How to strip your horse’s stall!
Get ready to gain some serious muscles here, people. Stripping stalls is hard work, but seriously worth it.
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But why?
- For a few reasons – freshen the bedding, check for a level floor, do a thorough clean, and even inspect the bottom of the walls. And how to do it? Grab some tools and get to shoveling. You can skip the gym on stall stripping day.
Vice grips (on the RIGHT) are super for moving mats and saving hands.
Clear out the shavings
- I like to start stripping a stall by simply mucking it out, toss the manure and wet spots. Then, you can shovel the remaining shavings.
- At this point, you can toss the remaining shaving, but I like to repurpose them. They can go into a garden for weed control, into an outdoor run for bedding, into a paddock as a rolling spot. Or, you can save the shavings and reuse them in the stall.
- Alternatively, you can use a bunch of fresh new bedding when you put the stall back together. It all depends on your budget and preference!
Mats with gaps let urine and water through to the base layers to make waves in the floor.
Now it’s time to inspect your mats and what’s underneath.
- Are there dips you need to fill, gaps that need to be scraped out and have the mats straightened, or are they perfect?
- If you need to pull your mats, use a pair of vice grips to clamp onto one edge of the mat. Much easier than trying to grab with your hands! There are loads of great things to put under your mats if you have a horse that has created a dip.
- Also, consider moving the mats around so that his favorite pee spot is not right over a seam in the mats.
Zeolites will eat dangerous ammonia odors.
With the bedding gone, you can see if the bottom of the stalls need repair.
- Wooden stall walls often break down a bit, and you can either replace boards or consider replacing them. Composite stall walls are often in a steel frame, which can rust. The rust can be scraped off and painted with a rust-proof paint to extend its life.
- You can also sometimes find mouse holes and paths at the bottom on the stall walls, giving you a chance to put up some barricades or maybe even conducting an eviction.
For ideas on what to put under your horse’s stall mats, you can read this gem of an article!
Depending on how your stall is designed, there’s a chance you have some plumbing running through it.
- Check the plumbing lines and surrounding areas for evidence of a slow leak. You will probably find rust on metal barn components, a dip in the ground, wet mats, etc.
Take time to inspect the boards or panels that are normally covered up by shavings.
With the stall empty, also time to check and replace screw eyes, rusty waterers, and it’s a great time to power wash the walls.
- Loads of tips on that topic can be found here! After you are all done, time to move the mats back (So you may be skipping the gym tomorrow, too!) and replace the bedding.
- It’s a great time to take note of where the urine actually lands so that you can add some ammonia killer under the bedding.
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