10/06/2026
*** The benefits of horses spending time in a stable throughout the year ***
I stable my horses at my yard overnight, all year round. If I could afford to employ extra staff, I’d also stable the two old retired ones at my rented yard all year round (they are stabled overnight all winter, but out 24/7 with a huge field shelter all summer). After a couple of people have recently sent messages asking me if I’d do a post on the benefits of horses spending a good proportion of every day in a stable, I decided I’d brave it! I stable mine overnight all year round, rather than switching them to night turn out during the summer months, and I cover a couple of the reasons why in the points below.
1. Stabling allows their feet and legs to dry out for a good portion of a 24 hour day during the wet winter months. This most definitely reduces the incidence of foot abscesses and mud fever.
2. Gets them out of the midges (dusk and dawn) during the summer months. Sweet itch is a heartbreaking condition for a horse to suffer from, and one of the hardest to treat and manage. It is an allergy to the culicoides midge, so stabling horses overnight avoids them being exposed to midges (unless you are bringing in very late and/or turning out very early!).
3. It gets horses used to being in a stable, if box rest is required for an illness or injury.
4. It also gets them used to being in a stable if you want to go to a stay away show, or a riding camp.
5. You know exactly how much your horse eats and drinks in the time they are stabled, so will notice any early changes in eating patterns. This is an extremely important point.
6. You know the amount and consistency of your horse’s poo. This is also extremely important, and does not only help indicate early stages of colic, but also helps the vet in treating your horse for colic.
7. Allows elderly horses and ponies to rest and sleep out of the mud in the winter months; although movement is good for arthritis, if fields are very wet and muddy and no hard standing is offered, that’s absolutely not good for arthritic joints.
8. Means the competition horses are used to sleeping overnight, rather than during the day, so they are sharper and have more energy to compete. More often than not, horses that are out overnight stay awake all night, and sleep in the early hours or during the day. A minor point, but still a valid reason.
9. Avoids the predisposing factors for summer pastern dermatitis (legs with pink skin getting damp from the morning dew on grass are then exposed to the sun, sometimes resulting in pastern dermatitis).
10. If you have good areas of dry, covered hard standing, with a nice area of dry bedding for horses to sleep, then obviously these areas have most of the above benefits, and a few of their own benefits.
There will of course be people that believe horses should never be shut in a stable, but these points are to cover why there are benefits to it, and to explain why I keep my horses in overnight 365 days a year. No “what would they do in the wild” comments, please; most domestic horses wouldn’t survive for 24 hours in the wild.
