As well built and graciously appointed as today's barns may be, the fact remains that horses were intended to roam freely in open spaces. As horse owners, we provide care and nutrition in exchange for restricting their roving nature.

Any time you enclose a 1,000-pound animal within a space of approximately 12'x12' for hours each day, the floor surface is going to undergo a lot of wear and tear. Horsemen have a variety of options for stall flooring, with an equally wide range of prices. Choices depend on personal preference, availability, durability, and, of course, price. Before building a new barn or replacing the flooring in an existing facility, the barn owner should review the various options along with their advantages and disadvantages.

Stones, chips, and fines

Among the least-expensive choices are crushed stone, stone chips, crushed limestone, and decomposed granite. Depending on your area, crushed stone may be referred to as "crusher fines" or "quarry fines."

A stone base provides good drainage and stands up well to freeze-and-thaw cycles. It provides a stable base with more resiliency than concrete, and in many cases holds up better than clay. The individual particles themselves should be one-eighth of an inch or less in size.

A 4"-to-5" base is necessary, and the surface should be level and well compacted. Soaking the crushed limestone or fines with water before bedding is added will help compact the base and make a more solid surface. Rubber mats can easily be used atop a stone base, providing it is level.

Clay

Clay is a commonly used stall flooring and is typically on the lower end of the price spectrum.

"First of all, you want to be sure you're getting quality clay, so you need to rely on your supplier. If you pick up a handful and squeeze it, the clay should be slightly sticky and moist, never dry," said Ralph Cohn, whose R. C. Cohn Construction has been installing clay floors in barns for 17 years in north-central Florida. Cohn installs new clay floors and also reinstalls clay floors using a Bobcat (mini front-end loader) and a walk-behind vibrating compactor made especially for installing clay.

"The thicker the better is not true with clay," Cohn said. "If you have too much clay, the top will dry out, but the underneath cannot be compacted as it should, and the horse's hooves will break through."

Cohn first installs a 2"-to-3" base of mixed sand and clay before putting approximately 5" of solid clay on top, leaving a slight crown at the center of the stall. He wants the clay to be 31Ú2"-to-4" deep at the edges of the stall and about 6" deep in the center. This crown keeps urine from running to the center and prevents the middle of the stall from wearing down quickly.

The clay is hand-raked twice and then tightly compacted with a vibrating compactor. Ideally, the finished stall should be lightly moistened and then left empty to dry and harden for a couple of days before bedding is added.

"You can put horses in stalls the same day they are clayed, but be sure to use extra deep bedding if you do," Cohn said. "When you use the right equipment to install clay, it averages three to four years of normal wear and tear before a stall needs to be reclayed," he said. "If clay is installed by hand, you will have to reclay much more frequently because it's just not compacted as hard."

One disadvantage of clay is that it holds moisture, and once it becomes contaminated with urine, the accompanying ammonia odor is tough to eliminate unless the clay is replaced. Clay usually needs to be replaced more frequently than crushed limestone. When holes develop in clay floors, "patches" do not tend to hold well; it is best to reclay the entire floor. If you have a determined digger or stall walker, you may want to opt for a more permanent flooring such as asphalt or concrete.

Asphalt and concrete

Concrete and asphalt are durable, long-lasting and easy to disinfect, but because they are basically unforgiving surfaces many horsemen cover them with rubber mats at least three-quarters of an inch thick to provide cushion and traction. This is also a safety measure because both asphalt and concrete can be slippery when wet, especially for shod horses.

With concrete, the entire stall floor may be poured, or you can opt for 24" concrete footers on the stall's edges (sometimes referred to as "paw pads") with crushed limestone or clay in the center of the stall. Many new barns with concrete floors have a drain in the center of each stall.

The floor may be pitched slightly to aid drainage, either in the stall itself or toward the center aisle. The concrete surface should be smooth if rubber mats are to be installed. For concrete aisles without rubber mats, make sure the surface is "brushed" to provide extra traction.

Based on long-term maintenance and replacement costs, concrete often is less expensive than either blacktop or clay floors.

A relatively new product and slightly more expensive than regular concrete is pervious concrete. "The concrete mix is poured at a low slump (relatively little water) so that the aggregate doesn't bond together and the water (or other liquids) can perk through it. The surface is compacted with a roller or hand tamper," explained Rick Wilcox of Wilcox Construction near Ocala.

"We've used it in outside applications under walkers, and it would work well in a stall, but you would want to have rubber mats over it. If you just put bedding directly on top, it could clog up over time and not drain."

Another option for a durable floor that still offers good overall drainage is porous asphalt, also referred to as "popcorn" blacktop. Because urine and moisture will drain through, bedding lasts longer, according to those who are familiar with the product, and any type of bedding can be used.

When installing porous asphalt, a crushed rock base of at least 10" is recommended, with the asphalt poured 4"-to-6" deep. In new barn construction, the easiest method is to pour concrete footers first; the asphalt is then poured, rolled, and packed before any walls are erected.

Stall floors of porous asphalt should be pressure-washed once a year to keep sediment from building up and inhibiting drainage.

Rubber mats

Rubber mats are considered an environmentally friendly flooring option because they are typically made from recycled tire material from which all wire and fibers have been removed. They offer traction, reduce leg and back fatigue in the horse, and also reduce the need for bedding because of the cushion provided by the mat.

Because the surface is revulcanized during manufacturing, quality rubber mats do not absorb odors and will not promote the growth of bacteria. They are easily cleaned with a mild detergent. The beauty of rubber mats is that they can be successfully used atop nearly any level, well-compacted surface, including clay, concrete or asphalt, wood, or crushed stone.

"They take unbelievable grief," said Steve Kenworthy of Big Sun Equine Products in Ocala. Kenworthy said shavings make the best bedding choice with rubber mats. "Straw or bedding hay on rubber mats is too slick. The savings in shavings alone will pay for the mats within a 24-month period, and using shavings over rubber mats will cut your stall-cleaning time by about 50% per stall."

Stall mats usually come in 4'x6' or 4'x8' sections to easily accommodate standard stall sizes. They can be purchased with smooth edges or as interlocking mats.

"We sell both smooth edge and Loktuff (interlocking) mats. Once people see how well it goes together and stays in place, they're converting to the interlocking mats," said Keith Peterson, owner of Humane Manufacturing located in Baraboo, Wisconsin. In business since 1907, Humane has been making rubber mats since 1971. Mats are manufactured from about 98% recycled materials, Pe