Yep, the ones I rode seemed to pick the corner the furthest away from the door to the indoor so after you were done riding you had to walk way up there and bring it all the way back to the tub by the door—never failed!
I’ve trained my horse to poop
outside of the ring.
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At my barn (outdoor, uncovered) we are required to remove our horses poop. If in a lesson, instructor will get it. If riding during someone else’s lesson, you are expected to hop off and immediately remove it (lots of younger students who are still learning to steer and won’t avoid it). If riding on your own and no lessons going on, just remove after your ride. If riding while trainer is riding, fine to wait until the end unless it’s on the rail or in line of a jump. If riding with other boarders (no lessons, no trainer), we all usually just avoid it and clean up after we’re done riding. Unless of course it’s in someone’s direct path of whatever exercise they were working on.
This should be a non-issue. Riders should pick manure out of the ring as soon as they are finished riding. As a courtesy, anyone unmounted should pick up manure for other people whenever possible, as soon as possible, because it is much more difficult to pick out manure that has been broken up and because what goes around comes around. Riders who consistently forget to pick up after their horse should pay a cleanup fee. Grooms should check the arena once a day to pick any poop that has been forgotten about.
@RAyers, you should just finish the haiku.
I’ve trained my horse to
poop outside of the ring. Mine
is smarter than yours.
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In the indoor, there’s a muck tub and fork in the corner. When you’re done, you pick up anything your horse left. If during a lesson, trainer will pick it up. If a horse is turned out in there overnight, the person working in the morning picks it when they do stalls. It’s not a pain if it is kept after.
Growing up, this was never a thing. Since GGT has become very popular, so has picking up manure in the arena. I swear I spend at least an hour or two a week picking up manure in the arena, mostly just from the horses I ride and teach.
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My mare secretly plans this! She loves to stand by the indoor entrance while I walk across the arena picking up her poop and bringing it back to the manure bucket. She gets some sort of pleasure out of this. At least she will stand unattended, enjoying watching me walk around and scooping her poop.
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By expecting people who rode a horse that took a dump in the ring to clean up after themselves when they’re done.
I personally prefer to bring the horse out and take the tack off first quickly before returning for cleaning duty, because I think leading a horse around with a pitchfork and dragging the muckbucket is ridiculous and also, if anyone else is trying to ride, the slow moving “extended reins, muckbucket, pitchfork, fumbling around with it all” takes three times as much space for three times as long to ride around while they are completely not paying attention to the horse they are leading than just a single person quickly coming back for one or two poops solo.
So, dismount, to the grooming stall, tack off, cooler on, and back to clean the ring before washing legs, bathing, or prepping for turnout.
We are also expected to clean up the grooming stall when we’re done with it, btw.
I prefer barns where the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed, and the general culture expects neatness and cleanliness of everyone, instead of laziness and sloppiness and everyone acting like yahoos.
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I would not do this even if I were alone in the arena. It’s not that much more work to just get the horse on the crossties or in their stall first where they are safe and not standing around loose with reins flapping left to their own devices. They find enough ways to hurt themselves and destroy things, why leave an easily preventable door open as well??
Then again, I have had people untack their horse in the arena and try to leave it loose while I was still riding and they were shocked and surprised when I objected to this.
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It really should be a non issue.
At our barn all riders are expected to pick up their horse’s poop, be it in the indoor or in the aisle when tacking up (pet peeve of mine). In the indoor, there are 2 muck buckets at each end of the arena, with pitchforks. No excuses, and there are cameras so that the BM can check who gets lazy 
Barn crews empty the muck buckets.
My mare is funny. She NEVER steps in a pile of poop but hops over (she probably knows that it might be frozen and hurts to step on?). I don’t think she has ever pooped in the indoor (or any ring) in the 16 years that I have owned her.
my mare NEVER poops when I am on her. She has always been like this ever since I bought her. I can’t take credit and have no idea how she was taught this. My senior citizen gelding on the other hand…
Thanks for your responses! I’ve always kept my horses at home and trailered into places. The instructor either picked it up or didn’t. It was never really an issue.
I just installed some lovely footing and want to encourage tidiness without becoming the poop patrol. It sounds like picking poo is a common request of boarding barns.
Rub his nose in it?
Rolled up newspaper.
On a serious note, the reason for removing poo from the ring has more to do with the air gap between sand particles. The organic material begins to fill this space, reducing the cushion. There is a good FEI book on footing that explains this.
Yes, outdoor footing is less inclined to be subject to this due to weather (like with natural sandy soil). However, a good draining ring is necessary.
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Almost all barns I boarded at required you to clean up your horse’s poo in the arena when you’re done riding, so no, it should not be a ridiculous request for you to add at your barn. The only reason I, now a BO, don’t require this at the moment is because my “arena” is grass, and mowing/dragging makes the poo break down pretty quickly. I also have a whole one boarder who rides regularly (the others rarely ride), and myself, so it’s pretty rare for a horse to poo in the arena. When I am able to have a sand arena put in, I will absolutely be requiring that riders remove their horse’s poo.
Then there’s the one barn I boarded at that not only didn’t require this, but actually actively spread manure (from cleaning stalls) with the manure spreader IN THE INDOOR ARENA. They only did it in the winter, so I didn’t know about this until like six months after I moved in, and I promptly left.
That’s.
Disgusting.
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It saves on mucking. Some prefer to get a matching style diaper, say chestnut or bay. Others prefer your original white. And the younger crowd seems to prefer the patterned styles like these…
https://www.amazon.com/Honest-Compan…72145986&psc=1
There is one gal with a blanket pattern appaloosa and she uses diapers with large spots on them!!!
There is a changing table in the barn aisle.
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Get you a barn full of horses like mine who almost never poops under saddle. Problem solved. :lol:
I understand the whys. The hows are bogging me down. I really don’t want to be checking video feed to catch the poopertraters. Apartment complexes are DNAing dog poo and fining folks.
Maybe a properly established poo picking culture will be self policing.
The dressage riders go for the bling.
It’s not all that complicated, usually. Post a sign, and put it in the board contract or send out a client letter/email if this is a new policy and you want to make sure it has an air of This Is Not A Suggestion. Supply the proper equipment in a convenient location. And then if it continues to be an issue, threaten to up the board fee for everyone unless the issue is resolved. It’s worked at all of the barns I’ve ever been involved with.
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