Stall Mats - A Must Have or No?

[Milocalwinnings]

I found a little farmette to rent and will be bringing some of my horses home in October. The stalls have dirt flooring. I was planning on purchasing stall mats, until I saw the price. It looks like it will be $300-$400 to outfit a 12x12 stall unless I can find them used. I have 3 stalls at a minimum to line with mats if I choose to go that route.

For those with horses at home, are mats worth the cost? I keep thinking about what other things that money can go towards… but if it’s highly worth the expense I will bite the bullet.

[lenapesadie]

I think that will depend on how much you will keep horses confined to the stalls.

If it’s just for meals, holding for vet/farrier/rides, and occasional extreme weather conditions I believe you could skip the mats house easily.

How level are the existing floors? It’s no good trying to put mats over an uneven floor.

On the upside, you can take mats with you when your lease ends!

[SusanO]

You won’t save on bedding but they sure make the stalls easier to clean. No ever growing hole in the middle for geldings and you can sweep/ shovel all the wet spot out. However I would not just throw them on top of clay floors. I would put down, level and tamp down some kind of screenings to make sure I had a level, hard floor before putting down the mats. Doing it right from the start will make the maintenance so much easier. You can always do one stall and see how you like it before you do more.

[walkinthewalk]

I think they are worth it because it prevents me from scraping pee spots down to China, over time.

FWIW, I don’t use solid mats, I use 3’ x 5’ grid mats. They do fill with shavings but the urine still seeps thru into the limestone crush underneath. I don’t ever have urine splashing between the seams of solid mats, and I have never had to pick them up to clean them in 17 years.

Sadly, the cost is the same $300-$400 per stall; my stalls are 12 X 14, so not much difference in price than for 12 X 12.

My horses come in every night. The shavings also last a lot longer on top of mats.

I also use garden lime on the pee spots. It has never damaged the mats. Garden lime is a lot cheaper than some those specialty stall driers. I have never had a horse have a reaction to the garden lime but I only lightly sprinkle it over the pee spots, leave air all day, put clean shavings down at night.

[ayrabz]

I typically covered my kids board/lessons by being the stall cleaner/stable boy at a variety of barns. I can tell you I’d never have any stalls of mine without mats…GOOD ones. Put in only after leveled and compacted bluestone base. But that is just me. I don’t think there is any advantage to dirt floors. regardless—of how often they’re stalled/what you may use the area for at another time/etc, etc. Its STILL the best investment in MY experience I made ever for my tiny little barn. And I’ll also disagree with another responder that yes. yes I do save a lot in shavings. I’m not filling holes and fighting a solid urine soak area smell and trying to level anything with bedding. And not only do I use ‘solid mats’ I went big (for me) and have better quality INTERLOCKING mats only…in all flooring spaces. solid thru the couple stalls, solid in the little aisleway and solid in my 12x24 attached run in as well as my large outdoor washrack area.

ok…I am NOT the norm . I chose this at build/set up of the little ghetto barn and I’m so very happy I did. but it is a small enough set up I felt I could. a 12 stall barn? no…I could not. so, take what you can from all the sharing here. One thing that is universal: mats will make daily work easier if installed correctly. I will never have to take mine up for shifting/etc. but I went without a new barn build, I went without an indoor washrack, I went without auto waterers…so, point is: it IS an individual choice!

have fun bringing them home!

[SusanO]

I agree with ayrabz - interlocking good quality mats all the way. I have one stall with thinnner plain mats and they are almost not worth the trouble. I bought them when I was boarding and didn’t have much money. They shift and shavings and manure get up under them - UGH! I don’t have this problem with the interlocking ones. When I can find some interlocking ones available around here so I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg shipping I will replace those. Try one stall and see if it is worth the cost. It was for me.

[2DogsFarm]

Agree with @lenapesadie
My 3 come in for feeding 3X daily & go right back out.
”‹”‹Unless weather is especially vile, and sometimes even when - IMO - it is, they are out in pasture.

This morning, of 3 stalls, I had zero piles of manure to pick & no wet spot in any.
I did have half dozen piles outside the stalls to pick up.

My stalls are crusher run base. I use pelleted bedding on top.
I "stripped"stalls over 2 months ago.
Quotes because here that means raking unused (not completely dissolved) pellets in from the sides, picking out wettest spots & adding 3 bags of pellets to each of 2 12X12 stalls.
Mini’s 10X12 has not needed either stripping or added bedding for months.
I add a single bag of pellets to a stall every 2 or 3 weeks to freshen stalls.

There is no urine smell, horses do lie down in the stalls on occasion, evidenced by bedhead & pellet dust on their coats.

YMMV, but this has worked for me for over 12yrs.
Originally I bedded with fine shavings, but find the pellets less work, waste & expense.

[Wyndwolfe]

It depends on what the ground is like, in addition to how much time your horses will spend in the stalls. As other posters have said, mats can make stall cleaning easier. If the ground is reasonably firm and porous, however, and your horses don’t spend a lot of time inside, you can probably pass on the mats. I live in Georgia, and have four stalls with packed clay as the base. No mats. No problem to clean.

[Jarpur]

If you need a less expensive alternative for a relatively temporary leased situation, it might be possible to find used conveyor belting for free or extremely cheap.

I know that it sometimes has a bad rap, as bare belting doesn’t have the same textured surface as mats designed for the purpose (although not slick, IME), and I’ve heard (but never seen) that some mats somewhere might have loose “threads” at the edges that could possibly be pulled at/nibbled by horses.

However, for many years I boarded multiple horses at various establishments that used secondhand conveyor belting in the stalls without issues – never saw/heard of any slipping horses, or saw/heard of horses chewing on the edges of the belt pieces, never heard any complaints from other boarders or the barn managers or owners. These were in partial self-care situations, where I was responsible for stripping my stalls, so I was up close and personal with the belting.

Unlike the 4 ft x 6 ft typical of stall mats, this stuff comes in long strips, and is narrower. So, the standard 12 ft x 12 stall, which would require six stall mats, would need three or four lengths of belting. Also, the belting, IME, is not quite as thick as stall mats, but much thicker than the thin rubber matting sold off rolls, and is very heavy duty. I had no trouble with the belting moving around in the stalls, either, so it didn’t have to be absolutely wall to wall to hold it in place (there could be several inches unmatted around the perimeter, for instance).

In my own barn, I have the usual stall mats, cut to fit, and I never even considered not having them. But, for use in temporary horse housing, the used conveyor belting – if available to you – might be a decent option. Of course, it must be bedded appropriately; during the time I boarded at barns with this product, we always used shavings for bedding, as pelleted bedding was not yet a thing. In my personal barn, on my “real” stall mats, I bed with pellets (great time saver).

TSC runs a sale on mats, every now and then. And I’ve purchased pre-owned stall mats off Craigslist very inexpensively (which I employ to cover the surface on which my gooseneck trailer is parked), so perhaps you might luck out there.

[Simkie]

I’d rather have dirt floors over poorly installed mats. When we moved here, the stalled had been done in play sand and mats. It was awful. The shifting base caused the mats to shift and edges to lift, so bedding went underneath and just made the mats lift more…bah. It was bad.

Pulled all the mats out, and left horses on the sand for a few months. It was okay and actually required far less bedding than I expected. (Then we redid the base and installed mats.)

If you’re going to do mats, you owe it to yourself to make sure the base is solid (bring in screenings, tamp with vibrating plate tamper) and perfectly even. If you can’t do that, skip the mats.

The price also seems really high? I can do a 12x12 stall here for $180 with mats from the local feed store. Tractor Supply sells for $45 each, and will discount if you buy a pallet (20 mats, IIRC?)

[enjoytheride]

Mats. We usually only use 2 mats in the stalls, over the pee spots. Works fine. Yes, they do shift a bit but it’s so much better than digging a giant hole in the stall.

[Goforward]

You can get away with an entrance mat and a pee spot mat but over time the floors still get weird and hilly.
I love my Stall Savers. Way better than mats and about $200 per stall.

[Mango20]

How long are you planning on renting and how are the floors right now? If it’s short to medium term and the dirt floors are in pretty good shape, I’d just use them as is. I have dirt floors in my barn and it’s okay. Over the years, you do tend to dig down into the pee spots, and three of my four stalls currently have unlevel floors. The fourth I fixed last fall for the first time in 20 years. I also sometimes clean stalls at another barn with mats. I can tell you that their stalls have a much stronger urine/ammonia smell than mine while cleaning.

[PaddockWood]

I hate the smell of ammonia and it’s so bad for their lungs. Mats are required to avoid that right? (me who just bought interlocking mats for my stalls and DREADS cutting them and fitting perfectly - is it not such a big deal?)

[4horses]

Dirt floors are fine depending on dust. My barn had terrible dust so i finally put mats over the dirt floors.

[walktrot]

BO was in a leased barn while she moved from the old farm that she outgrew. It sold in a few days to someone from California with cash. Her new facility was under construction. No mats, every stall had a pit 12-18" deep. The aisleway was asphalt and the shod horses slipped occasionally coming out of a stall. Pack the surface with a machine, fit the mats as well as you can, and clean under them so they stay flat. BO uses sawdust from a local lumber mill. Much easier to pick.

[clanter]

I found a little farmette to rent

I would first check with the landlord.

But if the property is rented I would not add mats to the stalls as they are not easy to remove and take with

[SonnysMom]

@clanter

I would first check with the landlord.

But if the property is rented I would not add mats to the stalls as they are not easy to remove and take with

Depends on how custom cut the mats are. If they don’t require any or minimal cutting they are very easy to pick up and move to another place. If they have a lot cut out for posts or strange sized stalls they are harder to use elsewhere. My trainer was given a bunch by a friend. They have a few weird cut-out from posts and a few are smaller than original sized. But they do the wash stall well and a spot in the aisle for grooming where the crossties are.

I routinely see them pulled out of stalls and sold on Craigslist and FB Marketplace. They don’t last long.

[clanter]

they are very easy to pick up and move to another place

my mats weigh 110 pounds each, yeah they can be pulled around but loading one into truck bed is pretty much like picking up a cat

[Bluey]

@clanter

my mats weigh 110 pounds each, yeah they can be pulled around but loading one into truck bed is pretty much like picking up a cat

Roll mats, tie or tape them, then they are easier to handle, more like an area rug.
Pallet points on the tractor makes it easier.