Change has been constant in the equine industry during the past couple of decades, ranging from sophisticated health care and treatment to improved living quarters for horses in our care, custody, and control.
When the horse was the prime
You know that burning sensation that fills your nostrils as you’re mucking out stalls? The fiery feeling spreads from your nose into your sinuses, down your throat, and billows through your lungs. It makes your eyes sting and water. Imagine living
Stabling, pasturing, bedding, and other aspects of a horse’s living environment have major implications on the potential for health problems.
In this time of enlightened horse management, it is staggering that the myths and folklore surrounding stable “vices” still refuse to die, and therefore the repetitive behaviors themselves continue to thrive. Even the term “vice” implies the
When I was a teenager, I took a tour of the Royal Mews in London, England. I had imagined a staggeringly opulent setting for Queen Elizabeth’s horses, and I wasn’t disappointed–the carriage house alone was worth the price of admission, and the
Kick, chomp, scrape, cough–horses challenge the strength and livability of the shelter you provide. A barn can conveniently enclose one or more horses, but you can’t forget that they wouldn’t choose to live indoors.
To house horses safely,
The official title for an all-too-common respiratory ailment in horses is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For the average horse owner, however, that rather cumbersome title has been reduced to a single word: heaves. Other people
In the back of your mind somewhere there lurks a Dream Barn. Go on, admit it. You’ve planned it down to the last luxurious detail–from the Olympic-sized riding arena (with the climate-impervious perfect footing) right down to the automatic fly
Whether you’re building new stalls or retrofitting existing ones, there’s a variety of floor surfaces to choose from.
Where would we be without rubber? Make all the jokes you want; rubber’s indispensable stuff, especially in the barn. The tire on your wheelbarrow, the handle grip on your longe whip, your two-year-old’s first snaffle bit, that flexible curry
Permeable stall floor coverings function differently than rubber stall mats, whose main purpose is to provide cushioning for your horse’s legs. Rubber is basically waterproof, so urine and other liquids pool on top of such a surface, to be soaked up
You give a lot of thought to your horse’s health and happiness. You groom him until he gleams, swaddle him in boots and blankets, carefully monitor his diet, and expend considerable effort and expense making sure he’s comfortabl
When you walk down the center aisle of your barn, does the ceiling drip condensation on your head? Does the smell of ammonia make your nostrils twitch and your eyes water–even when the stalls are freshly cleaned? Worst of all, was that a hollow
That stall is very likely the place where your horse is going to spend the bulk of his existence as a domestic animal. Even if he is turned out every day, and exercised regularly, up to 16 hours of his daily life could be whiled away in that familiar
If you board at a big, commercial show barn, you probably have access to a wash rack. Ditto if your horse boards at a racing barn. What a convenience wash racks are. Instead of spending hours brushing off dirt, muck, and sweat, or hosing off you
So when we consider the construction of stalls, we shouldn’t underestimate how important it is to provide a comfortable, welcoming, and most importantly, safe, environment in which our horses can live.
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