# Stall floor maintenance



## Anonymous0003 (Jun 11, 2018)

Our barn used to be a cow barn and the floor is therefore cement and has multiple manure troughs. Whoever owned the barn before us put in horse stalls. All the floors are in good shape but one has a step down in the middle from the manure troughs. We have horses coming in next week and need the use of all the stalls. Any suggestions on how to level the floor?


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Dirt, pack it, add dirt, pack it..add dirt and pack it tight...cover with mats.
Of if you have enough time for curing...
Fill partially with dirt..compact it tight, over and over...then concrete the top level with the rest of the floor.
Allow to cure and I would probably put mats down then bed with shavings...
:runninghorse2:....
_jmo..._


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## Anonymous0003 (Jun 11, 2018)

Thanks so much! Is concrete with rubber mats and shavings over top bad for the horse’s legs? They are on turnout all day and in stalls at night.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

I would have some grates made to fit in the troughs


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Some will tell you it is the worst thing you could do for the legs....hogwash.
You have a limited amount of time to prepare your barn for the incoming horses so utilizing time and materials wisely is important.
I have mucked hundreds, yes hundreds of stalls that were a concrete base with mats and thick shavings on top or just heavily bedded in shavings no mats...
These were horses who were in their stalls 12 - 15 hours a day....competition show hunters and jumpers.
Not one of those animals was ever lame or took a misstep. 

Their legs were not inflamed nor had problems...


I would of loved to see you be able to do something so you could of used the manure troughs, but time does not allow and it I think would be pricey to convert them from cow use to horse use..


*Don't skimp on the shavings* and make sure stalls are cleaned thoroughly daily, _every day._
Since you will have mats, turn the stall everyday to fluff and remove every bit of wet.
If your stalls are maintained correctly it will be only once a year you might need to strip the stall, remove the mats and wash all down to kill bacteria...
Skimp on shavings or cleaning well and the barn will have a ammonia stench that is unhealthy for the animal and human to breathe.
Enjoy your horses at home...:smile:
:runninghorse2:...
_jmo.._


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## Werecat (Aug 23, 2015)

I went with concrete floors with interlocking mats over them, and started each stall with 8 bags of bedding (they're 12x12 stalls). I have ZERO regrets! Horses are doing great, stalls are doing amazing, no urine leaks through the mats. After talking to the manufacturer of the mats, we used FlexSeal to permanently fuse the mats together to create a perfectly seamless floor. Since the mats are over concrete, they wont ever need to be resurfaced, and if we prevent anything from getting under them, we should never have to remove them. Whenever the mats wear out, and it's time to replace them, we'll just use the same orbital saw we used to cut them in areas that needed to be cut, to cut out and remove them in smaller pieces for easier removal and disposal.

My biggest suggestion is go-with-interlocking-mats. They never shift, and if installed properly and with the right amount of bedding, you'll never deal with ammonia problems from urine seeping into places where non-interlocking mats would shift.


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## Getting Rich in Vegas (Jun 17, 2016)

I once boarded at a barn that was an old cow barn retrofitted for horses. They also had the manure trough. The horses never had a problem stepping up or down into/out of the stall. They had mats and used a good amount of shavings and there were never any problems.


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## Anonymous0003 (Jun 11, 2018)

If you fill in part of the floor with dirt then don’t you have to completely fill in the floor so it is all the same density? Is having a stall floor be partially one material and partially another bad?


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

I don't see a necessity of all one material composition...
I do see a point of caution though in having a "hole" hidden underneath bedding where a horse not paying attention could step partially on partially off the uneven surface and twist a limb causing injury...
Level flooring is important, to me what is less of importance is what the floor is comprised of...
If part dirt, part concrete.._.but a level surface is far more important to me.._
I could be totally wrong on that thought, but no one has ever told me differently and my stall mucking days have shown me many different materials used successfully and how it was done..and how some materials although fine on their own, when not maintained/combined in unison made issues for the animal.
_Did that last looong sentence make sense?_
:runninghorse2:_..._
_jmo...
_


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## Colt17 (Aug 7, 2017)

I currently have a clay floor 12x12 stall that I am considering covering with 6 inches of concrete then lay rubber mats then shavings. One concern I have if the horse comes into the stall with some red dirt clay mud on his feet (the stuff is like grease, I do clean the feet when he comes into the stall, but could be a some left), will he slip on the rubber matt? My current stall floor is also the red dirt clay and is a mess where he urinates- the reason I want to go with concrete and matts.
Thanks


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Colt17 said:


> I currently have a clay floor 12x12 stall that I am considering covering with 6 inches of concrete then lay rubber mats then shavings. One concern I have if the horse comes into the stall with some red dirt clay mud on his feet (the stuff is like grease, I do clean the feet when he comes into the stall, but could be a some left), will he slip on the rubber matt? My current stall floor is also the red dirt clay and is a mess where he urinates- the reason I want to go with concrete and matts.
> Thanks



If a horse so easily slips on a stall mat because of some clay {yes know the exact kind} you have a bigger problem.
Remember the horse is 1000 pounds of animal stepping on and compressing into that mat...
Rarely have I ever seen a horse slide on a mat and then it was because they had ice balls in hoof bottom not dirt/clay.
Anything can happen, rarely though does it happen...
:runninghorse2:...


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

Colt17 said:


> I currently have a clay floor 12x12 stall that I am considering covering with 6 inches of concrete then lay rubber mats then shavings. One concern I have if the horse comes into the stall with some red dirt clay mud on his feet (the stuff is like grease, I do clean the feet when he comes into the stall, but could be a some left), will he slip on the rubber matt? My current stall floor is also the red dirt clay and is a mess where he urinates- the reason I want to go with concrete and matts.
> Thanks


We have clay soil, and my stalls are open to the outside 24/7 so the horses come in and out as they please. They have never slipped. Stalls are concrete covered with rubber mats, covered with a generous layer of dampened pelleted bedding. They are slightly higher than the soil in the paddock surrounding them for drainage. Works great. The bedding should be thick enough that it will cushion your horse's hooves so they are not in direct contact with the rubber. However, even if they managed to push the bedding aside and walk on the rubber mats, it should not be an issue. The stuff is pretty grippy.


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

I use stall mats with a bare pee spot area. Before I installed the mats, the horses pawed and moved the dirt to the back of the stall. The entire stall slants and drains forward. I originally matted the entire stall but didn't like the result. I went in and pulled one mat from the pee spot area and one mat from the manure spot in the back. I put down pine pellets level or slightly over the mats. This works perfectly. Minimal bedding wasted, easy to clean, mats don't shift or slide. I do not stall overnight so there is no reason to bed the stall deeply. 

I banked the stall walls, instead of being a flat surface. All that matters is that you make sure the mats meet evenly throughout the stall. Sometimes i go in with a trowel and re-level the edges of the mats. Since i did not do a huge amount of site preparation, it requires some maintenance, but nothing major. 

I probably should have leveled the stall to begin with but that just seems like a huge amount of work. It would also have been better if the stall slanted and drained to the back rather than the front. The larger mats i cannot move by myself so they are there to stay.


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## Colt17 (Aug 7, 2017)

Acadianartist said:


> We have clay soil, and my stalls are open to the outside 24/7 so the horses come in and out as they please. They have never slipped. Stalls are concrete covered with rubber mats, covered with a generous layer of dampened pelleted bedding. They are slightly higher than the soil in the paddock surrounding them for drainage. Works great. The bedding should be thick enough that it will cushion your horse's hooves so they are not in direct contact with the rubber. However, even if they managed to push the bedding aside and walk on the rubber mats, it should not be an issue. The stuff is pretty grippy.



Thanks all for your comments. I have two mats (actually made in Canada, maybe same as yours) and will give them a try. Curious if you wet the pellet bedding when it is cold outside. Also, if a horse lies down on the damp bedding, is this a problem?


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## Colt17 (Aug 7, 2017)

I put down the two 4'x6' mats I had last night and so far so good. I put them down in the area the horse usually sleeps, and at the urine area. Worked well. Just laid the mats over the red dirt. The mat he urinates on slopes towards the edge of the stall, and there I dug a hole a foot deep and filled with gravel. The urine runs into that dry well and drains. Will probably need to make some adjustments and changes as time goes on, but it was nice to not have a urine mud pit this morning to deal with.


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