Choosing a Boarding Facility
The basic premise of boarding a horse is simple: You pay money to someone who has gone to the expense of constructing fencing and a barn that holds many horses, and that person takes care of housing and feeding your horse and the everyday chores, such as mucking out your horse's stall. Simple? It can be. However, boarding can also be extremely complicated and sometimes more than a little expensive.
Daily stall cleaning is important to your horse's health. Start by picking out the large piles of manure with a rake, and then sift through the bedding for scattered chunks. About once a week, strip the stall of all bedding and let the stall air out for as long as possible.
Consider the proximity of the boarding facility to your home or job. How far will you have to drive to visit your horse? In some cases, the travel time may be worth your while, particularly if you are interested in the kind of horsemanship offered at a certain facility, and there is no place closer that provides the same environment. Some barns cater to a particular riding discipline, such as dressage, jumping, or Western, offering instruction and other activities related to your chosen style of equitation. The camaraderie at a barn where everyone shares the same interest can be extremely valuable and educational, especially to a novice horse owner.
Facilities offer different housing arrangements, but the most likely scenario is that your horse will have a box stall in which he will spend a good deal of time. The larger the stall the better — 10′ × 10′ is considered a minimum requirement, a 12′ × 12′ stall is better, and larger is even better, especially if you have a big horse.
Another good arrangement for a horse is a run-in shed with twenty-four-hour turnout, but facilities that offer this are few and far between. The reason is convenience — it is much easier to feed horses and clean stalls that are all under one roof than it is to trudge through adverse weather to attend to many outside run-in sheds.
Some barns with numerous stalls under one roof are set up with small turnout corrals off the outer wall of each stall, essentially creating a run-in situation. This, along with turnout in a larger area during the day when you aren't exercising your horse, can be an ideal arrangement. Horses seem to be more content when they have at least some control over where they spend their time — for example, being in the sun or in the shade, out in the snow or in a cozy stall with deep bedding.
What does turnout mean?
Turnout refers to the period when your horse is out of the confinement of a stall and loose in a larger fenced area — either outside in a corral or pasture, or in an indoor arena if the weather is bad.
