5 Easy Rules for Maintaining Order in your Stable

Whether it’s for turnout, a hand walk, the treadmill, or a ride, your horses should get out of their stalls multiple times a day.  Even though it’s good for the horses to get out of the stall often, it can be bad for your aisle – shavings, hay, hair, and dirt get tracked everywhere…  Keep your horses healthy AND the barn clean by following some very simple rules:

Rule number 1:  Leave the shavings in the stall!

Before you take a horse out of its stall, pick its feet, remove the shavings from its tail, and brush off its blanket.  This saves a messy trail to the cross ties!

Rule number 2:  Hang up blankets and other equipment properly.

Do not throw a horse blanket on the floor of the stall or leave a halter on the ground.  First of all, equipment suffers from exposure to dirt/moisture/manure/urine.  Second, you will waste time looking for your blanket or halter while it’s crumpled, dirty, and in the wrong place.  Third, it just plain looks messy.

Rule number 3:  Publish a schedule.

Especially when you have multiple horses, grooms, and riders, you should display an updated schedule or calendar.   That way, your staff and clients know what to expect throughout the day and can organize themselves accordingly.

Rule number 4:  Keep track of your activities and your horses’ activities.

You’ll try to remember what happened throughout the day, week, or month, but you’ll forget items unless you have a way to keep track of vet work, shoeing, and billable services.  Use barn management software with a mobile app like Stable Secretary to conveniently track horse health and farrier appointments, equine services, and other equine business records.  Keeping careful track of each horse every day is very helpful for health reasons, owner questions, and invoicing.

Rule number 5:  Organize your barn logically. 

Make it easy to access and clean the equipment you use frequently.  If possible, arrange your feed room, tack room, laundry room, blanket storage, grooming areas, wash stalls, office, tack trunks, and first aid and medical supplies cabinets in a way that accommodates the work flow of the barn.  Always put equipment back CLEAN and in their correct places – it saves time when things are consistently stored in logical places.

What are some other rules-of-thumb to keep your barn organized?  Leave a comment to share what works for you in your stable!