As heard on
The Muster with Andy Thompson
Air-cushioned comfort because your horse deserves the best
Equine Rubber Matting
Agri-Tech Imports is a New Zealand owned company established by farmers and horse owners, Kyllee and Paul Henton, who live with their children in Kelso, Otago, New Zealand. Wanting to provide their horses with the best care and comfort available, they began their pursuit to find the ideal rubber mat flooring for their stables. Disappointed by everything else they found and tried on the market, they custom designed their own mats to create a durable, premium quality product and sourced an international company to produce them. Ecstatic with the results of their rubber mats, they now import and supply horse, cow and deer owners throughout New Zealand.
Mat Specifications
Comfy Equine rubber mats are a heavy duty interlocking rubber mat designed for using in stables.
• Dimensions are 1.8m x 1.2m x 30mm thick.
• Weight 53kg each.
• Deep Compression profile underneath to provide comfort when standing or lying down and stability/grip when walking.
• Pebble pattern surface for grip but allowing easy cleaning by sweeping, hosing, power washing etc
• Tightly Interlocking to minimize the amount of fluid that can pass through the joins
• 4 countersunk areas in the corners for placement of concrete fasteners or bolts that allows the bolts head to sit lower than the mat top surface – important for lameness prevention. These are not normally needed or used in equine applications
• 50:50 recycled and new rubber. – Sustainability and Durability
• Hot poured into a mold/press that results in an even homogenous texture to the rubber throughout the mat – no granules or shreds of rubber to crumble off
• UV stabilizing compound added to the hot rubber mix to enhance the mats lifetime outside in the New Zealand environment. This is incorporated though the entire mat and is not just a surface coating
• Full thickness edges and corners of the mats to reinforce the edges of the mat and prevent the corners and edges from curling and lifting up. This can only be done with a molded mat as the laser cut mats cannot achieve this edge reinforcing.
Available for immediate delivery nationwide. Order directly through us or via your local Farmlands store.
Surface Preparation for Stables and Yards
The surface immediately underneath the rubber just needs to be compacted and flat to give a good surface to lay the mats on. Surfaces that have been used include:
• Concrete
• Gravel
• Compacted Lime
• Compacted Rock
Bedding
Rubber mats only – mats are comfortable and cushioning enough to use alone, surface will need to be hose or power-washed after using overnight.
• Sawdust – a light layer of sawdust over either the entire surface or part of the surface will encourage the horses to pee in that area. Many male horses do not like splash back when they pee so an absorbent surface like sawdust will help with this. The sawdust will also coat the poo and help stop it sticking to the rubber and will be quicker to muck out.
• Fire Pellets – Kiln dried compressed pine pellets. Usually in 15-20kg bags. Can be easier to source, move and store than bulk sawdust and shavings.
• The rubber matting greatly reduced the amount of bedding used, speeds up mucking out and reduces amount of bedding removed during mucking out.
• We have done no maintenance on our rubber mats other than daily cleaning.
• If any mats were to become damaged, it would be an easy swap out for a new mat without having to replace an entire roll.
Horse Floats and Trucks
We have been done several installations of Comfy Equine Rubber Mats in horse floats and trucks.
• Problem travellers feel more secure as they sink slightly into the mat due to the compression base and do not slip and slide on the top as they do with thinner mats when they get wet.
• Horses travelling long distances, racehorses and sport-horses – reduces road concussion and travel fatigue meaning that horses arrive at their destination in better condition to compete and have faster travel recoveries.
• As the mats are tightly fitted wall -to-wall they are not easily lifted by problem travellers. We have had a TB ourselves that would kick up the traditional thin float mats that we had and throw them under the other horse.
• Additional Weight – each mat weights 53kg and is 2.1M2, this works out to be about 25kg/M2. This additional weight will need to be carefully considered with trucks and the larger floats that may be nearing their weight limits.
• The mats do not need to be glued or fastened down, but can still be remove for deep cleaning and checking of the floor integrity during maintenance checks.
• Can be laid over existing fitted rubber floors that have been glued in. We recommend patching any worn areas with a liquid rubber patch to keep the waterproof seal under the rubber mats. For new installation we recommend sealing the floor to waterproof it first. The mats can be removed if needed for deep cleaning if needed. In most cases the joins will not need to be sealed, but some may elect in horse tracks to run a bead of sealant (eg. Sikaflex) between the wall and the top of the rubber mats behind the horses.
Cutting and Trimming
We find that a builder’s quality jigsaw is the best tool for cutting the mats, it can cut straight and around curves. We also use hole-saws to cut pipe sized holes to fit around poles, make drain holes etc.
Approximate Lifetime of Product
We anticipate the mats having a lifetime greater than 10 years under normal use
• We have designed the product to balance durability and comfort.
• Mats used in high use places may wear faster eg horse walkers.
• The mats are made of an extremely high quality rubber (50:50 new and recycled) which is hot poured into a mold. The cross section when cut is of a solid uniform consistency with no particles to crumble off.
• Bacteria is unable to penetrate beyond the surface of the mat as it is not porous.
• The rubber is UV treated with a UV stabilizing compound added to the liquid rubber before the mat is poured. The factory has guaranteed an additional two years lifetime with this product, but we anticipate that this is a conservative estimate. As the UV stabilizer is mixed throughout the entire mat and is not just a surface coating the entire mat will be protected as the surface gradually wears down.
EXTRA INFORMATION & GALLERIES
GET IN TOUCH
If you would like more information about our products, we would love to hear about your project ideas. Please call Kyllee Henton on 027 6888 677 or email Kyllee and Paul at pkhenton@xtra.co.nz and we will get back to you.
Comfy Equine rubber matting has been laid in our stables located at Kelso, West Otago, New Zealand. We would love you to come and have a look and welcome visitors by appointment.
The Comfy Equine rubber mats have been installed in several stables, horse floats and horse trucks in addition to our own. If you would like to speak to any of our clients about the mats, we can, with their permission provide you with their contact details.
We are sponsors of Event Stars in Cambridge (TB rehoming to sport-horse careers) and have provided rubber matting for their covered yards that are used heavily in a busy yard) We also sponsor the Grassyard Farm’s showjumping team with rubber mats for their horse truck. Noah and Quinn Coutts travel long distances from their Mosgiel base to complete in Showjumping and Show Hunter and use Comfy Equine Rubber Mats to help reduce the concussion and fatigue caused by travel before and after competition.
PS - Cows love our rubber mats too!! Visit our Comfy Cow page for more information on using our rubber mats to improve animal welfare and cow comfort on dairy farms. You can also find more information about our rubber mat flooring solutions on our home page and Agri-Tech Imports Facebook page.