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

[furlong47]

As a teen/young adult I rode in a barn that was a complete rectangle. The two long sides had the stalls and aisles, one short side had an enormous wash stall/office area/storage and a room with floor to ceiling windows that looked out on the courtyard. The other short side was essentially an enclosed walkway to get between the two sections of stalls.

This left a large courtyard with one side being a solid wall, two sides having walls with a few rows of windows and some doors, and the fourth side being the floor to ceiling windows.

We would use the courtyard as a grass ring at times, as there was no real ring and it was about the flattest confined place available. There were a few trees in there near the edges and closer to the window wall end, so we only used the part nearest the solid wall for riding. We also turned out in there sometimes, but only when we were in the barn to supervise. Horses turned out in there had to first be introduced to their reflection in the huge window wall.

[Highflyer]

We have basically an L (main bank barn with single shedrow of additional stalls coming off the middle of one side.) Because of the way the barn is laid out, there’s no direct way to get hay and straw from the loft to the shedrow without schlepping it through the tack and feed rooms and down a set of stairs. The courtyard part is just grass, which is mainly used for hand grazing and occasionally a place to set the portapad up for rehab horses. Turnouts are on the other long side of it.

I love the look of the U shaped barns but I don’t think they’re practical if you get a real winter (or even the MidAtlantic version).

[DancingArabian]

I board in a U-shaped barn. I really wish they would put up some decorative fencing in the middle of the U and put out some patio furniture so we could have a nice place to lounge in. It can’t be used for turnout since stalls have windows that open into the little courtyard area, and there is an entrance into the office of the barn there.

[snaffled]

Mountainhorse; I don’t have any pics of the courtyard area from the outside unfortunately but here is a screenshot from google maps.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn62/addicted2cichlid/CF43675E-96E3-45CC-842F-0F78BBE1FCE1.png

I guess there are actually 3 kind of courtyard type areas. I’ll try to explain what you’re seeing, bear with me.

The very top right building is the original barn, to the left is the newer barn. The courtyard/dry lot is between those. There is a small fenced area to keep horses in the new barn (dutch doors so horses have heads out) away from any horse that’s turned out in the dry lot (you can see its grassy there) At the top of the dry lot is our mucking system, conveyer drags shavings out and empties into muck wagon.

Building that is attached to the 2 barns is the walkway and drive shed/hay storage. Big building on an angle is the arena. The courtyard area between new barn and arena is nothing really except for a place for leaves to collect in the fall! There is access to new barn, drive shed and arena.

The other courtyard area on the right is driveway with access to old barn, washstall, drive shed and arena. The circle you see in the driveway, top right, is an old stone well, not sure if it was ever functioning but its just decoration now.

I’m terrible at explaining things so feel free to ask any questions

[Equibrit]

I have a U shaped shed row barn. I have grass in the middle. I love to see it after it’s mowed. I thought a lot about what to put there, and almost everything else had a down side. The only thing I would like would be a concrete pad with tie posts, for a wash rack. Down side - it would need a drain to the septic tank.

[Equibrit]

Can’t edit post above. Remember thaat you would want to walk horses across that area when stalls are full, to avoid horses lunging at the horse/you from their stalls.

[Equibrit]

Feed, hay and tack areas can also be accessed with your truck if you leave the area clear.

[red_mares]

One of the barns I boarded at sort of had this arrangement. The barn yard is surrounded by 4 buildings: 2 horse barns, the back of the neighbor’s large barn and the BO’s wife’s restaurant. It wasn’t completely enclosed, there were 2 driveways on one side and one corner was open. It’s about 150 ft by 150 ft, maybe a bit bigger.

It is used basically as an arena or horse work area… and also parking for the restaurant. It is confined enough to work a horse. The area is paved, but if you’re breaking Amish horses for the road, asphalt footing isn’t a deal breaker.

The only issue over the years has been a horse breaking a window in the restaurant. There were a few occasions when the BO didn’t tell his wife and her customers were the ones who told her.:lol:

[findeight]

The courtyard types are far more common in the Southwest. You usually see a hot walker, wash racks etc in them. Have seen fountains, landscaping and a cocktail party area for sales and stallion presentations (lovely idea btw) but they were very well thought out. They were planned to allow easy crossover, had a wide enough path in front of the stalls for easy cleaning and the greenery and shade from the overhangs really cut the heat and acted as a windbreak regardless of what’s in the middle. Really nice set ups, very functional.

However, I boarded at one L shaped shedrow my first winter riding in the Northeast and you couldn’t pay me to do it again, too dam cold and windy. Blowing snow got everywhere, the faucets along the row froze. Had to lead them in snow/ice to get to the ring. Give me a center aisle with doors on either end.

I’ll take one with fountains, please, if I ever board in the Southwest again.

[ThreeFigs]

An old trainer/instructor I rode with in the 60’s and 70’s had a u-shaped barn. originally a dairy cow barn, he converted it into stalls with a walkway (enclosed) on the inside of the U. So, the “courtyard” could be used as a turnout for a horse, as the “U” was enclosed, no horse heads/stall doors exposed, but the south side of the U was open and fenced. it was unique. Haven’t seen anything like it since.

[findeight]

Oh, let me add p, on those courtyard styles, the stalls on the corners were feed, tack and storage areas, most of them had doors on both the inside and outside walls for easy truck access and unloading the bulky/heavy stuff. Also not that many stalls, gets to be too far to walk or push a wheelbarrow if there’s a whole lot of stalls. Maybe 20 max.

[walkers]

Had a 10 stall L shaped barn but being in the south i hated how hot it was in the summer. even though it had 3 huge exhaust fams in the eves the L would stop all the breeze from going through the barn.The long part of the L was north/south and that stopped the wind. I used to leave the office door to the outside open so I could get some cross breeze. I saw no advantage to this design . I didn’t build it and it was an extremely nice barn 4000 sq. ft barn but HOT.

[supaflyskye]

I’ve spent a fair amount of time at 2 barns that had a courtyard (one I boarded at for a while, another one belonged to a client of a trainer for whom I worked for a while).

the client’s barn was not exactly a “U” or “L” shape… it was more 2 “separate” barns (I suppose it could possibly be considered “U” shaped) – on each side there was a row of stalls, and on the far end of each side was a washrack/grooming area; followed by on one side a tack room, on the other side a feed room; and in between the two rooms on the far end was a sort of covered walkway (the roof “connected” the two barns) heading out to the covered arena which was maybe 5-10 yards away.
in the center of the courtyard they had some lovely potted plants, a couple Greco-Roman reminiscent statues, and a beautiful fountain right in the center. it was a very upscale place and was beautifully designed – looked like it came straight out of a storybook.

the barn at which I boarded was more of a true “U” shape. their courtyard was just grass, w/ dense plants/landscaping lining the edge of the barn aisles – you couldn’t just walk right into the courtyard from the barn aisle, you had to go around to the end. they had a full “showjumping” course sized for dogs (or children!) set up in the grassy courtyard. it was very cute, and the kids who came to the barn loved “playing horsey,” cantering around leaping over the little jumps, or trying to coax the barn dogs over ever higher obstacles. it was a fun little thing.

I suppose you could put whatever you want in your courtyard. the options are virtually endless.

[Bluey]

This was our race horse training barn, an U shaped barn, but the fourth end closed by one stall, the tack room, wash room and bunkhouse for the night watchman.
It had 22 stalls, the four on the end large stallion stalls with runs outside.

Two trees eventually grew in the middle.

That middle was a waste of space, especially when it rained or snowed.
It had a large drain on the low end to keep it from flooding, water and melting snow didn’t have anywhere to go.
We put tarps down from the top to keep rain and snow from filling the aisles and stalls.

Not a good design at all and also that one barn was a firetrap, with only one entrance on the closed end of the U.

It was labor intensive, a barn with many stalls needs to have a better way to clean stalls where you can drive thru to do so, even if a small UTV with a little spreader or dump cart.

We did get many colts started driving and riding them around the aisle there the first time or two.

I think that, if someone wants to be a caretaker, spend the time to keep the horses and barn nice, then you can build whatever you want.

If we want to spend the least of our time or paid labor on doing things the hard and slow way, ok, but most that build barns want to use most of their time with the horses, not just as caretakers, or pay extra for unnecessary labor when we make things hard to care for just for certain looks.

When designing a barn, get the look you want, then keep working around what in that ideal design makes sense for horse keeping and compromise where you think that makes sense.

Here is a composite picture of our barn with a courtyard:

[Timex]

here is a bird’s eye view of the barn I mentioned: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Gridley+St,+Saratoga+Springs,+NY+12866/@43.0671507,-73.776015,327a,20y,277.89h/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89de39c0c18641c5:0x147eecd114382cd0!8m2!3d43.0674!4d-73.775507

the big barn is enclosed, 16 stalls I think? plus office, tack and feed rooms. the bottom of the U has a few stalls (shedrow), and a covered walkway from the main barn. the left side of the U had more stalls (again, shedrow), and the top left hand portion of the U has storage, sleeping quarters, hay storage, etc. in the center you can see the 3 wash racks.