Odour Control In Horse Stables
Horses are beautiful creatures, but they need a lot of care. As they poop and pee, however, horses can leave the stables with a foul smell. While cleaning the stables regularly can help to control the stench, this is insufficient. You have to figure out a more effective option for odour control in the stables. After all, you would like your horse barn to smell like fresh hay or sawdust, and not anything else.
Learn more about odour control
Where Does the Stench Come From?
When horses feed on a protein-rich diet, they produce urine and faeces containing urea. Naturally-occurring bacteria will feed on the urea and break it down to form ammonia gas. The smell of ammonia gas cannot be ignored. This is because the gas has a noxious smell that can cause a burning sensation in the lungs, eyes, throat, and nose. The smell can induce vomiting and make you feel dizzy. That is why you need to find a way to control the odour.
How to Prevent Horse Stall Odours
1. Regular Cleaning
Ideally, horse stalls should be cleaned daily to remove manure and urine piles, and soiled shavings. If possible, consider cleaning the stalls twice a day.
2. Improve Ventilation
One of the surest ways of preventing the horse stalls from smelling is enhancing ventilation. When fresh air flows freely in the barn, any foul smell will be expelled as soon as it is produced.
3. Focus on Nutrition
As noted above, urea is produced when horses are overfed on a protein diet. Be sure to balance your horses' diet to ensure you do not feed them with more proteins than they need.
4. Design a Barn With Proper Drainage
Your barn should be designed to allow for proper drainage of urine away from the stall. Urine build-up will provide a conducive environment for the production of ammonia gas and other foul smells.
5. Take the Horses Out Regularly
When the weather is warm enough, be sure to take the horses out of their stalls. Feeding and grooming can be done outside. There is no need of housing the horses in the barn if the weather is warm and conducive.
Getting Rid of the Odour
White vinegar is a cheap and readily available odour neutralizer. Since white vinegar also has a smell, you must be comfortable with this smell. Pour some white vinegar into a spray bottle and spray all the mats, floor, and walls after cleaning. This will neutralize the smell of ammonia gas.
Baking soda is also a known odour neutralizer. Be sure to order bags of baking soda and keep them in the barn to be used as an odour neutralizer and deodorizer. Before you put shavings on the floor, be sure to sprinkle some baking soda on the floor of the stall or the mat. Ideally, you should do this each time you clean the stalls.
While there are many homemade solutions for odour control, prevention is always better than cure. Therefore, you should explore all available options for preventing odour formation in the stables.