So I’ve been doing my research in preparation for ordering the stalls to go in our barn at home. Well let me tell you there are way too many options. So I need your help on a few items involved!
Current stall front design in the lead
1) Stall size – We all know Stampede is quite tall but he is also quite long. His current stall is 12 x 12 and if he lays down he literally takes up the whole space. I think he doesn’t like to lay down in there because of the tight space and I want him to have more room at home. 12 is as deep as I can go so I want to make sure I give him more width. Options are:
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Stalls must fit one weirdo special needs horse
2) Bar width
I’ve read a bit about what is safe as far as width between bars on a stall and the thought of the risk kind of freaks me out but I wonder how much of a risk it really is? Anyone have any thoughts on this? My current boarding barn has 3.25″. The plan is for this to be a retirement place but I think I need to plan as if any kind of horse could live there just in case. The two widths that are common are:
Standard stall with 3.25″ bar width
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4″ bar spacing – side note I love this stain!
3) Partitions
I’ve never been at a barn that didn’t just have solid partitions. With wood partitions my experience has been horses kicking the walls sometimes even if they can’t see each other. Neither of my horses has ever done this when in wood walled stalls (they are in a cement brick barn currently) so maybe not a big deal. Either way, there are several other options:
Grilled partition
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Privacy partition
Would love to hear people’s experiences with some of these stall designs I haven’t had experience with. I would love to keep the barn open and airy but if simple and traditional is safer I’m all for it!
I have the grilled partitions between my stalls and love them. Although over the years my horses have loosened some of the bars messing with each other, haha. I’ve never measured between my stalls bars, but judging from from photos you have, I’m guessing mine are 3.25. I really love that stall front design! Mine is similar minus the drop down window on the door. And I have a swing out feeder. We bought our stalls used off Craigslist, so they already had some age before we installed them.
Our barn is 40w x 36l so I have 4 12×12 stalls (one has a removable divider so I can use it as a 12×24 foaling stall), an 8×12 feed room, an 8×12 shavings bin/general storage, and an extra wide aisle!
Designing barns is so fun ?
Thanks for the info on the grilled partitions! I wish I could find a used deal on stalls but so far I haven’t seen anything of quality appear sadly. Thankfully my best friend works for Ramm so she’s been helping me a lot with questions on their products.
The barn is much bigger than the amount of stalls I’d want to put in it, don’t want to allow myself to fill it, lol. I’m going to use the extra stall(s) to hold a supply of feed and bedding for now then hopefully build something later. We have a second barn with a hay loft that I can store a lot in thankfully.
Exciting!!! Personally my horse is much happier in his stall that is bars on three sides vs a previous stall that just had bars in front and solid walls between. He likes being able to see out and visit with his neighbors.
Thanks for the information! I know P will be happy with whatever because he’s chill but Stampede can be tough. I know he liked his first stall when I got him which was big and dark and secluded but he has not done as well in the current barn or previous. Not sure if it’s stall size (both 12 x 12) or openness. He seems to like to stick his head outside and look around so I lean towards stall size as the issue.
We just built our barn and we did 12×12 stalls. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the size options- 12×16 would be wonderful, but if you ever sell having more 12×12 stalls might be appealing (if you did the one with the partition removed).
I will say 12×12 on the nose will be easier for stall mat installation. And I would go with solid partitions just in case.
I don’t know if its an option but we have all metal doors. They are barns on top like the stall fronts but then have a barns in a grid (for lack of a better description) on the bottom. It makes the stalls have more airflow and less confined for the horses.
Yeah I’ve definitely been trying to think resale. We have 7 acres with the house and driveway taking up around an acre then a wooded acre behind the pastures. There are two barns so you could definitely fit way more stalls than you should ever have horses on the property.
I definitely keep going back and forth on the partitions. I like the idea of open but the solid seems a bit safer in a few ways.
Hmm, I will go back and compare the cost on full metal. I didn’t think I’d like the look with the rest of the stall not being metal (my current boarding barn has all metal fronts) but it looks great in your pictures.
Thanks for all the input!
Good luck! Feel free to bounce any ideas off of me-we just went through this process-made some mistakes, but overall I super happy how our barn came out .
We built our stalls so they could double as a run in shed, but also as a completely enclosed 12×12 stall. I can add partitions to make it 12×24 or keep them as 2-12×12. We’ve gone back and forth several times over the last few years depending on the need. This sounds like it would be the most versatile option over the long term. You’d be maximizing the number of stalls if things changed many years down the road, but still allowing Stampede plenty of room now.
No matter the partition you choose, make sure the bottom is solid. The partition is the wall that gets kicked the most in my barn. Ours use to be slatted, but one of the horses must have gotten something caught and pulled a bunch of boards out. Now it’s solid up to about 4 1/2 feet, then open, and we haven’t had any problems yet.
Yeah I do think that the 12 x 12 is likely to be my most versatile option. I just feel bad giving one horse a bigger stall than the other which is just kind of funny!
Our barn had half walls with the grilled partitions. I like the idea of having big stalls but I think thats only the best option if you can put the dividers back in. Excited to see what you end up choosing!
Thanks for the input! Grilled partitions just don’t seem to exist in use in my area.