Help!! Stall grids & rubber mat overkill? Save my marriage!

Originally Posted by Taffy Clayton    

I wouldn't put mats over concrete, just to hard on their legs.

Originally Posted by yourcolorfuladdiction    

I like the rubber bricks for isle ways...

We have rubber mats on cement and it seems to be okay but we have to bed down the stalls heavily to prevent hock rubs on the bigger horses and with 12x16 stalls that is a lot of bedding!


Depending upon the mat though you might be able to do different things like if you were going to splurge on stable comfort flooring you could probably get away with a cement floor beneath it. But if you're going to go for just a plain rubber mat you might want to do what your thinking about or what I suggested above. I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Taffy Clayton    

In my stalls I have clay, then chat, then mats. Very happy with that. I would suggest the largest mats you can get. I used to have 4 x6' mats and they moved all the time, had to rearrange them all the time. Now we have 6 X 12" mats and I love them. Mats custom to your stall would even be better.
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Originally Posted by Foxhunter    

Sorry but you do not know much!

In the UK there are very few stables that are not concreted and the horses do not suffer from any more leg problems that horses in the USA.
To my mind, horses standing on a dirt floor that is often very uneven is more detrimental the their joints than concrete.

Add to the fact that most people in the UK bed far deeper than in the States means that when the horses are inside they are more likely to lie down.

Personally I dislike rubber mats. I find that the horses are far dirtier on them
Given a splash area they will then lie on the shavings and get soaked in urine and poop. Nearly all bedding has to be thrown out every day. Give me a good deep straw or shavings bed any day. You throw out far less and it takes half the time to muck out than to get all the mess off the horse and muck out a rubber matted stable.

Originally Posted by wguisbert54    

My wife and I are building a horse barn for our daughter. We know very little about horses. She is somewhat learning disabled and will be with us probably as long as we are around. She loves her horse, but now that she is done with school, and she is working, she needs "someone" to come home too!
As a dentist I would rather over-engineer something, rather than have to do it again. Doing something over again is expensive, a waste of time, and very aggravating!
My wife and I have poured over threads here about flooring options. We were at a horse expo at the Farmshow Building in Harrisburg, Pa yesterday. I hear lots of conflicting opinions. This is what I have sort of come up with: heavy plastic covering the pit, french drains (draining to the outside of the barn, #2b limestone (driveway variety), ground limestone dust tamped down with the thing that looks like jackhammers with a flat base, a stall grid, more ground limestone dust, then covered with a 3/4" rubber mat.
This may seem like overkill, but if I am paying 90 grand on a barn, what the heck and spend maybe 2 grand more and be done with it!
Or is this way overkill. Part of me agrees with the people who put rubber mats on cement, and like it just fine (what I heard mostly at the Horseshow yesterday)! This philosophy seems to follow the KISS principle very well!
But are there some unseen problems with the complex design that I came up with in order to addresses everybody's concerns I read in these threads?
Thanks to all!

Originally Posted by wguisbert54    

After reading all the comments and visiting barns in the area, I have decided on going with 2b limestone (driveway sized stone), cracker dust, stall grids, covered with 3/4 inch interlocking rubber mats.

This may be overkill, but I will be selling at some point in time (or my estate will), and I have been told that if someone is looking at a piece of property with a horse facility, they will be looking at the horse facility first and foremost! This way I have all my bases covered!