Hi all — I am working on building a barn at my place and am hoping for some suggestions as to how to make the set up as a user friendly as possible. I plan to provide the care for my two horses myself. I have one horse that is sometimes difficult to handle but she won’t tolerate being out 24/7. I’d like to set up the property in a way that makes it as easy as possible and safe as possible in the event that I go on vacation or need barn help periodically. Unfortunately most of my network in the area are non-horse people. I have a few good friends with horse experience that would likely be around to help. But just wondering tips and tricks for making things as simple as possible for turnout, feeding, handling, etc. Any input appreciated!
Stalls that open directly into a dry lot or run (either a combined one or individual) which in turn opens into the pasture or larger paddock.
A way to feed without going into the stall - I’ve been to a barn that had combined feed bin/hay rack that you could spin into the aisle, fill, and spin back. Others just had a hole to put feed through. Depending on where you plan to store hay, if it’s upstairs you could have chutes to drop hay directly into stalls. I have one friend whose barn is built into the hill such that hay can be unloaded right into the loft without going up any stairs or using an elevator. Obviously that depends on the topography of the property.
Separate feed room with door that closes. If someone non-horsey is feeding you can have feed pre-portioned and labeled in there ready to go (unless you have any supplements or meds that can’t be added until right before). In that case not only a feed chart but label each supplement/med container with the name and dosage.
If you aren’t having auto waterers, ample hydrants so hoses don’t need to be pulled all over the place. Ideally, troughs by the fenceline so they can be filled from outside.
If you set it up right, someone can do all the care for a few days without ever touching a horse, and possibly without ever going into the same area as a horse except maybe to open/close exterior stall doors.
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We’re in the process of building a very small barn on our property right now with the goal of simplicity in mind. To accomplish that we have (or will have soon!) feed doors that swing open for hay & grain, automatic waterers, stalls that open directly to small runs, and runs that will open directly to the small dry lot.
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While you are planning make as many plans as you can think and then sort the few you like best, after some more time settle on one and tackle modifying that one for best compromise, as none will be perfect.
Would be best if it fits for a few horses as many individual pens/ pastures as you can, at least the one pen off the stall.
Current horses may fit as mates now, but will they always, or will over time other horses need a different arrangement?
Make barn and pens as portable as you can, so you can rearrange as required.
Our stalls are portable, pens are portable panels.
Horses at liberty interact in a herd because they can always choose who and where to stay, who their buddies are, change preferences at will.
When we keep horses in small spaces the try to interact, but without the open spaces, there is more stress.
Maybe consider that if you have a horse that does’t like who you put in there, or don’t like one it liked before, that will add to everyone’s stress, have a way to keep them separated.
Build at least where both can be as close as they want, but also where both can thrive across a fence if someone has bad days or is ill or injured.
If you may rotate pastures, make them so you can use them for both or single pasturing.
All that is a compromise with cost, more fences is more expensive.
Any watering, automatic ones also, require daily checking, so put them where you and helpers can check easily.
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One of my mechanical and clever horse owning Amish neighbors has salvaged parts of a hay elevator that with the push of a button (yes, some Amish use electricity in their barns) will move a bale of hay from his second-floor loft over the paddock and drop it into a hayfeeder set in the middle. Every time I drive by his farm, I have a case of envy! Wonder how he takes off the strings . . .
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You nailed it!
One thing I’ll add - train the horses to come in from the paddock to “their” stall to eat. With the right setup this usually trains itself, but sometimes it takes a little encouragement to make sure each horse goes directly to their spot and their spot only. It often means closing horses in to eat even if they’re just going to go right back out (if the paddock is shared).
This makes it much easier for a non-horsey or semi-horsey person to feed, especially if you have two bays or two greys (or 4 plain chestnuts…
). If they go to their labeled spot, they’ll get their correct feed every time.
I agree that good auto waterers are so worth it if you can afford them, but at least put a hydrant IN the aisle/near the stalls. Nothing worse than dragging the world’s longest hose around the building to fill stall buckets . The cheap float style pasture trough fillers work just fine for the SE, but may not work if you get true cold weather. Either way you need hydrants outside the fence next to the designated trough area.
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You might be best to build three stalls, not just two. When you ride or remove one horse, it’s helpful to have company for the horse that is left behind. That “company” may be a retired boarder, or a pony you have acquired for the purpose, or your next young project horse. But it is easier to keep three horses than it is to keep two.
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FYI --there are feeding instructions for each horse in clear slip pockets in the feed room should I suddenly be unable to feed (it happens). On each instruction, there is a photo of the face/head of the horse who is to be fed. I hope that helps barn help get the right feed into the right horse as I have 5 bay geldings, two unmarked.
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One would hope! Though you’d be surprised… my father can’t tell the bay pony apart from the bay draft horse 🫣 I’ve had horses since I was 10 so you’d think he’d have a grasp on it by now lol!
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Everything @furlong47 & @fivestrideline said. 
I’ve had the setup they described for 20yrs, with 3 different pairs of geldings, adding a mini in 2017.
My barn is surrounded at the front by drylot - an area roughly 50’w X 100’ long.
That opens to pastures on either side & gates can close off any part.
Stalls open with Dutch doors at the back. Those doors are left open unless I need horses in for vet or shoer.
As described, they come in for feeding on their own, separating into “their” stalls.
The mini is the exception as he can’t have the same grain as the others.
He comes in the service door with me 
Then plunders the stacked hay while I prep grain.
They know the routine & seeing me is the trigger for going into the stalls.
If they’re in the bigger field, out of sight of the barn, there’s usually a “sentry” who alerts the others.
Mini is also the only one locked in his stall for feeding grain. This, so he doesn’t snarf his then go in with the horse to share.
Horse - who’s the boss - permits this liberty.
They routinely share hay in that stall.
ETA:
I’ll often find all 3 sharing a single stall.
But they’re Out far more often than In.
Evidenced by the single pile (if that) I pick from stalls each morning/evening.
I’ve had non-horsewise people feed when I’m gone. For them, I prebag & label grain. Hay is stored in the barn on pallets across from the stalls.
I have a 50gal food-grade plastic barrel in front of the barn’s front slider that serves as a trough.
Located there I can refill easily with the hydrant inside the barn & install a sinking de-icer, plugged into an outlet just inside the door.
No water source in the pastures, they come to the trough. Farm is only 5ac total, so no great distance.
Heated buckets in the stalls.
I’m too lazy to drain a hose, so in freezing temps I refill water buckets & trough by bucket brigade - using saved 5gal supplement buckets.
For yourself, I recommend a WIDE aisle. 12ft at the least, which will allow driving thru. It will give access to a Vet truck or the Farrier to pull in, shut the doors. Tractor and spreader can drive thru, wide enough for unloading truck or hay wagons straight into storage. Yeah, that is a lot of space, but it makes things so much easier to work in! No fun leaving the end doors wide open in bad weather to work on horses.
Of course you then need to keep aisle CLEAR, not setting things along stall fronts like buckets, extra hay, tack trunks, to catch on, make a mess or need moving to get thru. Protruding hard corners are just lurking to catch on horse legs, tempt the nibbler. We store daily hay in a dedicated wheelbarrow, kept back along the side stall wall. Saves steps, no hay chaff dribbling the length of the aisle as horses get their portions.
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Think about how you are going to be mucking and if you are composting or having manure hauled away.
The wider the aisle the better.
I use a single metal trash can and set up a weeks food in a bucket for each horse and pre-fill a weeks worth of hay bags so I’m only messing with hay 1 day a week. Each horse has their own color so it’s simple when I have someone else feed.
For your horse that is difficult to handle, I would set up a series of gates and have a trainer come in to give you tools.
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@dressage_1991 Share please - where are you located - meaning what kind of weather and rainfall? What kind of soil, how many acres, how much free time do you have - do you work all day and gone? How flexible is your work and can you be home for the vet and trimmer/farrier? Do you plan/need to ride?
Where are you in your planning process?
I built 4 yrs ago for easy caretaking and it’s worked out pretty darn well.
Yes, to waterers - huge in easy caretaking. Huge is having a tractor and FEL and pulling up to your dutch doors and mucking. Huge is having an end area so bedding deliveries get dumped and you just pull from inside the barn. Huge is having a full years hay delivered and having that space. Easy is dumping manure and composting and letting it cook and turn to soil.
I have lots of thoughts and design that has been pretty sweet. First answer these questions as that will be a big help.
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And I’d add to the OP, do you have a partner who will help and is handy at solving problems or at least wants to learn? My DH grew up on a farm and can solve and build absolutely anything and that is priceless. You really need a handyman or being one yourself.
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Shedrows also make good barns, mine is four 12X12 stalls plus a 12X12 tack room. The overhang is also 12 feet so its 24X60, with 14:10 pitch on the roof. You could easily build similar with fewer stalls. Stalls have both a front and back exit, front gate is 6’ wide and backs are four. The back of the barn faces north and has solid sliding doors for each stall, so they form a wall and windbreak in the winter but can be opened easily. I also have mesh gates in the front and back, so the solid doors stay open most of the time. But they are great when I need them! The stalls are matted and the tack room has a concrete floor. Makes for easier housekeeping.
I also made mine of wood frame with metal sheeting - easier for me (fairly handy) to add and subtract “things” as needed. I know how to use hand tools but not a welder. So a metal frame didn’t appeal to me.
I know your question wasn’t “best barn tips”, but the easier it is for you, the easier it is for someone else too.
if working from a blank page, if the barn is built as a clear span structure with the stalls free standing the building’s future value will be much greater than just a barn.
Free standing stalls that are not attached to the structure are considered furniture, thus are personal property rather than a part of the building
Also a clear span structure can be converted with less problems into a new use such as workshop or garage
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That above.^^^
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Yes! All of our horses are used to eating outside at their fenceline (those that tolerate 24/7 turnout and those who do not). Two of us who feed are more in tune to horse behavior are comfortable setting them up in the run in or stall during rainy days…but not necessary in an emergency.
One of my favorite farmsitting clients had a 3-ring binder that identified each creature. She had two big, black draft crosses and had pictures of each face and tail (one was docked). Made everything dummy proof.
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