Accommodations: Where Do the Horses Go at Night?
Horse Tales by Candice C. Dunnigan

Space on Mackinac Island has always been limited. Seasonal employees understand this all too well. The same applies to our equine population. The horses have always been the backbone of our workforce. Prior to the tourism industry, horses on Mackinac were primarily used by the government for hauling cut timbers for construction and firewood from the state lands for the Fort. Private horses were engaged on the Island’s small farms, at the local sawmill, and in delivery of goods, but those are other stories.

Mackinac horses, then and now, all had to live somewhere. Most of the horses on Mackinac Island have lived in what we could call “dormitory housing for equines,” i.e. standing stalls in simple barns. Standing stalls are not new, nor is the idea intrinsic to the Island. It is a practical application used around the world for hundreds of years and continues.

Do all Mackinac Island horses live in standing stalls? No, but just about every barn built on the Island had them. They were found in the large, opulent barns that complimented large extravagant cottages, in the small, serviceable barns in town that were often attached to the backs of houses and ran down little lanes, the barns built for the carriage livery operators, and barns that served the Fort.

What, might one ask, is a standing stall, and what other kinds of stalls and housing for horses is there on the Island?

A standing stall is a portioned area in a barn where a horse rests. It is, in essence, his “room,” his bunk, his home. Work horses fit quite well in these kinds of stalls. Ideally, they should be 5 to 5.5 feet wide and 11 feet long. They should have two side walls (separating them from their stable mates), seven feet high. The front of the stall has a manger for food and water. The better constructed, the better for the animal. The rear of the stall is open, often with a rope clipped across the width.

Horses in standing stalls are usually clipped by their head collar (halters) to a ring, and thus tethered. The stalls can be cleaned easily and the horses are quickly accessible for harnessing. Horses in these stalls do not lie down in the traditional sense, but sleep, as horses do (for many hours), standing up.

The other type of interior stall is a box stall, also referred to as a loose box. They vary in size on Mackinac, according to the individualities of the barns. The ideal box stall is a 10x10. Larger boxes certainly seem sensible for larger horses, however, it’s usually the draft or working animal who was housed in the standing and the pleasure horse in the box. The bigger the stall, the bigger the area is for daily mucking and the longer it takes. In a box stall, the horse is not tied and has the ability to lie down. Box stalls are ideal for pregnant mares, and they were in the old days given over to horses ready to foal, as opposed to natural foaling in fields or pastures.

Some horses refuse a standing stall, others seem to prefer it. Horses that work four to five hours a day often look forward to their “space.” They, like many workers, want to eat and sleep undisturbed.

A standing stall actually is good for horses who have stable vices called weaving, or those that are dubbed “box kickers.” Weaving is where the horses sway constantly from side to side as if in a trance. Horses standing idle in box stalls often get bored and kick their back wall, then respond to the noise it makes by kicking more, thus setting up a cycle. These are the box-kickers. Horses will kick in standing stalls, too (so one has to be mindful when walking behind them), but those kicks are usually to the air and don’t connect with a back wall.

The commercial stables on Mackinac use standing stalls for their horses. They can accommodate twice as many animals. The horses used for the 4-H summer riding program also stand in stalls. Most of the cottage barns may have one or two box stalls, but there will undoubtedly be more standing stalls.

In 1914, the Mackinac Island State Park Commission reported that the construction for its new barn was completed at the Fort. “A barn built 48’x96’x13.6’ walls 12’ thick” has been built. This barn has four single stalls, 5’x11’, and two box stalls, 11’x11’, all with clay floor, with cement gutter.”

There are some horses on Mackinac that do not live in any barns. These horses are kept in turnouts, or small corrals. Remember, there is no large verdant pasturing on the Island. Turnouts may have a three-sided shelter that the animal may freely wander into to get away from the sun, the wind, or the rain. These run-ins may be permanent or just seasonal. For many people who have pleasure horses on Mackinac, this is ideal. Most of the horse’s time on Mackinac is limited to the summer months, where the weather tends to be much softer than on the shoulder seasons.

There is an old saying among horsemen, “The further from the barn, the healthier the horse.” I agree.

It is important to note that any barn, no matter what it costs to build, can be a bad barn if it doesn’t have proper ventilation, light, and protection from the damp and the wind. It is as important to have an outlet for bad air as well as an inlet for fresh. Ideally, light and air come from windows and wide barn doors. Good drainage is a must. The State Park barn of 1914 proudly attests to this. Some older barns on the Island have recently been overhauled, box stalls being preferred in the upgrades. Box stalls look nicer and they give a horse lots of room, yet a box stall is no better than a standing stall if a horse is not cared for. Accidents, dangerous ones, can occur in these or any stall or turnout. It’s important to understand that, on Mackinac, we really have a force of working draft and riding horses as well as private pleasure mounts.

Recently, there has been talk that, somewhere or somehow, a “community barn” could one day be built on the Island. While the ideal would be to have box stalls for the horses, space, of course, is limited. We will never have acreage. But, keep in mind there is nothing wrong with having standing stalls and access to a corral for housing. A horse can be safe and content in a standing stall, too. Accommodations need not be fancy, but they need to have function. This is important to remember when we’re dealing with the practical application of keeping horses on Mackinac.

Candice Dunnigan is an active member of the American Equestrian Association, the Waterloo Hunt, and the Mackinac Island Horsemen’s Association. Seasonally she resides at Donnybrook and Easterly Cottage.