How to keep Evil Burrito II from pulling up stall mats?

[TheJenners]

If it wasn’t a pain in the ass, it would be funny.

But it is, so it isn’t.

Argie pulls up the stall mats. Just one actually, but over and over and over and…

He drags it around and folds it over, and I’ve gotten so fed up that I just clean under where it goes, flip it back/drag it back where it belongs, and go on with my life without trying to refit it and dig out underneath it. Because he does it DAILY. Daily. Every day. Ok maybe he’ll skip a day, but never two. Mat. Up. Shit. Under. Pee. Under. Mess.

I will be fixing the stall before we move obviously. And the barn I bought already has lovely matted stalls with well-fitted mats. I want them to stay that way. Thoughts?? I’m fairly certain it’s dirt under the mats and not concrete. They are so well placed, I don’t want to pull them up to check.

I really want this to stay like this, not like this. I’ve tried with and without bedding, staying with bedding because they both pee in there.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

Oh my, it’s a good thing those burritos are so cute!

If you have dirt floors, anchors might slow down their redecorating endeavors -
http://www.equisearch.com/article/stallmats_102606-20261
http://www.stallmatklips.com/products.html

If all else fails, you could slap a grazing muzzle over that cute little muzzle :lol: .

[dotneko]

Since the mats aren’t perfectly flat anyway, how about tucking the end of the mat under the adjacent one?

[fatprincesspony]

I had a friend that zip tied all of her mats together. Maybe if you do that, they would have trouble flipping/moving one huge mat. All she did was take a drill and drill small holes in her mat for the zip ties to go through. Worth a shot??

[NancyM]

Get rid of the mats, and go with wood floors. 2 X 12s or 2 X 10’s, rough cut, they are 2 1/2 inches thick. They are easy to install, and cheap to buy. Fit them tightly together.

If you have a horse who wants to excavate, they will excavate anything that they can get to cooperate, which includes a dirt floor. The planks are not cooperative with efforts to move them.

IDK the type of animal that this burrito is, but moving mats can be something that results in injury for an equine. It’s not something to ignore, or try to just live with and fix daily. Tendon injuries are rampant with equines who work on moving mats in a stall.

[SuckerForHorses]

[QUOTE=fatprincesspony;9013559]
I had a friend that zip tied all of her mats together. Maybe if you do that, they would have trouble flipping/moving one huge mat. All she did was take a drill and drill small holes in her mat for the zip ties to go through. Worth a shot??[/QUOTE]

This is a great idea! I’d try this first!

[trubandloki]

If you put down a new mat in that location and leave the fun play mat there for him to move about as he likes, will that solve the problem?

[TheJenners]

trubandloki, this isn’t a bad idea… Maybe even cutting it smaller, like in half, and putting it over the existing mats?

Actually, the idea of a wooden floor is appealing as well??? How interesting. And NancyM, I see you’ve been a member for a while so explaining this is very humbling. Burritos = my mini donkeys. They are like burros…only smaller…ito…burrito :lol:. Plus sometimes when they are especially evil, I do wonder how they’d taste with sauce. I wonder if the wooden noise would keep them from wanting to be in the stall though. Donkeys can be fickle beasts.

[starsandsun]

Can you just give him a mini mat to drag around? Is he interested in any other toys? Maybe hang one of those horse ball things on some bailing twine to smack around?

[Personal_Champ]

FWIW, my donks don’t mind my awesome wooden floor. They also like to flip mats. I give them toys, but… donkey.

[allpurpose]

Pictures, with burritos, or it didn’t happen…

[FatCatFarm]

I would be concerned about the zip tie idea if he’s that orally fixated. I have two jenny mini donks (mother and daughter) and the daughter is much more orally fixated than mom. I mad the mistake of adding a bungee cord to the bottom half of a gate opening she and a yearling mini filly were escaping through. Well the mini donk played with the damn bungee cord and wound up getting the hook end caught in her mouth which I had to pry out, and then developed a cheek abscess that left her with a little hole in her cheek, all the way through to the side of her face for a bit. It healed fine, but no more bungee cords.

So back to the zip tie. What if he knoshes/munches on the ties and manages to get a loop loose and then eats the darn thing? That would be too scary to contemplate for me.

I couldn’t view your photos so cant tell how big you stall mat sections are. If they aren’t the wider, heavier sections, maybe try getting bigger mats. I also liked the wood planking idea. We actually had particle board planks down in a pony stall for a while. They were left over from where we were stacking hay in that area, then coverted it to a pony stall as we only put up low sides. The planks were fine and once they started breaking apart, we just pulled them up. If you’re not staying on the property long term, they may be a plausible short term fix. And yes, I would leave the evil burrito his stall mat to continue to amuse himself with.

[Nancy1]

I have wooden floors in my stalls and like them. A friend has those stall mats. I wish we had those but we don’t use the stalls too much. The covering for the stall mats goes from one side to the other so there is nothing to pull up.

[horsepoor]

I have a horse that pulls up mats. And drags them around. And tears pieces off of them. And digs holes where the mats used to be. We use the stallmatklips referenced above and those do a good job, especially in the stall where the mats stay nicely in place (no sun exposure to cause expansion) and have bedding over them. We also have an overhang area and while I have the klips there too, sunlight can make the mats expand a bit and curl, giving horse a place to grab, and game on…

So we actually built a grid of wood under the mats that they are lag bolted to, so they are all one big sheet of mat – kind of like the zip tie idea but less flexible and nothing to grab (zip ties would just give my horse a nice grab place – he can’t do that with lag bolts). It is a pain to do this, but it relieved us of having to fill holes, replace mats, etc. I also paint the edges of the mats with Irish Spring soap and/or Raplast to keep his mouth off of them.

Not saying mine is the best solution, but it worked for us. Horse is a lot bigger than a burrito, so capable of moving a lot more, but I suspect they have the same sense of humor and determination.

[Pennywell_Bay]

Stall skins. I got one for my horse that does this. Honestly- I don’t know what or how the hell he does it but he moves his freaking mats around. The rest of mine are fine on mats. Best investment I did so far besides my tractor.

[msj]

My matted stalls have never rolled up that a horse couple pull them up. But that said, I never had an evil burrito either. I honestly like the idea of giving him a smaller mat to drag around. One that he doesn’t have to dig up every day. I wish you lived closer as I have several smaller sections of mats that might work.

Does the new barn where you’re moving have mats in barn aisle where you’d groom? If so maybe you could cut a 10" section off and give to Argie.

I do love what those 2 get into but glad I don’t have to deal with it.

[Bluey]

Keep your eye on Craiglist, here is what ours had this morning:

http://amarillo.craigslist.org/grd/5949653849.html

You can find some smaller mats for little there.

Have you tried some plain larger rubber feed pan as a toy, that he may prefer to flip around rather than the mat, once he tries that?

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e0741a-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&sfb=1&itemguid=3269d43f-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&utm_content=23008&ccd=IFH003&CAWELAID=120295250000089926&gclid=CJDh_r3HzNECFQEuaQodhSMFNg

Similar rubber feel in his mouth, may work for him.

[NorthwoodsRider]

Bluey - The two evil burritos already use the feed pan as a toy (there was recent video of an extended tug of war between them with one), and that hasn’t stopped him. The smaller mat sounds like the best idea so far.

[Simkie]

horsepoor, can you go into further detail about how you did this?

So we actually built a grid of wood under the mats that they are lag bolted to, so they are all one big sheet of mat – kind of like the zip tie idea but less flexible and nothing to grab (zip ties would just give my horse a nice grab place – he can’t do that with lag bolts). It is a pain to do this, but it relieved us of having to fill holes, replace mats, etc. I also paint the edges of the mats with Irish Spring soap and/or Raplast to keep his mouth off of them.

I have mats in my new run in, but they’re sliding around, and this sounds like a really fabulous solution!

[JoZ]

If I am reading this correctly, you are hoping to solve this problem for a future barn? So construction ideas aren’t out of the question? I can’t vouch for this, but I have been told that if you build a framework after the mats are in place, so it is custom fit and butted right to the mats, the horse is unable to get a corner up to grip. I see two possible flaws in this. First, the recommendation was given to me for an installation on concrete. Secondly, burritos.