Have you ever had trouble with rodent tunnels under your stalls? They have a good base, and I don't see any

If you turn the ground base, you're going to double your work because that will have to settle as well. I would put in your lime dust, much as I know you're going to hate it, the tamper isn't a bad idea.... but barring that, I'd put in the lime dust, water it down a bit, let it settle, then put the mats down. In about 6 months, after you've had the horses in them for a while, pull the mats out and address any problem spots you have. You'd be suprised how much the weight of the mats and horses walking aross them to spread the weight out settles the ground underneath.

When my Mom purchased her current farm, there was a rodent problem in the house, barn, and well pump house!

The former owner had been sent off to a nursing home, and the house was rented out.

The tenants FILLED and I do mean FILLED the barn a 20x40 barn about 5 feet from the bottom of the rafters solid with garbage. I cannot remember how many tons of garbage we had to dispose of. It was gross to say the least.

When we moved the fridge in the kitchen we fount 7 (!!!!!!) dead mice!

The barn and pump house, and the attic of the house were also filled with rats.

Since we had time, before any of our animals arrived, we used a LOT of Decon. Decon works really well to kill the little buggers.

It's better to use Decon if your cats and dogs can be locked up, so they do not find a body of a rodent and eat it, and become poisoned themselves.

Needless to say, Decon needs to be kept away from ANY animal you do not wish to eat it, horses, dogs, goats, ect.

Decon kills by causing loss of Vitamin K, which causes internal bleeding. Very expensive to try and treat a pet that has been poison with Decon.

As for the tunnels, having the Amish boys turn over the soil would be my way of wanting to do it. However my hubby would also want to play with the Big Toys.

I'd still got with the Amish boys. Those tampers, or stampers can REALLY compact the earth. There just will not be any "give" to the earth, once it's done. It will be a lot like your horses are standing on rubber mats that are on concrete, instead of rubber mats that are on earth, which has some give, and is gentler on the legs.

The horses of course will eventually compact the earth to nearly as hard as the tamper/stamper would have, but it's going to take them a few years.

As a side note, those machines are really hard on the body. Your hubby is going to have aching shoulders & back after wrestling with that thing. Also if it gets too close to a stall wall, it could put a gouge in it.

My hubby is 6'3", 225lbs. He works climbing those 300 foot commercial wind turbines for work....he's in great physical shape. Wrestling those stampers and two person post hole augers makes him sore. He got an auger for the tractor last summer, so he wouldn't have to wrestle that anymore.

I'd say if my hubby would try to steer clear of it (and he loves the Big Man Toys) your hubby might want to re-think it. ~lol~

Just my two cents worth.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

I think he wnats to play with the big toys too! lol I would just hight the amish boys to do as you said, turn it over and smooth it out. That way if by some off chance there was ANYTHING that could cause potential harm buried, they would dig it up and be able to discard it. Just tamping it down will pack the ground pretty dang hard BUT stuff will work it's way up through it over time. Turning it over is definately what I would do.

hi, the stamper may the better way to go. we built an addition onto our barn and put crush and run in the stalls then clay, then mats. after about 4 months of having horses in there, the stall floors were very uneven, and we had to pull up the matts and add more clay. i wish we had just tamped it down better. it looked like we did, but it was not enough. hope that helps.

At the boarding mare my mare used to be boarded at we used lime as flooring and had a kinda stomper thing that was used by hand to even it out , then when it settled a lil put the stall mats over it,that should work.

but I am with you on the labor thing,it's hard and tiring work, I would as soon hire some amish boys or some hot cowboys-lol:)

Actually I'd be tempted to do both. Get it all dug out and turned over and limed and then go in with the whacker plate. That way you'll know everything is clean and the whacker will compact it and make a nice level base for your mats as well as making it more difficult for them to dig into again.

yep!

Try mixing about equal parts icing sugar and plaster of paris sift it up good and proper and leave it out for the rats and mice.

I appreciate it's not the nicest of endings but I have'nt worked out one that was.....

Besides I like my dogs and horses a whole lot better than the vermin that fouls their feed and speads disease.

your idea sounds good, but the big toy sounds fine just as well... at least youll have a happy hubby! but yea the lime is good too, hope this helps!

Get a few cats,they will take care of them.Thats how I got them when they were stealing my horses feed and using the hay as a bed.