[QUOTE=Ghazzu;8192606]
That would be an absolute deal breaker for me.
Not worth sacrificing my horses’ long-term respiratory health for any amenity or convenience.[/QUOTE]
Exactly this.
My barn doors have been shut a whole lot more than I like the last two weeks because we have had thunderstorms everyday and rain will blow in on the hay. I think that is a pretty good reason to shut the door at that end of the barn.
plus, if your horse has an in and out stall this is a nonissue. If he wants fresh air he can walk out. If he is in, it isn’t that bad. Or do you mean he is shut it at night? ask BO to leave his door open. I have done that before with senior horses, left one with access to the paddock and their stall through the Dutch door. It worked out great as long at it is just one. If the paddock is not private and he wants to fight with the other horses maybe you can build him a little private run with horse guard tape and step in posts away from their Dutch doors.
(For containment I have a gate on one end of my aisle and a thick Kensington aisle guard on the other, I agree that is an important consideration! I installed those soon after buying my farm because the previous owner had to keep the barn door shut to keep the horses in the field. No thanks.)
[QUOTE=fordtraktor;8192885]
My barn doors have been shut a whole lot more than I like the last two weeks because we have had thunderstorms everyday and rain will blow in on the hay. I think that is a pretty good reason to shut the door at that end of the barn.
plus, if your horse has an in and out stall this is a nonissue. If he wants fresh air he can walk out. If he is in, it isn’t that bad.[/QUOTE]
It sounds from what the OP is hinting at that the reason doesn’t have anything to do with weather. Closing doors during a thunderstorm does make sense. It sounds like the problem at the OP’s barn is a long standing issue.
I left a barn that did this. It also had other problems, stemming from the same sort of nuttiness that prompted the door closing. That and the horses couldn’t go out if there was even a hint it might rain.
Ridiculous.
[QUOTE=Isitme;8192516]
…
Can’t do Drive-by at midnight, as the driveway is very long and I’d be noticed.
…[/QUOTE]
Go ahead, drive by and check at night and see for yourself what it is like. Be noticed. 
If someone says something you can tell them exactly why you are there. BO needs to know your level of concern and that these conditions could affect your continued business.
If you were a horse, would you want to be shut up in that barn at night? Even if the rest of the care was excellent? Perhaps you will find that there is plenty of air in it is not a problem. But answer that for yourself honestly, because your horse has no option or choices. You are his only advocate.
if it were airless and stuffy it would be a dealbreaker for me.
I’d want everything open for air flow AND a fan on during the day.
Originally Posted by Princess Sparkles >> Definitely not overreacting. I run a boarding barn and I could not imagine making horses live in sweltering conditions like that. Every single horse has an open window in their stall and the big sliding doors are ALL the way open all the time when it is warm (and I’m in Canada, so 15 C is warm, especially in the spring! LOL).
Because we have solid sliding doors on all the stalls, we also allow each horse’s owner to decide if their horse uses a stall guard rather than having the door shut at night. Since our horses get tons of turnout and are a pretty docile bunch of mostly pleasure horses, most of our boarders have just stall guards keeping them in at night. This allows for much better airflow into each stall and the horses can hang their heads out farther to get the cooler air in the aisle.
Please tell me if the reason you were given was more or less crazy than the one a boarder gave me once, admonishing me for leaving the doors open:
She told me that coyotes would come into the barn, run into the stalls, chase the horses around the stalls causing them to break through the stall guards, which would cause them to run down the aisle and barrel through the barriers that contain the aisle, so they could then barrel down the driveway, through the gate and finally to the road where they would get hit by a car and die.
Yeah, she didn’t last long. . . I caught her closing up my barn tight one night without permission and she was gonzo. . .
[QUOTE=Isitme;8192832]
Actually, the reason is a bit more crazy.[/QUOTE]
Coth rules, you may not hint how crazy something is by posting something really nutty and saying yours is worse. YOU MUST TELL US.
or tells us by PM!!! 
[QUOTE=ReSomething;8192953]
Coth rules, you may not hint how crazy something is by posting something really nutty and saying yours is worse. YOU MUST TELL US.[/QUOTE]
THIS.
[QUOTE=Tha Ridge;8192693]
I’ve never been in a barn that didn’t shut the doors at night… I always thought it was a safety issue—if a horse somehow gets out of their stall, they’re at least semi-contained in the aisle. However, windows stayed open, except during storms or the most frigid winter days.[/QUOTE]
I’ve boarded at a couple of places where when the doors were left open, a thick rope was strung across the doorway. Not enough to stop a horse, but enough to get many of them to pause and think, “hm, maybe not.”
[QUOTE=Tha Ridge;8192693]
I’ve never been in a barn that didn’t shut the doors at night… I always thought it was a safety issue—if a horse somehow gets out of their stall, they’re at least semi-contained in the aisle. However, windows stayed open, except during storms or the most frigid winter days.[/QUOTE]
In Ontario and the barns I have boarded at here did not close their doors during the summer. Most barns have big pieces of lumbar (think 2 x 6) that goes across the sliding door. This way if a horse does get out of their stall, they are contained to aisle way and are usually found in the morning indulging in some extra breakfast hay.
The only time the barn is sealed shut is when it is cold enough that the autowaterers are at risk of freezing (think -15C and lower). Other than that, there is always some ventilation left open, be it windows, dutch doors or the like.
[QUOTE=FalseImpression;8192958]
or tells us by PM!!! ;-)[/QUOTE]
I see what you did there! :lol:
Kim
At my barn, the doors are left open with a board across the front doors an a thick chain across the doors at the other end. All stalls have windows that are open all the way, too, plus an exhaust fan to suck the hot air out. The barn has a low ceiling, so even with 12 horses, the barn can get pretty hot if everything is shut up.
I close one aisle door during the day where the afternoon sun blazes in, but otherwise everything is wide open unless there’s a crazy storm blowing. Even if they get out of the stalls (which are open to the fields always anyway), the area around the barn is fenced and gated and the feed room door is horse proof so there’d be not much damage done.
And to to answer your question, no you aren’t crazy and yes that would be a deal breaker for me.
I do night time turnout during the summer, so the barn is wide open… no one is in there.
Sometimes during the very hot days I do shut the main aisle doors most of the way… they are east facing and the sun blazes in them. However, there are large open windows on the north and south sides, and a big door way on the west side in the shade, and I put a large fan there. Closing the main door most of the way actually keeps it cooler in the barn by blocking the sun. I leave it open slightly for some more cross venting.
Anyways, yeah I’d be unhappy with the situation. Especially if my horse was not allowed out at night when it’s nicer and was out during the hot days and bugs.
Interesting comment about the bugs. Where I am the mosquitos are the biggest issue, and they are the worst at dusk. In years where they have been bad, that was another reason to shut the barn doors at night. Of course if our barn actually got hot at night with the doors shut, a screen would have been an easy solution.
Are we talking barn doors? Not individual stall doors? And no windows in stalls? And why don’t they go out at night? Lay it out for me.
[QUOTE=FineAlready;8192848]
Okay, honestly, what is the reason?! Concerned about alien invasion?[/QUOTE]
Well, it can’t be that, FineAlready. The OP said it was something crazy.
If it’s the only thing wrong with this barn (though you are hinting there are cray-cray reasons for this issue, so maybe there are other issues that stem from this same cray-cray-ness)… anyway, could you install a big-ass fan in your horse’s stall? I mean, I assume it’s a well-kept barn where stalls are cleaned daily and it’s not as if the horses are standing in hock-deep ammonia. So the main issue is just basic cooling airflow. A fan would do the trick.
I remembered seeing another thread a while ago, in the horse care forum
