I want to redo the surface in my stalls. Currently I have rubber mats with lining underneath them. My problem, urine pooling under the mats, the mats are heavy to move and really yucky to clean. I put the lining underneath for 2 reasons 1) to control dust and 2) to eliminate odor. My gelding favors going on shavings so his stall is always bad to strip and clean. Horses are out several hours a day in pasture during good weather but with winter coming I'm dreading dealing with the stalls when it's freezing out (I'm in Nevada). I'm considering Equi Terr but am concerned that the claim that the stalls would have a 'septic' quality if installed the way the mfg says won't really work, also how hard will it be to pick, will the fork tines get caught on the surface AND will I still need to bed 3 to 4" for horse comfort?
If anyone can tell me how the product has worked for them, let me know. Also, my mare walks the fence line and has deep ruts that are hazardous (mostly to me when I'm walking backwards and picking the pen) and I'm considering putting down a run of equi terr to act as support and eliminate the ruts. Thanks [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
I have mats on top of stone dust and bed with sawdust. We only have one stall that I would consider smelly and that is mostly when we clean it.
That stall belongs to one of my stallions who happens to have particularly stinky urine.
We do not bed very deeply, feeling that 3" or 4" of sawdust drys out the hoofs and is a pain to sift.
I had a sample product called Sweet P Zee I think it was that was supposed to control oder but I was not impressed enough to keep using it for the stallion.
we uesd the mats for a few years and finally redid the inside of the barn. I concreted the ailseways and the dug out where the stalls were. I put down 12 inches of larger stone and then 2 inches of crushed limestone. On top of that to make it come even with the concrete were mats called equiterr. These are honeycombed plastic interlocking mats. once down I filled the with crushed limestone. They have been down now for over three years and no problems. This is with large breed horses(Percherons). Yes it cost a bit more but for not having to wrestle curled matts and stuff it's been well worth it.
Picking the stalls is just as easy and stripping them is the same. Now maybe this spring I may have to add some more crushed limestone as that has compacted a bit but the mats are still in good shape. No craters or curl stall matts. And they do drain very well.
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