Good morning all. I am wondering if anyone uses stall mats or anything else in their graveled drylots? We have hay feeders in each drylot, covered feeder off the ground, hay wrapped in cinch chix hay net. The horses live with their heads in the feeders, manure accumilating at their backsides. Which of course they trample. Last winter we placed stall mats around the feeders to ease the mucking and help prevent it from being ground into the gravel. However the mats shifted, alot. Even those under the heavy/gazebo type feeder. We used the standard 4x6 mats. Has anyone come up with a better system? We did not anchor the mats, only butted them all up together, spanning about 10 feet out from the feeder. Wonder if they can be anchored, and if so would anchoring destroy the geotextile fabric below. Maybe there is no good solution, just pick up as often as possible (which we do daily). Our winters can be very wet, which naturally makes mucking messier.
We have a matted overhang off barn/stalls that opens onto dry (gravel) paddocks. We had trouble with mat migration, so built a box on the ground using pressure treated boards attached to the overhang support posts. The mats fit into this box just like you would lay them in a stall, and it keeps them in place. The interior corners and seams have stall mat klips to hold down as well. I know it isn’t the same situation as what you are asking about, but might give you ideas for a solution.
Thank you horsepoor! Those are very interesting clips, and I don’t think they are long enough to puncture the geotextile. Might be a good option if the gravel will hold them. It is packed. I like the box idea too, though might be tricky as the area has an odd shape. I will run both ideas by hubby.
Well we are thinking the stall klips won’t work in the gravel. Still exploring more ideas if you have suggestions. Thanks!
I have a similar situation where I hang slow feed hay nets in my run-in shed, but it was just bare earth and of course rain blows in sometimes, and the horses tracked dirt/mud in, etc, so it would get pretty nasty. A friend of mine was able to score some used rubber belting material a few years ago from a rock quarry that she put down as stall mats. I got the leftover from her and put them down in my shed. The belting was 3’ wide, and I cut them long enough to stick out approx. a foot past roof overhang. I had trouble with them moving as well, so bought a big roll of heavy duty twine, drilled a few holes about 3 inches from edge of belt (one at each corner and one roughly in the middle), then made several loops through the belt and around the bottom horizontal board in my shed (which is only about 4 inches off the ground). They still shift a little, but not near as bad as they used to, and are a heckuva lot easier to move back into place. Do you possibly have something you could tie each mat to and use some twine or rope?
Can you use landscape timbers or old RR ties to create a frame like Horsepoor described around your feeders and put the mats in there? I’d be very leery of using pins where pressure is put on mats like you describe, as they are bound to come out and knowing horses, they’ll get hurt. My 12 x 36 foot overhang has a frame like Horsepoor’s–mine is made of RR ties, which elevates the surface of the overhang, holds the mats in, and makes clean up super easy.
[QUOTE=Real Rush;7838564]
I have a similar situation where I hang slow feed hay nets in my run-in shed, but it was just bare earth and of course rain blows in sometimes, and the horses tracked dirt/mud in, etc, so it would get pretty nasty. A friend of mine was able to score some used rubber belting material a few years ago from a rock quarry that she put down as stall mats. I got the leftover from her and put them down in my shed. The belting was 3’ wide, and I cut them long enough to stick out approx. a foot past roof overhang. I had trouble with them moving as well, so bought a big roll of heavy duty twine, drilled a few holes about 3 inches from edge of belt (one at each corner and one roughly in the middle), then made several loops through the belt and around the bottom horizontal board in my shed (which is only about 4 inches off the ground). They still shift a little, but not near as bad as they used to, and are a heckuva lot easier to move back into place. Do you possibly have something you could tie each mat to and use some twine or rope?[/QUOTE]
This reminds me of something I saw the other day, where the person was connecting mats using zip ties so they would lay flat and stay together. I thought it was a really good idea, but don’t recall where I saw it. Maybe here on COTH! But they drilled holes in the mats and then used zip ties to connect them (so mat to mat). If you did something like this outside, it might make one great big mat (all mats connected) and be more difficult to move around. The zip ties for snug so nothing to catch a shoe or fork on.
Good morning. Great responses, appreciate you all responding. We actually have thought about somehow “sewing” the mats together as it would be harder for them all to shift though we had contemplated wire instead of zip ties. So that is a great idea. I would think there are heavy duty, UV resistent zip ties out there. Will certainly be exploring that option. Each paddock will have about 20-25 mats each, so this is not going to be fun. ha. I do like the frame idea too, but covering such a large area we would have to somehow affix the frame to the ground. That brings us back to driving large spikes into the ground and all the ways horses can harm themselves. Lots to think about!
[QUOTE=equislover;7839504]
Good morning. Great responses, appreciate you all responding. We actually have thought about somehow “sewing” the mats together as it would be harder for them all to shift though we had contemplated wire instead of zip ties. So that is a great idea. I would think there are heavy duty, UV resistent zip ties out there. Will certainly be exploring that option. Each paddock will have about 20-25 mats each, so this is not going to be fun. ha. I do like the frame idea too, but covering such a large area we would have to somehow affix the frame to the ground. That brings us back to driving large spikes into the ground and all the ways horses can harm themselves. Lots to think about![/QUOTE]
Do you have to mat the whole paddock? Could you just do the feeding areas?
Let us know how the zip tie thing works.
I was going to second using the mat clips,
they are sturdy, long pins. I have them to use in my box stalls, just have to get the time to get mats flat and fitted tight again, then pin the mats down. You might try doing one area with the clips, see how they hold in place.
I am going to say that trying to attach mats to each other, is probably going to only result in ripped off edges. With horses having room to move quickly, turn on one leg to avoid another horse, the mats will give under the pressure and slip aside, turn.
I have mats laid flat over the stone (1-2" round, no dirt, never gets firm) over the drain tile inside the paddock fence. When the horses race up to the fence, spin to one side or the other to avoid wire or each other, mats WILL MOVE, which prevents mats being ripped like if they were tied together. Even the one inch thick mats will give under a moving horse that weighs 1500 pounds and slides to a halt on them.
My mats are layed so they are 4ft out from fence, end to end along the fence. I don’t think they would hold at all, if tied together. Force of horse weight just would move them regardless. Stone is 10" inches deep, so stall clips above, are just not long enough to even try using. I just go out and pull mats back into place every week or so, pulling with my Channellock adjustable pliers. Finger tips are not up to that weight.
Mats are there to keep ROCKS in place, prevent manure buildup when horses stand around waiting to come inside. Before the mats were down, horses racing up, sliding stops, were SHOOTING those rocks right out the fence!! I got hit by a couple rocks, which was PAINFUL. Mat covering has stopped flying rocks, worth the money for mats and time to keep putting them back in place. Lesson here? Do NOT buy round rocks where horses are going!! Great for drainage into the tile, but do NOT stay in place under horses that are lively by the gate!
I would try the stall clip pins in a small area, see if they were helpful, before deciding against them. If they don’t work, you can pull them and use in your stalls to keep mats in place where the gravel is not under them.
Re/stall klips and gravel - if the gravel is packed, the klips might hold. Our overhang is filled with the same 5/8-minus gravel that was the base of our paddocks (before I did Hoof-Grid in the paddocks). That’s what is also under the mats inside the stalls. Packed well with one of those body beating packer plate things. The klips hold in the gravel just fine – but being in stall (walls hold rock in place) and overhang (wood box holds rock in place), I can’t say they’d work in a larger area where the gravel might have more room to move, or if not packed really well.
I’ve had horses pull the stall klips out once in awhile, but they aren’t like nails or something super sharp that would be a hazard. The stake part is flat metal and the points aren’t sharp. Horses will find ways to hurt themselves on anything, of course, but these don’t worry me. Worse thing I see happening is the one doofus carrying one around would hit the electric fence with it, but that just might teach him not to mess with them.:lol:
We are doing something similar this weekend, so I appreciate this thread!
Thank you all for the continued comments. It is a large dry lot, so not all matted. Really only matting the area around the hay feeder as that is where the horses spend 90 percent of their time. Currently we have two rows of mats around the feeder, so 8 feet out I believe. Just purchased 30 more mats. They have not been installed yet. Still need to straighten out what we have before adding more. If they weren’t such slobs it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But last year taught us the gravel will quickly dissapear under all the manure even when picked daily, and that 8 feet out is not enough. The mats make the mucking easier and we lose less gravel. The horses prefer the matted area as well. Goodhors you may be right on the tearing of the mats if “sewn”. Not sure if it would be an issue since they don’t tend to run around the feeder, but they can be silly at times certainly. If only I could potty train them to use one corner, problem solved 
I’ve been using mats in various configurations for 25 years. My on-going experiments have taught me:
-threading the mats together (either using ring mats with the holes pre-cut or adding holes as needed) works, for awhile. The mats do eventually tear at the stress points. I can get several years of use (4-6) before the tearing starts, depending on the thickness of the original mat and the amount of traffic in the area
-pea gravel under the mats (vs stonedust), with the gravel sloped inward to prevent the mats from wandering outward, helps. Not a perfect arrangement but it does slow down the wandering
-ring mats in general, especially those with nubs on the bottom, wander less than ribbed solid mats. They are also lighter and easier to re-position as needed
-daily mucking helps. I only have 2 horses at the moment and if I skip a day due to weather or other reasons, the ext day’s mucking is much harder because they have walked through everything.
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