The ABC's of Barn and Trailer Flooring
Summit Stall Mats

Always get a fully revulcanized mat.

At first glance, choosing a stall mat looks easy. They all look alike to the average person - black, rubber, heavy. It is true that nearly all stall mats start out as old car, truck or bus tires. That’s good. Summit has sold over 1 million stall mats and in the process has saved more than 20 million tires from going to the dump or otherwise polluting our earth.

Summit is extremely careful, however, to select only traded-in tires or tires that never passed inspection at the tire plant. We also use the scrap from tire and tube manufacturing and gasket makers, rubber that’s never been on the pavement. We don’t use tires that have lain in scrap heaps for years or that have been contaminated with other waste.

Summit’s mats are designed and made especially for stalls. Some sellers of stall mats are really conveyor belt manufacturers who sell their belting as stall mats. Some others will sell you mats made for roof walkways or sound-deadening panels. They figure a horse is just a horse. Not us.

We’re horse people - just like you. Sure, stall mats cut mucking time in half and pay for themselves in bedding and labor savings. But we want your horse on the safest, most comfortable, and most durable mat possible, not on just a piece of rubber.

The majority of mats sold today, such as those you typically find in a farm or discount store, are not revulcanized mats. They are “bound” mats, meaning they are shreds or crumbs of tires that are cooked with urethane, a flammable and toxic glue. Oh, it’s great glue to be sure, but glue it is. The glue is all that holds the rubber together, and when the glue breaks, and break it will, the rubber and the mat can fall apart.

We think of making mats like you’d make a cake. The batter, when mixed, forms a homogeneous product. The flour doesn’t just stick to the other ingredients. All the ingredients combine, and when baked, make a cake that is perfectly blended and textured.

Most mat makers use urethane because they do not have presses strong enough or hot enough to vulcanize. Revulcanization takes the same tire shreds and crumb rubber, blends them with some important additives, and recooks them into one solid block forming the strongest possible mat. Mats made in a “bound” process flake and wear out far more quickly.

It’s easy to test a mat to see if it’s “bound.” Take a key or a putty knife (sometimes your fingernail will do) and scrape the edge of the mat. If some rubber flakes off, chances are it’s a urethane bound mat. If you can get it to flake, just think what your horse will do to it!

All Summit rubber stall mats are 100% fully revulcanized for lasting durability. We guarantee it!

Be sure it has a grooved or footed bottom.

The cheapest design for a mat is to make it flat on both sides. Flat-bottomed mats are great for roof walks and other industrial applications, but they should not be used in large animal facilities. Here’s why: they are prone to curling, particularly if they are urethane-bound mats (through a process called “cold flow”) or if they are like conveyor belts and have a nylon fiber in them (the nylon shrinks and pulls the edges of the mat up). A grooved or footed revulcanized mat flexes and retains its original shape.

Flat-bottomed mats also are poorly designed for animals to be living on them. Once again, here’s why: a grooved or footed bottom enhances rubber’s natural resilience, thereby providing your horse with greater comfort. And as all of you high school biologists know, the additional drainage and aeration that can take place under a grooved or footed bottom mat is important for odor control and added hygiene.

Remember, a grooved, footed or channeled-bottom mat provides more flex and will reduce muscle and skeletal stress, providing considerably more comfort for your horse.

All Summit rubber stall mats have grooved or footed bottoms.
We guarantee it!

This is a good time to talk about how hard or soft a mat should be. A mat that is too soft, feels good, but it won’t last long. It can also cause torsion injuries to pasterns, knees and stifles.

A mat that is too hard, like a conveyor belt, may last 50 years, but it can be dangerously slippery.

Extensive testing has shown that a mat between 60 and 65 durometer (the measure of hardness) is the best for equine use. Ask whomever is trying to sell you mats to pledge that their mat falls within this range. We guarantee it.

Check the warranty.

Check the Warranty and better yet, the company selling you mats. Many folks selling stall mats have not been around as long as the warranties they offer. Summit is rated by Dun & Bradstreet and listed by the Better Business Bureau. We can provide you the names of many happy customers whose mats are still performing well past the expiration of the warranty.

We know that some horses paw or pace the stall, and no mat can stand up to this abuse. In a case like this, tell us up front so we can suggest the best ways to solve this problem. It can be done!


Ask anybody you’re considering for supplying your mats what Universities use their mats. Get it in writing. Here are just some of the world famous Vet Schools that use Summit’s mats:

Ohio State University
New Bolton Center, University of Pennsylvania
University of California, Davis
Cornell University
Louisiana State University
Gluck Research Center, University of Kentucky
Washington State University
University of Georgia
University of Missouri
Auburn University
Michigan State University
Texas A&M University
University of Tennessee
Mississippi State University
University of Minnesota
University of Wisconsin
Iowa State University