Maintaining high standards of cleanliness and biosecurity for livery yards and equestrian centres is crucial for the health and wellbeing of both horses and humans. With horses often coming and going from different environments—competitions, training, hacks and suchlike,—biosecurity becomes a frontline defence against the spread of infectious diseases. A well-equipped yard not only promotes good hygiene but also demonstrates a professional commitment to horse care.
Biosecurity begins at home. Here’s a comprehensive guide to the most useful cleaning and biosecurity equipment every yard should consider having on hand, and why.
1. Disinfectant Footbaths and Mats
Why it’s essential: These are vital for preventing pathogens from being carried into stables on boots or wheels. This could be from liveries, staff or visitors. This is particularly important if you have visitors who may be wearing the same clothing and footwear to multiple yards on the same day, such as farriers and vets.
Top tips:
- Disinfecting footwear mats are inexpensive and are easy to maintain. Just place at the entrance to the yard.
- Use an approved disinfectant (e.g., Virkon S) that is effective against equine pathogens, follow manufacturer dilution guidelines to maintain effectiveness.
- Ensure the disinfectant is refreshed regularly, ideally daily- dirty foot baths are worse than none at all!
- Place footbaths directly at the entrance so people must step through them when entering, making sure they are unavoidable, even in wet weather.
- Put a stiff mat or sponge layer inside the bath to help scrub soles of boots and remove organic matter. If this isn’t possible, provide a heavy duty boot brush/ scraper to use before the foot dip.
- Use signage, and educate visitors and staff why it’s important to ensure this is done every time they enter or exit the yard.
2. Hand Sanitation Stations
Why it’s essential: Encouraging everyone to sanitize their hands when they enter or exit the yard, or between handling horses, helps reduce the transmission of diseases like strangles and equine influenza.
Top tips:
- Mount dispensers at stable entrances, tack rooms, and common areas. Touchless hand sanitizer dispensers are ideal and inexpensive
- Use alcohol-based products for maximum effectiveness. Bulk buy sanitiser liquid and refill individual dispensers as necessary for a cost effective solution.
- In the event you don’t have access to dispensers or sanitizer, ensure that hand washing facilities such as warm water, soap and clean towels or paper towels are available
3. Keeping Tack and Equipment Clean and Separate
Why it’s essential: Using separate equipment for different areas (e.g., mucking out vs. feed prep) prevents cross-contamination. As does ensuring equipment is cleaned between uses. High use equipment such as feed buckets, water buckets, tack, riding equipment and grooming kits should be regularly disinfected.
Top tips:
- Colour-code tools like forks, brooms, shovels, and buckets. This can be done as simply as coloured stickers allocated to each horse, and corresponding coloured tags on items where stickers aren’t practical.
- Clean and disinfect tools regularly, especially if used in isolation or quarantine areas. Try to have designated equipment such as grooming kits, and feed and water buckets for each horse, and avoid sharing use.
- Follow good feed room biosecurity practices, including designated scoops and stirrers, and effective washing of buckets and feed bins.
- Make sure fabric items such as numnahs, saddle cloths and boots are washed regularly. Its ideal to have a dedicated washing machine on the yard for such items and use an animal safe detergent.
- Wash off bits after use, and give tack a wipe over before putting away. Try to have a dedicated tack cleaning kit per horse, and ensure that sponges and cloths are washed or replaced regularly.
- If you’re a riding school and have high use of equipment such as tacks and saddles, consider having a tub of disinfectant wipes to hand. These are easier to handle than plastic packets, and less likely to dry out.
- Horse rugs should be washed at the end of the season and stored appropriately. In individual rug bags is ideal, and using vacuum storage bags can make sure they reduce space, as well as being clear and easily identifiable to which rug is in each bag.
4. Manure and Waste Management Systems
Why it’s essential: Efficient waste management helps control fly populations, odour, and disease.
Top tips:
- If possible, use wheelbarrow covers or closed muck trailers for transporting waste. This reduces spillage and stoops use bedding blowing off of the barrow. Especially if for quarantined horses and passing through other areas of the yard.
- Place the muck heap away from stabling, grazing areas or water sources, and ensure regular removal. Ideally base it on hardstanding or a proper pad to avoid nutrient leaching into soil.
- Poo should be picked up from the yard, walkways and riding areas as soon as possible. Its ideal to have poop scoops placed around the yard so there are no excuses!
- Make sure you have bins available at the yard and empty them regularly, or better still encourage liveries and visitors to take their waste home. make sure that any potentially hazardous waste (ie by vets) is disposed of appropriately following DEFRA guidelines
- Clean out drains close to wash down areas, or corners of the yard which may be prone to trapping manure or urine such as under rubber mats or the corners of grooming areas. Ensure there are mesh or covers to prevent the drains becoming clogged with hair or bedding
5. Protective Clothing and PPE
Why it’s essential: Staff working with sick or quarantined horses should wear gloves, overalls, and boot covers to avoid spreading infections.
Top tips:
- Keep a stock of disposable PPE. This should include single use disposable gloves and disposable shoe covers. These can also be useful to have available for visitors such as vets.
- For isolation of those suspected to have an infectious disease, the use of cost effective disposable aprons or disposable coveralls would be advisable.
- Provide a designated changing area to remove contaminated clothing safely, and also providing suitable disinfection or hand washing facilities (see above)
- During outbreaks: provide disposable gloves, boot covers, and hand sanitiser at the entrance to the yard.
- Disposable items such as coveralls, shoe covers, gloves and suchlike should be removed carefully, turned inside out and disposed of responsibly in a dedicated and sealed bin.
6. Pressure Washers and Hose Systems
Why it’s essential: Dirt, mud, and manure are constant companions in equestrian facilities. Pressure washers are highly effective for deep cleaning stable walls, floors, rubber mats, wash bays, and outdoor areas. Stables should be deep cleaned and disinfected between horses, and ideally all stables should have a deep clean at least annually.
Top tips:
- Use a high quality pressure washer such as a Karcher that are durable and long lasting.
- Use accessories such as brushes for additional areas that may need scrubbing or soaking.
- Choose a washer with adjustable settings to suit different surfaces.
- Keep your washer well maintained and store appropriately when not in use to avoid damage.
7. Stable Disinfectants and Sprayers
Why it’s essential: Periodic disinfection of stalls, tack rooms, feed rooms, and other shared spaces can kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Top tips:
- All areas should be cleaned before being disinfected, following good decontamination practices
- Use equine-safe disinfectants approved by DEFRA for agricultural use.
- Apply disinfectant with a backpack or handheld sprayer for even coverage.
- Allow plenty of time to dry before replacing bedding, tack or equipment in the spaces to prevent damp issues
- Wash and disinfect field troughs or buckets regularly
8. Quarantine Equipment and Set-Up
Why it’s essential: New arrivals or sick horses should be housed separately to avoid putting the rest of the yard at risk.
Top tips:
- Quarantine should be set up in allocated area where a horse can be managed separately with no risk of contact with other horses, facilities or equipment
- Restricted areas can be easily identified by signage or barrier tape, allowing authorised entry only, and ideally with a margin of at least 10 feet between the horse and the boundary
- Use portable fencing – such as electric fence posts and tape- to create temporary quarantine zones
- Have disposable PPE (such as gloves and coveralls), hand sanitiser and foot dips at marked entry and exit points.
- Equip quarantine areas with separate water buckets, feed bowls, hay nets, and grooming tools.
- Anything that is removed from isolation needs to be completely disinfected. Items such as headcollars, haynets, rugs and grooming kit should be left in disinfectant to soak for several hours before being rinsed thoroughly
- Some people like to wear wellies in isolation as they can be easily disinfected, then left at the entry point as part of designated isolation kit
- Take a look at the Isolation Guidance and Isolation Set Up Checklist from Redwings
9. Temperature Taking, Vaccination Records and Record Keeping Systems
Why it’s essential: Accurate logs of cleaning schedules, vaccinations, deworming, and any disease outbreaks are key to maintaining biosecurity. For those who implement regular temp testing on their yard (either for new arrivals or for those returning from events) its ital to have a clear and easy way to record ‘normal’ reading for each horse, and regular temperature checks.
Top tips:
- It is ideal to have a number of livestock specific thermometers, and to ensure that they are disinfected between used, and stored in their case when not in use.
- Use whiteboards on each stable, digital apps, or logbooks to track activities.
- Have a folder containing important information on each horse, such as a copy of their vaccination record, emergency contacts, vet and farrier details, worming results and previous temperature tests.
- Ensure all staff are trained to update records, and know the procedures and processes.
10. Pest Control Tools
Why it’s essential: Rodents and flies are vectors for disease and can contaminate feed and water.
Top tips:
- Invest in humane traps, electric fly traps, or fly spray systems to keep down flies on the yard. Traps with a large capacity and that can be reused are ideal.
- Keep feed bins well secured. Make sure any prepared feeds are covered with suitable feed bucket covers the correct size for the bucket
- Clean up spillages immediately. Regularly empty and sweep the feed room.
Investing in good cleaning and biosecurity equipment isn’t just about ticking a box—it’s about fostering a healthy environment where horses can thrive. Having simple and sensible protocols and precautions that everyone is aware of can be a great preventative measure as well. Prevention is always cheaper and easier than managing an outbreak, and being proactive protects the reputation and long-term success of the yard. With the right tools and protocols in place, equestrian facilities can ensure both cleanliness and confidence in the care they provide.