Best mats and lighting for wash stall

[a1eventing]

Working on designing our wash stall. New construction.
The wash stall has a large center drain. I want to put rubber mats that aren’t slippery. Pavers are too hard to keep clean. Do not like the wash stall mats with the big holes. Have used them before and they are a pain to keep clean.

Also interested in hearing different lighting options for the wash stall. Has anyone used recessed lights? Will they give off enough light? Any LED options out there?
The electrician needs to know what our plan is so he can rough in electric.
So far thinking we will want one outlet tucked in the corner of the ceiling on one side for a fan. May need to consider 1-2 outlets in the middle on the ceiling for future infrared heaters? And of course the main lighting. I an not a fan of bright fluorescent type of light but do need one good space in the barn to be able to see everything if tending to a wound etc.

Would love to hear what you all think!

[SusanO]

I don’t have mats in my wash stall but someone ( who was very smart designing their barn ) told me NOT to get the stall mats with holes in them. They did and the manure got in the holes and it was almost impossible to wash it out. they replaced the holey mats with solid ones.

[ASB_Stars]

I have a mat in the front of my wash stall, so that if they are pawing, etc. it isn’t so much of an issue. No mat in the back for easier cleaning, and also because I wonder if the wet mats are too slick sometimes.

I have two exterior quartz lights, each with two lights on them. The are pointed in all four directions in the wash stall, and make it extremely bright. If I have a horse with an injury, I want to be able to see it! Also, for trimming, etc. They are located slightly forward of center, on the left and right, in the ceiling.

I also offset the door to the wash stall. I have seen too many horses start pulling on the crossties to get out, when the door is centered. The wall covers about 2/3 of the front of the wash stall. My wash stall isn’t huge- I like to be able to move a horse over, and work on them, without them wandering around too much, even in the cross ties.

[Bluey]

Also consider an alternative to floor mats, those polylast type rubber material you pour on and spread around, like a very thick paint:

https://polylastsystems.com/

There are other brands, that is the name someone mentioned in past threads.

Our farrier seems to like concrete floors to work on horse’s feet, but any other is ok with him also.

[luvmyhackney]

I need two outlets one for fan and one for vacuum in wash rack. Also consider wiring for radiant heating if that might be down the road.

Only other thing I wish my new place had was built in shelving and a spot for a haynet. Horses stand better when they can eat especially when soaking.

[ASB_Stars]

My wash stall has an exterior GFI outlet. I can plug in whatever I wish to, and do so safely. I have shelving, along with a utility tub in there.

[SLW]

We replaced existing overhead bulbs in the barn with these bulbs. These are amazing!! https://www.amazon.com/10000Lumens-Adjustable-Trilights-Workshop-Warehouse/dp/B08163BBTP?ref_=ast_sto_dp

[SonnysMom]

I saw somebody on Facebook that had their washstall done in WERM.

I would recommend LED lights. They provide a lot of light. Don’t put that directly in the middle you want the light on both sides for less shadows.

[PaddockWood]

We ordered lights from Prolighting and went with the LED Techbrites 8’ (vapor tight) and will mount on each side and the front -the area is 12x12. Very happy with the durability and construction of these lights and they are made in the USA. I’d post a pic but the wash stall is still just parts laying around - maybe by spring it’ll be done. We also put in a recessed shelving area in the back of the wash stall that will hold the spigots, bucket, bathing brushes etc. That’s going to work well.

[horsepoor]

For mats, we have regular stall mats and they work well for the most part, but I dislike that over time they do shift a little. My washrack has the drain at the back and is slightly sloped that direction, so the mats tend to move that way, a little gap opens between, crud gets in, and it means having to periodically pull the mats up to clean underneath and reposition them. I plan to replace them with interlocking mats to help avoid this, but it hasn’t moved up the priority list yet to get it done.

For lighting, we originally did vapor lock fluorescent fixtures, with two 4’ fixtures placed on each side of where the horse would stand. These work great, but we are (today!) having new LED lighting installed in the rest of the barn so these will be converted as well. Same fixtures, just rewiring to avoid the ballasts and use LED tubes.

My wash rack is 12’ wide and I wouldn’t want to go wider. I have a separate grooming area near the tack room that is about 9’ wide and that gets tight in the winter when I have blankets hung on the wall in there. That had just the one fluorescent fixture over the horse (so hard to see feet and lower extremities) but we’re changing that to two LED lights on each side just like the wash rack.