Horse Farm Design: An Agricultural Engineering Approach

few miles per day. It may be alright to close our cars in a garage and to let them be idle most of the day but a living breathing horse is better suited to being outdoors or if confined in an open airy environment.
The traditional use of the horse has dramatically changed but not our horse housing. Most horses are kept in suburban settings for recreation use rather than for any type of work. This is fine but perhaps our thinking about horse stabling needs to change to match the change in how we use horses. Modern horses are often inactive most of the day and confined to a stall where they originally were only expected to rest and sleep for work the next day.
Throughout this bulletin series there are several references made to horse housing design in relation to livestock housing design. This upsets some horsemen and horsewomen since they dont think of horses as livestock. Indeed within our American culture we do not eat or derive food products from horses as we do from hogs cattle and poultry. But there is an unnecessary trend in stable design toward more residentialtype construction that is not appropriate for healthy horse keeping.
Horse housing needs to be more like livestock housing than residential housing. Horses are our companions and treated as family in many cases but horses are livestock when it comes to housing. Horses are large strong animals with instincts and habits that require they be housed in facilities that recognize their needs. As livestock horses will drop feces and urine on the floor. As livestock horses are fed and bedded with relatively dusty materials. Horses respire gallons of water into the stable air. Horse stables have more moisture dust and odor than found in humanoccupied environments and hence require the

substantial ventilation rates typical of our best livestock facilities. In fact horse stables should have even better air quality than typical livestock facilities to maintain horse health and athletic ability.
The Horse Facilities series of bulletins accessed at this web site are written in relation to a typical 1000pound horse. Clearly scaleup proportionally for larger animals. We dont often scale down for smaller equine but in the case of significantly smaller ponies and horses accommodate their needs with fencing and stall panels that allow them similar safety and ability to see neighbors respectively as provided for the typical 1000pound horse.
One of the biggest challenges in conveying the information contained in the Horse Facilities bulletins is the wide range of suitable horse housing designs. Designs vary from the simple lowcost backyard facility thoughtfully planned and constructed for fully functional horse care. In contrast some backyard facilities incorporate beautifully detailed expensive construction. Stables large and small can be successful with informal features or may incorporate every available convenience. Within large horse enterprises there is wide variation from highend facilities to average construction. Some readers will be picturing their stable with chandeliers and impressive architectural features while others want advice on how to most economically achieve horse housing goals. These bulletins have been written to provide recommended practices for an average
wellbuilt stable that will be attractive with features that others will recognize as thoughtful functional design. There is an emphasis on laborsaving functional planning. Surely special features and finishes may be added to enhance visual appeal of the facility once fundamentals of housing the horse in a suitable environment are provided.
Individuals using the technical information from the Horse Facilities bulletins will be able to effectively plan and design a facility that best meets operational goals.