Stall Maintenance

[BethC]

Hi! I am wondering what everyone's methods of keeping their stalls clean are. I have pine shavings in the stall which I muck out every day. I also add additional fresh shavings about once a week to make up for the dirty ones that get picked up. Underneath the shavings is cement and part of the stalls have a stall pad (large stalls ...).

This week, I noticed an ammonia smell in my barn.

So I think I am doing something wrong. I know I can completely switch out the bedding and that will take care of it but I am wondering what everyone else does? I would just as soon have my schedule down so I never get an ammonia smell in there in the first place. Should I just completely switch bedding every week or (?).

I also read on a web site that it is recommended to add lime in the stalls for neutralizing and deodorizing. Does anyone do this? If so, how much and how often?

Thanks!

Beth

 

[kaykay]

most horses will urinate in one spot thus the amonia smell even if you clean daily. we use lime for all urine spots and then cover with shavings. We pick daily or every other day then strip completely once a week. The most important thing thru the week is to get urine out. remember manure wont hurt them at all but amonia from urine will burn the lungs. the barn lime works very well! I like it much better then sweet stall or pdz. that stuff sets up like clay

 

[susanne]

The absolutely most helpful, sure-fire thing I've found for stall cleaning is...

my husband!!!!

 

[eagles ring farm]

we used to use shavings we switched to woody pet a couple years ago

and absolutly love it would never go back to shavings

we also have rubber mats which help alot

 

[BethC]

Hah!! If my husband was in charge of stall-cleaning I would suffocate in the barn!!!

:

This might sound really strange ... and maybe I am the only person like this ... but I really enjoy cleaning out my horse stalls!!

 

[tifflunn]

most horses will urinate in one spot thus the amonia smell even if you clean daily. we use lime for all urine spots and then cover with shavings. We pick daily or every other day then strip completely once a week. The most important thing thru the week is to get urine out. remember manure wont hurt them at all but amonia from urine will burn the lungs. the barn lime works very well! I like it much better then sweet stall or pdz. that stuff sets up like clay

Kaylay- how often do you use the lime? I have dirt floors and have taken to scraping them and digging holes :bgrin

 

[BFS_Simon_Says]

I use wood pellets, clean the stalls out once a day, sometimes twice(bad weather when the horses are in) and I use Stable Boy twice a week to get rid of the ammonia smell. I add new pellets to my stalls when needed.

 

[Leeana]

I only have two stalls, but the barn isle (which is pretty big) is used as a run in at night.

I put 1 bag of TSC wood chips down in both stalls and one bag down in the entrance once a week (normally mondays). I clean stalls everynight and take out the poop and wet spots. Underneath the woodchips we have a dirt floor and so far i've been lucky enough not to have any bad urine spots. A while back we did have 1 spot that was the pee spot for all 4 of them and they were basically digging a whole to china, had to fill it in with dirt and took a while to get it gone.

The only time our horses are in there stall are at night when they eat and are out of it first thing in the morning. I pick stalls everynight and where i take away the wet stuff, i normally sprinkle some dry shavings over that area. I also buy the bags of Wood Pellets at TSC and normally if i know there peeing in one spot allot i will poor 1/2 bag of the pellets down Monday and then Thursday replace it with pellets agian.

Our stall maintenance is pretty simple, which i dont mind.

:

Leeana h.

 

[sparkle]

The absolutely most helpful, sure-fire thing I've found for stall cleaning is...

my husband!!!!

Wow!! Do husbands really DO that????

:

 

[SandyWI]

Our stall floors were all limestone screenings, but we wall-to-wall covered them in 1/2" thick cow mats.

We use sawdust for bedding because it's so economical. We have a sawmill about four miles away and we can get an 8' bed pick up truck load for $8.00.

We put about two five gallon buckets per stall. Our horses are only in the stalls at night or in very stormy weather. When they are let out in the morning, we remove all the wet sawdust and manure. Then we put down Stall Dry or Sweet PDZ on the wet spots and let them dry all day.

In the evening, before we bring the horses in, we add fresh sawdust. Doing it this way, the only time there "might" be a urine smell is in the morning, but generally the Stall Dry or Sweet PDZ pretty much neutralizes the odors as the urine hits it during the night. And I love the smell of the fresh sawdust!

The mares close to foaling get straw in their stalls, and continue getting straw until the foals are weaned. We remove the wet straw completely and use the Stall Dry in there as well.

I had considered using barn lime but I read that it could be very caustic to miniature's hooves, and that the dust from it can get kicked up and enter their lungs, burning them, so I decided not to. I really wish I hadn't read that, because barn lime would sure be a lot cheaper!

:

 

[zacharyfarms]

We do pretty much the same as SandyWI...Our horses are pretty much potty trained to certain sections of the stalls which are covered with stall mats..only those areas have shavings which are removed daily and Sweet PDZ is put down and new shavings daily...really helps with odor and flies along with the ceiling fans.

 

[Deborah B]

I pick out the stalls every morning, my show horses are stalled only at night, they are turned out in a dry lot with a shelter during the day. I have matted stalls with shavings. I did put lime down under the stalls mats before I installed them, okay that was over a year ago, might need to take them up and do it again. I am sure that the pee goes in between the mats onto the dirt floor.

I don't enjoy stall cleaning! So I try and get it out of the way first thing in the day!

 

[backwoodsnanny]

WE have 10 stalls of varying sizes. We clean one side of the barn to the floor one day and pick the other side and the next day it is reversed. We rarely have any smell except that of fresh shavings unless they are in because of bad weather. They are stalled every night. Moms in the foaling stall have a base of shavings with soft grass hay over the top from roughly 315 days forward. New foals have the hay bedding until they are roughly a month old by that time we have removed the hay and they are on pine shavings.

 

[Miniv]

Do you have good drainage out of your stalls?

The reason why I ask is during the warm summer months we strip out the bedding and hose down our stalls about once a week. Some of our stalls don't have as good drainage as others, so I have to sweep out the standing water. Then I let them air dry.

Between hosings, we rake and pick out the wet areas and the poop, then spread Sweet PDZ over the wet areas and add new bedding, leaving the untouched bedding behind.

We have also sprayed a light mixture of bleach water over the floor which also seems to help. We discovered this worked by accident because we were spraying down our foaling stalls between uses and it totally took away any smell!

MA

 

[outlawridge]

I pick stalls every morning if horses are turned out (which they are unless it is bad weather), more often if not. We use pine shavings that we get by the bale at our local sawmill at a huge discount :bgrin . We change out shavings every week or week and a half and we always put barn lime down first. Have had cement floors, dirt floors, and combination of both and use the barn lime. One thing to remember is that not all lime is created equal. You must purchase non-burning barn lime. It is a natural disinfectant as well. In fact, before the mare goes in, my foaling stalls are specifically sprayed down (not soaked) with a bleach/water combination, let thoroughly dry for a day or so, and then I barn lime the heck out of the floor and part way up the walls where the depth of bedding will reach. You can even barn lime outside stinky pee spots and it will keep down the flies too. There are two types of barn lime, a granular, and the powdery stuff. I have used both but more so the powdery stuff. It goes much farther, seems to last much longer, and once it's down, I have never seen it fluff up or be airborne at all. Have been doing it this way for years and have never had any problems be they mini or big horses. We are building a new barn this summer/fall and will be having cement floors with mats, barn lime and pine shavings.

Have you ever been in an old dairy barn and seen the whitewashed walls and ceilings?? That is barn lime sprayed all over as a natural disinfectant and deoderizer. You certainly do not see that stuff floating around in the air once it has attached and settled. That's the same stuff as the non-burning powdery barn lime we purchase.

and btw....I don't think it's sounds crazy to enjoy stall cleaning. I find it very stress relieving and good therapy! Plus, it's another way I can stay in the barn awhile longer!

 

[kaykay]

we lime the urine spots once per week when we strip the stalls. we do like ma said and let the stall air dry for a few hours then put barn lime in and then shavings.

 

[Jill]

This might sound really strange ... and maybe I am the only person like this ... but I really enjoy cleaning out my horse stalls!!

Oh, you know, I think you sound like you've got what it takes to be my new best friend!!!

:

: I have some stalls here and you are more than welcome to go have some fun :bgrin

 

[RainSong]

I dunno... I like cleaning stalls >.>

It seems like I have never been lucky enough to clean stalls for someone who has even -decent- stall floors. One set was all dirt, uneven and full of holes, with the straw bedding becoming muck that was embedded in the dirt/mud floor... the other was big buried bolders with holes (common theme!) broken unlevel concrete, and mud/manure ankle deep. Augh!!

Even still I enjoyed the stall cleaning- but geez, I sure know what -not- to do when it comes to stall floors later.

 

[evedex]

Our club had a clinic a few weeks ago and we had a nutritionist as one of the clinicians. She spoke about amonia smell and said that if a horse gets too much protein in thier feed (i.e. more than they need) it will pass through the body and come out in urine that has a strong amonia smell.

While, in this warm weather, it is hard not to have some amonia and the stall sweetening products are great for helping neutralize that, not producing as much of the amonia type urine is a big help.

 

[BethC]

All of these tips have been really great - thank you so much for everyone's input! I made sure I cleaned out the wet spots this morning instead of waiting til tonight when I usually clean their stalls and I am going to stop by TSC in the next few days and pick some sort of neutralizer. I like the tip on the protein input because my yearling has a lot more of an ammonia small in his stall than in Moonie's and he does get more grain/pellet mix than Moon so I might review the nutritional content on that and reduce it a little bit and see if that makes a difference. Thank you!!!!!!!

Beth