Horses and hay go together like cars and gas. Many times barns store the hay above the horse stalls or in the loft of the barn. This is actually one of the worst places to store it. The extra dust and hay particles falling down onto the horses can increase the likely hood of allergies and heaves. “Heaves” for horses is similar to asthma in people. Shortness of breathe and coughing are both characteristic of heaves. For performance horses this can be a very detrimental condition. A good solution is to add a shed row onto the side of the horse stable. One reason hay has traditionally been stored above the barn or above the stalls is so that ground moisture does not get to the hay. To remedy this in a shed row, a cement pad can be poured. Then a wooden platform constructed of 2×4′s and plywood and fastened to the cement pad. This construction is easy to sweep clean and also reduces the places for mice to travel under the hay. The clean up and the mice are two good reasons to not just stack the hay onto pallets. For a short term solution, hay can be stacked in a box stall but pallots should be used, or some other means to limit the hay’s exposure to the ground. Wood keeps any moisture from becoming trapped. It also allows more air flow that cement or dirt does. A horse stall should be reserved for the horses as much as possible and they hay stored somewhere else.