Stall wall padding

[dressager]

Hi…
I am looking for a option for matting a stall wall. I could buy horse stall wall mats (the 2" padded ones) which would cost me about $800. I could also buy gymnastics mats for kids which would run me about $120 for the same size space. Has anyone used the gymnastics mats for a stall? It’s an outside stall and simply because the horse next to our horse is starting to habitually kick and ours is an occasional kicker. How did you attach them if you used the gymnastics mats? The horse ones have grommets but the regular gymnastics ones don’t- I’m thinking I would just drill them in to the wall.

thanks!

[mroades]

I did that with washers and screws. If you don’t use the washers the mats will pop right over the screws eventually

[horsepoor]

We just used regular stall mats hung with lag bolts and washers. For a kicker, my vet in the past recommended hanging the mats from a 2x4 bolted to the wall (so the mat hung free with an air gap between it and the wall). I just hung the mats direct on the wall here since it was for another reason (horse that got cast, to help give him traction, plus we have anticast strips on top of that).

I’d be worried the gym mats wouldn’t be tough enough to hold up to what would eventually happen here - a horse grabbing with teeth and tearing. But you could try it, maybe with just one, and see how they last.

[Palm_Beach]

Mats will make a stall more humid and close feeling, but are helpful for the kickers. I think gym mats are not tough enough for horses.

[dressager]

@mroades

I did that with washers and screws. If you don’t use the washers the mats will pop right over the screws eventually

Mroades- did you use gymnastics mats? Curious how they held up.

[mroades]

I used the lightweight stall mats that lock together