Horse Stalls Guide

When building a horse barn, there are some very important options that should be considered. From stall wall height, to barn ceiling clearance, horse feeders, to automatic waters, much planning goes into horse stall design.

Success beings with a good foundation. An excellent excavator should be able to get your horse stable location within plus or minus just  few inches.

There are a few different layouts that both work well for a barn. Primarily there are the shed row barns, the middle aisle design, and the stalls along the side of the indoor arena. Shed row barns many times have fully enclosed stalls with dutch doors. One draw back is that is no sheltered place to groom and tack the horse outside of the stall itself. Extending the roof out over the stall doors some does help to give a sheltered area.

An aisled barn has an open aisle down the center and a row of stalls off of each side. When building this type of barn the aisle should be ideally an minimum of 16 side. A ten foot wide aisle is seen in many horse barns, but it has a higher chance of accidents. Additionally, it makes driving through with a tractor and spreader much more difficult. A wider aisle is more inviting to all horses and is allows for easy passage one horse to another. Any time a hay wagon is going to be used, the wider aisle allows for it to be backed closer to the hay storage area.

Another advantage for a wide aisle, is it gives a safe place for young children to ride before moving outside. With no grass and no hope of escape, a feisty pony can be much easier to handle inside than in the outdoor arena. Many professionals also use a wide aisle for beginning stages of riding for a young horse. A green horse should already be accustomed to the inside of the barn and give them a feeling of security, so riding them inside can make the transition easier.

Another area of design is the stalls themselves. We have already established the need for 12′ in width. The next area is the length of the stalls. 12′x12′ feet is very good. For foaling or stallion needs the 12′x18′ is many professionals choice. For more ideas on this read my post horse stall partitions.

Horse stalls should be a height of five feet of solid wood, then wire or bars should be used. This allows for air flow in the building. It also allows for the horses to see each other. Nervous horses get much calmer when others are visible to them. The bars or screening prevent the horses from biting or attacking one another from one stall to the next.

Building a 36″ window into the stall door also helps nervous horses. Also it allows for people to pet and interact with the horses as they walk from one horse to the next. Horses are very social animals and enjoy human attention. There is always the chance of a biter, but the vast majority of our equine friends thrive on attention.

Barn heights and stall over head heights should range in the ten to twelve foot high area. The higher the overhead the better the air flow and the less risk of a rearing or bounding horse making contact with the roof. A 17 hand horse doesn’t have to go very far to reach the ceiling in many barns. Higher ceilings are always safer.

Read on for more information on horse feeders, waters, and horse stall mats.

Horse Stalls Guide