How to build a horse stall

An important role in maintaining horses is the arrangement of a comfortable stall. It also promotes the training of nervous animals in discipline and order. The horse box should be spacious enough to feel comfortable.

Building a horse stall

Before proceeding with the construction, it is recommended that you carefully study the features of the room and the requirements for it. Important choose the right materials and construction method (scheme).

Types of horse stalls

Before to build a horse stall, you need to decide what type of buildings will be appropriate in a particular farm. There are several types of stalls, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages:

1. Stationary stalls are the most common. animals in a stable. Partitions are made of brick, wood or metal. The front wall of the stall is also the door.
2. Mobile stalls are used to keep the horse in competitions away from home. Their plus is that they are quickly mounted and quickly removed if necessary. The walls are most often made of plastic or lightweight metal structures.
3. Transformer boxes are distinguished from others in their special structure.The walls have a hinged device in order to facilitate cleaning in the stable or to combine 2 or more stalls into one. For this, the walls are simply pushed back. There are also telescopic partitions. With their help, you can increase the area of ​​the stall if necessary.

Requirements for the stall for horses

The stall is a place for keeping horses loose for fencing them from adverse weather conditions, external irritants, as well as for the correction of acquired behavioral reflexes.

The first and main requirement for the room is heat, dryness and the absence of drafts. This is especially true for valuable producers, mares with cubs and young animals in training.

В the room should be warm, dry and without drafts

When building a stall it is important to remember:

1. When choosing a place to build, you should take care of groundwater. If they are close to the ground, then the stall will be damp even in the hottest summers. To avoid this, the stables are built on a hill or arrange artificial drainage to drain groundwater.
2. The standard of horse pens is 3 x 3 m, or 9 m², but most often this is not enough, especially if the animal is large or about a female with a foal. The stiffness of the movements provokes the horse to beating with his hoof, throwing and tipping over the feeders.An ideal room is at least 4 x 4 m in size. There, the horse can lie down or turn around unhindered.
3. The ceilings should be as high as possible: this contributes to good ventilation of the room and free air circulation in it. The height should be at least 3 m. This height eliminates the injuries of the horse if it stands on its hind legs from fright. In addition, the wiring and lighting will be at a sufficient height so that curious animals do not reach it.
4. Care must be taken to insulate the stables, especially in regions with very cold winters. To do this, use building insulation or double walls. The outer wall is made of brick, concrete or wooden timber, and the inner wall is made of planks. The distance between them is at least 15 cm. This gap is filled with sand or expanded clay. If there is no way to warm the room, it will be necessary to arrange additional steam or electric heating.

Walls

Most often, one or even 2 walls are common with the stable. The rest are made in the form of partitions to restrict horses access to other animals and household equipment.

The best option would be to install lightweight structures for dismantling. This is useful if you need to repair or replace individual parts, as well as when cleaning and disinfecting the stable. The problem is that animals often bite and break partitions with hooves.For this reason, many make the side walls of the stall from brick in one layer.

Horses are herd animals, and they need contact with their relatives. In order not to limit horses in communication, the walls of the stall are not blind: they install lattice walls at a height of 140-160 cm above the floor.

Horses need contact with relatives

In combination with the front wall, it is also the door and the place for fastening the feeder, nursery and drinking bowl. If the dimensions of the stall do not allow them to be placed on another wall, so that it is convenient to give food and pour fresh water, horses from boredom can pour water and turn the food out.

The front wall or door is made of wood or grates, and their combinations. In the stables, where visitors are often, stalls are equipped with a high lattice frontal partition so that the horse could not reach the person and bite him. Private courtyards can be equipped with a more open type of front wall.

Metal structures must be specially coated to prevent corrosion. It is important that this spraying is not toxic to animals.

Floors

The floors in the stable are tilted so that the slurry flows easily into the gutters intended for this purpose. But about the choice of material for the floor you need to seriously think.It is usually made of such materials:

1. In the old days, the stables were made of clay. This coating was very warm and did not slip from the slurry. Due to its water-repellent properties, clay did not absorb horse urine and feces. The adobe floor was easy to clean, but clay had to be replaced after a while. Now arranging such a floor is very problematic if there is no clay quarry at your side.
2. Floors can also be covered with wooden boards, but this is the least practical way. The tree absorbs moisture and swells from this. Constant contact with slurry leads to rapid decay of the coating. A wooden floor can cause injuries to animals in the stable due to hooves gliding heavily over it.
3. The best option, both economically and in practical terms, is a concrete floor. It is durable and excellent in disinfection. It is not typical for concrete to absorb moisture, it also protects the stable from the penetration of mice and rats. Its only drawback is that the floors become very cold in the winter, so you should prepare straw for bedding during the cold season.
4. In private stables in recent years, specialized floor coverings in the form of rubberized rugs have often been used. They are solid or multicomponent, which are assembled like a puzzle. They are laid on a soft base: sand or sawdust.Thanks to this coating, the stalls are easy to clean, and the mats themselves are washed and disinfected. Some even include special antifungal spraying. A significant drawback of the rubberized flooring is its high cost.

Equipping the stall

Feeders and drinking bowls are located at a height of 60-70 cm above the ground, in order to so that it was convenient for animals to eat and drink. They must be made of non-toxic materials and meet the following requirements:

1. Have rounded edges to avoid injuries and cuts.
2. Have a smooth surface without cracks, so that food does not clog there, causing thereby the formation of mold.
3. The depth of the feeders should be at least 25-30 cm so that the food does not spill out from there with food.

The feeders should be made of non-toxic materials

Wooden feeders are rarely used because of their impracticality nosy, since horses quickly gnaw them, and disinfection causes a lot of inconvenience. For the manufacture of feeders, durable plastic, burnt clay or galvanized containers are used.

Since the main component of the horse’s diet is a village or fresh grass, the feeder plays a secondary role in feeding animals.Those farmers who spread hay directly on the stall floor are faced with a large overspending of feed: the horses simply trample it. This is why making nurseries is a great solution to this problem. A wooden or metal grate is mounted on the stall door, for which hay or straw is laid.

Conclusion

The main thing in building a horse stall is that the animal must be in it convenient and comfortable. You need to protect horses from drafts and dampness, especially for mares, foals, young animals in training and valuable breeding producers.

Sometimes very tight stalls with low ceilings are built, in which the horse cannot turn around or lie down fully. The use of such premises is appropriate for disciplinary punishments her, but not suitable for the permanent maintenance of animals.