What stall flooring do you use?

[clipclop101]

Hello all,
We are planning an overhaul on our barn and I am looking for some advice on the best flooring for minis. I've looked at a sunken rubber grid-type mat, which sounds good but cost is quite high and what material do you fill over it with? I don't really want to do a solid rubber mat, as you then have to deal with the crud caught under it and on the edges between it and the wall. Sand sounds like easy maintenance and clean-up, but with the ease that our little guys colic, I worry about them ingesting any of the sand. I've been going around in my head on this for days and getting nowhere...
Add to that the fact that in front of the barn entryway is a gigantic mud pit that I also want to fix, but everything seems to recommend sand or pea-gravel (which I foresee getting stuck in little hooves...). Has anyone had great success with anything that is reasonably affordable?

 

[Kelly]

In my old barn I had concrete floors with rubber mats on top. I loved that!

For my current barn we put concrete pavers down, then the rubber mats on top. I love it just as much as the concrete floors!

Here are some pics if you are interested:
https://www.miniaturehorsetalk.com/threads/barn-build.139656/

 

[Taz]

I have comfort mat in my stalls and love it, no crud caught under or around but it's not cheap. I have thought about putting the top down over regular rubber mats to keep the cost lower but haven't tried it yet. I like sand for the mud, it doesn't last forever but is nicer for their feet than pea-gravel and lasts longer without anything put under it.

 

[Dragon Hill]

I have an old pole barn with a couple of stalls in it. Every so many years they flood as they did last month. I put down pelleted lime, then gravel screenings (think the crush part of crush and run) and then wood chips. It's held up wonderfully so far. We have a long dirt drive way. A couple of years ago my husband scraped and leveled it, got all the ruts out and it looked beautiful. He even packed it as best he could. The very next day we had a gully washer of a rain storm. The drive still looked good, but the top layer was mush and part was a incline, so slip sliding down it, although fun, wasn't good as there were trees of course. Anyway, pelleted lime and gravel screenings saved us. (We didn't have gravel.) Pelleted lime will help it dry out faster and it keeps working for awhile. It also kills pathogens. Hydrated lime (it's powder) works faster but doesn't last as long. You can use this one in stalls and just rake it into the dirt, but if you use pelleted you need a good layer of something over it.
I did do a little research on pea gravel, since a lot of people use it and swear by it. True pea gravel has rounded edges and is collected and sold as it occurs naturally. Crushed stone is exactly that and has sharp edges. The size and shape are less uniform, also. Unfortunately, it also gets sold as pea gravel, so you have to ask.

 

[Cayuse]

We have wooden floors covered with mats and shavings. Barn used to have dirt floors but those were always damp and needed re-filling frequently so hubby layed out a grid of 4x4's closely spaced on top of the dirt and covered it wit 3/4 inch plywood. Stalls are warmer and drier and stay nice and tidy.

 

[Silver City Heritage Farmstead]

Kelly, I went back to your link. I'd forgotten you won my heart with that opening post! Why? Because you mentioned your DREAM barn and new tiny barn ️ .....but never once the house.

As to Clipclop101's question, I have a 3 opening pole barn. It has a dirt floor with used carpet laid face-down over it. The stall part gets shavings, the rest gets swept.

 

[Abby P]

Rowan's run-in shed has stone dust with mats on top. The key to keeping it not gross: I don't put bedding, so he doesn't pee in there, only outside. He also lies down outside. He will poop inside the shed (all in one place) when it's stormy out but still goes outside to pee. I am also lucky, however, in that he has bathroom manners like a cat. And he is never locked in there so that helps keep it neat as well.

 

[Dragon Hill]

Abby P, you are so fortunate! My mare (and, of course, she has taught her daughter) will come into her stall to eat and pee every time before she starts eating.

 

[betwys1]

No personal experience in keeping a barn dry. But the good word is, if there is a prevailing slope, no matter how slight, a trench on the uphill side, with ends pointing outwards and downslope, filled with grit, even sharp sand, can divert the flooding rather well

 

[LostandFound]

My barn has concrete floors with rubber mats. With the big horses I had to pull up mats and clean out under them every so often, but that hasn't been an issue with the minis. For the mud pits I use modified (which I think is a mix of driveway stone and screenings) throw it in the hole when it's filled with water. It will dry like a rock, then crushed stone or screenings on top. I have heard of people saying the tiny stone bits will get stuck in their hoof wall but I've never heard of anyone having an issue unless the horse was having serious hoof problems to start with.