Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Revulcanized Vs Bonded Crumb Horse Stall Mats

When making the investment in rubber flooring for your horse stable, be sure that you are purchasing the best product for the job. At first thought, you may assume that a horse mat is a horse mat and it doesn't matter what one you get, but on closer examination, there are a number of important factors to consider when choosing the best mat for your stalls. Some of these include: revulcanized vs. straight edge vs. interlocking mats?

There are a number of reasons why revulcanized rubber is superior to bonded crumb rubber when it comes to stall flooring. Here are 6 reasons why you should choose revulcanized rubber flooring for most horse flooring applications:

  1. Polyurethane bonded mats can absorb animal fluids while revulcanized mats do not absorb moisture
  2. Animal fluids can cause the polyurethane binder to deteriorate creating wear spots as the crumb flakes away, revulcanized matting does not have this problem
  3. Animal fluids trapped in the bonded crumb mats can cause bacteria and foul odors
  4. Revulcanized rubber flooring is more durable and more resilient than polyurethane bonded rubber flooring
  5. Revulcanized mats will not curl, cold flow or change shape like polyurethane bonded mats can when under the temperatures and pressures of normal use
  6. Revulcanized mats are made by chemically bonding the rubber under extreme pressure and heat to create the most durable and dense mat possible, while polyurethane bonded mats are glued and pressed under moderate pressure.

On the plus side for polyurethane bonded crumb mats, they typically do not have as much of the rubber odor as the revulcanized rubber mats do.

It is important to remember that companies that are selling bonded crumb mats will not advertise them as such. Remember to ask if the mats are revulcanized when getting a price. Some companies will respond to this by saying, "Yes, these are recycled rubber mats", however this is not the same thing. Visually you can tell the difference between the two by the surface. When you look closely at a bonded crumb mat, you can see that it looks like bits of crumb rubber glued together. Revulcanized rubber mats have a smooth, non-porous surface.

When comparing pricing, be sure to consider the product life, the shipping cost (this can be high for these heavy products), and the health of your horse and workers.

When making the investment in stall flooring, be sure to choose a product that will give you years of life with no headaches. We stand behind our quality matting products with a solid warranty. Join the many happy customers that have made Treadall their choice for heavy duty rubber mats.

Treadall offer sells both revulcanized rubber mats and polyurethane bonded rubber mats among other specialty flooring products across North America. Our full range of products include: horse stall mats, rubber horse arena footing, foaling stall mats, breeding mats, button top and perforated wash stall mats, arena dust control solutions and more.


Friday, September 17, 2010

Vision - Animals Vs Humans

As the "superior" living creature on earth, human beings take their amazing and miraculous five senses for granted and also often forget to stop and think about the animals who share their world and how each animal's senses work and affect his life and ours. Overall, animals see, smell, taste, feel and ear in accordance with what they need in order to best survive. For human beings, the same rule applies, except, that we have the incredible ability to be able to sometimes repair or compensate for the damage done to or deterioration of one or more of these senses. Sight is a great example of this. In essence, we use it to keep us out of harm's way, just as animals do; except that their harsh living conditions ensure that they have different visual needs to those of ours.

For decades we have been taught that dogs and cats are colorblind. Recent research has destroyed these myths and explained that dogs and cats cannot see certain colors; yet they see others perfectly. However, in contrast to humans, dogs and cats have excellent peripheral vision and superb night vision.

When it comes to goats, their square pupils are the focus of most attention, with people not realizing that this is not the most impressive point regarding their vision. In fact, the most impressive is that they can see at a 330 degree angle in comparison to humans who can only see at around a 185 degree angle.

Moving to the wild, horses, zebras and other such mammals have eyes which actually point sideways so that they can see peripherally. This gives them a far better chance to escape from predators; yet also gives them the disadvantage of a blind-spot directly in front of their noses. They also mostly see the world in shades of grey. In contrast to humans who see two images as one merged vision, these animals always see two separate images.

Bees and insects are really interesting where sight is involved. They see the world as a sort of mosaic owing to eyes which are made up of anything from ten to 30,000 tiny lenses, each one giving a different image to the overall picture that they see. When it comes to what colors they can see, this differs according to each insect. For example, butterflies can apparently see more colors than humans can; while bees cannot see the color red and mostly only see yellow, green and blue. The interesting thing about bees is that they are able to see ultraviolet light - a level of sight to which humans cannot even desire to reach.

Birds can also see this ultraviolet light, as well as many more colors than humans. Researchers also say that birds see color far more vividly than humans do. In the case of birds of prey, their binocular vision is excellent, and so they can spot prey from thousands of feet away.

Snakes have long been thought to have no or very low vision and operate according to smell. This is incorrect. In general they see worst before they shed their skin and best just after but snakes also have two sets of eyes - one for day use and one for night use and they use both. The difference is that snakes see things according to movement and so will often not notice, or pay attention to a motionless object. On the other hand, they have the ability to pick up infrared heat signals from warm objects.

The list is endless with each animal having its own special visual ability. At the end of the day, however, the comparison of animals to humans ends at the point of visual loss. When a wild animal loses its ability to see, the rules of the wild usually hint at near death by a more superior animal. There is no room for weakness in the wild. Human beings however, have developed methods for improving weak sight and treating damaged eyes.


Thursday, September 2, 2010

Feathers for Bird Nests - Fun With Swallows

Watching swallows grab feathers out of the air provides hours of off-line entertainment.

By providing the right kind of feathers in the right way, you can easily attract swallows. Every spring, swallows search for the best soft materials to improve the comfort and warmth of their nests. Soft and downy feathers, a finger-length long are the perfect size and swallows get excited when they find a good source.

Air-born feathers are best although swallows will sometimes land to pick up a feather. But they usually grab feathers off the ground while flying since these birds are not efficient hoppers or walkers. If you scatter feathers on the ground for the birds, just make sure that the area is even, free from obstructions, and has plenty of space for the birds to make their approach and exit flights Swallows are very cautious when they pick feathers off the ground in flight. Several practice approaches serve to help the bird to know if a feather grab is safe. This makes sense as they are zooming down beak-first at 20 miles an hour to pick up a feather. They are safer grabbing feathers in the air.

Here is the most fun part: launch feathers into the air from a ten-foot, small-diameter plastic pipe. Place a feather at one end and blow it into the air from the other end like a dart gun. After a few days, the swallows catch on that airborne feathers are being offered when they see the pipe raised. Time your launches so the wind is right and the swallows are nearby. With the correct wind, launching feathers by hand works, but usually the plumes drift quickly and disappointingly to the ground.

The swallow's mouths make a small snap sound when closing or attempting to close on a feather.

The amazing aerialists must learn that the best way to fly with a big feather is to carry it curved under the body, shaft-first. So feathers are often dropped mid-air to change to the best position. When this happens the feather may get seized by another swallow and a chase is on.

Barnyard fowl are a good source of feathers. If you know a farm with chickens, geese, or turkeys, have them save the feathers. Then take care of the feathers. Barnyard birds may have parasites like mites. Place future swallow nest feathers in a freezer for 48 hours, remove for a couple of days and freeze again. This kills adult parasites the first freeze, lets any remaining eggs hatch when the feathers are out of the freezer, and kills them during the second freeze.