Almost finished building a new run-in shed for my STB mare and paint gelding. If I don’t feed them in it, will they poop in it less? Most nights they will be brought into the barn into their own stalls. Someone once told me (about another shed I have) that they poop in there “because you feed them in there”…is that true?
They poop in there because they use it for shelter from the sun, wind, bugs, rain, snow, etc. They are going to stand in the shelter when they need it regardless of where you feed them. I want my horses to be able to eat their hay in comfortable conditions, so I do feed in the shelter when the weather outside is poor.
You just have to clean up the poop… No big deal. Either with a shovel and wheelbarrow, or as I do, with the tractor and FEL doing the work!
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no, they poop where you do not want them to poop, pretty much
We were fortune enough to have a lead mare who made sure every one pooped in the manure pile.She taught her herd well, but she passed away about five years ago and there has been some reversion to the wild state of poop placement …except for her baby who remembers what mother taught him (who is 27 now)
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Okay thanks for your responses.
Years ago I read an article about dairy cows which were house-trained to poop outside the milking barn. I suppose horses could be trained to poop outside the run-in shed but it would probably be a very time-consuming endeavor.
I have a dry lot and I put down straw in a pile for them to lie on since the ground is so hard. They do lie on it, but what they really love to do is pee in it. So the moral of the story is that if you put something out there that costs money and effort to replace, they might pee and poop on it instead of in your run-in shed.
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Well…horses poop where they hang out, for the most part. If you feed them in the shed, they’ll hang out there, eating and pooping :lol: I don’t feed mine in the shed for this reason–if it’s bad enough that they can’t eat comfortably out of the shed, I usually just leave them in the barn.
I have one mare who turns her stall into a total pit overnight. Played around with it a bit and now I hang her haynet outside in her run. She has an overhang, so still under cover–but that one change in where she’s fed means that it no longer looks like a poop tornado has ripped through her stall when I go in to clean in the morning. Yay! 
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My personal experience that I have witnessed many times is that mine will be standing outside eating hay at least 30 ft. from a shed, go inside to poop then come back out to eat more. I guess they want me to get my exercise cleaning the sheds.
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My mare will walk out to the back of her runout to poop, and come back into the stall to eat. She also has a pee spot which is closer to the door of stall. I feel like some horses will want to keep poop and food separate if they have a choice, but others are just messy messy messy and mix it all up. Stallions for sure keep poop piles.
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FWIW, my girls only turn the shed into a toilet if I don’t actively keep it clean.
They rarely use it as a depositing area if I pick it out daily.
But if I let the piles remain, it becomes the official toilet.
I go from maybe picking up 1 pile a day when I clean it daily to finding 20+ piles in there if I only do it once a week or so.
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Mine do that. I’ve watched them amble up to the barn from the pasture, poop and/or pee, then go back out.
Mine, too. They only get fed in their stalls, and they rarely even go into the run-ins when it’s raining. Sometimes thay’ll go in to escape the bugs, but mostly they go in there to poop. They do poop out in the pasture too.
I’ve had 2 horses that just before I brought them into their stalls, they’d pee and poop first outside. I’ve also had one that would often walk back into his stall to pee and poop and then go back outside again. Basically it all depends on the horse where they do their business. Even if you don’t put any bedding in the shed, they will still do whatever they want.
Good luck, just keep the muck bucket and pitchfork handy. 
We have a boarder that seems to ONLY go in the shed. It’s disgusting- self care and her owner doesn’t touch it. Not a Mini, either, so it’s knee deep. My boys have a pile outside and never go in their shed.
Thanks again for responses. Yes MSJ I have seen my mare make a special trip to the other shed to poop and then go back out.
I’ve only had mares in the last many years as that is what arrived here. But she always goes to the far end of her turn out paddock to poop and comes back to her in/out stall to eat her hay and grain. Only poops inside in very inclement weather. Mostly keeps her food and poop as far away as she can. Even in her pasture, her poop area is in the furthest corner where the grass is very tall and green.
Some horses will take a suggestion if you always move manure to a specific area, then they will start to go there. Most of them, on the other hand, either ignore your suggestion because they prefer somewhere else or they just don’t care where they go and go where they happen to be standing when the need strikes them.
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Potty training;
http://westfallhorsemanship.com/how-to-potty-train-a-horse-as-well-as-why-pros-and-cons/
Yep. My mare thinks that heathens pee outside. She will come in from grazing, pee and poop in her stall, then go back outside. She will even attempt to load herself onto her trailer while she is tied to the outside of it because she has to pee. Even I close her stall off she will wait until I have left the aisle unguarded and streak across the pasture at a gallop to get in and have a pee before I can chase her back out.
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This might work for me. I have not really let them use the shed yet, but they have picked a spot next to it for the poops…
