smell of other horses is reassuring to your horse "Not only is the stall a small area where a horse can’t see far, but in many cases it also doesn’t allow him to see neighboring horses, and this puts his survival instincts into overdrive,” says Croce. "Isolation deprives the horse of the protection afforded by the herd and plays into his fears of being vulnerable to predators. When a horse has a more open area and is able to see and smell other horses, he has less psychological stress.” If your horse is stalled much of the day, he should have access to hay to maintain digestive health and alleviate boredom. Horses are meant to be busy grazing about half the day. Standard stalls are usually between 10’ n 10’x10’ and up to 12’ o 12’x12’. We make our brood-mare stalls up to 16’ o 16’x16’ which also comes in handy if a horse is sick or if you have a stallion. We have developed a moveable stall wall that rides on overhead rails, just like most stall doors. This allows you to double the size of a stall with a simple push, no need to take your stall wall apart one 2”x6” at a time. Use stall fronts with grill or mesh fronts, the stall door should allow your horse to put his head out and look around. Try to avoid solid walls between stalls, utilize bars or grillwork so horses can see each other. Physical stress, such as poor air quality, can affect health over time. If you combine less-than-ideal air quality with social stress, from lack of contact with other horses, the horse is less able to cope with the poor air quality, and this starts a downward spiral.
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