Those with horses a ?

[Poison Ivy]

I have a older horse and she has a bad habit. I have a open backed stall for her to come out of the rain. Plus that is where we feed her because of the easy access from the front of the stalls. I've noticed she has a bad habit of pooping where her feed buckets are! It drives me insane even in the other pasture where we put up a carport cover for her to get some shade or cover from rain. She poops there too then I have the rolls of costal hay for her to eat on daily. What does she do? Yep she pees & poops right in the edge of the hay! I've had to start putting the roll of coastal in another stall an take a few boards out of the back of the stall so she can reach her head in to eat it. But she pee right in front of it. How can I get her to STOP?????? Our other horse never did this. He would go to a spot on the other side of the pasture to do his duty. Plus I board 2 horse and they go to the other side of the pen too. Why does Finale do what she does any ideas?

 

[CarriBrown]

Has she always done that?
It could be a lot of things- her age (not wanting to walk too far), her wanting to pee on something absorbant (they do not like having pee splash up on their legs)... those are the two things that come to mind.
Some horses are just messy like that, too. My gelding is very picky about where he pees and poops. He goes in the same exact spot day after day. If I put bedding down, he'll pee in the bedding. My mare will pee and poop where ever she happens to be standing.

 

[equine chick]

How long has she been doing that? A friend of mine has a stallion that would do this when he hadn't been studded for a while. I always thought if a horse did this they were upset about something. Anything new happen recently, new or loss of herd mate, change of environment?

 

[merryreader]

I have an older mare(27) that would walk a mile to poop in her house. Sometimes in the summer on really nice days we lock her out with a board across so she won't. (why make extra work for us). My othe older mare (23) doesn't care where she goes. Merry

 

[wren]

Sounds like she's normal. They do like to pee on bedding so it doesn't splash up on their legs. Some will go right near where other's have gone to mark the spot with their own scent. I haven't heard of any tricks you can use. It seems that they choose a spot and stick with it. I've got a yearling that poos on the windowsill and the top of the fence. Maybe put her hay in a net.

 

[Poison Ivy]

No changes or anything I've had her a year and the lady I bought her from had her for over 15 years. She feed her in a stall with no bedding. I have her in a pen/pasture by herself. She has a open stall that is used for feeding & open to her to get out of the rain. I buy rolls of coastal hay and put that in a second stall with a board across to keep her out. If I didn't do that she would pee in it too but now she just pees right in front of the stall. I just find it odd that she would piss & eat in the same spot! Plus it makes the stall barn smell to high heaven. I can even put her in the other pasture and she will do the samething. I was just wondering if it was just her. She is in a pen by herself since we sold our TB about 8 mos. ago. I can't put her with the horses we board they don't get along at all and someone would get hurt. Thanks for your answers thought it was just her.

 

[usbr]

My horses get in a habit of doing thier business in the barn too but I can break them of it. It usually starts when the weather is bad, monsoon rains for days on end or the super cold days. I can see them not wanting to go outside in the cold but after a few times, all 3 start doing it and wont stop. This last winter was bad, I have rubber mats instead of bedding but the poop froze down so I couldnt remove it and removing it is a simple way to break them of the habit. It was so bad this winter, I had to give up till spring and use the loader on the garden tractor to clean up. I am still fighting thier habit too but its better now, at least manageable. I think they are playing the scent game too as they always sniff around and add to where the other one did it last.

Break thier routine is what works best for me. I lock them out and clean well to remove scent. If they start again, I lock them out longer. I have even moved the water and hay bin around to break the routine. Of course, this winter I couldnt let them stand outside when it was so cold so I lost pretty bad. I did get one heck of a compost pile though and I have been using that to fill some ruts in the yard and holes in the pasture (the holes the horses dug themselves, morons).

Side benifet of chickens is they like to scratch in the horse poop and after they do, the horses dont like that spot as much. Since the chicken coop is right next to the barn, the chickens take care of most of the problem.

HTH

 

[chickbea]

Horses are weirdos, and old mares are the weirdest of them all!

 

[Poison Ivy]

I know Finale has a habit of scraping the floor in front of the stall door & she hits it with her front foot. She has scraped most of the dirt away and now its a good 1' drop from the outside. We had to get dirt before and fill it in the other stall from where she did this. She does it everytime we go down to feed her and she won't stop until she see the grain go in her bucket.