Rubber Mat on Top of Drainage Rocks

[ruddymg]

Hello horse lovers!

Has someone heard of or have tried using a layer of 3/4" to 1" crushed rocks, 6-12 inches deep under a rubber matt for a horse stall without using any bedding? We have a horse with gastrointestinal issues that only can ingest a soup we prepare for him every 2 hours and we want to avoid him from eating the bedding (shaving,hay or pellets) which we have seen him do.

The hypothesis is that this will help the urine from pooling, go through the layer of crushed rocks instantly, then through a geotextile layer and enter the drain field made of crushed limestone and coarse sand. By the time the horse pees again the pee will already be dissipated and the acidity of the urine neutralized by the crushed limestone.

What do you guys think?

[Simkie]

Rubber mats properly installed in a stall do not drain urine

Rubber mats over large rock won’t lie flat which makes proper installation very difficult

Stall skins are designed to drain, with a properly installed drainage field below. But I think that all still needs bedding to prevent damage to the skin, and there are certainly a load of reports of those stalls still stinking because the pee really doesn’t go anywhere.

Working harder to find a bedding this horse won’t eat is a better bet.

[Djones]

You will not be able to get them to drain the pee off. It’s going to pool somewhere when set up on rocks.

Urine will also splash everywhere, on him, on the walls, on his soup bowl, nasty, smelly, urine.

Find a bedding he won’t eat.

[Demerara_Stables]

If you have small enough rock that is compacted, you can install mats on top of it, inside the stall walls if the mats fit snuggly against the walls. Sand on top of the mats is a good option if he won’t eat the sand. I use sand in pasture shelters and some temporary stalls in paddocks that shavings/bedding wouldn’t be a good option for. The sand is 6-7" deep and the horses like it for laying and rolling in. Urine won’t drain through the mats but I wouldn’t put a horse on rock unless you have mats down.

Another option is mud grids on top of rock (I have this in my stalls where I use shavings). Urine will drain through, the grids are filled with pea gravel, but you have to make sure to put a LOT of sand on top of them because they are pretty abrasive to legs when the horses lay down.

It sounds like this horse isn’t eating hay right now, but I wouldn’t use sand if you’re feeding anything that will get dropped on the sand and eaten off of it for fear of the horse ingesting the sand.

[Foxglove]

I bed on sand. It is suitable for horses that are mostly out --mine only come in to eat. Sand is not absorbent but will allow liquid to pass through (I have 1’ of clay under sand, 2-3’ of gravel under clay). Mine lie down in their stalls often. However, I do not keep them inside and have noticed that if one needs to be confined to “stall rest” the sand is pretty quickly gone due to cleaning out wet spots.

You might try peat moss. Knew a very high end stable that used it (it is costly) and must say the stable smelled great! It was soft and absorbent. Down side was it stained grey horses and light colored breeches.

[LCDR]

How long is your horse in his stall ?

Once he pees on the bare mats and realizes that it’s going to splash on his legs, he just may decide to hold it in until turnout time. Mine does - and I don’t use bedding. But he is up no longer than an hour or two at a time.

[Willesdon]

There is research that suggests horses on mats without some bedding will not rest.

[ruddymg]

Thank you for your replies guys
Answering some questions…
LCDR My friesian horse spend 14 hours inside the barn and then 10 hours on the pasture with a muzzle.
Willesdon Interesting, I will read more about that. Knowledge is a great tool.
@Foxglove Make sense you use sand. It is a buffer method for uncommon occasions. We do that similarly with the rest of 59 horses that can eat grass and grains without problem. We groom them, do some training and turn them out again. They enjoy running, playing between each other and have plenty of grass, if not hay huts.
@Djones , Simkie We did some holes to the rubber mat and right now its draining fine. I am trying to get 2 steps ahead since I know that the mix of clay and sand beneath it need maintenance very often if not daily. Meanwhile I will try to find something like the peat moos that Foxglove mentioned or something similar. I know its going to be a short term fix since the vets says the condition that my horse has it’s not temporary, maybe will be more expensive at first to do a good drainage system but at long run it will save some back pain, time and money. We want the horse to live at least 15 years more.

[starsandsun]

I have to ask … what are the gastrointestinal issues?

[NaturallyHappy]

You might look into cardboard bedding. We used that for one w hives. Rubber mats are slippery when wet…that would worry me.

[ruddymg]

@starsandsun

I have to ask … what are the gastrointestinal issues?

He has a chronic EGUS which means he is very prompt to have ulcers. Last endoscopy showed ulcers in his stomach and intestine.

[ruddymg]

@NaturallyHappy

You might look into cardboard bedding. We used that for one w hives. Rubber mats are slippery when wet…that would worry me.

I was reading about using cardboard for bedding. It seems to be a solid option for bedding even though it is more expensive than shavings. The horse don’t find it attractive to consume, highly absorbent, don’t move that much in the stall, it’s soft and don’t create dust.
Thanks for the suggestion

[Mcl1]

Is he eating the bedding where his “soup” drops? I have a messy eater who gets soaked food, I feed him in a dish inside a tire on a bare rubber mat so that he has a “placemat” and will lick all the dropped/spilled food off of it and not the ground. Maybe you could try giving him a bare mat feeding area and put bedding in the rest of the stall. You could probably use landscape timbers to make a small frame around it to keep shavings out.