Has anyone bought portable stall mats for shows? What brand did you get? Do exercise mats work?
We have these- very light and great. I think exercise mats wouldn’t accomplish the goal.
Do you use them on the floor? How do they hold up?
No offense, but “portable stall mats” is an oxymoron! Ha ha
To stay in place, mats need to be weighty, which makes them not very portable. I tried some foam style mats once. They lasted about 24 hours under their shod feet. We pulled out the pieces and tossed them. We got gifted with a bunch of the smaller, 2ft squares, rubber locking mats just because they did not stay in place under a horse in a stall or grooming area. So they also are not weighty enough, lockable, to stay in place under a moving horse in a stall with bedding on top…
If you will be someplace several days, try rolling up a clean mat or two, centering them in the show stall. Mats will make it a lot easier to clean a dirt floor stall. We took a gelding, so he peed in the center of the stall. Easy, fast, to lift and take out the wet sawdust bedding. Sure saves time. He was shod, regular mats don’t care. Yes rolling, then tying rolled mat, is a bit of work. I used a 2 wheel cart for packages, to move the roll instead of carrying them. Daughter thought the work of mats saved her tons of time cleaning, so we did that for Fair over the years. She had other livestock to clean and feed each morning, plus her horse. I was livestock holder as stalls got done.
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Show venues here will rent mats, some mat stalls for you.
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I misread and thought you meant mats for the walls not floor… oops! These wall mats are wonderful for kickers.
Floor mats are a pain in the behind to move. Also tried the foam ones and horses destroyed them
I bought these for horse shows
https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/mighty-lite-portable-floor-mat-4297
only catch was I had to trim them because stalls are smaller than listed most of the time because size is before the walls went in. So my 10x10 set is now just over 9.5x9.5 when put together and work great.
Yes, but at $100 a show, it gets pricey since I need them to everywhere I go 
I saw those! How many did you buy?
I bought a full set of nine and opted to order from smartpak bc they don’t charge freight.
Some of the gym mats might work; we used a type that is a bit more heavy duty than those yoga style type ones and had them in stalls for 6 months (they are still useable but no longer needed) they were 2ft by 2ft interlocking squares and they worked well. One horse was shod.
Those cheap foam ones might last a bit if your horses are unshod but I wouldn’t expect them to last very long. I considered buying some for one of my geldings since he lays down all night long, but I just bedded my straw deeper instead.
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we just bedded deeper, admittedly we were not at a show every week and the longest show they attended was about ten days but they were very often at shows as the kids did compete across the country
We just did not need the added labor of dragging in mats, even the sectional 2by2 interlocking mats were available back in those days they would have been a problem as there is just so much junk one can haul.
but our horses were used in various disciplines, some required them to camp out four three or four days either attached to the trailer or most often to an overhead high-line which they seemed to prefer.
I purchased several Mighty Lite mats – 22 years ago! – and they’re still in existence. Some of the locking tabs gradually wore off, but the mats are still in use.
I use Mighty-Lite mats in my horse trailer. The original mats were crazy heavy and trying to roll them up so the floor can dry was like wrestling a greased pig. They have held up very well. I was concerned that they would be slick when wet but the horses have never had slipping issues.
Susan
