Keep Barn Aisles Clear to Prevent Accidents

Falling off your horse often results in nothing more than an amusing video, but falling over something in your barn aisle, especially if you’re carrying something like a saddle or a bale of hay, can cause an off-balance tumble that ends in a serious injury.

According to the National Safety Council, you don’t have to fall from even a modest height to hurt yourself. Figures from a recent year showed that nearly 140,000 time-off-work injuries were caused by falls on the same level. In the same year, 100 of these same-level falls were fatal.

You can’t prevent all falls in and around the barn, but making one simple change can keep your stable safer. Remove all nonessential items—tack trunks, tools, wheelbarrows, hoses, buckets, empty feed bags, and so on—from the barn aisle and place them in tack rooms or other storage areas. In addition to minimizing falls, this easy modification means that farriers and veterinarians will be able to work around horses more easily; young or skittish horses will not be startled by bumping into objects beside or behind them; and vehicles will have more room to enter the barn. You’ll be able to lead horses past each other more safely, and cross-tied horses won’t step on things that are in the way.

Along with an uncluttered aisle, good lighting throughout the barn is an important factor in preventing falls. Especially in the winter when daylight hours are shorter, having plenty of light in the stalls as well as in tack and feed rooms will allow handlers to move around with greater safety. Be sure that lighting in lofts and other storage areas is sufficient. Outdoor lights near barn doors will help owners who are bringing horses in or out of the barn early in the morning or after sunset.