Make Stall Time More Interesting

If you’re horse is confined to a stall, here are a few ideas on how to make his/her stall time less boring and more interesting. First and ideally, a box stall with a run is the best circumstance in this situation. If your horse is in only a box stall with no outside run, make sure that she has as much ventilation and light coming into her stall as possible. Often, light deprivation can lead to a horse that is mentally not feeling well and can become depressed, which may manifest as anger. Lack of good ventilation/fresh air can lead to upper respiratory problems, so even if the horse doesn't demonstrate symptoms of problems such as coughing, or labored breathing, they could still be feeling "not well" and perhaps feeling a "heaviness" in their lungs/chest, which could contribute to an "under-the-weather" feeling. All of these things can make your horse cranky because just like with humans, if we're just generally not feeling well but can't quite put our finger on what is wrong, we may just be in a bad mood because of it. Set it up so your horse can at least stick her head out over the stall door instead of being totally confined in her little "box" looking at four walls only. If the stall has slider doors with affixed grillwork up top which prevents your horse from looking out, for a reasonable price, most barn companies have stall screens that can be hung in the doorway and that have a U-shaped cutout so that the horse can stick their head out, but can't reach the outside barn walls on either side of their door and perhaps scrape the walls with their teeth, damaging the outside barn walls. However, it will allow them to stick their head out and look around and watch the activity around the barn area. Horses like to look around, especially the more active-minded horses, or horses which are a bit more dominant, or horses that are used to living outside most of the time. They get so much sensory input by listening, seeing, smelling, that to lock them in an area where they can't at least look around and observe those things which they can smell, hear and maybe catch glimpses of, at the very least is depressing for them. Often, this sadness and depression can lead to fear, frustration, anger and downright hostility. Rather then have that happen, I'd just as soon see a horse be out in a deeply muddy corral with access to a shelter if they care to use it. So if your horse doesn't already have a box stall where she can at least stick her head out and look around, make arrangements to buy a stall screen with the U-shaped cutout (or some variation thereof) so that she can at least look around the barn area and not have just a limited view from behind a stall door. They also have nylon or cotton stall guards/webbings to put across a door, but some horses will paw and stick a leg through and get hung up in them, or if they really want to leave the stall, they'll just press had enough with their chest to "pop" the eye-hooks right out of the doorway and will leave the stall. Something a little more sturdy may, or may not be in order for your mare.

By: Laura Phelps-Bell