Does anyone else have a cobbled stable?

I'm finding my cobbled stable hard work to muck out. All the muck gets trodden into the cobbles, and even when I wash it out (thoroughly it takes half a day!) it's in exactly the same mess the next day! I have one large rubber mat covering two sunken parts of the stable as they collect the most dirt.
To muck out I first fork out the sodden straw, chuck all the dry stuff to the back, rake all the bits out of the cobbles, then brush it out with a yard brush. This takes almost 30 mins every day before I've sorted new bedding, water, hay etc!
I use good quality straw as it's free as I live on a farm. I've used wood chip before and it was a nightmare as it gets stuck in the cracks and holds the moisture!
I cannot perminently change the cobbles as it is not my stable and there is no other stable available. I'm also on a low budget!
Any ideas?!!

Years ago, I worked at a stable that had these. We used straw and it wasn't a huge issue. Morning muck out, pick up poop, throw walls up, out with the wet, sweep, lay walls down. Pm was just poop pick up.

We used straw brooms, waaaaay better then trying with a yard broom, you can flick more. Used to get 4 boxes done in an hour. 15 minutes start to finish for each box.

Thanks for replying!
Ah perhaps I need to get a straw broom then! The yard broom is very bottom heavy.
My horse is a real messy mare, she floods her stable with pee, and walks her poo everywhere - theres never a trace of proper round poos most of the time! (There are in the feild before anyone says there's a diet problem!)
I was wondering if anyone had success with filling in the cobbles with anything non-perminent? Just curious...

Mine are in cobbled stalls at the moment. My gelding is also quite dirty. I tend to muck out in the morning, sweep everything out and allow the box to dry for the day before putting the bedding down. I have no advice for you, but I can sympathize!

Yep I do the same, sometimes I'll sweep all the dusty bits from the straw over the top to help it dry too. She goes out at 7-8am each morning. I swear she saves her toilet time til I bring her in! I'm so jelous of all those lucky people with concrete floors!

Wow! I was going to say, buy some 3/4" rubber mats.

I think I will, I've been holding back though because they're so expensive!

Have you considered laying a wood floor down?

I used to work in a show jumping/hunting barn and the huge show barn had a cobbled aisle about 30' wide by 100' long!! Absolute PITA to sweep! But the stalls and cross tie stalls had wooden floors.

Some times you can find used mats at auctions But make sure you scrub them good with bleach a few times before using

Muppetgirl,
Glad to see someone has heard of wooden floored stalls. We are building a barn, and the Amish man who is building it reccomended them. We went up to see his, and they seemed great! I do not have stall fronts on the boxes yet, but we put in some standing stalls, and I have used those.