How to Clean Horse Stalls

• Step 1

  Remove the horse from the stall. Even the calmest horse can spook unpredictably. Avoid injury to yourself and your horse by turning him out for a romp or securing him safely somewhere else in the barn.

• Step 2

  Gather your pitchfork and your wheelbarrow, and then position it at an angle just inside the stall opening.

• Step 3

  Shovel the most soiled clumps of bedding into the wheelbarrow. The urine and intact piles of manure are good places to start. Male horses usually urinate in the middle of the stall, while mares urinate around the edges. Soiled bedding is easiest to pick if you keep your fork angled towards the horizontal and slide it underneath.

• Step 4

  Pick through the remaining bedding with your pitchfork, letting the clean bedding fall through the tines of the fork as you move from one end of the stall to the other. While the goal is to pick up as much waste as possible, conserving the reusable bedding is a budgetary necessity.

• Step 5

  Smooth the remaining bedding down, shoveling extra to the corners and to areas that are the most depleted. Rake the new bedding into the stall, mixing it with the old as you work. The amount of new bedding that you use depends on the flooring of your stall. Concrete floors require a bit more bedding than stalls with dirt floors.

• Step 6

  Clean and scrub your horse's water bucket. Throw the old water out, scrub out the slime and bits of hay and oats then refill with clean water.

• Step 7

  Check the stall for any nails that may be working their way out or other potential hazards to your horse's health, such as a loose board or hay rack.

• 1
• Pitchfork Wheelbarrow Gloves Fresh bedding
• Pitchfork
• Wheelbarrow
• Gloves
• Fresh bedding
• Keep an elderly or sick horse's stall particularly clean, so that if he should choose to lay down, he will have a clean stall to rest in. Dump the manure in the same general area. After about six months it will make an effective fertilizer for your garden. If you are cleaning multiple stalls, keep to an assembly line type of routine to save time. Pick through each stall first, and then add fresh bedding to each stall. Clean a horse's stall at least once a day to prevent lung problems from the ammonia as well as hoof thrush and skin conditions from constant contact with manure.
• Keep an elderly or sick horse's stall particularly clean, so that if he should choose to lay down, he will have a clean stall to rest in.
• Dump the manure in the same general area. After about six months it will make an effective fertilizer for your garden.
• If you are cleaning multiple stalls, keep to an assembly line type of routine to save time. Pick through each stall first, and then add fresh bedding to each stall.
• Clean a horse's stall at least once a day to prevent lung problems from the ammonia as well as hoof thrush and skin conditions from constant contact with manure.
• For sensitive hands, wear gloves to protect them from contact with the manure as well as to protect from blisters. Mucking stalls can be hard on your back. Try to use your arm and leg muscles rather than your back to support yourself as you shovel the manure. Wear a back brace if necessary.
• For sensitive hands, wear gloves to protect them from contact with the manure as well as to protect from blisters.
• Mucking stalls can be hard on your back. Try to use your arm and leg muscles rather than your back to support yourself as you shovel the manure. Wear a back brace if necessary.

References & Resources

• More about the proper way to muck a stall
• America's Healthy Horse website for more tips