We’ve talked birch fences for jumps and wheelbarrows so far on the chronicles of building and dreaming up my perfect barn. Todays post regarding “Metropolitan Stables” is all about flooring & footing. I know I said I would try to stay far away from boring stuff build wise, but it’s hard to escape when every little thing is going to be my choice. From top of the barn to the literal flooring, one day I will have my dream barn.

I personally hate the look of mats that pull up and become a tripping hazard for both horse and rider. I can’t walk on flat surfaces as is and adding uneven spots hidden by a mat is just asking for a disaster. Back at Capone’s old barn I struggled with sinking pee spots, corners that weren’t flush with the ground and warping. This made cleaning the stall area to look like it does above way more of a task than it needed to be since some muck took convincing to get moving. For that reason I am cautious of the common mat found in barns pictured above unless I could bolt them down properly and level out the ground beneath them for proper drainage. That being said those mats are some of the most durable mats I’ve seen. They do take a bit of elbow grease to clean, but otherwise are great for stalls. These are fairly simple to maintain and sanitize for breeding hygiene, medical reasons or just deep cleaning as new horses move into a space. Barn friends are a good place to look for some of your own or your local feed store for new ones. They weigh a ton and are quite awkward to hold so beware of that, and know moving/adjusting them is tough so have a mat grabber on hand.

The flooring option I am eyeing most is the rubber paver style that kinda looks like tile. They are smaller pieces and fit in together like puzzle pieces to create a fantastic floor for an aisle or tackroom. After doing some digging I realized it’s what we use at Folger Stables in Wunderlich!! While it would take more elbow grease than any person alive would have to clean and sanitize if an equine virus spread, this flooring option is easy to clean via leaf blower. It looks great, nothing sticks to it or seems to stain it long term. Plus it comes in black or brick as far as I’m aware which are both sophisticated color options. Pictured above is the black floor in use during mucking hour and you can see how wonderful it is. Look at the drainage, and this is the dirtiest part of the day and it still only has surface level dirt. Should anything go wrong, I especially like that I could easily replace a paver if needed.

I won’t get into shavings for stalls, or stuff like that in this post, but we will talk footing.

Pictured above is my main work arena. It is one of the loveliest arenas I have been in, except it needs to be redragged professionally and about 150 pounds of footing needs to be added honestly. We have GGT footing otherwise known as German Geo Textile. Their footing has the same amount of support for the horse that the common ballet floor does for the ballerina making performing each sport easier on the athlete respectively. While getting this style of footing would be an investment I see no better alternative other than common beach sand.

At Golden Gate Park our only footing was the sand from down at Ocean beach. They obviously trucked a whole bunch of it up to the Bercut Equitation Field and it’s up to us to maintain it. Sand doesn’t break down, but it does require constant maintenance with a daily drag. It is a great way to condition horses and people so it is a great form of footing in an arena. It’s easy to clean, manure is easy to pick out of it, and it looks natural which is important for an outdoor environment.

GGT footing was looking for ~$10k for the same amount of footing a $5k sand footing job would be. I would probably stick with the normal beach sand and see about mixing in darker sand to help with light reflection? I don’t have enough experience with black or dark sand when it comes to sun reflection, but I do know the light sand and light GGT footing is unkind when it comes to the summer light. I would take a lifetime of black snot from dark arena dirt over chin and neck sunburns from being baked from the underside up.

Even my favorite riding spot in Los Angeles, the Paddock Riding Club has dark GGT footing to prevent as much sun reflection.

I hope you guys see where I am coming from with the footing & flooring, and if not do drop what you think are better alternatives for a barn build!!