stall flooring

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Hi! I need some advice re. flooring/bedding for my horse. I have just purchased an old cow barn and plan to make one end a run in shed. That area has a dirt floor but it is about a foot below the surrounding cement flooring. So, I need to build it up a foot. I have been told to use gravel called "item #4" or bank run gravel. Does this sound OK? I was then going to use wood shavings for the bedding but read in another forum about using peat moss since it kept things drier. Is this OK for horses? Thank you in advance for your help

-- teresa mandracchia (teresam@ascent.net), April 22, 2000

Answers

Teresa, you'll get lots of opinions on flooring and bedding. I'd go with what you can find and afford easily. However, I do wonder a bit about the gravel. Horses tend to pick up rocks so easily anyway that I'd expect a horse stabled on rocks would always have feet full of rocks. I'm also wondering how you'd clean that stall whatever the bedding without removing a certain amount of the gravel with the bedding. I've never cleaned a gravel-floored stall, but I'm thinking about going around every spring with a wheelbarrow and shovel gathering the driveway gravel that got shifted during snowplowing even though we try to be careful and not scrape it up.

Bedding, that depends on what you can get cheaply locally and remember to allow for hauling. There are pros and cons to both shavings and peat moss. You might also consider straw, sand, rubber mats, or ground cob among the many options.

Do you have to bring the one area up to the same level? Have you considered just building some cement ramps? You could run a fence across inside between the two levels if you're worried about the horse careening around inside. Just keep the horse in the dirt-floored side. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 22, 2000.


I vote for a load of sand. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 22, 2000.

I vote for Vicki's sand, unless you can get clay. Horses often tend to dig holes in their floors anyway (though probably not so much with free access to the outdoors); it would be a lot worse with sand. If the horse is outdoors most of the time, you don't really need to put bedding down, just clean up the piles, and any bad wet spots. If you have to confine the animal to the stall, bed it with whatever is least expensive -- straw, shavings, or sawdust. If you use peatmoss, put it under the other bedding, because it seems like it might be too dusty -- horses are pretty sensitive to dust.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 22, 2000.

Yes, Clay is best if you can get it. Would not use gravel unless it is a last resort. It will cause abcesses, and bruise the hooves of your horse. IF you have to use gravel for drainage,, put nice heavy Rubber stall matts over it. Rubber stall matts are easy to clean,, and will save your horses hooves and legs. :O)

-- Bergere (autumnhaus@aol.com), April 22, 2000.

I would build the floor up if upon doing so there is headroom enough so that if the horse spooks and bolts out it doesn't hit its head. Also if you are going to feed the horse inside don't use sand. Sand compaction is a bad problem because a horse will nibble the ground even if you feed in a manager. You can feed sand colic products but I have experienced horses having colic from having these products moving the sand out of the digestive tract. As for bedding the stall, I leave mine with just a dirt floor without using bedding. Everytime I use straw or shavings the horses would use their bedroom as the bathroom and then go out and take a nap in the mud. When I don,t use bedding they don't use the stall as a bathroom but they will still go out and take a nap in the mud. I like the look of a nice fresh bedded stall but it much easier to do corral cleanup in the spring with the tractor then to try to pitchfork frozen bedding in the winter.

-- lynda (lyndadan@cyberhighway.net), April 22, 2000.


I would definitely not use any kind of gravel, as some one else pointed out it would probably be uncomfortable and the horses might get some stuck in their frogs. There is a method of bedding called deep bedding, where you put down 1 or more feet of shavings and just let it stay there - maybe clean it all out once or twice a year. The urine seems to filter down and is not a problem and you just scoop the poops. It is very comfortable for the horses and a lot less maintenance and a lot less bedding is used over all. It is probably what was intended when they set the barn up that way. Check into the peat moss thoroughly if thats the way you want to go because horses are extraordinarily sensitive and I've never heard of peat being used before. Horses can get laminitis from simply using certain kinds of hardwood shavings, which is why they only use softwood for animal bedding.

Good luck!

-- Rod Perrino (redjouster@aol.com), April 22, 2000.


Teresa: We saw a type of flooring for stalls this year at the National Western Stock show in Denver and are considering it for our barn, but the cost is about 150.00 per stall. It consists of putting a load of small limestone flakes down, leveling that, then putting the main "floor" down, which consists of sheets of cirles about the size of a soda can, made from recycled plastic. Then you fill in to level with more limestone, put a layer of straw, shavings, etc. on top and you are done. Supposed to be odor free, as the urine soaks down and is filtered, and the plastic rings keep the horses from digging holes. We don't use any bedding other than dirt floors in our stalls, unless we have a mare foaling in one. Then we use a thick layer of straw. Ours prefer to go outside and lie down in mud, manure, etc! They only stand in the stalls when the weather is bad. Good luck with whatever you decide to do, but I would be careful of what type of shavings you use, as some are highly toxic to horses, and they seem to nibble at everything. Jan B

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 23, 2000.

Teresa-if you have to use some sort of dirt flooring (sand preferably) I would definitely get the rubber matting which another contributor mentioned. I used to have horses and whenever one of them was in the stall with the dirt floor he would dig and dig and dig. As a matter of fact, one day I went into the barn and couldn't see him over the stall door! He had dug a hole about three feet or more deep! Maybe he was the only horse in the world to dig but if I had it to do over again, I'd get the mats! As far as cleaning out the stall, get one of those forks used for manure-they are in tack shops or catalogs. The manure, etc. stays in the fork and the dirt falls through the tines. I always used them and they are great. Good luck!

-- Susan Hutchinson (shutch@midmaine.com), April 23, 2000.

Thanks for all the advice so far. Keep the ideas coming please! I have some stall mats but was reluctant to use them because in all the barns I've seen them in they just seem to pool urine. Maybe they didn't use enough bedding but they seemed messy and smelly. I've been in a barn that dep bedded with shavings and it is wonderful. Daily clean out is just 10 minutes a day and the horses are clean and have no feet problems. I just am not sure how it would work with such a deep drop.

-- teresa (teresam@ascent.net), April 23, 2000.

I would definitely build the stall back up to level if you can and then use one of the above ideas except the gravel one. If you use wood shavings, be sure that they are pine shavings. Do not use cedar shavings in with horses as I think it is toxic (can't remember it has been so long ago that I read about it). We seldom keep horses in stalls unless they are in foal, sick or in training and we have mostly concrete floors and a few wooden floors - none of which I would recommend. Concrete is nice to keep clean, but you need lots of bedding and/or rubber mats for the horses feet.

If you want to use your mats, put bedding on top of it to soak up the urine.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), April 25, 2000.



Well Im not sure what you should use. Probably I would go with the Item 4 the kind we have here in NY is more sand and less gravel. Then try shavings but for an outside shed alot of it may get wasted. I found your question in search of info on peatmoss myself. The barn I manage was just sold and the new owners switched everyone over from shavings mixed with sawdust to peatmoss. So far everyone (horses) are ok. My only complaint is I have a grey Arab mare and she has never been dirty till now. I can get passed that as long as it is safe for her health. so my question to you is have you heard anything bad about peatmoss. Our vet and farrier say its ok and cornell univesity a equine college in upstate NY say its ok. So far thats the only feed back Ive gotten. I would appreciate anthing (Info) you could send me Thanks... Michele

-- Michele Troyano (tiam88@aol.com), January 23, 2002.

I built a small barn for my 2 horses last summer. Our ground slopes a little where we had to build it so in order to have a level building the high end of the barns base was dug down into the ground about 6 inches and the lower side was about 12 inches off the ground. My dad and I spent a weekend going to new home construction sights picking up dirt that had been collected from digging basements. We halled home about four truck loads and dumped it in the bottom of the barn. Then we spread it out, packed it down, and watered it to help it settle. It's now about 4 inches below the top floor board ( the walls are built on 6'x8' boards that form the square base). We're putting in stall matts, and placing wood shavings on top of that. (We can't just leave them on the dirt floor because it's not clay so it's somewhat loose. This could create problems down the road.) The shavings soak up the urine, just scoop out the wet stuff when you scoop th poop!. It's really easy to clean and really healthy. There's no risk of sand collic, gravel bruising, excess dust, or thrush ( keep it dry). You also won't end up scooping out half your flooring with the dirty bedding. Be sure you don't use walnut shavings. The horses soak up the walnut through their hooves and can founder. Make sure your stall floor is level too. If it is, or BECOMES dug out in the middle your horse can get pinned when he lies down and he won't be able to get up!! Good luck!! Thanks!

-- Laura (trilinr@myexcel.com), April 08, 2002.

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