Equestrian Stable Hygiene - The “New Normal”

1.  doorknobs, light switches, horse stalls (including stall door latches), tack rooms, wash stalls, hoses, sprayers, bathing and grooming equipment, cross-ties, pitch forks, brooms, shovels, wheelbarrows, and tack. Have clear guidelines for disinfection of different items and who is responsible.
2. Consider setting up outdoor grooming stalls if practical or only allowing tacking up in the horse stalls rather than sharing cross-ties and asking riders to wipe down areas they have touched with disinfectant. Clean tack and grooming supplies after each use.
3. Use outdoor rings whenever possible.
4. Create a schedule for lessons and boarders, and limit the number of people allowed on the property at one time. Keep a sign-in list.

“It’s an easy-to-kill virus. Pretty much any disinfectant will do it, as will time and/or sunlight. (The virus will likely only survive a couple days on surfaces, often less). The main risk isn’t the environment, it’s people. If they have this virus on tack, that was put there by an infected person who poses more risk.

Measures to keep high risk (sick, exposed) people out are critical. Beyond that, things like minimizing crossover of tack and surfaces, and cleaning/disinfection are useful but are very much plan B.
"Leather doesn’t tolerate a lot of disinfectants. There are likely some household disinfectants with claims that they are safe on surfaces like that, and those should still be effective since this virus is wimpy. Otherwise, wiping off the disinfectant after the appropriate contact time (varies with product, usually two to fifteen minutes) can help reduce damage.

"Given the susceptibility of this virus, even soap and water can be effective. So, for routine situations where increased control is desirable, washing with a leather-safe soap would be reasonable. If there’s real concern about an item, then a disinfectant would be appropriate, or the items could just be left alone for a few days."