Larger facilities may be called equestrian centers and co-located with complementary services such as a riding school, farriers, vets, tack shops, or equipment repair.
The design of stables can vary widely, based on climate, building materials, historical period, and cultural styles of architecture.
Terminology relating to horse accommodation differs between American and British English, with additional regional variations of terms.
In the middle range, the term "full board" is used in the US to refer to several options, depending on the part of the country, from a facility that simply feeds the animals and possibly provides turnout, to one that handles all care of the horse, sometimes including exercise under saddle but not training per se.
At the top end, the facility operator manages the entire care of the horse, including riding and training.
Horses are often exercised under human control, ridden or competed within designated fenced or enclosed places, usually called schools, pens or arenas.
Many horses are turned out in to fields to graze, exercise, or exhibit other natural behaviours, either on their own or more usually as part of a herd, where they may also engage in play activity and social bonding.
In the United Kingdom this may range from open moorland without internal subdivision, down to small, fenced areas of grass, called pastures or paddocks in British English.
Sometimes the colloquialism "starvation" is prefixed to these grassless areas, though the intent is not to starve the horse, but simply to regulate diet.