Reforming the Stall Pig

[subk]

I have a two year old who has started coming into a stall for the first time during the day with my other three horses. He is the worst in a stall I’ve ever encountered. Poops everywhere and anywhere and isn’t completely happy until he’s walk through it a half dozen times and wrecked the whole place. I have been trying to go down mid-day and instead of picking his stall clean have been putting all his poop against wall in the same spot. Some days I think maybe he’s getting it, but most days not. I’ve been thinking about putting the pasture alpha’s manure in his stall in that spot, but I’m not sure if that’s just crazy.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to reform a stall pig?

[endlessclimb]

Only what you’re already doing. Works with some and not others. Is he nervous in the stall, since it’s a little new?

[clanter]

no real help but we had one lead mare who Made all the other horses poop in the compost pile, not in Her Pasture… which helped teach them to be clean in their stalls.

Currently have an older mare (Bonnie) who does the same however when she is her stall it is another story

Lexie is like your horse, she spent all of her prior years in a pasture but here is stalled at least half of day, she sort of mixes it up but is getting a little better. For her if in her stall (and the one we have on 24/7 stall rest at least for another month or two) those stalls are picked three times (morning/noon/evening)

[beowulf]

Is he a pig because he’s stall-walking and churning the particulates together in the stall? Sometimes you can help alleviate the stall walking by hanging hay nets or other toys, but this doesn’t fix the underlying issue (anxiety), just temporarily pauses it.

Does he have to go in the stall…? Can it be reduced to an hour and can you gradually build up to whatever # of hours is necessary?

[SusanO]

If this is possible (and I think it isn’t) please tell me how. My first mare was a real neatnik. I say was because she has started to follow the trend that her best friend has established. The other mare poops everywhere, steps in it, kicks it all over. Her stall door is open 24/7 most of the time so I don’t know why she is nervous being in her stall because she COULD step outside. She very rarely poops outside in her 15 acre pasture. She will walk all the way across the pasture into her stall, poop, step in it and then exit the stall.

She pulled the same crap with peeing until I decided that she gets limited bedding. Since it splashes when she pees she usually goes outside for that. However sometimes in the summer she won’t leave her fan to go outdoors and will pee directly on the mat. ICK!!! She will not sleep inside the stall, even if it is deeply bedded so I don’t feel guilty about limited shavings. Because she is a strip-the-stall gal every day or even twice a day.

I thought the other mare would teach her to be neat. Nope! I have tried to push the manure into a pile on the wall. Nope! She just likes to decorate her stall with poop and step in it and kick it all over.

[subk]

He is on the nervous side–he was pulled from a kill pin about a year ago–but I wouldn’t say he’s a “stall walker.” I think not having him on the same schedule as the other 3 would just make him more up tight. After eating he does do some weird cribbing like thing on his feed bucket but no where else. If you take the feed bucket out of his stall he doesn’t seem to miss it.

He’s here because I have great grass and he needs to be in a situation where he can gain weight. (And he is!) So he’s eating a lot and pooping a commensurate amount. Probably a pile every hour or so. I have nice big, open stalls to move around in with dutch doors to the outside as well as the aisle so lots to look at.

I have two full brothers who are both neat. One often goes in the same spot and if he doesn’t he won’t walk through it until there are 5 or so piles and then it gets too complicated and he gives up. His little brother worships the saint of stall neat-niks. Always poops in the same place, never walks through it. So it might be something they learn from their mothers.

What do ya’ll think about bringing in the pasture alpha’s poop?

[jvanrens]

@subk

What do ya’ll think about bringing in the pasture alpha’s poop?

I’ve heard of that working. didn’t do anything with my pigpen, but would not hurt to try though.

[Ajierene]

On a related note…the herd leader where my mare is now is teaching everyone to poop very neatly, in a corner of his stall. They have 24/7 freedom of movement in/out of stall, except when being fed or left in because we are working with a horse in the aisle. Between his stall and my mare’s stall there were some removable boards that eventually became one low board.

Originally, we liked the low board as my mare and the two young ones could walk over it but herd leader wouldn’t so they had another “avenue of escape” if needed but he wouldn’t eat my mare’s food during food time.

Well, we rode these two, then my friend took one of the young ones out and I was picking out the stalls. I watched my mare walk over the board into the stall, where herd leader was still locked in (both were locked in until the young one came back), poop, then walk back over the board to her stall.

Well…that’s one way to keep your stall neat…

[skip99]

I have one gelding who is a total pig if he’s stressed. And for him sharing a wall with another horse causes him to stress. So he’s in the stall with solid walls so he can’t see his neighbor. He does much less stall churning this way and is so much happier.

My mare is incredibly neat. Both inside and outside she poops in the corners (and one center spot of a particular field since the other horses already “ruined” that spot by pooping there consistently). She is incredibly offended that the other horses don’t give a…well, you know

[candyappy]

@subk

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to reform a stall pig?

The best you can do is try and train them to poop in one spot like you are doing but honestly, I have found that they are either clean from the beginning or not ever . No matter what you do.

I cleaned a lot of stalls for a lot of years working off board and that is my experience. We did manage to train a few who had an outside paddock but it was rare.

I don’t stall my horses here at home but my young gelding goes out of his way to poop all in one spot in either the dry lot or the lean- to and right along the fence or back wall.

The piles are stacked and he has done this since he was a yearling when I got him. I had a mule I bred/ raised who was exactly the same from about day 1 .

My mares OTOH poop in the same general area but in the shavings and where ever they please.

[Postandrails]

Something I found fascinating was watching a small herd of horses in a large (approx 40 acre) paddock. When we were in drought they made a change to all pooping along the fencelines. Once there was abundant grazing again they went back to pooping anywhere. They had obviously made the decision to protect the grazing when there was so little of it, but couldn’t care less when it was abundant. There was no change to the horses in the herd.

[DIR]

Not something desirable, but a gap in stall mats is a great way to train everyone where to pee. I removed center walls to make double stalls about 15 years ago, every horse that ever occupied these two stalls has preferred to pee in the crack. Mare, gelding does not seem to matter.

[SusanO]

OK. 15 acres and she came in the stall and pooped in her food dish. Incorrigible.

[trubandloki]

@SusanO

OK. 15 acres and she came in the stall and pooped in her food dish. Incorrigible.

I feel that it is fair that I laugh at this because I have a mare who does the same type of things.

When she sees me coming out to the barn to turn everyone out she has to go into her stall (from the attached paddock) and pee. She likes to find some spot that she has removed the bedding from to do this so I get the joy of a pee lake when I come in to clean.
She is also the type that likes to manure right by the door from the stall to the paddock, so she walks thru it as she goes in and out.

[Angela_Freda]

Are horses not supposed to poop and pee in their stalls?
I’m regularly confused by people upset that horses pee in the stall.

Anyway, it sounds like he’s stall walking, which isn’t intentional, which churns all the poop, pee and bedding up.
Fix that and it will likely be much better.

And/Or pick it more frequently when they’re kept in.

[trubandloki]

@Angela_Freda

Are horses not supposed to poop and pee in their stalls?

Laugh, well, it is nice if they do it outside so I do not have to buy so much bedding…

I just think it is funny that this mare is more than willing to pee outside literally runs into her stall when she sees me coming to let her out, and pees inside.

[jvanrens]

@Angela_Freda

Are horses not supposed to poop and pee in their stalls?
I’m regularly confused by people upset that horses pee in the stall.

Anyway, it sounds like he’s stall walking, which isn’t intentional, which churns all the poop, pee and bedding up.
Fix that and it will likely be much better.

And/Or pick it more frequently when they’re kept in.

At the farm I managed, there was a boarder’s horse who would not pee in his stall over night. Turn him out in the AM and he would pee about 5’ out the gate. Loved that little guy. Unfortunately we had a couple of mares that made up for him.

[stargzng386]

Mine was the opposite he’d hold it and the second he was in his stall every morning pee. I have a pony right now who only poops in 3 spots up in her little dry lot even when she’s turned out to the full acre to graze. It’s cute but annoying because I have to pick it then spread it in that acre she grazes so it would be much more convenient for her to just poop on the grass while grazing.