Slippery Trailer Mats - short term solutions?

[Texarkana]

I just bought a brand new stock combo trailer. I’ve been schooling the horses in it at home and they are surprisingly being giant idiots in it. I kind of figured after several years of hauling willingly in borrowed 6’6" cattle trailers with nothing on the wooden floors that they’d be ecstatic to be in a horse-height trailer with dividers and mats, but nope. :sigh:

Anyway…

Part of the problem, I think, is that they are slipping and sliding on the new rubber mats. In all my years, I’ve never seen horses slip like this on dry trailer mats. The mats are even ribbed! They didn’t seem particularly slippery to me on purchase, but when loading, the horses easily lose traction and then start scrambling, which turns into panicking. If it’s this bad when just loading and unloading, I can’t imagine how it would be for them if I had to hit the brakes quickly!

Will shavings help? Or can I successfully rough the mats up with a rasp? Boots???

The old broodmare has a vet appointment tomorrow and I’m almost thinking I’m going to have to borrow the terrifying, old cattle trailer again, which totally sucks when I have a brand new, safer trailer of my own sitting here!

[Simkie]

Possible easy solution: flip them over? Mats are often a totally different texture on the bottom.

Otherwise, yeah–shavings will probably help considerably

[Bluey]

Try throwing some shovelfuls of sand in there, to give the rubber a bit more grip.

[Texarkana]

Simkie- Good idea. I felt the bottom of the mats and it feels smooth and slick to me without the ribbing. I’m not sure it will be an improvement in this case.

The sand idea is super intriguing, Bluey… and I’m thinking sand won’t blow around like crazy than shavings? Maybe?

Long term solution, I think I’ll probably invest in different matting if I can’t get these to work. But I’d really like to be able to haul my horse in my own trailer this week without her going down, if it’s possible!

[crosscreeksh]

[QUOTE=Bluey;8655956]
Try throwing some shovelfuls of sand in there, to give the rubber a bit more grip.[/QUOTE]

THIS!!! Sand…not shavings!!

[Texarkana]

I don’t know if it’s just the type of sand or the type of mats, but I put in 1 shovelful as a trial and it made the area slick as ice! The only stuff I have on hand is real fine grade, maybe that’s why? When I swept it into one, deep pile it seemed to offer some traction, but I don’t think I have enough on hand to cover the entire floor that deeply. So I swept it back out.

Put a bag of shavings in instead and while I haven’t tried loading anyone in the dark, that seems to offer a TON more traction. I was worried about the dust/blowing factor with stock sides, but I’ll just sprinkle some water over it. At this point, swirling shavings/dust aren’t as big of a deal as a horse losing their footing!

Thanks all!

[right_horse_at_the_right_time]

After a lot of helpful advice from this forum, I bought mat in a roll directly from Hawk and screwed it in on top of the existing slick ribbed rubber mat on my ramp.

Best thing ever.

[Bluey]

Before mats, when we bought a new wood floor stock trailer, we used to run by a roofing company and asked them to mop some roofing tar on the floor.
Then we would shovel in some sand and that was the best floor for horses and cattle, no slipping at all.
That lasted the life of the wood floor and protected it well also.

Our current stock trailer’s floor is rumber.

Did you think the sand on rubber mats would have been slick to a hoof with a horse’s weight, or did you just try it with a human’s shoe and weight?
Interesting that what you tried was so slick.
Those must be very stiff mats, no wonder they are so slick.

Glad that shavings wetted lightly down works well for you.

[msj]

Have you talked to the dealership that sold you that brand new trailer about getting in a different mat and exchange the existing slick ones for another type. It may cost you a little money but there shouldn’t be any wear on your current mats so you should get a good ‘trade-in’ value.

I remember a friend having trailer mats that were so thin that they curled up and slipped around when a horse was in the trailer.

I also remember the mats that I liked the best were the ones that were probably tires cut up and woven together with a heavy wire.

Regardless of what kind of mats you can get, please make sure to test them out to see if they are better than what you’ve got.

Good luck.

PS. Another idea is to pull the existing mats out of the trailer, get some black top seal coat and some very coarse sand or stone dust even and do like Bluey had done with adding a coating of seal coat and sprinkling very, very generously with the sand or stone dust.

[sascha]

Ground limestone is a much better bet than sand. We use it on slick wet concrete and on diamond plate at work when we need to move cattle through barn aisles. It’s not perfect on the diamond plate, but it’s better than nothing. We also use it on mats since the majority of the aisles are matted, usually partly wet, and quite slick.

Long term, I’d be investing in better mats.

[Bluey]

I was wondering, for those mats to be so slick, they may be more plastic than rubber mats, maybe not really intended for horse trailers, but other uses, like warehouse skid loader traffic?

Good idea above to let the trailer manufacturer know they have a problem with the mats they used in your trailer, see what they tell you.

[Texarkana]

Update: I successfully and safely made it back and forth to the vet’s office with the psycho mare with minimal antics. The shavings helped a ton-- if I had any idea how much difference they would make, I wouldn’t have even asked. The new trailer towed like a dream compared to the POS trailers I’ve been using lately! So thankful for it!

The only downside is that a large amount of the shavings did get blown out on the trip-- I think I left a Hansel and Gretel trail down the highway! What remained, the crazy old broodmare managed to paw out from underneath her so she was back on the floor. So… I plan to call the dealer and see what they recommend. New mats will probably be in order, but at least I know shavings work for the short term so the trailer is usable.

Thanks again!

[msj]

It would seem to me that if the shavings are a good temporary fix but you are blowing a lot away, perhaps wetting them down. That may be very slippery though so I’d try it when only you are walking in the trailer.

I’m picturing your Hansel and Gretal trail down the highway! :lol:

[Texarkana]

I did sprinkle them with a watering can, but I suppose it dried quickly with the airflow once we got moving. Every time I looked in my mirrors I could see shavings flying.

But there was an unanticipated benefit of shavings blowing out the back-- cars stayed waaaay off my bumper! :lol:

[Mosey_2003]

You could try kitty litter, it’s a little bigger than sand.

I’d recommend putting a fly mask on horse after you load if you want to keep using shavings, that way fine particles can’t get in her eyes.