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Horses do not come cheap, nor do their associated costs diminish once the purchase is complete. Just one of the many recurring fees you will face is that of stable boarding and maintenance. And when you consider all the other fees – for farrier work, feed, grooming, tack, training, veterinary help – it may be tempting to look for a more economical option to housing your horse.
That would be a mistake.
Cutting corners can have a serious knock-on effect to your horse’s health and wellbeing, and will most likely lead to further costs down the road. Hence it is not only in your horse’s best interest but in yours as well that an appropriate size stable and secure paddock with good grazing be provided, and that each area should be adequately maintained.
Each horse is different and will come with different environmental and social needs. While one horse might prefer to be housed communally in a barn another might prefer the privacy of a horse box. While a certain size horse box or paddock might suit a pony, it may not be sufficient for a larger horse. Hence you should also factor in each horse’s individual requirements when selecting a space to house your steed.
Most likely you will select a boarding stable, or livery yard, near to where you live, and for this reason alone you may not be spoilt for choice. Nevertheless, there are a few essentials that you should consider when scouting around, and if they are not in present at your current stable then to consider how you can ensure that they are put into practice.
There are basically two types of stables – the traditional style and the barn style – and you will find proponents for each kind. Traditional style stables, in which each stable has a door that opens out directly onto an open yard, has the advantage of providing the horse with a view outside and allowing in both fresh air and natural light. Conversely, the barn style is favoured for allowing horses to see one another and observe activity going on around them.
Types of Horse Stables:
The top image shows the interior of an American barn stable, the benefits of which include horses being able to see one another as well as surrounding activity, while also providing ample cover over the central walkway where rugs, grooming, and mucking equipment can be kept. The downside is that it is impossible to isolate a horse in case of infection, nor can one deal with a single horse without disturbing the rest.
The below image depicts a traditional barn style, which allow for horses to be tended to one by one and does limit the risk of cross infection, but does tend to isolate the horses and means their rugs, grooming, and mucking equipment, along with tack, needs to be stored elsewhere. The upside here is that the horses tend to have a better view of the livery yard, and hence of the activity that is going on nearby.
© Iliyan, Nikoner / courtesy of Shutterstock.com
There are solutions to many of the disadvantages inherent in each of these designs, such as by installing window panels one can provide a view of horses in neighbouring loose boxes in the traditional style whilst providing a view to the outside in the barn style. It would be best if such windows had sliding shutters as opposed to flaps that could snap shut in a strong wind and startle the horse inside.
Some horses are more sociable than others, and so your decision as to which style to go for should be predicated on the social needs of your horse. At the end of the day, horses are herd animals, and so isolating a horse can in the long term cause both behavioural and health problems for that animal. For many horses, even having a view of others is insufficient and in itself can cause stress and frustration, for herd animals desire not only to see but to also smell and touch one another; hence horses should be isolated in a loose box or stall for only limited periods of time.
Regardless of which stable style you decide to house your horse in, the loose box itself should be of an adequate size for your size of horse, giving him space to move around, lie down, hay, and toilet. There should be adequate ventilation, but without cold draughts, and good drainage. Any electrics and electrical fittings should have annual safety checks and not be accessible to any horse. If you are considering housing a herd of horses in a communal barn, that space should be at least twice the size of loose box space required per horse being kept there in order to allow each horse the freedom to maintain their own personal space.
There should be separate stalls for each horse, where they can be tied up in order to be groomed and tacked up. This may be done in the loose box, as well, but under no circumstances should a horse be left tied up for long. Nor should they be stabled for extended periods. Horses need time outside to exercise, to graze, and to socialise. A horse’s natural feeding position is with its head down, and so haynets and racks supplied in a stable are no substitute for grazing in a paddock.
While some advocate stabling horses at night, irrespective of the weather or the level of protection afforded them by their coat, unless a horse has specific dietary requirements that necessitate their separation from the herd, stabling at night is unnecessary so long as the field in which they are kept is safe and secure and can provide adequate shelter from wind and rain. Horses have a polyphasic sleep pattern – they doze for short periods of time as opposed to sleeping for a single, extended duration. And while they are able to enter REM sleep while standing, their preference is to do so lying on their side, preferably with an equine lookout standing over them or whilst in a herd. And when they’re not dozing they are grazing. So it is for purely human convenience that we place them in loose boxes for the night. If you had to ask a horse, he would probably rather stay outside.
Having said that, if you have recently acquired a horse it would be best to maintain the routine that horse has become used to, following similar stabling patterns and gradually adjusting to another routine overtime.
Keeping your horse’s loose box clean is key to keeping your horse healthy. At the very least, droppings should be cleared on a daily basis while a deep clean – including providing fresh bedding – should be performed weekly.
Avoid the ‘deep litter’ system, in which fresh bedding is simply added to existing bedding. A dirty stall will attract insects and promote hoof issues, while breathing in ammonia or fungal spores that may be stored in old bedding can affect your horse’s lungs and can potentially lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Instead, all bedding material should be removed on a weekly basis and be replaced with a fresh supply.
Items Required for Mucking Out:
In order to do a proper job of mucking out your horse’s boarding area, you will need more than a supply of fresh hay and bedding material. You should have:
In addition, you may will need a hosepipe, as well as some water buckets. You should not leave any of these items unattended or in a loose box with a horse, especially a bucket with a handle in which a hoof can become trapped.
© Coxy 58 / courtesy of Shutterstock.com
Mucking out is always easier when your horse is not in the loose box with you at the time, so be sure to turn him out before you get stuck in.
The paddock or pasture is where your horse should spend most of his time, exercising and grazing at his own leisure. It is therefore vital that this space be both safe and secure, with a source of clean water, shelter from bad weather, and sufficient acreage to accommodate the number of horses being placed there. Overstocking can lead to increased stress and aggression, as horses are unable to move away from one another and maintain their personal space. It is generally recommended that there be a maximum of one horse per acre (or 0.4 hectares), with one horse for every 2 acres (or 0.8 hectares) being desirable.
The area should be fenced off. Post and rail fencing is generally preferred, but can be extremely expensive and difficult to maintain. If wire fencing is used, the wire should be taut, narrowly spaced to avoid a horse’s hoof getting trapped, and with markers – such as strips of cloth – tied to it in order to make the wire more visible. Avoid barbed or meshed wire fencing, as these can cause serious damage to a horse.
Gates should have no protruding parts where either a horse or piece of riding equipment could get caught. The best gate systems are those that are able to open both inward and outward of the enclosure, as this makes it easier to access both during turnout and when returning a horse to the stable.
The path up to and past the gate will be a well-travelled one, so it is advised that a hardcore flooring be placed along this area to ensure the path does not become overly muddy, especially over winter months and during rainy patches.
Another area that could afford hardcore flooring is the field shelter where horses are able to escape the elements. As horses may tend to gather there en masse, and probably during periods of inclement weather, it is best that this area also be protected from mud. This field shelter should be large enough to accommodate all the horses present during turnout and should have multiple entrances so that no single horse can block another’s access to the shelter.
For the same reason, there should be more than one water trough available in each paddock, as well as more than one hay bundle for all the horses to share, each placed at a distance from the other to maximize the opportunity for horses to maintain social distance from one another while still having access to these resources.
Medium to long grass – 10 to 20 centimeters, depending on the season – is best for horses, as their stems tend to be more fibrous and not as high in sugars as short grass. Short grass has higher levels of fructans, which can lead to colic and laminitis in horses due to the increasing acidity level of their hand-gut, so short grass grazing needs to be monitored. Sugar content of grasses is higher in the afternoon than in the morning and lowest at night, so early morning and night grazing are in fact preferable. Once grass height drops to 5 centimeters or less, it is time for that pasture to be rested and for the horses to be moved to an adjacent field. Try to ensure the grass in the field to which you relocate the horses is of relatively uniform length. If the length of the grass varies across the pasture, the horses may end up favouring one patch or area, leaving other areas to grow and become permanently unused.
Sturdy trees and an area of dry dirt are beneficial to allow the horses to scratch or rub against and to roll on. These are both healthy and normal behaviours that horses perform in order to relieve an itch, reduce tension, or remove excess hair when shedding.
If there are any stagnant pools of water in the field, such as a pond, these should be fenced off to prevent the horses from drinking there. Horses should only have access if the water is clean and if the basin upon which it rests is comprised of gravel and not sand, as the latter can cause collic when ingested.
The field should drain well, with excess water draining away from both the gate and the shelter area, as well as away from the feeding and drinking spots.
Keeping the paddock or field well maintained and secure is just as important as taking care of the stable area. A horse’s health and safety are put at risk when fence-lines are broken and when potentially poisonous weeds are allowed to grow or droppings are left uncleared.
A check of the fence-line for any loose posts, weakened beams, or slack wire should be performed on a regular basis. At the same time, it would be worth keeping an eye out for any signs of cribbing on the wooden beams, as this is a sign of boredom or stress in a horse.
Droppings should be cleared away regularly. Not only do horses not like to eat near to their dung but droppings may also contain worm eggs, and so by clearing it away you will be lowering the chance of infection. In fact, some owners place their horses in fields with cattle and sheep precisely to reduce this risk, as worms tend to affect only one type of species, and so their larvae die when ingested by another species.
By topping the grass in a field you will help to broaden the horse’s grazing to the entire pasture. An additional benefit is that worm larvae tend to move to the top of grass in order to be ingested, and so by trimming the grass you will also be cutting the risk of infection. As previously noted, though, it is equally important not to shorten the grass too much due to higher levels of fructans being found nearer the base of the grass.
When cleaning and clearing the paddock, keep an eye out for certain weeds and plants that are known to be toxic to horses. These include: Acorns, buttercups, foxglove, privet, ragwort, rhododendron, sycamore, St John’s wort, thistle, and yew. While not poisonous, nettles should be cleared regularly so that they don’t become rampant. Once cut, they can be returned to the field to be eaten, as they are highly nutritious. Plants and grasses that should be welcomed to grow include: Blackberries, cocksfoot, dandelion, fescue, meadow grass, fescue, ryegrass, timothy, watercress, wild chicory, wild garlic, and willow.
All too often we judge an animal’s level of comfort or assumed preference according to our own standards and desires. While such an anthropomorphic attitude may serve animals well, particularly around issues of inadequate welfare, sometimes it is worth considering not only the conditions that is natural to the species but also the environment to which a particular individual has become accustomed.
Horses, for the most part, cope well during winter, so long as they have adequate shelter from the elements. Some people insist on providing their horses with rain sheets and rugs, but this is not always necessary nor necessarily wise. For more information on sheets and rugs, feel free to visit our page on ‘Products & Toys for Horses’.
It is during hot weather that horses suffer the most, becoming prone to heat stress, especially if they remain rugged up or covered with a rain sheet. For this reason, it is just as vital that a horse have access to a shelter, or at least some area of shade, on sunny summer days. When securing such an area for your horse, factor in how the sun arcs through the sky during the course of the day and consider whether that spot will provide adequate cover throughout the sunny period.
Fly Masks & Sheets:
It is entirely reasonable and appropriate that a horse should wear a fly mask, or even an anti-fly sheet – as pictured here – if the horse is particularly sensitive to flies and midges that may otherwise cause irritation and infection. However, it is important that these sheets, while offering adequate protection, are also suitable for the type of weather conditions that your horse will be facing.
© Chelle129 / courtesy of Shutterstock.com
Horses control their body temperature by migrating between warm and cool areas of the field, as well as by sweating when they’re hot or by trapping warm air in their coat when it is cold. The best that you can do is to provide your horse with an outside space that can provide comfort throughout the changing seasons while also giving him options to warm up, cool down, or to take shelter through the course of each day.
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