need good recommendations for stall mats or rubber mats to go on the actual stall wall… my older mare loves to kick out occasionally… some people have recommended actual stall mats… any thoughts? thanks all!
I had a kicker and just hung up regular mats on the lower half of each wall or wall section he could reach–my trainer owned the barn and was happy to have me bolt them up. Ths was about 15 years ago and the regular heavy mats were a lot more cost-effective for me than buying the lighter ones you can get for away shows or whatever.
It worked, regardless! The mats protected his legs and the walls and muffled his cranky outbursts so the rest of the barn didn’t have to listen to the banging.
You might also screw in a 2x4 to hang the mats from, which gives you the ability to use longer screws for the mats themselves (and I’d definitely add washers), but it also gives that bit of space between the mat and the wall which can help lessen the concussion of the kick, which benefits the horse as well as the wall
Have you tried kicking chains?
Another vote for using just ordinary stall mats like said above.
Not easy to install but certainly do the trick and likely the easiest thing to get access to.
I had a boarder once who was a bad stall kicker. We had paddocks attached to the stalls, but he would just stand inside and kick… he liked the sound??? IDK. He moved on to another local barn, with concrete walls around the stalls and no paddock attached. He no longer kicked the walls. It wasn’t nearly as fun to do it there. Quite uncomfortable, actually, and didn’t make that nice ringing hollow sound. Perhaps he did do it once. But no more after that.
Shadesofbay, my beloved Shire loved to wake up the entire house at 5 am when he demanded his breakfast by pawing at the wall with his gigantic front hooves.
I called a local gymnastic lesson facility and they gave me the name of the people who sold them their tumbling mats. I ordered a bunch and they worked great. Good luck!
I’m using these and they’re working great. Light weight and well padded but I’ve attached them to the run outside her stall. I don’t know what your stall looks like. I’m not using the straps, but double ended clips.
If the link doesn’t work, it’s sstack.com Paddie™ Trailer Stall Divider