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Horses on slats????

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  • 13-11-2008 9:36pm
    #1
    canon5571
    Registered Users Posts: 76 ✭✭


    Was just wondering did anyone ever see horses being housed on rubber thats been laid on top of slats?
    My dad used to have a small herd of cattle and he built a small slatted shed aswel. He got out of the cattle and the shed lay idle for a number of years. I got into a few horses and I have no pernament winter housing for them.
    I was thinking of laying rubber over two thirds of the slats that way they could lie on the rubber and I could scrape any manure down on the slats and they could walk it down.
    I know this is a bit unorthadox but I think it could be a good solution for housing a large number of animals with minimal maintenance.


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    #2
    convert
    Registered Users Posts: 9,338 ✭✭✭convert


    It wouldn't be my first choice to keep horses on slats, even with the rubber on it as it may be uneven due to the gaps in the slats. Horses' hooves are completely different to cattles' so it'd be easier for their toe to 'slip' down into the gap and potentially cause problems. How much of a gap is in the slats?

    In addition, you couldn't just leave the horses on rubber matting, you'd have to provide some sort of bedding, be it straw, wood shavings, compost, etc. Rubber matting isn't suffficient on its own.

    Have you got any other non-slatted sheds that you could put the horses in instead? I had a friend who sectioned off a shed with gates (again, not ideal for horses) and had 1 or 2 horses in each pen. They bedded them down with straw and used it as a 'deep litter' bed (ie - took out the droppings and any other really wet straw) and just added new straw as it was needed, and didn't clean out the shed until the following spring when the horses went out again.


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