Benefits of Using a Wall Caddy in Your Horse Stall

The stall walls must be built to withstand the powerful impact of a horse. The best material is wood coated with a non-toxic sealant to protect it from moisture and clean the wall surface.

Avoid swinging doors, which interfere with aisle space and can catch on hooves. They also create shadows, which inhibit observation and care.

Keeps Your Stall Clean

Cleaning a horse stall is an essential step to keeping your horse healthy. A dirty stall can lead to thrush and ammonia build-up, harming your horse’s respiratory system. Stall cleaning should be done daily and involves:

• Removing soiled bedding
• Adding new bedding
• Sweeping aisles
• Ensuring that water containers are clean and filled

Wood shavings are popular as stall bedding because they absorb urine and help keep a horse dry and comfortable. However, they can also be dusty and irritate a horse’s respiratory system. Using wood shavings, consider investing in high-quality bedding to reduce dust and irritation.

Establish a routine to make barn tasks more efficient. Create a schedule for completing chores such as cleaning stalls and feeding hay and water buckets. Organize your tools and supplies by placing a wall caddy in your barn to sort and store items such as mucking forks, halters, towels, and buckets. Write your weekly plan on the front dry-erase surface and jot to-do lists and reminders on the rear compartments.

Keeps Your Stall Organized

Organizers, like bathroom organizers and wall-mounted baskets, can make a difference in your stall. Large wire organizers are great for holding bathing supplies, such as shampoo bottles, detanglers, curry combs, and brushes. You can even clip buckets to them for extra storage, hang spray bottles from them, and use them to hang towels or sponges up to dry.

Stalls should be free of holes or other areas where kicks or curious noses could injure horses. Check your stall walls regularly for splinters and loose boards.

Properly installed stall mats or mattress systems can make cleaning your barn much easier and faster, saving you time and money. Stall mats help reduce hay and bedding waste, while the mattresses create a flat surface for better air circulation, minimizing mold growth and insect infestations. They also allow for more accurate feeding by eliminating the circling and pushing of the food into a corner. It is crucial in stalls with an alley door.

Keeps Your Stall Safe

Stalls are a horse barn’s most crucial building component, and there are numerous ways to enhance safety. For example, banks can save stall walls from urine and manure that often get smeared on the surface. They also allow a horse to climb over the edge rather than having to lean over and reach.

Using a tarp or other cover to keep manure off the stall floor can also help reduce the labor involved with mucking. In addition, a well-designed floor can increase the horses’ comfort in a stall.

Stall fronts should be open to encourage ventilation and allow horses, and herd animals, to see their companions. Options include sliding stall doors with bottom guides and barrel grids or swing-out panels with a feed tub at the bottom and a hay rack at the top. The latter offers easy feeding access, and locks closed to prevent tampering by bored horses.

Keeps Your Stall Organized

Ensuring a well-organized and hygienic horse barn is crucial to safeguard the health and well-being of your horses. By adopting appropriate storage procedures, you can effortlessly maintain a neat and systematic barn, ensuring that essential items are readily accessible.

Look for a solution that maximizes your space, like stackable containers that can hold supplies while taking up minimal floor space. Also, look for options that use vertical spaces, such as file cabinets that hang from the wall or a pegboard for hanging halters, leads, and bridles.

Ensure your stalls are safe by checking walls for splinters and gaps that horses or foals could use as hiding places. Paint or seal any wood surfaces that will be in contact with a horse, as it is crucial to protect against potential injuries. Also, ensure enough stall lighting to provide visibility for cleaning and observation. If your stalls have glass windows, make sure they are well out of reach and framed with sturdy bars or mesh to prevent the possibility of an accidental break.