b'FARM&BARN ALAYNE BLICKLETheHorse.com/FarmandBarnStall Floor SetupsHow to choose, install, and maintain your stall or shed floorsto maximize horse comfort and chore convenienceS tall flooring might not be some-thing we spend much of our horsey time pondering, but its crucial to our horses health. Like humans, the surface a horse spends hours standing on can affect his comfort, soundness, and quality of movement. Stall flooring also affects how efficiently and thoroughly you can clean the stallwhich, in turn, can affect horse health if ammonia ac-cumulates in the airspace or dirt collects on surfaces on which they eat.Flooring TypesThere are two basic categories of stall flooring: pervious and impervious. Pervi-ous, or porous, stall flooring can either be traditional packed clay, or it can include a ALAYNE BLICKLE PHOTOSspecially designed geotextile membrane. In the latter case, the membrane layers separate the horse and bedding from the base material below. Regardless of the type, you should place pervious materi-als on a base of well-graded crushed andStall mat benefits include cleaning convenience, reduced bedding costs, and horse health and packed stone.comfort.There are drawbacks to using pervious flooring: Packed clay is soft (comparedand bulletins on building and maintain- your horses be confined in box stalls for to cement or asphalt), but it can easilying horse and livestock housing, drawingmost of the day? If so, do you plan to bed become uneven with added moisture, es- on her expertise in air quality, agriculturalthe stalls deeply for comfort? Will the pecially if you dont apply deep bedding.heating and ventilation systems, animalstalls have attached pens or paddocks Membrane layers can contribute to urinewelfare, and horse facility engineering.horses can access at any time? Is the pro-and moisture buildup in the base materialStall flooring is more than whats on theposed flooring in a shelter or run-in shed below, resulting in odors. Groundwatersurface, she says. in a turnout or pasture? contamination is another concern withThe thing about stall flooring is peopleIf you are only using the stall for this type of stall construction.usually obsess about the top layers, butfeeding or as a run-in shed, the flooring Impervious stall flooring is designed tothats only the icing on the cake, saysdoesnt need to be as durable as when prevent urine and moisture from drain- Fabian. You need to have the whole layerhorses are stalled all day, says Fabian. ing. The horse either has access to ancake underneath for it to work correctly.Base your flooring choices on how much outdoor area for defecating and urinat- The flooring in a stall is something likeyou plan to stall your horse.ing or bedding to absorb moisture andbuilding an arena; theres the base layerRubber stall mats are the gold provide cushion.and the layer or material on top. If thestandard in the industry for overcom-Eileen Fabian, PhD, is a professor ofbase isnt correct, nothing else is going toing hardness and facilitating cleaning, Agricultural and Biological Engineer- work right.says Fabian. Over time, manufactur-ing at Pennsylvania State University, inDecide how you intend to use yourers have engineered stall mats to help University Park. She has authored booksstalls before designing the flooring. Willreduce fatigue in horses legs and make TheHorse.com|The HorseJanuary 202031Farm&Barn_Jan_use.indd 31 12/3/19 3:33 PM'