Why is stable hygiene important?

Why is stable hygiene important?

Cleanliness in the stable has not only to do with aesthetics, but primarily with the health of the horses. A neat and clean stable reduces the risk of direct or indirect disease transmission. This is because pathogens can spread more easily in a damp, dark environment and undesirable rodents are attracted by dirt, clutter and leftover feed.

Stable hygiene is therefore a significant point in horse keeping to prevent the spread or even development of infectious diseases. You should therefore keep a close eye on the following points of stable hygiene when looking for a new stable or at your current stable:

• How is the stable climate?
• Is the bedding clean and absorbent?
• Is the feed fresh and free of mites, bacteria and mould spores?
• Are the drinkers clean? Free of algae, feed residues and bird droppings?
• How is the quality of the drinking water?
• Is there a general order in the stable?
• Does each horse have its own equipment – saddle, saddle pad, bridle, grooming kit, feed bucket, etc.?
• Does every horse and every piece of equipment have its own place?
• Are the fields and paddocks clean and well-maintained?
• Are the horses regularly wormed all together?

5 principles of stable hygiene

Stable hygiene is a very complex subject, whereby all points of criticism are interrelated in one way or another. But if you pay attention to basic things, you have already done a lot for the overall hygiene of the stable. Even if you are only a livery or loaner or only take riding lessons and are not a yard manager yourself, you can make an important contribution to stable hygiene as a whole.

Clearly separate your horse’s accessories from the accessories of other horses

To prevent the spread of skin diseases or skin parasites through direct bodily contact or to inhibit their spread, it is important that each horse has its own accessories. This applies to

• Grooming equipment
• Saddle
• Saddle pad
• Bridle
• Horse rugs
• Headcollars
• Water and feed buckets

This is also an important quality criterion when choosing a good riding school: if each school horse has its own equipment and saddles and saddle pads are not exchanged among the ponies, great importance is attached to the health of the horses and their attitude.

To ensure that none of the horse equipment are jumbled and that everything can be found in its place, labelled hooks and other hanging options are a good idea.

Hygiene of feeding areas of horses kept in groups

With horses kept in groups, it can be difficult to enforce hygiene as strictly as is possible with horses kept in individual stables, where each horse has its own feeding area. Nevertheless, even in the case of horses kept in groups, care should be taken to ensure that the feeding areas or containers are cleaned regularly, especially if a horse has a potentially contagious respiratory or other infection. Many diseases are transmitted through the mucous membranes. If an illness is detected in a horse, it must be isolated immediately to contain further spread. In addition, the rest of the area should be cleaned and sheds, containers and so on disinfected so that horses that are not yet infected can be protected as much as possible.

Therefore, regularly check the feeding areas and buckets that are shared. Remove feed remains, horse droppings, bird droppings etc. Use water and a sponge for this. Disinfection can be especially useful if bird droppings were found.

The correct storage of feed for good stable hygiene

A close eye should be kept on feed management. For it is not only the quality of the feed itself that is decisive for the health of the horses. If the feed is not fed completely in one go, the correct storage of it is of high importance. The storage place should be dry, airy and protected from light – humidity and condensation can otherwise lead to mould. The feed must also not be contaminated by mouse droppings and dust mites. Lockable feed bins with a thick wall are the best protection against this. Bins and buckets with thin plastic walls are less suitable, as they are not an impediment to rodents.

If you want to store carrots, you can use a carrot bucket, which keeps the carrots from spoiling prematurely. This is a bucket with holes built into it, which remove condensation water to the outside through good ventilation.

Of course, proper storage also applies to hay and straw. Check the roughage regularly for perfect quality, as spoiled roughage can cause life-threatening colic in horses. But it can also affect the respiratory tract. Use different equipment (fork, wheelbarrow) to distribute and shake up the hay than you use for mucking out, in order to avoid feed contamination.

Hygiene of horse drinkers and their water quality

Drinkers should be checked regularly, preferably daily, for function and contamination. Remove feed remains, hay and straw, bird and horse droppings and clean the drinkers if necessary. The removal of algae is particularly useful for drinkers with stagnant water, as is the case with frost-proof ball drinkers, for example. It is recommended to fight algae every few weeks and to clean the drinkers thoroughly, as salmonella, E.coli bacteria etc. can also negatively influence the water quality and thus the health of the horse.

In general, the water for horses should be of drinking water quality – standing water in tubs or large tubs, perhaps even in the blazing sun, are completely unsuitable. A clear sign of contaminated water is blue-green algae. These can release toxins that lead to colic. If you do not have a drinker with running water available, you should move the water source into the shade and, of course, check and clean it daily.

A good alternative to tubs or drinkers with stagnant water are automatic drinkers with a pressure valve. Here, water only flows into the basin when the horse presses on a valve in the form of a metal tongue or pipe. This way, algae formation can be avoided as far as possible. Nevertheless, these should also be cleaned regularly.

The correct manure management for stable hygiene

Many pathogens and worms can live in horse droppings. In addition to a regular worm check of the entire stock, the removal of horse droppings is important for stable hygiene. Stables should ideally be mucked out daily, which means that droppings and wet bedding are removed and replaced with dry bedding. This helps to contain the spread of endoparasites. In some stables, deep litter is also used as a mucking-out method.

But this is where many pathogens collect, which can multiply greatly as soon as faeces and urine mix. Maintaining a good deep litter requires daily effort to keep faeces and urine separate. This can be difficult with horses that stir up the bedding.

It is also recommended to muck out only when the horses are not in the stall. So it is best to do it when the horses are turned out. When the dirty bedding is uncovered, the harmful gas ammonia rises, which can have a negative effect on the horse’s respiratory tract. When arranging new bedding, in turn, a lot of fine dust can fly through the air, which also affects the horse’s bronchial tubes. Very wet stable floors should first be aired and dried before new bedding is spread on them.

The same applies to pasture, field and paddock hygiene. The turnout areas must be regularly cleared to keep parasites at bay. This is especially true for areas where there are changing groups of horses that otherwise have nothing to do with each other. In addition, the number of horses must be adapted to the size of the area in order to keep the pressure of infectious diseases and pests low.

All these measures contribute to improved stable hygiene and a good stable climate. The stable climate is particularly important for the steppe horse with its great need for good air quality. The following section deals with what the stable climate is and what contributes to good quality.

Important factor in stable hygiene: the stable climate

Horses are steppe animals that have a great need for fresh air, light and exercise. And that is exactly what horse keeping should bring with it. Conversely, this means that the stable climate must take into account the above-mentioned needs of the horse. The stable climate includes air temperature, air circulation, air humidity, air quality and light supply.

Air circulation is important

Air circulation in the stable building also goes hand in hand with an appropriate temperature. This is important so that harmful substances and gases, such as carbon dioxide, ammonia or hydrogen sulphide, are removed to the outside and fresh air is brought in. Ventilate the stables daily, preferably with all windows removed or open. But avoid draughts! The temperature of the air flow is at least 6 degrees colder than the ambient temperature and can lead to chills, colds or muscle tension in the horse.

Adjust the air temperature to the outside temperature

The temperature in the stable should be oriented to the outside temperature. No extreme temperatures should be allowed to dominate. For example, if it is around zero degrees outside in winter, it must not be a comfortable 15 degrees inside. So that the horses do not forget their thermoregulation and thus develop a weak immune system and further illnesses, the temperature inside the stable should be adapted to the outside temperature.

Humidity between 60 and 80%

Humidity also plays a role in the climate of the stable and can be regulated very well if you pay attention to the first two points. As long as you ensure good ventilation of the stable, the humidity cannot get too high. If it does, it is an excellent breeding ground for fungi and bacteria, which have a negative effect on the horse’s health. If the humidity is too high, the horse can no longer regulate its body temperature sufficiently.

Horses need light

As steppe animals, horses love light. With a sufficient supply of natural light of at least eight hours, the horses‘ zest for life, resistance, willingness to perform and fertility are increased. With sufficient lighting, the horse produces less of the sleep hormone melatonin – so they become more alert. With the length of the days and the associated light exposure, the change of coat is also initiated. Light, especially natural light, thus contributes to the horse’s health and a functioning metabolism.

Large outside windows or skylights are best suited for this purpose. If these are covered by trees, for example, or if the short days in winter do not allow enough light into the stable, artificial ceiling lighting can provide a remedy.

Mucking out for a better stable climate

One of the most important points in stable hygiene, where every horse owner can lend a hand, is mucking out the stables. For a good stable climate, the ammonia in the air must be reduced. This is the gas that stings the nose if the stalls have not been mucked out properly. The harmful gas is produced when urine comes into contact with manure. To prevent this, the following points are important:

• An absorbent bedding that absorbs the urine.
• Keep the mixing of manure and bedding low, so skip out the stable regularly.
• Provide a generous bedding. A thick base bedding keeps urine and faeces separated as much as possible.
• Eliminate damp spots and let them dry.
• Then add clean bedding.

A properly mucked stall is not only good for your horse’s respiratory system, but also prevents thrush, stench in the stable and thus excessive exposure to flies.

Which bedding is best suited for the horse stable?

Not all straw is the same, because the types of grain differ in their absorbency, among other things. Wheat straw, for example, is more suitable as horse bedding because the stalks are short and rough and thus form a larger surface that can absorb moisture. Barley, on the other hand, is long and smooth and is therefore less absorbent. In addition, the smooth surface can become a slippery slope for horses.

Below we have listed some varieties of bedding that is suitable for horses and can contribute to a good stable climate.

Your checklist for a better stable climate

Mice, rats and swallows – a problem for stable hygiene

These animals are simply part of the typical stable scene: swallows and sparrows, but unfortunately also mice or rats from time to time. Rodents in particular can be a serious problem for stable hygiene and thus also for horse health. They eat through thin feed bins, gnaw on cables and transmit parasites to horses and humans.

Their droppings spoil the horse feed, make it inedible and cause mould infestation. The droppings of mice and rats can cause diarrhoea, colic and liver or kidney damage in horses. Keeping the small unwanted lodgers out of the stable is therefore crucial for stable hygiene. As a preventive measure, besides mouse traps, cats are obviously a good choice. Cats kept in the stable can prevent a plague of mice.

But you can also prevent the rodents from settling:

• Store the horse feed in stable, lockable feed bins.
• Do not leave feed bags with leftovers lying around – not even in the tack cabinet.
• Be careful when distributing hard feed. The grains should go in the manger or bucket, not next to it.
• Sweep several times a day.
• Do not leave any mess. Rodents will eat their way through horse rugs that are carelessly lying around on the floor and use the filling as insulating material.

In short: Keep the stable tidy so that the rodents don’t get comfortable in the stable in the first place.

Swallows, on the other hand, can be useful helpers in the stable. They catch annoying flies, mosquitoes and other insects. A pair of swallows can catch up to 200 insects in 2 hours for their young. You couldn’t wish for a better fly repellent in the stable. Unfortunately, intensive agriculture and modern stable construction are increasingly displacing barn swallows and house martins. This is because they need a lot of peace and quiet for their nesting spots and to raise their young.

Stable birds like to use horse hair and coat as insulating material for building their nests. However, long mane or tail hair can quickly become a danger if the birds hang themselves from dangling hair. Always remove mane and tail hair in the residual waste. It is a different matter with coat remnants, which accumulate in large quantities during the change of coat. The birds like to use these to insulate their nests.

The droppings of swallows or sparrows, however, can be a problem for stable hygiene. This is because the birds‘ droppings in drinkers, mangers or heaps on the ground underneath the nests can lead to health problems for the horse. But also riding equipment such as saddles or bridles can be corroded by the bird droppings. So check your horse’s feed and watering areas daily and remove the droppings if necessary. To prevent bird droppings from falling down in the first place, boards can be screwed directly under the nests. This prevents bird droppings from falling into critical areas such as drinkers or mangers.