Rachael's Corner: The Pros and Cons of Rubber Stable Matting

In the Tictac Equestrian office today, we have been chatting about rubber stable mats and how they can dramatically reduce the cost of keeping your horse, both in the winter and also over the summer months.  Saving a little bit of money each week adds up over the space of the year! Most stable mat retailers estimate that it will take just under a year to pay for them in the money you will save in bedding. A cost effective investment! J

Personally, I would highly recommend stable matting.  I have used it with all of my horses. It is particularly cost effective if your horse is very wet or dirty in the stable as it allows you to use a small amount of bedding and you don’t have to worry about your horse hurting themselves if they lie down on the rubber instead of a concrete floor.  It does help if you use shavings or another absorbent bedding though, if you use straw it can get a bit smelly underneath the mats. It also helps towards keeping your horse nice and warm in the winter months!

In the winter, I still give Honey a nice deep littered bed on top of the mats. It still means that at the front of her stable where there is no bedding, there is less of a chance of her slipping on the concrete when she comes in all wet and soggy from the field on a miserable day. They are equally as beneficial in the warm summer months when you can throw your bed up and let your horse stand on the mats instead of a cold, slippery or uneven concrete floor.

Lauren doesn’t like them though and likes giving all five of her horses a nice deep littered bed all year round, because it is a very smelly and unpleasant job lifting and cleaning the mats come spring time. Yuck!

Do you use rubber matting in your stable? If you do, would you recommend our customers and the rest of the Tictac team to use them? We would love to hear your opinion.