Unfortunately not all of us are lucky enough to have our own property where we can keep our horse or pony. In these situations, our only other choice if we want to keep a horse, is to use horse boarding stables.
At the moment, I’m having to use horse boarding facilities for my pony, but we have had our own property in the past, so I’ve been on both sides of the fence – when we had our property we offered horse boarding for people, but I’ve also had to use horse boarding stables on several different occasions.
So What Do You Need to Look For When You Have to Board Your Horse?
Barbed wire can be lethal around horses.
- Good Fences – The last thing you want is your horse injuring itself in poor quality fencing, especially barbed wire. Check that the fences & gates are intact with no sharp edges. Ideally, the fencing should all be electric or post and rail.
- Safe Stables & Shedding – These need to be checked the same as the fencing. Make sure there aren’t any holes in stable walls, no sharp bits of metal poking out or anything else a horse could injure itself on. If horses can find something to injure themselves on, they will!
- Weed Free Pastures – Some weeds in any horse pasture is inevitable, but try to avoid places where the paddocks are just full of weeds (in particular toxic weeds) with no grass at all. Some horse boarding facilities don’t offer paddocking (only yards or stables) so if this is the case then you don’t need to worry about this.
- Somewhere to Ride – Stop and think, where are you going to ride your horse? You definitely don’t want to try and ride your horse in a 10 acre paddock with 10 other horses running free around you…that’s a recipe for disaster! At the very least you need a paddock that doesn’t have horses in it to ride in, or easy access to quiet roads but the best thing is a proper riding arena.
- Stables or Somewhere to Put Your Horse if They’re Sick – If your horse is going to be in a paddock all the time, you still need to be able to put it somewhere by itself if it becomes sick or injures itself. Stables are perfect for this, but a very small yard would do as well.
- A Knowledgeable, Horsey Person Living on the Property – Horses can become sick or get injured at any time of the day or night and if you live 20 minutes away, you can’t be there all the time to keep an eye on them. By the time you get there the next morning to feed, it could be too late! Someone, who can call you if there’s a problem, needs to live on the property.
- Shelter in the Yards or Paddocks – A good paddock shelter or plenty of trees is essential. Your horse needs some way to escape from the scorching summer heat or take shelter during the cold winter rain.
- A Place to Store Your Horse Feed – You don’t want to have to transport your horse feed from your home to the boarding stables every day. A weather and rodent proof storage facility will stop your car from looking like a hay shed!
- Outdoor Toilet & Wash Room – You’ve been out riding your horse for a few hours and are desperate to go to the toilet…a proper toilet is much more convenient than a bush or holding on for half an hour until you’re home!
- Reasonable Rates – Are their boarding fees affordable? Usually, the more facilities there are, the more expensive the rates, but in saying that there is a fair bit of variation so it’s worth shopping around!
Hopefully your horse boarding stables has a better toilet than this...but even this is better than nothing!
Now if you can find a place that ticks all the boxes, then count yourself very lucky! However, you might find that you don’t need everything listed above in your horse boarding facilities or are happy to go without some of those features – it all depends on your individual requirements!
From my personal experience though, if you can find horse boarding stables that meet most of the standards in the list, it will make your horse boarding experience much easier…for both you and your horse!
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