Our new barn is all set for stall savers instal, but i’m wondering what others did for a softer spot for sleeping/rolling etc? Has anyone ever put pads with drainage holes in them under stall savers? What about a partial sand area in run in? We keep horses out as much as possible, but need to use sacrifice pen for 4-6 months of the year (very wet northern ca- 20" in last big storm and pastures are steep with gopher ‘fountains’). Stalls will have run in (partially covered) and a flat 50x50 (possibly bigger) sacrifice pen for 3 horses. We have access to wood chips so we are starting out with that for the pen. The run ins are quarter minus now and graded and we have taken extra precautions for drainage so not worried about that. They won’t all be in sacrifice pen together so I want to make sure they have a place to lie down if i’m locking them out of the stall or if i’m not putting that much bedding down. All horses are sound and in work- for now. Long term would love a track system, but still would have the rain and steep terrain issues. Footing suggestions or recommendations on pads under stall savers?
Can you clarify what spaces you have available? I’m a little confused by your post. It sounds like you have stalls (with stall savers), attached paddocks (run ins? How big are they?) and then a larger 50x50 paddock?
Will the stalls have shavings? If yes, then I don’t see any need to have a secondary soft spot for them to lay in - they will go into the stalls if they want to lay down. If the stalls won’t have shavings or they won’t have access to stalls, then I’d use sand in the stalls, run ins, or larger paddock in a ~10x10 square, about 6 inches deep, and surrounded by pressure treated 6x6s (if the sand isn’t in the stalls) to keep the sand in place. If you’re worried about them digging down below the sand into the base rock, you could put mats down first.
Thanks for your reply. Stalls are going to have moveable partitions but are 10x12 -10/20. Run ins are about 10x30 ish with 10ft covered so they won’t need to go in stalls for cover. Ideally I won’t use that much shavings since they will just come in to eat, but in the wet months maybe I would bed since the wood chips won’t be that comfortable wet. The paddock will be open to those that get along. Im thinking of a more flexible configuration so the run ins and stalls can be double wide if they get along, but separate for more playful ponies. I like your idea of sand area, but also don’t want to track sand inside. Thanks for helping me think through this.
That all makes sense.
So the paddock has wood chips, the run ins base rock, and the stalls have shavings (with stall savers). I understand the concern about tracking sand into the stall. You could put the sand at the far end of the run in (presumably next to the gate to the paddock), but then they’d track sand into the chips (not sure if you care about that). Honestly I’d just keep the stall soft and give them access to that 24/7 instead of trying to create a second area to lay down in such a small run in. You could do shavings in the stalls, or, if you want something easier to clean, sand. You just couldn’t feed hay on it, so they’d have to get hay in the covered part of the run in in the winter (anywhere in the summer). If you did sand in the stalls, I would do base rock under the stall savers so it will drain (because they will certainly pee there). I recently did sand over mats over base rock in a shelter that has a paddock but only because it’s short term - it’s working great so far.
As an aside, I would also make sure to put base rock down under the wood chips in the paddock. Fellow NorCal-er here, and the chips will get ground into the mud in no time if there’s not a good base.
Edit because I forgot you said stall savers in stalls, not mats 
You could do something like a mattress out in the run since these can be freestanding. They would still get wet though.
Otherwise a pile of sand or pea gravel works too as they would provide a conformable surface. My worry with wood chips is they will break down over time and turn to muck. They would need to be scraped out and replaced over time.
