What do British people call the thing a horse is kept in within a stable? Is it a box or a stall?

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Capable_Tip7815@reddit

I called it a stable - had horses growing up.

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smallerthanahobbit@reddit (OP)

So there are multiple stables within the stable?

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Capable_Tip7815@reddit

I would call that the yard and stable block. Then at one yard, some stable blocks had names like The Piggery, the Front, At The House etc.

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Tape_Badger@reddit

No we generally have rows of stables which open directly outside like picture 3 on This property listing

In the US you tend to have barns with stalls inside the barn. This setup does exist in the UK but it's relatively rare. When I've come across it, we have called the building a barn and the individual 'stalls' stables.

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smallerthanahobbit@reddit (OP)

Oooh okay thank you so much!!

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VideoNo82@reddit

Box if being transported somewhere. Stall if it's in the stables.

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Thestolenone@reddit

I lived in a riding stables for a while (not in the stables, in a house) and the individual 'rooms' the horses lived in were called a box. Stall is an old days word to mean a small contained place where a horse is permanently tied up. The boxes were in an American style barn. I'd call the type of horse home where there is a two part door to the outside a stable.

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ukbot-nicolabot@reddit

OP marked this as the best answer, given by /u/HirsuteHacker.

I've heard them called boxes

These aren't like the words everyone will use by the way, these are the 'proper' words but you might still hear people call the stables the 'stable block' and the loose boxes 'stables' or other names, usually just because they never learned the actual names for them. Can usually just figure out what's meant from context

^(What is this?)

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

A loose box is the individual enclosed area you might find in a stable, where the horse can move, turn around, lie down etc.

A stall is a small narrow area where they're tied up and can't move.

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smallerthanahobbit@reddit (OP)

Yess thank you that’s what I thought! Just to be clear, would a loose box always be called exactly that or would you sometimes just say “box”?

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

I've heard them called boxes

These aren't like the words everyone will use by the way, these are the 'proper' words but you might still hear people call the stables the 'stable block' and the loose boxes 'stables' or other names, usually just because they never learned the actual names for them

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smallerthanahobbit@reddit (OP)

!answer. Ah I get it! Thank you so much!

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WGD23@reddit

Stall. A box is on wheels

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Adventurous-Idea1473@reddit

but then why do people say box rest?

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thatcambridgebird@reddit

Here in France the stall is called a box; maybe it’s some derivative of that.

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Fluffy_Ad2274@reddit

Because individual stables are also known as "boxes" ("box" is short for loose box)- but "boxes" are, indeed, also short for horse boxes, as well as loose boxes. Which is very confusing unless it's your world.

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WGD23@reddit

This is beyond my equestrian knowledge

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Affectionate-Owl9594@reddit

I thought a horse box had wheels and you attach it to a car, whereas the stall is part of the stable.

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starbrightcabbage@reddit

We just call it a stable. Normally call the whole lot a stable block (or sometimes barn if inside), or you would say 'I'm going to the stables' for example.

Technically they are loose boxes (as the horse is loose inside). It is very rare in the UK to find a stall now (which is where they are tied up inside). In the US they tend to refer to stables (loose boxes) as stalls and the whole yard/stables as a barn.

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RohanDavidson@reddit

I dunno about Brits but I can speak to Australia which is probably similar. A stable can be a building or a business. Or it can be an individual stall. You could call a bunch of stables the stables.

On the stud I grew up on, we had stables (individual units) in a shed. So we'd go to the shed, and within it was stables.

We also use box, but less often. My local showground had reinforced concrete stalls for stallions that we called stallion boxes.

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FunnyVehicle7664@reddit

A stable is the stall, within stables.

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Amazing_Training209@reddit

It’s called a stable but within the stable we call it a box :)

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TrackTeddy@reddit

The stable is where a horse is kept. A stable is also a collection of places where horses are kept.

English is just a wonderfully complex language.

Stall isn't used very often in the UK except perhaps where it's open (no door) and the horse is tied up

Box is used in the UK and is also how horses are transported via lorry (a horse box).

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SmartPipe3882@reddit

A horse sleeps in a stall within a stable, it's transported in a horse box.

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LavenderAndHoneybees@reddit

We called the building 'stables' or a stable block, then the individual one the horse was in a stable. So "Hey, which stables is Captain in again?" -- "Back right stable block by the field, his stable is 3rd on the left."

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Historical-One2407@reddit

Stall

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Timely_Egg_6827@reddit

Both - where I rode they had loose boxes where the horses were untied and stall which were narrower and without solid walls where the horses were left tied. Stalls were for horses that were usually out in the fields so they could be checked, groomed and tacked where the horses in the loose boxes spent more time stabled.

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