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Evidence that rubber stall mats are actually beneficial to the horse's health?

Horse Care
#21

I love my mats, but with a few horses that love to paw at feeding time a big part has to do with keeping a level floor. Mine all have in and outs, so if they want to stand/lie on dirt they can.

I do wonder about those Comfort Stall systems and soft tissue injuries. I haven’t stood on one, but if indeed it is more of a firm mattress system, I wonder if that slight lax in stability can prolong healing or ? I did like the idea of farms giving the cows water beds to lie on - wonder if my mare prone to hock and fetlock sores would like a water bed?

#22

We have the long shed under the barn, 28’ x 80’, matted half way along the long side, where we feed, the front half is dirt.
Horses stand and lie on both, the 14’ matted and the 14’ dirt equally.

I am not sure our horses show any preference.

#23

Equus just reported the results of a study that found horses were indifferent to what kind of footing they STOOD on, but that they preferred, and spent more time LYING DOWN on soft bedding (straw was most preferred, followed by shavings, then sawdust, etc, so softest to hardest).

So, if you have a horse that is lying down frequently, or would like to encourage them to lie down, a softer surface is probably preferable. If you’re more interested in orthopedic health from standing etc, I’m not sure there is evidence about whether it makes a difference.

#24

I have mats over wood…I do think its much easier to clean, but not sure about which is easier on the horses.

#25

[QUOTE=poltroon;7142898]
The other factor is bedding. Some people use mats as an excuse not to have bedding, or to have just a very thin layer, and I’m not a fan of that practice.

When my horses have been stalled on dirt floors, they’ve also had a deep bed of banked shavings.[/QUOTE]

^ This. My previous barn had mats and my current one does not. The previous barn had a thin layer of shavings and my horse constantly had little hairless spots on his hocks. The current facility w/o mats keeps the stalls SUPER bedded with shavings, and my horse seems much happier (no hairless spots on the hocks either). Interestingly, he did not stock up the summer at all, where last summer (at previous facility w/ mats) he did. Current facility will put in mats if you supply them, but I am liking the fluffy stalls sans mats. :slight_smile:

#26

I currently put up a shed/barn with a concrete floor, but left a 12 x 16 open (no concrete) for a walk-in area for the horses to get out of the weather. I thought about putting rubber mats down over the sandy floor walk-in. Any thoughts on putting rubber mats over sand?

#27

I was doing a little online research and came across someone that did something differently and I am intrigued by it and wondering what others think.

She lives in an area that floods and to prevent water from coming in and soaking the stalls, she put cinder blocks on the floor with flat sides up. Then she put mats on top. Supposedly the water flows through the blocks. Every once in a while a horse will crack a block and there will be a little hollow spot under the mat and she just replaces the broken block.

Since I live in an area that can easily get hurricanes and tropical storms blow by quite frequently, this idea intrigues me. Any thoughts?

I am trying to contact this person to see if it is still working for her as what I read was a couple of years old.

#28

I believe it was last month’s Equus that had an article on what footing horses prefer. They used concrete and mats, and found that horses, given the choice to move about freely, stood on either fairly evenly but laid down on the mats.

Also, same type of experiment, with different types of bedding and no bedding. Straw won over shavings, no bedding, and newspaper (which no horse in the study would lay on), but only by a small margin between straw and shavings.

Having been in several barns with several different configurations, I can tell you that dirt floors suck. And mats over anything other than concrete means re-leveling the stall once a year. I owned a barn that was originally set up as half for horses (four stalls, mats over dirt) and the rest for dogs (concrete floor, drains in the middle of the aisle). I added four more stalls, mats over the concrete. No horse was lame or more or less comfortable in one configuration over the other, but from the view point of the person doing the maintenance?? Gawd mats over concrete, every day and twice on Sunday.

#29

I saw dirt stalls where horses dug themselves depressions the size of their torsos.
i thought they did that to keep cool.
If a horse is confined to a stall 23 hours a day, I’d like them to be able to create dips etc. I have seen horses do some very weird foot positioning*, and would want my horses to be able to do that should they need it.

  • police horse in the street quietly backed up to the sidewalk curb and shuffled both backfeet against the curb so he could balance on his toes like a ballerina. The soles of his back feet were fully vertical at 90 degrees.
#30

Just an update on the horse that started this thread; he’s had the mats in his stall for several weeks now and the effusion in his carpal joints has dissipated immensely. He also spends far more time in there than before and will often ask to be let in from turnout. So I have to conclude that his knees were taking a pounding on the dirt floor every time he laid down.

[QUOTE=Chall;7192349]

  • police horse in the street quietly backed up to the sidewalk curb and shuffled both backfeet against the curb so he could balance on his toes like a ballerina. The soles of his back feet were fully vertical at 90 degrees.[/QUOTE]

That is obviously not normal and I would suspect the horse had some heel pain that made him feel the need to do that.

#31

mats are no excuse not to have a bedding as its still a hard surface

deep beds banked sides prevent hock and elbow injuries and hip injuries it also prevents a horse geting cast

small beds on matting or concrete is just lazy chose the right bedding for the horse breathing--------- ie not straw if a horse has copd use shavings there is a lesson to be learnt- nothing wrong with dirt floor as a dirt floor is like the earth out side it gives and breathes and barley straw is the best bedding for that type of floor as soft and takes a lot of wet unlike wheat which is like stick and hard and more pourest

concrete floors can have any type of bedding,but remember its solid and doesnt flex so if one had a horse with a leg injury that needed stability then your concrete floor is the best one

#32

Mats keep a dirt floor level. But do drain well, and are not hard to live with. Mats over concrete supply a softer base, and allow the use of a little less bedding. Over concrete, I consider them indispensable.

Both must be bedded. Straw is lovely, but labor and disposal intensive. Shavings smell great, but are also work to deal with, and expensive. Sawdust (pellets) are easier to clean out and dispose of, but require a reasonable depth, min 3".

#33

The best rubber mats for horses or any animals - and people for that matter - is without a doubt the EVA & rubber composite mats from a Canada based company called Equimat North America. I watched their website video testimonials and then reviews on their Facebook page Equimat North America Stall Mats (If you go to just Equimat it goes to a England site) that have used them for over 25 years and when I contacted the reviewers on Facebook found the reviewers were real and said Equimats actually do what they say! You can only get them from Equimat North America and found lots of copycats. From website learned these mats are designed by horse people from Dreamcatcher Meadows - a stud and training place with dozens of horses. When I called Equimat talked to the actual owners of both the mat company and the stud - they researched every stall mat and rubber mat system and after they’d used the mats in Europe, redesigned them and now they are here inCanada and U.S. Downside I thought at first was it sounded expensive for a stall so as I was doing a whole barn, I did just tried one stall. I was sold by what my arthritic gelding Woody told me when he immediately laid down (hasn’t for years) and was so much better on the Equimats I am riding him again!! So I finished my barn (they are great also in wash stall and aisles as they have grooves underneath for draining. They are so easy to handle and installed in minutes as they are just 3’ x 4’, stay put because they lock all round and are incredibly light! That was 7 years ago and I can tell you from one horse love to another - these are the best mats by far. The mats paid for themselves in just over a year with the savings on shavings not to mention time saved cleaning stalls.No more hock sores or stocking up And they are sealed so don’t absorb ammonia and bacteria. I had a hard time finding them after seeing them first at Spruce Meadows Equifair in 2005 (they won best new innovative product) so to help readers out here’s their website - go to www.equimats.com. I love the Chronicle!

#34

Is this a vendor digging up a zombie thread?

2 Likes
#35

That is my guess also.
Especially on a weekend and/evening.
Did you flag it for the Moderator to check?

1 Like
#36

I flag it for moderator to take a look.

#37

Thanks and thank you for letting the rest of us know also.

Moderator said it helps when we flag.
Can’t be every place, see everything.

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