Winter weather takes it’s toll on any barn. In the Spring, sometimes barn owners are so focused on the exterior of the barn, that the interior of the stall suffers. Stall floors are typically either paved with cement, paved and lined with stall mats, stall matting over dirt, or just plain dirt. All of these are acceptable, but the cement should be heavily bedded to prevent stress to the horses joints. Anyway, on to maintenance.
The first thing to do is to get all of the horses out of the barn. Turn them out to have a good time in the sunshine and then get to work inside the stalls. Each stall should be completely striped, ideally at least in the spring and fall. All of the bedding should be removed, then the floor swept clean. The the mats should be removed from the stall. Once the floor is revealed, the walls of the stall should be pressure washed to remove the ‘material’ that accumulates there. For the cement or solid surface stall floors, the floor should also be pressure washed. This removes the ammonia that has gathered over time and also helps with the acid like smell in the barn. Mats should also be pressure washed outside of the barn. Matting should not be relaid until the stall has dried completely.
For stalls with dirt floors, the mats should be removed, if any, and the floor should be leveled. Once all of the bedding is removed it is easy to see if there are dips and ‘holes’ in the earth floor. The most commonly effected areas are in the middle of the floor and also near the feeders. Many times horses paw before and while they eat grain, so these become higher traffic areas. The placement of top soil or clay in the lower places renews your floor and repairs the low places. Once the stalls are leveled, the mats should be relaid.
Another area of concern is to check any bottoms of the wood walls for holes. Holes can be a result of water damage, or horse kicking through the wood. If a stall is lined in horizontal boards, then any board with rottenness should be removed and a new one installed in its place. Using treated lumber for the bottom rows of the stall wall helps prevent wood deterioration.
If a stall is lined in plywood, the or OSB board should be cut back a few inches past rotten area and also all the way from upright stud to stud. This provides a solid repair. It is never wise to just screw a board patch over part of the wall, except as a temporary solution.
Keeping stalls updated, level, and walls repaired keep horses safer and prevent further deterioration to the horse stall walls. Holes in walls and floors are especially dangerous for young horses.
