How to spring clean your stable, with tips from a vet hospital supervisor and five-star eventing groom

It’s the season of spring cleaning, and where better to address your attentions than focusing on how to deep clean your stable yard. Spick and span doesn’t just look pretty, it’s healthier for horse and human, and we’re not just talking about mucking out here – we’re going the full hog.

How to deep clean your stable

Jayne Tansey is one of the yard supervisors at the Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital. A medical setting requires exemplary standards of cleanliness and hygiene. This is how she would deep clean a stable:

• Remove all faeces and urine, along with all the bedding, matting and equipment (buckets, tying-up string and so on)
• Empty and clean any associated drains
• Remove dust from all fixtures, such as lights, heaters, pipes, hayracks and from the rafters and roof
• Manually scrub walls and floors with an animal-safe general surface disinfectant (like this one) to remove organic matter and clean grossly contaminated areas
• Allow to dry
• For a really thorough clean, repeat steps four and five

Jayne recommends speaking to your local farm supplier to get advice on the best chemicals to use.

“We use non-residue high-level disinfectants that do not contaminate the environment,” she says. “Our disinfectants naturally degrade to water.”

Hygiene rules at home

Naturally, we may not be double-disinfecting our stables at home between each use as they do at equine hospitals, but clean beds go a long way in keeping horses healthy, especially when it comes to wind issues and infection.

Good hygiene is vital for equine health for three main reasons:

• It helps stop infections spreading from one horse to another
• It reduces a horse’s exposure to harmful bacteria in its environment
• It lowers the risk of pathogens (germs) passing between horses and the people who care for them

For Jade Roberts, head competition groom to five-star event rider David Doel, hygiene standards are very much part of the job description.

“If I tip water out of a water bucket into a glass – would you want to drink it?” she asks.

With the welfare of top competition horses at stake, it’s no wonder that Jade is so particular.

“Hygiene is extremely important, you’re trying to eliminate any disease and health issues,” she explains.

“We try to keep the same standards at home, when travelling and at competitions. I do all the international competitions, and the younger girls join me for the one-days at home, following the same procedures so everyone knows what they’re doing.”

Travelling horses to competitions, Jade is particularly concerned with hygiene in relation to their respiratory systems. “You don’t want any coughs or snotty noses.”

Cleaning routine on top event yard

Jade outlines the routine at David Doel’s.

• All the stables are mucked out every morning, and then also skipped out at lunch, in the afternoon (the slightly dirtier ones are mucked out again) and evening
• All water buckets and haynets come out before you start to muck out
• If a bed needs a top up, take the bank down and add fresh bedding to the banks rather than the middle of the bed to encourage rotation of the bed
• Loose bits are swept out rather than into the bed – fresh forage shouldn’t be put on top of the crummy bits, which are made up of bedding and seeds from the forage, as it festers and gets moist, which is not good for the horses’ respiratory systems.

How to deep clean your stable: what are you missing?

When it comes to maintaining good hygiene on our own yards, there are some commonly overlooked areas.

• Field troughs – standing water is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria
• Rubber matting – the stable looks clean but debris and moisture can build up underneath, so these need to be lifted regularly (use a mat mover tool like this one to help) and the floor properly cleaned and disinfected
• Tie-up strings – remove string between the turnover of horses, or use tie-up bungees that are washable
• Food and water bowls – these need washing with detergent and rinsing well
• Cross-tie clips if that area is communal
• Travel kit – anything that goes to competitions, clinics or camps, might need more frequent washing

Disinfecting a stable

Rosina Lillywhite, head of nursing at Liphook says that unfortunately, just sloshing around disinfectant isn’t the answer.

“Disinfectant is inactivated by organic material (like faeces and urine) so if you don’t remove that first, you’re just making your stable smell pretty.”

She also stresses the importance of correct contact time: “Disinfectant needs time to work, if it’s washed away it won’t be effective.”

Rebecca Bruford, head nurse at the Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital, agrees that there’s a difference between a stable looking or smelling nice and actually being hygienic.

“Cosmetic cleanliness is important, but it is sensible to focus on risk-based hygiene,” she says.

She also says it’s worth being prepared for the worst.

“It might seem like overkill, but have a kit ready for a disease outbreak like strangles – a footbath, disposable hazmat suits, gloves – if it’s ready to go, then hopefully you never have to use it,” she says.

Tips for deep cleaning stables

• Use mole grips or mat mover tools (like this) to help you move rubber mats
• Use a garden knapsack sprayer (like this one) to apply disinfectant – you can even take it away with you to a stay-away show
• Don’t try to substitute good old-fashioned elbow grease – you cannot beat manual scrubbing!

How do professionals deep clean stables: the gold standard

Abiee Olver is yard nurse manager at Liphook Equine Hospital. Hygiene and biosecurity are the top priorities, and it’s reassuring to see quite how high the standard is, even if our own yards are put in the shade.

“We care for in-patients such as newborn foals and horses with weakened immune systems, alongside some isolation cases, so it’s our most important focus,” she says.

The team at Liphook follow strict protocols, including removing all bedding, scrubbing walls, water buckets and feed buckets.

“We wash our hands between patients, and any time we touch a horse for a medical procedure, we wear gloves,” she says.

Jayne Tansey says the Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital is similarly meticulous.

“Hygiene and biosecurity within the hospital are a large part of the yard technicians’ and nurses’ role,” Jayne explains.

“After every inpatient is discharged, the bedding is removed, and the stable is thoroughly cleaned. Stables are only reallocated to patient use following a negative environmental swab.”

And it’s not just the stables that are tested for bacteria.

“Spot checks are carried out where any member of the team can have their hands swabbed at any point, which is sent to our onsite lab for analysis of bacteria.”

And while we don’t need to go as far as swabbing our fellow liveries, Jayne points out that keeping on top of germs in our own stable management routine is important.

“You may not need hospital level protocols at home, but biosecurity is still very relevant,” she says.

“Damp and warm environments, such as stables and high touch areas, act as the perfect bacterial breeding ground. Biofilms can form on these surfaces, building over time that can make it difficult to remove bacteria and disinfectant becomes less effective.

“So, it’s important to clean ‘high touch’ areas such as tack rooms regularly.”

Andrea O’Brien is company director at Equine International Shipping in Ireland.

“Hygiene is very important in the world of horse transportation,” she says. “For a number of different reasons, mostly biosecurity for safeguarding against the spread of disease, bacterial, viral or fungal infections, for example, ringworm.”

As well as maintaining hygiene standards for the horses in transit, they also have a layover yard where horses stay for their Department of Agriculture inspection, before leaving the country or on entry.

“Our layover stables have composite walls and sealed floors,” says Andrea.

“We empty every bit of shavings out of the box and wash down the walls with a soft brush, with disinfectant. We give the soft, sealed floors a brush down, let that dry and then later in the week we knapsack spray, then do all the feed pods, hay bars and the drinkers.”

Scientific understanding of bacteria, viruses, how they’re transmitted and the dangers of antimicrobial resistance is increasing all the time. Arming ourselves with the latest knowledge will help us keep our horses safe and reduce the risk of avoidable diseases.

Rosina says we shouldn’t be afraid to ask the experts around us: “If you’d like advice on hygiene and protocols, do speak to your vet or veterinary nurse as they’ll be happy to help you put a simple plan in place, so you can see what good practice looks like and where improvements might be needed.”

And, as Andrea concludes, “The cleaner the environment, the healthier the horse, at the end of the day.”

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