How to clean a stall

Why should someone need to be shown how to clean a stall? It's not rocket surgery. Well, I have seen some people attempt it without an ounce of clue. 

I guess I should tell you a bit about my stall cleaning credentials. In my past I have been a racehorse/show horse/assistant trainer/foreman/groom/staff/barn manager/riding instructor/and all-a-round peon. I've also trained a few of my own horses. 50 years of mucking. Over the course of this blog you'll hear all about it.

So. First. If you are lucky enough to have stall mats or some kind of floor, you are ahead of the game. Dirt floors are the worst. Clay slightly better. Wood will last a while but eventually it's gonna rot. You can slow the rot with lime and a cellar so the pee will drain between the boards. If you MUST have cement I suggest getting some kind of stall mat and bed really, really deeply until you can jack hammer it out. I've seen horses end up with capped hocks from not enough bedding. 

Hopefully, your horses know that stalls are only for eating, getting out of the rain and, of course, pooping and like mine, can come and go in and out at will. When we built our little barn after we dug down a bit we did a layer of pea gravel, sand and then mats over all of that. I was told not to use the gravel, use crushed stone instead, but the pea gravel was available, not as expensive and we had no budget to speak of. In almost 5 years we've had no problems. Just slight indents in front of the feed buckets. Knock on wood.

Two of the mats I got for free. My friend (who also gave me one of the horses I have now) moved and had her house back here for sale. In exchange for cleaning her house and keeping it tidy for the real estate agent she gave me her mats. I love the barter system! I paid around $250 for a third mat. I love 'em and they are worth every cent. They have paid for themselves in time and shavings.

OK. Now we start. The first thing I do is pick up the piles. Use a manure fork. For newbies or helpful husbands, there is a fork made just for manure. It's not a pitchfork, which has tines further apart and would allow the manure to fall right through. That's used for straw. It's not a shovel which will take shavings along with the poop and when you can pay almost $7 a bag they ain't to be wasted! They even have a mini horse fork now with the tines close together for mini poop. When I was a kid I used to help an old timer who used straw. He would spread the wet stuff out in the sun and let it dry and reuse it. A guy after my own heart. Thrifty. We used it at the track too when I first started. Then the mushroom growers, who would take it from the track, decided they wanted shavings.....but, I digress.....back to the stalls. 

You will also need a wheelbarrow. Buy a good one. Chances are, unless you have plenty of storage or a center aisle barn where it can stay without being in the way it will stay outside in the weather near the barn. There's nothing more frustrating than having the handles break while you have a full load. 

Pick up the piles that are still together first. If your horses stay in for part of the day you will have quite a few. Some horses will poop 10-12 times a day. It's one of their favorite activities. After you have the piles picked up you can start "flinging and rolling". Take a fork full of shavings and throw it at the wall. The balls of manure that you missed will roll down the slant you create (kinda like an avalanche) and you can pick them up without taking too much shavings. After some time flinging and rolling you will get to the bottom of the stall and find the wet spot. If you have good drainage all you have to do is remove the wet shavings and let the spot dry. Since you have already banked most of the shavings against the wall it should be open to the air. Some people sprinkle lime at this point.

If you can only do stalls once a day you would have to comb some shavings back down and make a bed. The best thing is to come back at night feeding and make the bed then. The wet places should have had time to dry and any more poop piles the horses have left are easily picked up. When you comb down the sides to make the bed leave some banked (kinda like a bowl) to help prevent the horse from becoming "cast" in his stall. This is when they roll and get their legs too close to the wall and basically get stuck. The horse will panic and struggle. This is very scary and thankfully doesn't happen often. 

There's all sorts of bedding out there and you will find one that you like. I prefer flake shavings. They fluff up nicely. Saw dust can be just that. Dusty. The new pellets, I have to admit, I haven't used but I would imagine it would be expensive to use enough to bank the side.

Being basically lazy and having a real job I find it's easier and more time saving to "run the stalls" whenever I'm at the barn and because my horses are out pretty much 24/7 I pickup near the barn too in order to keep as many flies away as possible. On that note let me add that it's a good idea to keep you manure pile as far away as practical (remember you will have to slog through all kinds of weather so not too far). It's best to pick up the paddock everyday too to limit the horses re-infesting themselves but let's be real. Do the best you can.

Have fun and be sure to compost!