EP3678475B1

EP3678475B1 - Floor mat arrangement for equestrian places

Info

Publication number: EP3678475B1
Application number: EP18746256.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Nándor Szönyi
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2017-09-06
Filing date: 2018-05-22
Publication date: 2021-09-01
Anticipated expiration: 2038-05-22
Also published as: EP3678475A1; DE202017105387U1; HUE056886T2; WO2019048895A1

Description

The invention relates to a floor mat arrangement for equestrian places that comprises a number of interconnected grid (tile) elements and a covering layer preferably made of sand, and the grid elements comprise a plurality of through going openings.
In the German utility model DE 2005 018 780 U1 a floor mat arrangement is described which is made of compacted granulated rubber which constitutes a preferred floor system for equestrian grounds like paddocks, riding and exercise arenas and highly loaded riding surfaces.
Several other mats are also known for riding places which differ more or less from each other and which are more or less permeable for water.
Plastic riding mats have also been used as floor cover for riding places although they are sensitive to high temperatures and have limited mechanical loadability and surface stability. Paddocks, riding paths and areas have highly loaded surfaces and they should not tend to become muddy after a strong rain. For ensuring good water drainage a separate drainage layer should be provided and the ground base should be properly separated from the upper paving layer. For such purposes plastic grid mats or tiles have been widely used as floorings for riding areas which together with the base structure should prevent water to get collected and stay on the paddock or riding area. In practice such materials can be dangerous because the horses can easily slip on such surfaces even when they are dry. For indoor use rubber mats are used as floor cover material because they protect the hoofs and the joints of the horses and even under rainy conditions they provide a stable ground base for riding. Each modern floor mat arrangement has to comply with the above outlined requirements.
It is also known that for different riding sports the ground of the riding arenas should have a predetermined degree of humidity.
The web site http://www.pro-equus.com/produktdetail/ecoraster-rw44-wasserspeichermatte describes a water storing mat called by the commercial name "Ecoraster RW44" which can rapidly leads water away in case of rain which is combined with built in water storage facility in case of dry weather. This provides a solution for the building of riding places of all kinds. This mat has a grid structure and it is built together with integrated water storage cells which provide a predetermined permanent water storage capacity.
The web site http://www.ottosport.de/public/de/produkte/otto-lochmatte describes a different kind of riding mat in which the mat has containers for the storage of a predetermined volume of water.
It is also known that riding sports are exercised in geographically very different locations in which both the average temperature and the average amount of rain are very different. The water stored in the containers in the mats has the task of providing optimum degree of humidity for the covering sand layer. In hot days much more water is required than in colder periods. Fluctuations take place also if there is often too much or too few rain. Therefore the storage space for the reserve water in the mat should not remain always the same and it should be selectable depending on the meteorological conditions of the actual locations.
The task of the present invention is to provide a floor mat arrangement for riding places in which the volume of the water stored in the mat is not a predetermined always constant value and it can be adjusted to the local conditions prevailing at the respective actual locations.
A further task lies in providing a floor mat arrangement for riding places which satisfies the above outlined requirements and additionally it has acceptable low cost.
These tasks are solved by a floor mat arrangement for riding places which is designed as defined by the attached claims.
The invention will now be described in connection with preferred embodiments thereof, in which reference will be made to the accompanying drawings. In the drawing:

Fig. 1: shows a grid element 10 in perspective view;
Fig. 2A: shows a cup 14 in enlarged scale;
Fig. 2B: is similar to Fig. 2A but the cup 14 comprises a filling insert made of an open pored foam material;
Fig. 3: shows a part of the grid element 10 of Fig. 1; and
Fig. 4: shows a part of a riding arena with partially removed cover layer 18.

Fig. 1 shows the perspective view of a quadratic grid element 10 which constitutes the basis of the present invention. Such a grid element 10 is known in itself and it is made e.g. according to the European design RCD No 002459248 and which has been used so far mainly as fall protecting floor for children's playgrounds or for grid cover of lawn areas. The grid element 10 has a quadratic shape and the respective grid elements 10 can be interconnected with upper connecting hooks and fitting lower recesses arranged at their sides, and in such a way areas of any size can be covered by the grid elements 10 without the formation of any gap between them.
The dimensions of the grid element 10 have been determined in such a way that it can securely resist loads which take place in riding places. In a preferred embodiment the length and width of the grid elements is 106 x 99 cm and its thickness is 4.5 cm. The material is preferably granulated rubber bound and compacted by polyurethane which ensures both stability and elasticity.
The element 10 has a honeycomb grid structure with identical hexagonal through going holes 13. The elastic riding grid area is composed of a plurality of mutually fitted grid elements 10 in which the connection between the respective grid elements 10 can get never break.
In Fig. 1 some of the holes are covered by cups 14 fitting therein and the cups 14 are open from the top. Fig. 2 shows a cup 14 in perspective and enlarged view. The cup 14 has a bottom 15 and six sides 16 which together determine its storage volume. On the outer sides of the cups 14 there are few hook-like bulges 17 which have inclined outer surfaces that fix the position of the cups 14 in the surrounding hexagonal holes 13.
Fig. 3 shows an enlarged detail of the grid element 10 so that a few cups 14 are inserted in the holes 13. The height of the cups 14 is preferably lower than the thickness of the grid element 10, whereby the so formed water storage volume is larger than the volume of the associated cup 14. The grid element 10 can be designed also in other ways as described so far. The holes 13 and the cups 14 placed therein can take circular, quadratic or other shapes, the essence lies only in that they have to provide a predetermined water storage capacity and also water overflow properties.
In case a floor grid structure according to the invention should be made from the juxtaposition of several grid elements 10, a number of cups 14 have to be inserted in the holes 13 of each element. The required number of the cups 14 to be placed in a grid element 10 depends on the meteorological conditions of the riding place. In case the weather is dry there with much sunshine, a higher water storage capacity should be provided for the grid elements 10. This requires the use of more cups 14. In other environments where the weather is cold and rainy, there will be less need for water storage and a lower number of cups 14 will be required.
The required floor mat arrangement according to the invention should have the design as illustrated in Fig. 4 in which on the top surface of the previously arranged and interconnected grid elements 10 an appropriate cover layer 18 should be placed which comprises mostly sand or a mixture of sand and soil. The thickness of the covering layer 18 depends on the intended use and it is between about 5 cm and 15 cm and preferably between 6 cm and 8 cm.
Before use the riding place should be irrigated and thereby the cups 14 will be filled with water. The excess amount of water will be lead away in the soil through the non-covered holes 10. Sand has low water withholding properties and it would become dry within short if the cups 14 do not store water. Owing to the capillarity of sand the optimum humidity of the ground is ensured through a long period.
In the embodiment as shown in Fig. 2A the cups 14 are empty and during the placement of the cover layer 18 they will be filled with sand. Between the sand grains some space will be left for water but the volume of sand in the cups 14 decreases the actual water volume which is required for keeping the cover layer 18 humid. In Fig. 2B an alternative solution is shown in which in the cups 14 respective inserts 20 are placed which are made of a porous foam material with open pores. Such porous foam materials are used e.g. for the storage of fresh flowers under humid conditions and they are capable of taking even as much water as the 95 % of their volume. The foam stores the water and ensures the wet condition of the flowers inserted therein. In the application at the present invention the use of such inserts 20 keep sand away from the interior of the cups 14 because sand grains cannot penetrate in the tiny pores of the foam material of the insert 20. The insert will however, store water and the surface of the insert 20 remains always wet. The cover layer 18 will thus obtain the required amount of water owing to the contact with the wet upper surface of the insert 20.
The essence of the invention lies in that the number of the cups 14 to be inserted can be chosen according to the weather conditions of the place of use. In this way the optimum degree of humidity for any riding place can be provided.
The present invention is at the same time simple and it is connected with low costs. There will be no need for the placement of a separate water storage layer in the ground and this decreases the costs to a significant degree. For providing the present floor mat arrangement there is no need of manufacturing a special type of grid mat because the grid element 10 is in broad commercial use for other purposes.
The elastic floor mat arrangement provides a stable base for the upper paving layer and it also provides the required grip. The surface preserves optimum humidity. This specially developed surface and the cups 14 inserted in the grid base are ideal both for the most humid and the driest environments in the globe. By the use of the grid rubber surface the conventional solutions and half solutions like plastic, concrete or other surfaces for constituting the inner and outer parts of arenas have all become obsolete. This floor mat arrangement is a solid, weatherproof flexible rubber mat which has increased resistance both when the temperature is low and high. The elastic rubber mats cannot get frost and they keep their elasticity independent from the ambient temperature. The longer the useful period in the life of a horse is, the higher will be its financial value. This floor mat arrangement provides protection for the muscle and bone systems of horses, and it is especially stable, decreases the impacts acting on the hoofs of the horses, provides optimum humidity for the riding place and provides a high degree of riding comfort both for the horses and for equestrians under all circumstances and also ensures good health conditions for the horses.

Claims

Floor mat arrangement for riding places, comprising a plurality of mutually interconnected grid elements (10) and a cover layer (18) positioned on the top of the grid elements (10) in which the grid elements (10) each comprise a plurality of through going holes (13), and the grid elements (10) have a water storage capacity, characterized in that in a number of the openings (13) respective cups (14) are positioned so that the open upper side of the cups (14) face upwards to the cover layer (18), wherein the combined volume of the cups (14) determines said water storage capacity, and the number of the cups (14) is determined in correspondence with the water supply need of the riding place to ensure the required humidity thereof.
The floor mat arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shape of the cups (14) corresponds to that of the openings (13) and being fitted therein.
The floor mat arrangement as claimed in claim 2, wherein at the outer surface of the cups (14) a plurality of outwardly extending bulges (17) is arranged for stabilizing the position of the associated cups (14) in their openings (13).
The floor mat arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the height of the cups (13) is smaller than the thickness of the grid elements (10).
The floor mat arrangement as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the shape of the cups (14) and the associated openings (13) is hexagonal, quadratic or circular.
The floor mat arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein depending on the weather conditions of the riding place in 20% to 80% of the openings (13) respective cups (14) are inserted.
The floor mat arrangement as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6, wherein respective inserts (20) are arranged in the interior of the cups (14) made of a porous foam material having open pores that have a high water storage capacity.
The floor mat arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover layer (18) comprises sand.