concrete floors in stalls

[sandsarita]

so my current barn has the concrete in the stalls. I put the mats down you can buy at tractor supply and while the horses are comfortable on them, I have two complaints. One is that they move around - some of the horses just have a knack of pulling up a corner and then getting bedding under it or actually moving the mats so one is over the other and then a gap on the other side. The other issue is the urine that gets under the mats. My doors are open most of the time, but in the winter when its below freezing and I close the doors the smell gets bad.

I am currently moving and will have the same thing in the new place. Am looking at other options. A friend suggested putting packed limestone dust over the concrete to soak up some urine and then using a stall skin or even mats with stall skin above. Right now i am open to options but cannot do the $2000 a stall that I have seen for some mattress systems. Any ideas??

[bluepece2]

We have concrete in our barn. All the horses have nice deep beds and they don’t have any issues. I guess we would save some money on bedding if we put mats down in the boxes…

[ladyj79]

Remove mats, bed deep. I had no issues with concrete stalls without mats, and plenty of annoyances with mats in stalls.

[KBC]

Until I crossed the Atlantic I did not realize there was an alternative to concrete floored stalls! We just bedded deeply

[S1969]

The only real solution to not get bedding/urine under mats is to make sure they fit very tightly, and use sufficient bedding. If you don’t have enough bedding, of course the urine will soak through the cracks of mats. Not sure how this changes if the floor isn’t concrete - it just soaks into the material below the mats. Which will start to stink, if this happens often and with a lot of urine.

I use wood pellet bedding because it absorbs well (among other things.) Some people use it under shavings to provide better absorption.

[Bluey]

@KBC

Until I crossed the Atlantic I did not realize there was an alternative to concrete floored stalls! We just bedded deeply

Me too, never saw a dirt stall floor until I came to the US West.
Even in the East, the stables I was in had “normal” concrete floors?

We didn’t have mats then either and bedded with straw.

There are companies that will cut rubber mats to fit the stall, so you have one big mat, not several.
Be sure you order the whole large mat, not the stall kits of several mats.
Could that maybe work for you?

[NorthernHunter]

I had interlocking stall mats installed on our concrete floors, they were a bit more expensive than the traditional rectangular mats but I’ve experienced zero shifting and lifting. We bed with shavings on top and haven’t had any problems.

[Janet]

Deep bedding

[Lucassb]

Limestone soaked with urine isn’t going to smell good either … I agree with the others who suggest using more bedding.

[GoodTimes]

Install the matts properly. Don’t just lay them down. Buy the biggest mats you can, and find a couple strong people to help. Use a hammer or a mallet to bang them together as tight as possible, don’t leave gaps anywhere. You should still bed fairly deep, bare mats will still result in hock rubs.

Our barn is 8 years old and we’ve never had to move the mats. There are no gaps, they’ve never moved, and nothing can get under them. They don’t smell. We bed deep enough that the urine gets soaked up and doesn’t really get a chance to try to seep into the seams.

[Simkie]

If your mats are coming up, they’re not tight enough. As others have said, install them properly. When cutting to fit, cut 1/4" to 1/2" longer than the space measures. It should be hard work to get them in with a hammer, and hard work to get them out with a flat head screwdriver to pry the seams up.

You may be able to salvage the mats you have, instead of having to purchase several new per stall, by nailing a 2x4 all around at the base of the stall wall. Then recut mats to fit TIGHTLY.

[clanter]

agree with Simkie and also use good mats.

We have concrete floors with matted stalls… its been that way since 1991, I bought Summit Protector mats that are 4’ x 6’ x .725" thick weighing 100 lbs. each.

We have a few of the TSC mats for the secondary barn and they have a tendency to curl on the edges

[sascha]

I have TSC mats over interlocking brick with (theoretical at this point) drainage between/under the mats. We are supposed to leave 6" or so for “drainage” between mats. My horse is a huge slob who moves bedding all over the place. My mats don’t move. The key is to have proper, deep bedding. It’s more comfortable for the horse, and they never end up with that nasty pissed on smell that they get from being in stalls without sufficient bedding.

Concrete without mats is also doable with enough bedding.

The key to all bedding is that you should be able to walk on it without feeling there is a floor underneath you. If you can feel the floor, bed more.

[Scribbler]

As a kid I did very deep bedding on concrete. Like a foot of sawdust. We got it by the ton from the saw mills and it was just fine, and could be generous with the bedding… Picked poop daily and stripped most of it weekly.

As an adult I have interlocking mats on concrete that don’t shift and nothing gets under them. Horse mostly poops in runout. I bed half her stall deep for a mattress and leave the other half where hay drops swept clean. Works great too. But these days we have to buy shavings by the bag which are way more expensive!

The key to any mats working are to have them fitted tight. If they are loose or have holes they create a mess for sure.

[AppaloosaDressage]

Equine mattresses over the concrete. They bolt to the bottom/side of the wall and cover entire floor. Extra squishy and comfortable and no urine/ shavings will get underneath.

[One_Two_Three]

As some others have stated…remove mats, bed deep, problem solved. One of the barns where I’m at has concrete stall floors. We bed doubly deep. Never have problems. Stalls are also easily sanitized which is lovely.

[sandsarita]

I definitely bed enough where there are no hock sores or the like on my horse. Hard to afford bedding as deep as needed for no mats on concrete though when you have to buy by the bag with no way to do bulk delivery. Just isn’t feasible. Will look into the interlocking mats though

[S1969]

No need to go without mats, even if they are not perfect. My barn is not square - we found out when we installed the mats…argh! But still, they work pretty well even though they can shift. That said, I only have 3 stalls. If it was a 20 stall barn, it would be different, but if you stay on top of it, it’s do-able.

I definitely find shavings to be less effective than pellets, but my horses aren’t locked in stalls so they tend to sleep outside in old hay, in sandy areas, etc. When I’ve had horses on stall rest I found the best combination to be a bag of pellets under fine pick shavings. I wanted to sleep in there myself.

[fourfillies]

I put TSC mats over pretty level concrete. I really jammed then in and other than the rare corner pulling up every year or so they’ stayed down and flat for 12 years. Installing them was AWFUL. But worth it. I bedded with reasonable amounts of baled pine shavings then switched to bagged pellets. Both worked well. No odor.

[sascha]

@sandsarita

I definitely bed enough where there are no hock sores or the like on my horse. Hard to afford bedding as deep as needed for no mats on concrete though when you have to buy by the bag with no way to do bulk delivery. Just isn’t feasible. Will look into the interlocking mats though

I think a lot of people believe this to be true, but it’s not if you start with enough (8" packed) so that you are only picking the top inch or so daily to get the droppings and then taking out the wet (which will be on the bottom, buried, and nowhere near the top) every week or two. I use fewer bags per week of fine pick than anyone else in my barn and my horse lives like a queen on her mattress of bedding. You will use more if you pick the wet daily, but it shouldn’t be necessary to do so if the bed is deep enough.