had…something and peed incredibly large amounts, and her stall would smell.

The smell is from pee, because it does drain down into the ground but then it doesn’t go anywhere so the old pee is just kind of there in the rock. You can neutralize it with a 5 gallon bucket of Pine Sol mixed with water, according to the manufacturer. I only did this a couple of times, though, because I tried to mostly just bed the issue away.

It is much drier in your climate and I would expect the smell issue to be reduced compared to here, where it’s humid a significant portion of the time.

[Demerara_Stables]

Thanks for the info! Maybe they will work out for us.

[Janet]

I have my stall mats over a concrete slab, with a drain in the middle of each stall.

Other than having to clean out the drain filter once, in one stall, in 20 years, they have been problem free.

At my previous barn I had stall mats over a packed base (not sure what it was), and they were constant trouble. Among other things I had rats tunnelling under them.

[gradytb]

My stall mats are on concrete slab too and I bed with shavings. I can pull the mats out and pressure wash or hose the stalls in the summer. My horses are mostly out, but I do need to pick up wet shavings and poop daily—I sprinkle PDZ on the wet places, which kills any smell and really soaks up moisture. Then sweep shavings back over and pull more from the sides or add more as needed. My stalls are 12x14, so I only “bed” the back half or ⅔. 3-4 bags of shavings put in a nice comfy layer and I might add another bag once or maybe twice a week.

[Bluey]

Our main barn stalls are mats on concrete and working great.
Our quarantine barn stalls are mats on packed ground with a bit of sand on top and require resetting every two or three years.
A local trainer rented a barn with stalls on concrete, didn’t like it on principle, asked for permission to tear the concrete and put a base of road screenings under the mats.
He had most done when he realized the horses still on the concrete matted stalls were doing well.
The stalls with mats on the new screening were not doing better, were smellier and the mats were needing more work to maintain and there was no difference in how horses were doing, they trained and were comfortable equally on both.
He wished for many years he had not torn the concrete up.
For our semi desert climate, this works fine for our horses.

[Luseride]

I “think” we had about 18 tons of screenings. Barn is 48’ x 36’ and of course some went out the front and back gates. I do remember we used a small compactor to get a firm base.

I believe it was about 1 1/4 tons per cubic yard. It has been almost thirty years since I worked at the rock quarry so my numbers could be incorrect and limestone I would think would be less dense than granite…

[Mosey_2003]

I’ve got a yard as 1.4 tons but it also varies by material.

Personally, if I were to redo my barn for horses, I would save until I could do concrete with drains.

Next best would be limestone screenings.

[clanter]

This has come up before, we have matted stalls on concrete pavers over road base that is topped with four inches sand that is a base for the concreter paver. Two stalls we installed floor drains thinking that we would need to wash down the stalls every so often. That was over thirty years ago and the stalls have never needed a wash down.

We did use PDZ until we found Standlee Horse Fresh which is a very similar product but cost here is less than half the price of PDZ without compromising