Barn "Courtyard"? U/L-shaped barns.

[mountainhorse]

This could have gone in Off Course or Around the Farm, so hopefully this should be an OK place to land.

Do you have a barn that is “L” or “U” shaped, giving you a ‘courtyard’ area? What do you do with that space? Arena? Plants? Fenced area? Nothing?

We are possibly putting in a new L (or U) shaped shedrow barn, and I am looking for some ideas/thoughts on that courtyard space. I don’t want it wasted,…

Some ‘google’ results lend for interesting ‘dreams’, but what do y’all do in reality with that space??

Google #1

Fountain, anyone?

L-fence in.

[ChasPonyCat]

Those first two made me giggle a little because they are so fancy. Maybe I’m just low brow like that, or have never been at a barn THAT nice…

How big is the space? If it’s big enough I think an arena in that area could be really cool. Or maybe it could be like a barn commons area? I’m thinking especially if an arena/riding area were positioned that people hanging out in that area could be comfy (places to sit comfortably and stuff) and view the arena.

[Bluey]

One fellow here built a barn like that, one wing of the U was fancy stalls, the others less so.
He put pens in the middle and would let horses out in there during the day for turnout.

Don’t know if it was his set-up or other, but he ended up taking the pens out and putting a walker there.

He said that he never had so many horses become fence walkers and weavers as he did with that set-up, didn’t know why, but ended up with half the colts he raised with those stable vices, that he thought were caused by the way the pens in that middle were making the horses nervous and some ended up waking the fence all day long.

[mountainhorse]

Chas-I know! They made me laugh too,…a little too much, methinks. Just shared them to be funny.

Bluey-interesting observation re: fence walking. Perhaps being ‘boxed in’ with horses /activity all around them with no place to really ‘rest’ away, like they might have in a turnout or field? Really interesting.

[Timex]

we had a u shaped barn at the track, in the courtyard area we had a few trees, a wash rack and a walking ring around the perimeter of the courtyard.

[Krisly7]

No arena! Its a way to busy place. Its very hard to focus on work there, with all the activity, horses coming and going etc. The option I have seen: turn out pen (in one place they had a horse there that was technically on stall rest but tear up the place and injure himself more when in a box stall. They set up a small pen with run in, maybe12x12, and the horse could observe everything without being able to move much), hot walker in the area and my favorite: a large tack shed with 6 covered grooming stalls.

[Tory]

What to do with the space really depends on how big of barn you are building.

I would put an arena in the open space if it was a personal farm vs boarding facility.

[demidq]

It also depends on your location and climate! I think of that concept as being British. We are in the middle of a big snow storm up here, can’t think of anything worse than a shedrow barn when it gets cold and snowy.You really want a barn that you can close up and access all stalls from an inside aisle.

[trubandloki]

The first thing I thought of when the idea of a riding ring going in the middle was that would make a lot of dust very close to the stalls. If the stalls had windows or dutch doors that would mean lots of dust in the barn.

But like demidq said, it depends on climate.

[jdobbs64]

I worked out of a U shaped one and it was sometimes a hassle, though attractive. if you put a bunch of ‘stuff’, like turn out pens or a patio and hedges- in the belly of the U, and forget something and leave it on the other side of the U, it’s a long(er) walk to go get it (gotta go down and around. Now if you’re perfect and the tack room, grooming bays, and wash bays are in the bottom of the U, then you’re walking to a more central spot. The barn I worked out of was attractive and easy to navigate.

[snaffled]

our barn is u-shaped, there’s a small turn-out area in there, accessible from all the stalls that surround it (6 out of a 24 stall barn). Its a dry-lot and all the stalls have dutch doors so we can choose which stall has access.

We usually use it for extra turn-out for one of our broodmares that has foundered in the past and has limited grass turn-out. It’s also been used for re-introducing turn-out to a horse that had colic surgery.

[skyy]

We have a main barn and 4 shedrows so we have 2 U’s (2 shed rows and a side of the main barn make each U). The empty space in the middle of the U is about 60’ long by 20’ wide. It is a nightmare for snow removal. BAD, BAD LAYOUT. And having to shovel snow (because you really can’t plow it or blow it) before being able to feed or clean the shed row stalls is not a good time.

[snaffled]

wanted to add, its too cold to use the courtyard for about 5 months out of the year here. All our stalls are accessible from an inside isle and the dutch doors are all closed during winter.

One side of the U has 2 stalls, the bottom is an enclosed walk way from one barn to the other with windows looking out to courtyard, the other side of the U is 4 stalls.

[Polydor]

Spruce Meadows is built in a U shape. Stalls are the wings with the office and tack shop and one indoor arena at the bottom of the U.

They have a circle drive way in the middle that is hedged and has a couple horse statues in the middle. On occasion they fence off the hedge and stick horses or reindeer in there on a temporary basis.

P.

[mountainhorse]

snaffled, skyy, and jdobbs-do you have photos?

(Just to note, looking more for firsthand experience from owners or boarders of these types of barns instead of speculations of ideas or whether a shedrow barn is a ‘good idea’ or not ).

[Miss_Motivation]

We have a rectangular barn with a courtyard in the middle. I wouldn’t build it again, but when I acquired the property, it had an “L” shaped barn, and the rectangular configuration to enlarge the barn made sense.

Trouble is, the barn is only 7 stalls per long side including the corners, and 4 stalls per short side, not including corner stalls. So a 22 stall barn… but then we have 3 stalls committed to tack and 2 committed to cross-ties, so it’s effectively a 17 stall barn. There is one 12’ opening in the middle of one long side, which takes it down to 16 stalls. It’s pretty much a shed row design, but in a rectangle.

So, you will have 4 awkward big corner stalls (our regular stalls are 12 x 12’ and the corners are 12 x 16’) and the horses in those stalls’ heads will be near their neighbors on either side, which sometimes makes for some fence-fighting issues if they can hang their heads out. You could have entrances on the corners but you probably don’t need 4 entrances and you are spending a lot to cover them.

The courtyard area of our barn isn’t really big enough to do anything with- after you take off the covered shed row aisle in front of all the stalls, which is 8’ then has a pipe railing that supports the roof. So this makes a rectangular walking area under cover which is nice…except all our stalls have gates for the horses to hang their heads out (which is generally great fun and amusement for the horses) but it also means they can fang, or pretend to fang, their neighbors as they walk by under the cover.

Anyway, back to the courtyard: after you take off the covered areas in front of the stalls, it’s only about 20 x 52, which isn’t really big enough to do anything with except plant grass and landscape the corners which is what we did. There’s a pretty fountain in the center too.

Even the landscaping is tricky: half the courtyard gets a lot of sun and half a lot of shade, because of the overhanging roofs, etc. so you have to plan both sides differently trying to keep stuff alive.

Pretty in concept, and ours can look nice, but I would not go out of my way to build in this size and style again. Very expensive too, compare to barns that have back to back stalls that share common walls.

[Midge]

The L shaped barn I rode at had a circle drive. It looked similar to this.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/13/4b/90/134b906bb8ed7b05df452cc8c48cfc74.jpg

A friend had a u shaped barn with a pen in the middle for the barn dogs.

[2tempe]

I board at a 28 stall facility, built as a “U” with 14 stalls in each long side, lounge, tack, feed rooms across the short side.
We have only grass in our courtyard, except for two small decorative trees. It is used for the following: Hand grazing. An exit/entrance when others in cross ties. A place to soak alfalfa cubes for the 6 or so horses that get them. A place to sprinkle the pellets we use for bedding. A place to hose out manure wheelbarrows.
Ours has had some drainage problems, due to the size of our barn roof and the amount of sudden downpour rain we get in Fla. So occasionally it is a retention pond, lol. Horses on inside walls hav windows overlooking the courtyard, so wouldn’t work for turnout. And its too small…

[ActNatural]

I boarded at a barn with a courtyard in the middle of shed rows that made a square but had openings at two corners that led in and out. Both openings large enough to get vet trucks, farrier, hay delivery, etc in and out plus tractor for snow scraping. One of the shed rows was just a grooming area with crossties and a couple hitching posts. There were several “rooms” built in for tack, hay, and a feed room. The courtyard was gravel/grass with a picnic table in the middle. I loved it! It was very open and social. The stall doors were wooden swinging doors, split into top and bottom so you could either leave the window open or shut it during storms or when really cold. I thought it was healthier because of the air flow and the horses were able to watch the comings and goings do they had something to watch. It was all built in the 60s. It remains one of my favorite places I’ve boarded.

[Halt_Near_X]

I took lessons at a barn that had the barn in an L shape, turnouts on the third side of the square and the feed rooms/gate into the barn on the fourth side.

The courtyard space was open/had nothing in it.

It was efficient in that all the stalls were fairly close to both the feed room and the turnouts.

It also set up a natural windbreak, since the barn protected the courtyard on two sides.

It was large enough that horse vans and smaller delivery vehicles could get in and turn around, but not really big enough that they could have done that if there was a fountain or something else in the middle.

Even as a kid just learning about barn chores, I liked how efficient it was.