# Stupid Question



## hannah3marlette (Jan 8, 2013)

So I know I'm going to sound like an idiot for asking this, but how often do you clean your horses stall? And is it like spot cleaning or like in depth?

I've always had my horses on my property and never dealt with stalls so I have no idea where to start and since my mare is being moved to a barn this weekend I figured I'd ask here.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

Box stall - clean daily.
Corral - depending on size - small = daily , large - every other day or at minimum once a week.


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## TessaMay (Jul 26, 2013)

I agree with the above. If she's locked in a box stall, even just over night clean at least once a day. Some horses you can kind of spot clean, others you have to strip the stall daily - it really depends on the horse. Some will go in a back corner and make your life easy, some will go all over the stall then pace to mix it all together. 

For paddocks and dry lots, it's usually best to clean once a day unless it is very large. The more you clean the quicker it goes and the better the living environment for the horse.


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## EncinitasM (Oct 5, 2014)

We clean stalls and corrals at least once a day. If I happen to have rake and wheelbarrow with me and I notice some fresh poop it gets mucked even if I've done that corral already.

We have one horse who has to poop all over his mats. His corral gets mucked at breakfast and dinner because we don't want him eating his poop.


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## Larissa (Jan 25, 2014)

My mare is on stall rest. I clean her stall twice a day. Once in the AM and once in the PM. She is pretty clean in her stall. Look at it this way, the longer you leave it and the nastier it gets the more bedding you will throw out. And the more bedding you will be buying.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

If the horse is going to be stalled, it should be cleaned at least once a day, and completely stripped and rebedded once a week.

I don't pick my paddocks or pastures, I harrow. I have too much land to go around picking up manure off 5 acres of land. :wink:


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## Larissa (Jan 25, 2014)

If you keep your stall dry and clean enough you won't find yourself rebedding/stripping too often. I add bedding once a week. But only have to strip once every 3-4 weeks I would say. But if I slack on stall cleaning one day, I can kiss that all goodbye LOL


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## Sharpie (May 24, 2009)

My boy poops and pees in the middle and then mixes it into a huge mess, so when stalled, the center of his has to be stripped out daily. I also pick any manure or wet spots in the evening/when I see them. He will happily lay in filth, so the cleaner I keep the stall, the cleaner my horse is. When he had a stall with a run-in, he would poop outside and pee inside, so everything still had to be done at least daily.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

I clean at least one time a day thoroughly....then will remove any soiled bedding or poop as I see it too.
I also try really hard to clean my paddock every day.
The less fresh poop around the less fly problem and that means more comfortable living conditions for my horse{s} and less fly spray applied saving me money.

When done every day, even if only once a day thoroughly cleaning a stall takes only a few minutes of time. Even piggy horses once you have a routine take little time to do it right and leave a clean place for the horse to rest in.
Same is true of paddocks...a few minutes and you're done.
Usually takes me more time to get wheelbarrow and muck fork out than doing the actual job...
*
Welcome to horse ownership 101*.... 
_No question is ever *not* warranted. _
If you don't know, *ask* and someone will gladly try to help you figure it out.

The only question that makes you "dumb, stupid or a idiot" is the one left unasked and a answer unknown to you..._
So ask away!! :wink:_


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## ducky123 (May 27, 2014)

I clean less often than I should....


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## brimichelleh (May 28, 2015)

Once a day "spot" cleaning, once a week deep clean (take all the shavings out, clean, spread new shavings.)


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

As you probably figured out from the responses, you have to remove any soiled bedding at least once a day, and there is some variation since horses have different ways of soiling their stalls. I've been going to a lot of barns over the last few years and have mucked out quite a few stalls. One system that made sense to me was to remove the soiled bedding using a manure fork, then push the older but fairly clean bedding out to the edges and scatter a bit of urine absorbent like this one (Stall Deodorizer & Disinfectant | Dover Saddlery) whereaver there is pee, then throw a bit of fresh bedding on top of it. If there's a lot of urine, I like to scatter a bit of the urine absorbent, scoop it up, then put some fresh stuff down again. I found this really effective on top of rubber mats, but I'm sure it would help anywhere. 

Of course some horses will just poop in a nice little pile in the corner while others will do it all over, pee everywhere, and then spend all their stall time grinding it down and spreading it around. I heard this was more common in mares (esp. when they are in heat) but cannot confirm the rumor.


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## DarlaPony96 (Jan 5, 2015)

I clean my stalls and corrals every morning. If my horse is locked in his stall all day or in the corral all day, I clean morning and evening. I hate missing even one day, or else I'm bombarded with manure!
You can never have stall that's to clean!


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Our horses have free access to lean-tos, no bedding in them. Hubby will throw any manure piles against the wall in the am to keep them from walking through it and then in the evening I clean that up plus any new deposits. We put down a fresh layer of ag-lime, lime screenings, lime stone dust (it goes by many names lol) whenever needed. This is usually a couple of times during the summer months because that's about the only time of the year they really hang out in the barn.


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

When my horse was stalled most of the day (20+ hours), the barn cleaned it once a day and I would clean it a second time when I visited in the evening most days. I started doing that because the stall cleaners were taking out the manure, but I'm not convinced they really even tried getting out the pee-soiled bedding. My horse is generally pretty neat and peed in the same spot, pooped along the back wall, and slept just inside the door, so I had a pretty good routine down: pick out the manure and scrape up the pee spot, then sprinkle Sweet PDZ on the pee spot, move the left over bedding from the manure area up to the pee area, the clean 'used' bedding from his sleeping spot to the manure spot, and then dump new clean bedding just inside the door. There were some horses at that barn who were absolute pigs and needed their stalls completely stripped each day (and honestly could have really used a twice daily cleaning!)

The next place I moved my horse to cleaned once daily when the horses were turned out (usually 8-10 hours of turnout), and cleaned twice daily when they had be kept in for any reason.

Now he's out 24/7 (weather permitting). When he's in, the barn cleans once daily, but he has a small covered 'run' (it's only about 6 x 12) and he's surprisingly good about going out there to do his business, so once a day is usually sufficient even if he's spending more time in.


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## blue eyed pony (Jun 20, 2011)

When I was mucking stalls we would spot clean, turn everything, spot clean again (all poop and all soiled bedding - the peed on bedding would turn black so it was easy to identify), strip as needed, and then top up. We did this daily.

There were horses that were super clean, less than a wheelbarrow of muck and less than a wheelbarrow of top-up bedding. And then there was Emily - _the filthiest mare I have ever had the displeasure of meeting_ - who was on box rest due to a laminitic episode. Her entire stall needed to be stripped down bare, washed, and re-bedded twice a day.


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