How to Install Rubber Mats in Your Horse's Stall

Rubber mats can provide your horse with protection from excessive heat and cold, and provide a more stable and softer surface for walking and moving around. While rubber stall mats are not a solution to every problem, they do carry a number of important benefits. But your horse can only enjoy those benefits if you take the time to install those mats properly. Simply throwing mats over a poor stall surface will do nothing to improve the safety and well being of your horse.

Things You'll Need

  • Level
  • Tamper
  • Wood shavings
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Instructions

    • 1

      Level the stall surface before you begin. If the bottom of the stall is not level, the rubber mats will shift and move, reducing the protection they provide your horse and introducing new problems. You can place rubber stall mats over asphalt, concrete or fine stone with a diameter of 1/8 inch or less. If you are placing rubber stall mats over a dirt or clay surface, you can use that fine stone to fill in the low spots and holes. The surface needs to be perfectly level before you put the stall mats in place.

    • 2

      Wet the surface once you have put the fine stone down. Use a tamper to flatten down the surface, then check to make sure it is perfectly level. You might have to tamp the surface down several times and add additional fine stone to achieve a truly level surface.

    • 3

      Measure the stall carefully and check the size of the mats to ensure they will fit flush. Place the first mat in one corner of the stall, then place each additional mat flush against the first one so that there are no gaps or holes. In order to work properly those rubber stall mats must fit as closely together as they can. You might want to look for interlocking stall mats, since it is easier to get them to fit flush together and create a single solid surface.

    • 4

      Place quality wood shavings down over the rubber stall mats at a depth of at least 4 to 6 inches. Providing a soft surface with wood shavings is very important, even with stall mats in place.