Taking time out to clean your horse’s stall can be a bummer when all you want to do is ride. However, a clean stall is an important part of your horse’s comfort and health, so this daily chore isn’t one you can skip. By learning how to clean or “muck out” a horse’s stall in the same way each day, you’ll notice clues to how your horse may be feeling that day—you might find manure that’s more loose than usual or hay that has hardly been touched, for example.

Just like when you’re cleaning your room, there’s a difference between cleaning a stall in a rush and cleaning a stall well. Here are eight steps to getting the job done correctly and quickly, making your horse happy while saving you time.

To clean a stall, you need:

◆ Plastic muck fork
◆ Wheelbarrow
◆ Broom
◆ Flat-bottom shovel
◆ Bandana to cover your nose and mouth, if the stall is dusty
◆ Watering can, if the stall is dusty
◆ Fresh shavings
◆ Stiff-bristled scrub brush

STEP 1: Remove leftover hay.

If the hay is still good, scrape it to one corner. If it’s not good, put it in the wheelbarrow.

STEP 2: Remove visible manure and wet spots.

Get these out of the way before you dig further into the bedding.

STEP 3: Choose one wall and turn over bedding along the length of the wall.

Find the wall with the cleanest bedding—you never really know what’s underneath until you start turning.

STEP 4: Toss remaining bedding against the clean wall, about hip height.

As you scoop bedding into your manure fork, you’ll find scoops that are wet. Dump those in the wheelbarrow. For scoops that appear dry, toss them against the wall. As the contents hit the wall, the clean bedding makes a neat pile against the wall, and the manure rolls or falls to the bottom of the pile.

Let the manure collect along the bottom of your bedding pile. After the manure builds up a bit, scoop it up and put it in the wheelbarrow.

Turn over the entire stall in this way—even the bedding from under the water buckets, feed bucket and hay rack. It’s OK for some hay to be strewn through the bedding, as long as you did a good job of removing most of it in Step 1.

PRO TIP: If the bedding is dry and kicking up dust, wear a bandana around your nose and mouth or lightly water the stall with a watering can. It might sound backward to add water to a stall that you want to make dry, but you’re not wetting the bedding, just dampening the dust.

STEP 5: Treat the wet spot.

If you have stall mats or a concrete floor, sweep the wet bedding off of the wet spot and remove it with a shovel. If you have a dirt floor, scrape the wet spot with your manure fork. If the wet spot is smelly, treat it with an odor- and moisture-absorbing agent, like Sweet PDZ or Stall Dry. If you have time, let the spot air-dry before re-bedding the stall.

STEP 6: Re-bed the stall.

Use the manure fork to pull the shavings away from the wall and spread them across the stall. Put this older bedding in the wet areas first.

Spread out all of the bedding, then pick and remove any manure pieces that were still hiding.

STEP 7: Add fresh bedding.

Don’t forget to return the leftover hay to its place.

STEP 8: Remove, clean and fill water buckets.

Take the buckets from the stall, dump them outside, give them a quick scrub with a stiff-bristled brush and refill. This step comes last so you don’t make a mess of the fresh water while you clean the stall.

This process should take about 15 to 20 minutes when you first start out. Every horse’s stall habits are different, and as you learn your horse’s habits, you’ll establish a rhythm and make this chore go even faster. This system can be used in all stalls bedded with wood shavings, so you can teach your friends to amp up their stall cleaning, too!

This article about how to clean a stall appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Stable Skills: How to Clean a Stall appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Emma Ford is the professional horse groom for eventing superstar Phillip Dutton, where her job has her managing the whole barn—as many as 45 horses—and all of the working students, too. She keeps up with the horses’ health care needs, farrier scheduling, tacking up, grooming, clipping, mucking stalls, exercise schedules and more. Plus, Emma has worked at competitions around the world, including three- and four-star events in England and Germany.

Emma and her friend and fellow groom Cat Hill even got to write a book, World Class Grooming, published recently. Emma and Cat now travel and teach other riders about grooming, too.

“It’s really fulfilling knowing we can play a small part in improving a horse’s care and management,” Emma says. For her, horses are the whole reason to be a groom.

“I like to find out what makes them tick. What can I do that will help them perform at their best and be happy horses at the end of the day? Being part of such a large operation, it’s difficult to spend a lot of time individually with each horse, but I do the best I can to figure out what they each need.”

As a groom for a busy barn, horses aren’t the only thing on Emma’s mind. To keep things running smoothly, she has to assign tasks to other riders and grooms and trust that they will do a good job.

“If something goes wrong—a horse gets a bandage bow or is given the wrong grain—I feel it is my fault for not doing it myself,” Emma confesses.

Professional Horse Groom: Getting Here

Not everyone is lucky enough to grow up in a horse-loving family, but Emma was. She was born in England and got a college degree in agriculture before visiting the U.S. when she was 21.

“Groom” wasn’t a paying job that Emma ever thought she’d have, but she started working for eventer Adrienne Iorio on that U.S. trip, and the rest is history.

“I had a few back problems that didn’t allow me to be a consistent rider, but I loved being on the ground and going to all the shows,” Emma explains. “I’ve always enjoyed turning out horses to a high standard, and making sure they feel their best for competition is where my heart lies.”

Top riders and busy barns in all riding disciplines need grooms. This job is hard work with long hours, but Emma isn’t giving it up any time soon.

“I’m not sure when I will stop traveling to shows,” she says. “I expect I will keep going until either Phillip retires from riding or my back gives out!”

She stresses that the horses come first in this work, and sometimes that means you have to miss hanging out with friends because of a sick horse or a show.

But if you get to work for a rider like Phillip Dutton and he goes to the Olympics and wins an individual bronze medal—like he did in Rio de Janeiro in 2016—then every minute you spent in the barn is worthwhile.

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2017 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post YR Career Files: Professional Groom appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Dress Appropriately

A big factor in staying warm when riding in the winter, is dressing appropriately. “You can’t be too bulky when you ride, so we always use layers,” said Krishona Martinson, a University of Minnesota Equine Extension Specialist and mother of two horse-loving daughters.

Living in Minnesota, she gets an average of 51 inches of snow each year. While Krishona doesn’t ride as much in the winter, she still is outside taking care of the horses with her daughters.

Krishona likes very thin thermal layers under riding clothing. When doing barn work, her family bundles up with lined coveralls, heavy winter coats, a couple of pairs of gloves, and boots that are meant to keep your feet warm to 60 below zero F.

Alena Meacham, director of riding at the University of Connecticut, pointed out that you shouldn’t allow yourself to get sweaty and then stand around in the cold.

Cotton clothing, especially, will hold the sweat next to your skin, making you chilly. The layer of clothing next to your skin should be a moisture-wicking material to keep you dry. Vests are nice because they let heat escape through your arms but keep your core warm.

The right layers will let you take clothing off as you get warmer and then put them back on when you cool off again.

Krishona and Alena both use quick-heat hand and foot warmers for less active time spent outdoors.

Eat Well

Another factor in staying warm while riding is eating well through the winter months. You feed your horse more in the winter so he can stay warm and maintain his proper weight, and the same idea applies to you.

“Drink water and eat a good meal with protein before standing out in the cold,” says Alena.

In the winter, you still sweat—especially when doing barn chores—but it’s easy to forget to drink water because you naturally don’t feel as thirsty as you do in the summer. Eating is important, too, because the energy created by digesting the food makes 10 percent more heat inside your body within an hour than when your stomach is empty!

Practice Patience

Remember, frigid cold, low wind chill, or heavy snow can make it dangerous for you to spend too much time outside.

“To be honest, on those incredibly cold days, not much happens—just the minimum,” Krishona admits. It’s OK to get by just doing the minimum; feed and water your horse and clean his stall, but skip the riding that day. These days are your opportunity to get in some reading and horse-treat baking.

As winter roars in this year, be smart about your wardrobe, your nutrition, and your daily plans so you can still fit in barn time.

This article about staying warm while riding originally appeared in the November/December 2017 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post How to Stay Warm When Riding in the Winter appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Amy isn’t an Olympic rider, but her work helps to support Olympic-level horses: She’s the marketing manager for horse products made by W.F. Young. These are the people who make Absorbine liniments, ShowSheen coat conditioner, Ultra Shield fly masks, and more.

About 60 percent of Amy’s work time is spent in the office in Massachusetts, putting together ads (like the ones you see in Young Rider) and other promotions. She works on sponsorships for riders and shows and with others at W.F. Young to introduce new products.

During the rest of her work time, Amy travels to shows and events and meets with customers. “I’ve had the opportunity to attend events like the FEI World Cup and Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, and to travel to parts of the country that I would not likely have seen otherwise,” she says. “I also get to meet a lot of great people.”

Equine Business Marketing – Amy’s Career Path

“I was a typical horse-crazy girl and would eagerly accept the chance to ride any horse that friends or family would let me ride,” Amy says. She joined 4-H when she was 8 years old and did barn chores in exchange for lessons. She learned about horse care and “everything from dressage and eventing to endurance riding and gymkhana.”

Amy knew horses would always be part of her life, but she also liked her business-administration classes in college. “It was important to me to finish college and have a degree so that I had options for my career,” she says.

Her marketing job involves the business topics that she’s interested in, plus she helps people get products that help their horses at the same time.

Her job is busy, but Amy makes time to ride dressage with Degas ggf, an 11-year-old Zweibrücker gelding owned by Suzanne Markham of Divinity Dressage.

Marketing Jobs

There are jobs similar to Amy’s available all over the horse world. Behind everything you buy—from horse feed and stall bedding to riding boots and helmets—there are people working behind the scenes in sales and marketing. These jobs may involve writing, photography, graphic design, social media, event planning and customer service.

If these sound interesting to you, Amy suggests finding someone you can shadow, or better yet, find an internship position so that you can really see what the job you are interested in is all about.

Amy says one of her secrets to success is simple: reading! “You never know when something you read may become relevant to caring for your horse or even helping you land your dream job, so always keep learning.”

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2017 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post YR Career Files: Equine Business Marketing appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

A horse’s body temperature is 99 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. As he exercises during your ride, his body temperature increases—which is natural—but if his temperature increases too much, it can be dangerous for his health. Cooling out your horse is important in all weather after all rides. In hot weather and in cold, bringing down the temperature of your horse after a ride is super important.

Janet Johnston, DVM, an emergency and critical care veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center, offers these six steps in cooling down your horse properly after a ride.

1. Take a walk.

First tip in cooling out your horse properly is to take a walk. Just like you warm up for your ride by walking and stretching, cool down in the same way.

“Especially if it’s hot and humid, plan for a period of time—10 to 15 minutes—at the end of your ride or training session to gradually slow the work and cool down,” says Johnston.

2. Avoid the sun.

Find a cool, shady spot to untack, whether in the barn or under a tree.

“A fan or breeze can help keep air moving to encourage [sweat] evaporation,” says Johnston. If your barn has a misting fan, that’s even better in hot weather.

3. Offer a drink.

Next tip in cooling out your horse properly is to make sure you allow him to drink water. Think about what’s in sweat—it’s water! Both you and your horse need to drink enough to replace all the water lost during the ride.

“It’s a myth that cool water will cause colic or make your horse sick,” says Johnston. “You want to encourage him to drink. Some horses will drink more water if it’s not super cold, so find a temperature that your horse enjoys. If you’re worried that he is drinking too fast, offer small amounts frequently, every few minutes, until he’s had his fill. If the work has been especially hard, a bucket of fresh water and a separate bucket with an electrolyte supplement may be helpful.”

4. Hose or sponge your horse.

If your horse is very sweaty and it’s not cold outside, a bath will feel good for your horse.

“Remove excess water with a sweat scraper, and keep applying water until the water you remove is not warm,” says Johnston. “If your horse is really hot, the water you apply will quickly absorb the heat.”

5. Use a cooler if you need to.

“Do not put on a cooler or blanket when it’s hot,” says Johnston. “Think about how you feel after hard exercise. You don’t usually want to cover up and get hotter. Horses don’t either!”

In chilly weather, your horse might benefit from a breathable wool or fleece cooler as his sweat is evaporating.

“Sheets and coolers should be used only when the horse essentially tells you he is uncomfortable,” says Johnston. “And don’t leave it on without checking his skin temperature frequently. If he feels too warm, take it off.”

6. Do some hand-grazing.

The last tip in cooling out your horse properly is to do some hand-grazing. “A little hand-walking in the shade can be beneficial,” says Johnston. “Grazing fresh grass, which is high in water content, and/or some hay is fine. Wait until he is completely cooled down to offer grain.”

Cooling Out Routine

Finding the best cool-down routine for your horse might take some time. Just like people, some horses bounce back quickly and are ready to move on with their day, while others need more care.

Coat color and fitness level matter, too. Johnston says lighter-colored horses, horses that are more fit, and smaller-framed horses will heat up slower and cool down faster.

Also be aware of your horse’s normal temperature, heart rate and respiration rate to gauge how his cool-down is going. “If they have returned close to normal, he should be cool enough to return to his stall or get turned out,” says Johnston. “Generally, it’s not necessary to take your horse’s temperature after a routine ride; however, if he continues to breathe hard and sweat and he’s not returning to normal within a half hour to an hour, it’s a good idea to take his temperature. More cooling is likely necessary, and your veterinarian may need to be contacted.”

Horses will tell you when they’re properly cooled out. “If they have seemed to have had their fill of drinking water, the skin is normal temperature—or at least no longer warm—and they aren’t sweating any more, they are likely cooled down enough,” says Johnston

Then you can bring your horse back to the barn or pasture and thank him for a good ride.

Cooling Out Your Horse – Sweat It Out

While many people think of sweat as gross, it’s actually a good thing. Janet Johnston, DVM, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, explains how horses’ bodies produce heat when their muscles contract. “The harder they work, the more heat they are likely to produce and, in turn, need to get rid of.”

Sweating is how horses (and humans!) move heat out of their bodies. This evaporative cooling takes heat away from the skin as the sweat evaporates. A horse sweats out 70 percent of his excess heat during and after exercise. You can help your horse with this process by following a simple cool-down routine.

Winter Coat Cool-Down

If your horse gets a thick hair coat as the weather gets chilly, you may need to try additional cool-down tricks.

Your horse’s hair coat is fluffy to trap warmth against his skin. When the hair is wet and matted down, it doesn’t have air-trapping abilities. Rub sweaty spots with a towel to help them dry and bring back the coat’s fluff.

You don’t want your horse to get chilled while his coat dries, so place a cooler over him—or even just a towel over the wet area will do.

If your horse wears a blanket, don’t bundle him up again until he is cooled down and dry. Covering a wet horse in a blanket will make the sweat take longer to dry, making your horse uncomfortable and setting him up to get the chills.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2017 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post How to Cool Out Your Horse After a Ride appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Mary Schreiber has been massaging horses and dogs since 1989. She also started the first equine massage school so others can learn how to properly help horses. This seems like a job for someone who’s been around horses from the very beginning, but Mary didn’t even start riding until her youngest daughter became interested in horses. “I didn’t grow up with horses or dogs, but it’s like a switch came on,” she says.

Soon, Mary and her daughter were managing a boarding stable. “We were hooked, and it went on from there,” she says.

Her first massage client was a German Shepard named Duchess, and her first group of horses were racehorses in Philadelphia. She saw amazing results, including horses suddenly winning races, so she moved on to bring massage’s benefits to show horses.

“It can never be a substitute for veterinary medicine, but it’s a different approach to well-being,” Mary says. “It’s an extra step in horse care.”

Equine Massage Therapist Career – In Real Life

Massage therapy is a physically demanding, year-round job. (Of course, massage therapists are often busier during the show season.) Therapists manipulate the muscles of these huge animals, who sometimes require a surprisingly light touch, but may also need some elbow grease.

Massage therapy is a mentally challenging job, too, because therapists are required to know the muscles in the body, how they interact, and how to work on them. Plus, you need to know how to handle different horses with sometimes challenging personalities.

“It’s a therapy that’s designed to be immediate,” says Mary. “You come away knowing you’ve made a difference not just to the horse but also to the owner.”

Just like lots of horsey jobs, equine massage therapists don’t always get weekends or holidays off. When Mary first started her massage business, she’d take any opportunity to work on horses, including on holidays.

She recalls one Easter meal where she left before dessert was served because she had to work on clients who were leaving town the next day!

Getting Here

The youngest student in Mary’s Equissage equine massage therapist training program was 14 years old, and the oldest was 69 years old, proving you can’t be too young or too old to learn about bodywork.

Learning proper technique is important; you have to know what you’re doing so that you actually help the horse and don’t accidentally hurt him. Equissage was the first equine massage school. Now there are in-person and online certification programs across the country.

With certificate in hand, it shouldn’t be hard to find horses to practice on, but then the tough part comes in building a business.

When Mary first started out, she declared, “I am going to massage every horse in the world!” This might sound like a crazy idea, but with more than 20,000 people who have gone through Mary’s training program, her influence is spreading.

This article about the career of an equine massage therapist originally appeared in the November/December 2017 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post YR Career Files: Hands-on Horse Experience appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Meet the author of Canterwood Crest, a popular horse book series written by Jess Burkhart as she talks about her job as an equestrian novelist.

“There’s a whole other world out there waiting to be discovered in books,” says Jess Burkhart, author of one of Young Rider’s favorite book series, Canterwood Crest.

Jess has always loved horses.

“I don’t even remember exactly how or when it started,” she says. She had surgery on her spine when she was just 13, and she hasn’t been allowed to ride since then. That hasn’t kept her from creating a world of horses in her imagination, however.

In addition to Canterwood Crest’s 20 books, she’s written four books in the Unicorn Magic series and one young adult book, Wild Hearts. At the end of last year, Jess wrote a few stories for the anthology Deck The Stalls, including a new Canterwood Crest story.

The book sales help Old Friends Farm, a retirement home for Thoroughbred racehorses. She’s also written more than 100 non-fiction articles for magazines.

“There are so many stories I want to tell, but I can only type so fast!” says Jess. “At the end of the day, I’m always happy with the project I chose, and when the timing is right, each story will get its turn.”

Writing Imagination

To have this many books published by such a young age (Jess’ first book was published when she was 22), you have to have quite an interest in horses and love of storytelling.

“A lot of the stories have some personal tie to me,” she explains. “Wild Hearts, for example, is about a teen girl who goes on a mission to rescue wild Mustangs. I’ve always loved Mustangs and grew up watching a barn mate train one. With my Canterwood series, I went through a lot of the experiences Sasha did with friends when I was growing up, or I heard about them from my friends. When I’m not drawing from real life, I love blending books, movies and TV together to create new takes on stories.”

While Jess is best known by YR readers for her horse books, her non-fiction articles have done well, too.

“It’s quite different writing nonfiction, because those articles are all about the facts,” says Jess. “They’re sometimes easier to write because I don’t have to be in a creative brain space to come up with a new character or a fresh setting.”

Reading is Writing

All of this writing is a lot of work, but Jess studied English in college to get her ready for the job.

“I took a ton of literature classes—and very few writing courses,” she says. “I strongly believe a good writer needs to read a lot to write. I read a variety of books while getting my degree, and I still read as much as I can.”

For budding authors and writers, Jess’ best advice is to do what she does: “Read! Read everything and anything. Get a library card, and use it!”

What else would you like to know about becoming a writer? Jess wants to answer your questions! Find her on Twitter @JessicaBurkhart, Snapchat @JessBurkhart, and Instagram @JessAshley87.

This article originally about Jess Burkhart and her horse book series appeared in the March/April 2017 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

Further reading:

25 Best Horse Books for Kids

The post YR Career Files: Equestrian Novelist appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Read about the career of an equine nutritionist.

The next time you open a bag of horse feed, examine what’s inside. There’s probably some corn, oats, vitamins and minerals. Then think about why all of those ingredients are there. It was the job of an equine nutritionist to study what a horse needs to stay healthy and then to figure out how to provide a balanced diet.

An Equine Nutritionist at Work

At Purina, Katie Young, Ph.D., works as an equine nutritionist. “In my job, I help develop new formulas for Purina horse feeds,” says Katie.

Other nutritionists there work in the research and development department, studying feeds for horses with different needs. Katie works with them and also helps make complex nutrition information easier to understand for horse owners.

Katie works with veterinarians and horse owners to solve health and nutrition problems. This is a favorite part of her job. “For any horse fanatic, it’s very rewarding to have a career where you get to spend so much time with horses and their owners,” she says. The best part is when owners send her photos of their horses and thank her for helping them.

Working with horse owners can also be the hardest part of her job. Katie says there’s differing information out there about equine nutrition, and sometimes horse owners don’t know what they should believe. “I try to educate the horse owners and help them understand the differences between science-based information compared to trends and fancy marketing,” she says.

Another fun part of her job is hanging out with Purina’s Ambassadors at horse shows and at their farms. Katie recently visited eventer Boyd Martin, and every year she goes to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. She loves these trips because she’s an eventer herself.

When a Purina Ambassador goes to a major competition, such as the Olympic Games, it’s up to Katie to be sure the proper feed gets delivered to the stables.

Becoming a Nutritionist

As a young rider, Katie wanted to be an equine veterinarian, so she studied biology in college. Then she learned about going to graduate school for a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in equine nutrition and physiology.

“People who are very passionate about horses often find nutrition really fascinating,” says Katie.

After school, she taught equine classes at Texas A&M University. When the opportunity to work for a feed company came up, she took it.

If being an equine nutritionist sounds like something you’d like to do, Katie suggests you talk to some nutritionists. “You can find an equine nutritionist through a university with a graduate program in equine nutrition. You can usually find nutritionists at the bigger feed companies, too.”

Also be prepared to study hard. “As far as education, the route is very similar to pre-vet studies—biology, chemistry, physics—those are the classes that help you prepare for graduate school in nutrition,” says Katie.

Now go take a look at that feed bag! You’ll see each grain a different way, knowing what goes in to making it.

This article about the career of a horse nutritionist originally appeared in the January/February 2017 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

Further reading:

YR Career Files: Professional Groom

YR Career Files: Equine Business Marketing

YR Career Files: Hands-on Horse Experience

The post YR Career Files: Equine Nutritionist appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

The most important features of stall bedding are absorbency, comfort, non-toxicity, availability and affordability. Here are a few to consider:

Straw

Pro: Offers cushioning

Cons: Can be dusty or moldy; can be palatable, especially oat straw; not absorbent of moisture or odors

Pelleted straw

Pros: Absorbent; low dust

Con: More expensive form of stall bedding

Wood shavings or sawdust

Pros: Less dusty than straw; very absorbent; may be available from a local sawmill for low or no cost; not palatable

Cons: Must ensure no black walnut shavings are included; needs to be picked from hooves regularly

Wood chips

Pros: Very absorbent and comfortable; low dust

Cons: More difficult to keep clean; must ensure no black walnut chips are included in the stall’s bedding

Pelleted wood

Pros: Very absorbent; low dust; transported in small volume and then expands when wet; can contain odor-absorbing additives

Cons: Not appropriate for use on a dirt floor because it will absorb moisture from floor; may be expensive

Sand

Pros: Doesn’t harbor bacteria; very comfortable; not palatable

Cons: Not absorbent; difficult to dispose of; can cause sand colic if eaten off of

Ground corn stalks and cobs

Pro: Offers cushioning when used in volume

Cons: Not often readily available; may be palatable as stall bedding

Back to Muck Mastery >>

This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Stall Bedding Options appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

I’d been a horse owner for four years before I actually learned a system for cleaning a stall. As a horse-crazy 15-year-old, of course, I thought I knew everything from the day my first horse came home with me. It wasn’t until I started working at the Delaware Valley College Equestrian Center that I actually learned how to clean a stall thoroughly and efficiently.

Every horse has different stall habits, and with 48 horses in the college barn, I believe I saw it all. While each stall has is its own story, this stall-cleaning approach works for every one that I dealt with then and since. It’s intended for stalls that are bedded with shavings-like material. (Tap here for pros and cons of different types of bedding materials.)

You will need the following tools:

• Manure fork
• Broom
• Flat-bottom shovel
• Bandana to cover your nose and mouth if stall is dusty
• Watering can, if stall is dusty

STEP 1: Remove leftover hay.

If the hay is still good, scrape it to one corner to deal with later. If it’s not good, into the wheelbarrow it goes.

STEP 2: Remove visible manure and wet spots.

This is the most self-explanatory step of the stall-cleaning procedure.

STEP 3: Choose one wall, and turn over bedding along the length of the wall.

I look for the wall that appears to have the cleanest bedding, but you never know what you’ll find underneath until you start turning.

STEP 4: Toss remaining bedding against the clean wall, about hip height.

As you scoop bedding into your manure fork, you’ll find scoops that are wet. Put those into the wheelbarrow.

When you find scoops that appear to be dry, toss them against the wall. As the contents hits the wall, the clean bedding makes a neat pile against the wall, and the manure rolls or falls to the bottom of the pile.

Let the manure collect along the bottom of your bedding pile, then scoop it up and put it in the wheelbarrow. Don’t pick up the manure after you toss each scoop against the wall, or you’ll negate the efficiency of this scoop-and-toss method. Let the manure build up a bit, then scoop it out.

Turn over the entire stall in this way—even the bedding from under the water buckets, feed bucket and hay rack that we often skip. Throw out the musty, wet bedding and toss the dry stuff against the wall. It’s OK for some hay to be strewn through the bedding, as long as you did a good job of removing most of it in Step 1 of stall-cleaning.

Pro tip: If the bedding is dry and kicking up dust, wear a bandana around your nose and mouth or water the stall lightly with a watering can. This might sound counter-intuitive, but you’re not wetting the bedding, just dampening the dust so it doesn’t become airborne.

STEP 5: Treat the wet spot.

If you have stall mats or a concrete floor, sweep the remaining wet bedding off of the wet spot, and remove it with a shovel. If you have a dirt floor, scrape the wet spot with your manure fork.

If the wet spot has an offensive odor, treat it with a stall odor- and moisture-absorbing agent. If you have time, let the spot air-dry before rebedding the stall.

STEP 6: Rebed the stall.

Use the manure fork to pull the shavings away from the wall and spread them across the stall. Concentrate this bedding in the wet areas first. You’re essentially rotating stall bedding so you remove the oldest first.

You’ll find additional manure pieces hiding as you spread the shavings. After you spread out all of the bedding, pick and remove these errant pieces. Add more bedding as needed. Finally, settle the leftover hay back in its place in the stall or hay rack.

STEP 7: Clean and fill water buckets.

Take the buckets from the stall, dump them, give them a twice-around with a scrub brush, and refill.

This step comes last in the stall-cleaning routine because there’s no sense in putting clean water buckets into a stall only to mess them up again while cleaning or adding bedding. (It also comes last because it is my least favorite horse-care task.)

A thoroughly clean stall makes for a healthier home for your horse and a more pleasant barn for you. This whole stall-cleaning process should only take you 15 to 20 minutes in the beginning, which is not a lot of time to invest in your horse’s health.

As you learn your horse’s stall habits, you’ll establish a rhythm and make this chore go even faster.

Freelance writer Lisa Munniksma has cleaned hundreds of stalls in her day but now spends more time traveling, growing food and writing about it. Follow her on Instagram @freelancefarmerchick.

This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Muck Mastery appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.