# Are concrete floors a deal breaker?



## Jan1975 (Sep 7, 2015)

We looked at a barn to potentially board at this week. We are going to wait until spring, but I loved so many things about the barn. The people who run the barn are really nice. They genuinely care about the horses. They have amazing, huge pastures and the horses are turned out for most of the daylight hours, weather permitting. They have 30 acres of trails in the woods. However, the barn was not built as a horse barn. It's a basic pole building with a concrete floor. They have rubber mats on the floor. Do you think this would be an okay situation? I know most horse barns have lime floors. At least in our area.


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## amberly (Dec 16, 2012)

Our area has rubber floors.
It is all covered in shavings anyways - butit shouldn't be too big of a deal.


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## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

It's far better to use rubber mats on concrete than to not use anything so that's a positive; if they bed the stalls down well, that's another positive.

Btw, do you know what type of mats are being used? You'd want to see ones with some thickness to them and ones that are non-slippery when wet (the slippery ones tend to be the ones that almost seem more plastic like in material (I have no idea if those actually have true rubber in them or if there's some sort of processing that combines rubber and plastic....)).


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## Jan1975 (Sep 7, 2015)

Chevaux said:


> It's far better to use rubber mats on concrete than to not use anything so that's a positive; if they bed the stalls down well, that's another positive.
> 
> Btw, do you know what type of mats are being used? You'd want to see ones with some thickness to them and ones that are non-slippery when wet (the slippery ones tend to be the ones that almost seem more plastic like in material (I have no idea if those actually have true rubber in them or if there's some sort of processing that combines rubber and plastic....)).


Hmm, that is a good question. I will check it out better when I go next time. I should've brought someone with me who was a bit more knowledgeable!


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## DuckDodgers (May 28, 2013)

The most recent place where I boarded my horse had concrete floors, and it was definitely not a deal breaker for me. They had rubber mats and bedded the stalls quite well. If there were not mats and/or the stalls were only lightly bedded it would quite possibly have been a deal breaker for me.


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

My barn has concrete floors and mats. I find it so much easier to keep clean. I bed my stalls fairly deep and have no issues. I wouldn't worry about it


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## Sharpie (May 24, 2009)

If I ever get to build my own barn, it will have concrete floors (which I will cover with rubber mats and then bed well) so definitely not a deal breaker for me. You just have to make sure the mats are the heavy thick rubber ones and that enough bedding is used so the horses are comfortable. There are puny thin rubber/plastic mats that exist, I wouldn't think those would be enough IMO.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Not a deal breaker to me!!

A barn with concrete floors is a level surface to build upon.
Mats and bedding on top is wonderful.
No "dig" holes, no water seepage up from thawing or heavy rain to ruin your bedding or have your horse standing in wet.
Easy to clean, sanitize and under good housekeeping practices the smell, there is none.

I built one of my barns...
I intentionally put concrete under the entire structure.
I bed generously and have_* never *_had a issue even without also using mats on the floors...
There is much debate but I honestly can't see a difference in "hardness" between concrete or packed materials that form a concrete like base many rave about.
If I were going to build another barn...YES I would do concrete floors.

Enjoy your new barn!!
:runninghorse2:....
_jmo..._


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

My current barn has concrete floors with mats. I quite like it! We only ever walk on there so it's a plus rather than a minus.


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

As long as they have mats on the concrete, it's fine.


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## nrhagirl09 (Jul 27, 2015)

It depends.

You need to make sure that the mats are extremely thick. I've been to horse shows before with 10-15 bags of shavings in each stall and after a 3 day horse show on concrete floors, my horses are sore. It's all your opinion, though!


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

When I helped convert a small dairy barn for horses, we put down planks on top of the concrete. It was standard for years to build stalls this way. Plus the use of shavings was unheard of, it was always straw. Last fall I put rubber mats down, on top of clay, sand floor. Where do I find the horses, in the other stall, the one without the mats.


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## Incitatus32 (Jan 5, 2013)

I've had a concrete barn all my life. No mats inside the stalls and just nice bedding. All of my horses did fine on the concrete. I've never heard of a horse being sore or injured from standing on concrete so long as the bedding was good and there were no prexisting conditions. (I have had a couple of vets tell me that a horse going lame from concrete was found to be an old wives tale.) I ride everything from saddle horses to reining horses to ranch horses to driving horses and none have ever come up lame due to standing on concrete most of the day.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Horses need to be able to lie down in their stalls. Mine often do on the sand/clay mix. The mats are coming out. Shavings on top of concrete does not offer protection to boney areas.


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