Dry Bed

Advantages: Much quicker to muck out, cheaper in long term.
Disadvantages: Expensive initial outlay.

I have two horses, one of my stables is rubber matted, the other isn`t. My mare was very messy, mucking out would be time consuming and I would spend a lot on bedding. I tried a variety of different beddings. Straw was really messy. Shavings were much better but they worked out very expensive. I tried different types of chopped straw. I tried one called medibed which was quite expensive and I had to order it. When it was first put down it looked ...
...afew weeks (obviously being mucked out every day) it was not as nice and it took a while to muck out. When some other people in our DIY livery yard decided to have rubber matting, I thought I would too. It cost us about £200 each at the time from memory but we have had them for 10 years. I cannot remember how long the guarantee was for. My friend had the same recently and it was £400, I was shocked at the increase but it was a long time ago. The ... Read review

Advantages: Reduces pain in arthritic horses, helps horses with COPD, reduces mucking out time significantly, reduces muck heap dramatically, cheaper in long run, warmer than concrete floor. Less bedding needed so less to store.
Disadvantages: Expensive initial outlay, hard to clean under mats, difficult to move.

I have three horses and have kept horses for over 18 years. Two years ago I moved to ahouse with land and built my own stables. I worked full time, and had just one horse at that time. Moving to a new house meant that I needed to buy a companion horse for my original one, and later I bought another horse for my husband to learn to ride on. I decided to splash out and buy rubber matting, because I was told it was easy to use and cost effective in ...
...which one of my guys has. It was expensive, approx 60 pounds per mat, and each 12 X 12 stable needed approx 5 mats. I used good quality straw bedding just to add banks, and because horses dont like to pee if it is likely to splash their legs. It was so easy to clean, just a quick sweep, and it drained superbly. I found that one of my horses who suffered from COPD, was significantly better on rubber bedding, and had his first winter without needing ... Read review

Advantages: Quicker and easier to muck out
Disadvantages: Sawdust can get under edges of mats but using straw may prevent this.

I am now 17 and i have had horses since i was 5 (which is 12 years) and the thing i hated most of all was the mucking out! To gain work experience with other horses i decided to work at a riding school for a week. Well as you can probably imagine there were a lot of boxes to muck out! As i mucked them out i was pleased to discover that some of the boxes had rubber matting. I found that i could muck these boxes out a lot quicker than the ordinary ...
...top and it was very easy to just sweep off and take away the wet sawdust and take off the droppings. I could muck out the matted boxes a lot quicker and easier than the others so throughout my work experience i tried to choose the rubber matted boxes to muck out! I would recommend rubber mats to anyone like me who hates mucking out, which i believe is most horse owners! ... Read review