# Can horses be toilet trained?



## Standardbred (Dec 21, 2011)

Can horses be toilet trained? My 15.2hh 12 yr old standardbred mare goes anywhere and she lives in a HUGE paddock so it takes me forever to muck out. Does anyone know how to toilet train a horse? I would just like her to do her business in the closest corner. How can I teach her to do that?
Thanks for all your help that I know is coming!


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

No. Closest you can get to toilet trained for a horse, is a stallion (or a gelded late in life stallion) that poops in one or two big piles.


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

My mare poops in one big pile (I guess like a stallion! hahaha) but she will poop in other areas. She just prefers her "spot".

She's always been somewhat like that but she used to be a bit more "free" with her poo, then she was pastured with 2 llamas (llamas are funny and they'll only poop in 3 or 4 places in one pasture) and she got a lot more stringent about only pooping in one area. She's not pastured with those llamas anymore but it seems like the habit has been created pretty solidly because she's still using one big pile.

She's also pretty much blind which may have something to do with it, like she's "marking" her favorite hangout or something so she can find it by smell vs solely by sight...

I think pooping in one place or not is probably pretty dependent on the horse


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## Alisha S (Jun 2, 2012)

I wish


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## Lins (Nov 8, 2011)

Life would be much easier if horses decided that they would only poop in one spot! 

My older TB gelding is a poop machine, turd output about 13288 turds per hour! Haha he never stops.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

My boy poops a LOT. Never know when he's going to do it but there's always like 15 piles haha..

So pretty sure it's dependent on the horse.


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## Standardbred (Dec 21, 2011)

I wish my horse would only do 15 a day, aparently most horses do 12-25 a day and my horse does at least 20, usually 25!!!!!!!!!! I have a large wheelbarrow. :lol:


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## Domino13011 (Aug 10, 2009)

Oh man, I wish it was possible!


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

YOu could try spreading some shavings in one area, and trying to get the hrose to pee there sometime. Then, it might like the smell , and the splash freeness of that area, and then maybe would start pooping there.


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## Paintlover1965 (May 22, 2009)

I don't know how you can train your horse to poop in one spot but when I was a teenager my chestnut Arabian/Saddlebred mare used to poop and pee in one corner of her stall and in one area in her paddock. It was the greatest thing for easy clean-up. My dad only had to bring the tractor in and remove all the poop in one foul swoop. It was funny to see her toileting routine as she would just saunter up to her pile, put herself in reverse and make her deposit. Priceless! I couldn't take any credit for this as she just naturally did this from the time we bought her. She was a super clean horse. I miss her deeply.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

*Can horses be toilet trained?*

Takes a real big toilet...

Heck, I'd be happy if I could keep them from pooping in their feed buckets! :evil:


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## tanya (Mar 30, 2011)

Our two mares have one spot they always use, but our little boy goes where ever he wants.


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## JSMidnight (Mar 15, 2012)

It is possible but it takes a lot of time and it might not work in a large paddock because most horses aren't going to want to walk from one end to the other just to poop. 

I know someone who taught all of their horses in the stalls to poop in muck buckets in the back of their stalls. They wont give out their trade secret though.


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## Delfina (Feb 12, 2010)

My BO trained my gelding!

He was a stall PIG! She matted his entire stall and put a pile of shavings in the back left corner only. Within 3 months he was pooping in the corner only, so she filled his stall with shavings. Every single day I find one giant poo pile in the back left corner and a single pee spot along the right wall. 

I have no idea how you would train a horse in a paddock though.... my neat freak of a gelding poops all over his turnout.. only neat in his stall.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

bsms said:


> *Can horses be toilet trained?*
> 
> Takes a real big toilet...
> 
> Heck, I'd be happy if I could keep them from pooping in their feed buckets! :evil:


My gelding would always get his feed bucket. My mares had a toilet spot outside near the barn, a natural edging at a low spot. They have 20 acres fenced and the mares do tend to go for natural edgings be it a wall, fence or line of brush. Outside the gelding let it all hang out wherever. Figured it was just a boy thing.


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## Sunny (Mar 26, 2010)

I work at the barn, and I hate when a horse poops in their bucket!!! Especially if I don't look before I pour feed and then find out, an hour later, that the horse hasn't eaten because there is poop in the bucket. :lol:

We have one who likes to do it in his water bucket. Yuck.

The only horse at the barn who poops in one spot is the mini stallion. He goes in the back left corner only.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## New_image (Oct 27, 2007)

Sure ya can! You'll just have to borrow my mare to do so. 

She backs up against her stall wall to poop but prefers to pee outside as not to ruin her shavings. She taught her colt to do exactly this and between the two of them any horses pastured with them end up doing the same thing within a couple of weeks. She must really hate a messy stall and have it out with anyone who dares ruin her system. (They all come and go from the stall to the pasture)

Once out in the back larger acreage, not in reasonable walking distance to the barn, then they all seem to "be horses" and go when ever, where ever.


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## RunJumpRide (Sep 29, 2011)

Almost all of my horses are 'toilet trained', I guess!
They all do their business on the leeward side of the barn. They are all mares and geldings, too! Weird horses...


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

No. Horses either decide to keep the place clean or not. 

My paint poops in one spot in her stall (next to the back wall) and almost never pees (unless she's been locked for really long and can't hold it anymore). My qh poo and pee all over her stall, so all shavings have to go when we clean it. However in field they have 3 or 4 small areas they choose as "pooping spots" and all poop go there.


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## Fingerlakes (May 2, 2012)

Mine poos in one spot. Makes for easy cleanup!


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## Breella (May 26, 2012)

Thankfully Char messes in just one corner. Hopefully this behavior will rub off on her filly.


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## rookie (May 14, 2012)

Hi, 
I guess I trained my standardbred mare to poop in one corner. When she was a weanling I left a pile in her stall for about a week. I would clean everywhere except that corner. I heard that trick from a woman who trained her arab that way. My mare now poops in that one corner. It is something she does even away from home. As boss mare, she also enforced the bathroom idea with the others while out a pasture in a run in shed. She might just be OCD about cleanliness though.


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## Lakotababii (Nov 28, 2010)

I used to have a TWH gelding that would be turned out in the yard with his stall door opened to the turnout. Whenever he had to do his business, he would saunter back to his stall and go there. I don't think I ever had to clean the yard/pasture because he LOVED doing his business in the stall. Very easy to clean up too!

My gelding now... I swear he tries hard to hit every spot in the pasture so its all evenly a thin layer of crap. *sigh*


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## itachan01 (May 22, 2012)

Yeah my mare does that too! I have two other geldings and both of them poop in the same spot (In separate stalls) and my mare poops everywhere unless I have her in a turnout with the gledings maybe you could get a gelding (like a companion horse) that poops in the same spot and she will start to as well probably as long as he is the dominate one, both of mine are dominate over her lol!


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

My (cremello) gelding is nice and neat in his stall, keeping all the poo in the back, but when I take him to shows he poos everywhere and then sleeps in it. It's like he completely forgets how to stay clean when I want him looking his best, silly horse.


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## cakemom (Jul 4, 2010)

My horses graze 3 acres, poop in one 10 foot square area in that pasture. Sleep on an acre pasture, poop in one spot there. Today they were locked up in their stalls for 3 hours, I opened the gates to their stalls and they came out quietly, then went trotting to the potty room and both stood and peed and pooped then came back over to me like Lady, do they lock YoU out of the bathroom? 
So it's possible, but I didn't do it, they did it themselves.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## SpdDrv (Apr 18, 2012)

I have a 3 month old filly that lost her mother when she was a month old and she will poop in one area of her pen (she in a round pen right now as we are building fence for her pasture) right in the center of her of the pen, that is where all the grass grows and she will not eat it either LOL But she pees every time right in front of where she eats at which is in her stall. She doesn't pee on the end of her stall she lays down in to sleep... Irritates me to no end cause it makes her stall STINK! Have to keep it very clean big time. I just thought about this though we just moved her feed trough in her stall because it has been raining some. I guess she just needs to pee when she eats or something. LOL Anyway I don't have any suggestions I just thought I let you know your not alone I was wondering about if they could be trained to at least pee outside stall. LOL


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