Although historically horses are free-ranging herd animals, domestic equines have learned over the centuries to take great comfort in the security of a stall. Inside a stall, there’s comfortable bedding to snooze on, food and water aplenty, safety from predators, and protection from the elements. All the comforts of home, so to speak.

The instinct to seek that shelter and safety has become so strong in our domestic horses that in the case of a life-threatening emergency, such as a barn fire, they have been known to run back into the burning building, to the stalls which, to them, represent safety despite the flames crackling all around them. This drive overrides both common sense, and the herd urge, and says a lot about how important stalls are to horses. So when we consider the construction of stalls, we shouldn’t underestimate how important it is to provide a comfortable, welcoming, and most importantly, safe, environment in which our horses can live