The Easiest Way to Cut Horse Stall Mats or Exercise Mats

We have a lame horse that's been assigned to a stay in a stable until it heals. Whoever build our barn put nice, slick concrete floors in it, which means we have to put something in there to cushion the horse's feet and keep it from sliding around because I've found that horses sliding around on slick concrete is not a good thing.

So, we were forced to go out and buy a bunch of rubber stall mats. These are about an inch thick, heavy and awkward, and not exactly the right size to fit the stall. I had to cut a strip off two mats to get them to fit exactly, one long ways, and one across the width of the mat.

Of course, being a YouTube person, I watched a couple of videos of guys telling you the best way to do this. One guy used a jigsaw, the other guy tried several types of saws, also an electric kitchen knife, and I could tell they had all struggled getting the mats cut.

I knew cutting these mats would be difficult before I started. These things are made out of recycled tires, and while I've never tried to cut a tire, I've known people who have and I knew it wasn't easy. Rubber is pretty dense, but I figured a new blade, with a lot of teeth, in a Skil saw, would slice right through it. I was wrong.

My wife was videoing me struggling, with the saw hot and the blade dull, and she said "why not try a carpet knife?" That was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard, there's no way a carpet knife is going to cut better than a Skil saw. But, she told me she had read on the Internet that those type of knives would cut right through rubber, in fact there are people that install horse stall mats for a living and that's what they use.

One thing I've found after nearly thirty years of marriage. Carmen researches everything extremely well, and, she's usually right. So, after taking a break to collect my thoughts, I went inside and fetched a utility knife (the kind with the razor blade that can be retracted when not in use) and cut right through the mats. I'm now eating crow.

If you're trying to cut stall mats, or exercise mats, that's the way to go. I used a straight two-by-four as a guide, made the first cut as kind of a guide, then just kept cutting, getting a little deeper each time, and after five or six passes (maybe ten, I wasn't counting), I had the mats trimmed and everything was good.

There are two takeaways for me. Utility knives cut rubber better than power tools, and always listen to your wife. Its a tough pill to swallow sometimes.

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