Posted by Mona

Our 20 something year old Buckskin Gelding has a gift like no other. Not only is he the best first horse for my children he is also a wonderful stall cleaner. This may sound bizarre to those of you who have never had a tidy horse but it is true. There are horses that will clean up after themselves.
Captain Jack Sparrow (my daughter named him) makes horse owning a breeze. Very rarely do we have to clean his stall. How do we manage this? Every morning and evening Captain paces around his stall waiting to be fed. Apparently all of this walking chops his manure into little pieces creating a fertilizer consistency. It gets even better. We push the manure from our other horses stall into his stall and the next day it’s all mulch.

Normally I wouldn’t think that having a horse that paces as a “dream come true” but his has a mild version of this vice that doesn’t cause any hoof problems. Actually he paces just enough to keep his hoofs from growing to long as well.

Wouldn’t it be nice if this could be a trait bred into horses. Breeders could make a lot of money from selling “Tidy Horses” if this were possible.

If you have a tidy horse remember to count your blessing. You may never have the privilege of owning another.

Update:
I recently got a comment about this post that I chose not to allow to be published because it was a bit mean spirited. To the commentator, if you are truly concerned about the welfare of my horse then you could have contacted me directly. Just so everyone is clear about how my horse is treated I am going to describe his living situation. If anything this horse lives in horse heaven. His stall is very large so he is not as though he walking in manure throughout his whole stall. The manure I rake into his stall is only in a corner of his stall and just as he would clean up his own manure he also cleans up my other horses manure. I also don’t rake the manure in his stall everyday but if I did it’s really wouldn’t be much more than his own manure. Just so you know my geldings stall is tidy all the time. There is nothing to clean up in his stall because he takes care of it before we can get to it. He does not pace because of the manure either. He paces in the barely pasture as well as the stall. It’s what he does and has nothing to do with the manure. Both of my horses are given days out in the pasture so if I have given you the wrong impression or made you think that he is in less than humane living conditions, then I am sorry. Comments like the one that was left was unnecessary and mean spirited. If anyone has questions or concerns please contact me directly instead of leaving comments that others can read and get the wrong impression.