Winter means that most riders and horse owners spend more time in the stables. The horses probably have fewer hours in the field, the stall needs more mucking out and most of the training and cuddling with the horses is happening inside. Therefore, it can be preferable to consider how to establish a comfortable and healthy environment in the stables.

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Keep the stall and stable clean

The first thing you can do is to maintain a clean stable. This makes the quality of the air better and keeps the inventory nice and steady so that you feel pleasant in your daily life with the horses. When it comes to the stalls, some people prefer to place fresh bedding on top of the old remains and only muck out once in a while. This develops a warm thick mattress isolating the horse from the winter cold. However. It is not always the best method if you want to have a clean stable environment. The best thing is to remove all the remains daily and place as much new bedding as possible.

If you turn to the rest of the stable, there is probably a severe amount of cobwebs collected during summer. It can be a good idea to remove this before winter sets in – both to improve the air quality and to make the stable even cozier. Because all the insects are gone in the winter season there will not come more cobwebs. With this in mind, it will be suitable to have the main cleaning at this time of the year. Furthermore, it will be wise to ventilate the stable frequently. This should be done while the horses are in the fields so they will not feel discomfort.

A tidy stable is key

A swept floor and a tidy stable also participate to a nice atmosphere. Not much more than a blanket, a bag of carrots is in the way and it irritates the other stable mates. In other words, try to clean up after yourself, it will benefit you and everyone else in the long run. One thing is that a messy stable can be annoying. Another thing is that it can cause dangerous situations. You can fall over non-removed buckets but even worse, so can your horse. With a clean and tidy stable, you also save time when it comes to sweeping the floor because you do not have to move a lot of stuff.

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Make sure to have great lighting

Light in the stable can also be part of the atmosphere in the stable. Winter is very dark, and hours of sun are very few – so good lighting is important. Especially in the late evening or early morning, it is good to have good light, so you can see what you are doing. Poor lighting can make you very tired, less resourceful, and perhaps more irritated when you are in the stable. And let us agree, there is no reason to create a darker and sad winter than it already is.

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Also, horses benefit from good lighting. Like humans, they feel better when they have a great number of D vitamins. It is possible to purchase special lamps to achieve natural light and help both the horse and the rider. You can also choose to paint the stable white. The light is reflected in the white color and the surroundings will come across as more “friendly”.

The hours in the stable - a pleasure

We cannot escape the fact that winter is dark. And you cannot avoid muddy and wet equipment in the stable. When you keep the stable clean and have a good light you and your stable mates can perhaps prevent this period from being too annoying getting through. If you spend some time developing a nice stable environment the extra time in the stable will most likely be a pleasant experience.