New equine flooring being tested at Oklahoma State

Stillwater, Okla.

-- The Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary Health Science's Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital has partnered with a sports flooring company to develop a new flooring type for horses.

Dynamic Sports Construction Inc, a sports flooring company from Texas, developed a prototype floor for the hospital's surgery recovery room and one test barn stall. The prototype was installed at no cost to the university, according to Oklahoma State.

Installation took four to five days and is poured in one section.

"The base material has the consistency of pancake batter," says Dr. Mark Neer, director of the teaching hospital. "The more you pour in, the thicker and 'more cushiony' the floor will be. They poured some in, let it dry and cure, and then poured some more in. Then a very tough polyurethane top coat, about one-quarter-inch thick, is applied. In addition, the texture of the surface can be customized to meet the needs of the room or stall."

The university has been searching for the most ideal flooring type for its large animal clinic, trying to find one that has give, but also is durable and easy to sanitize. The school now will test the flooring to see how well it withstands the weight of horses. If all goes well, Neer says the school hopes to refinish all the concrete floors in the equine hospital and the food animal section of Oklahoma State's Large Animal Clinic.