Loving all the great ideas. Beautiful barn Trekkie!!!
No less than 12’ aisle width. More if you can make it work, though for a personal barn with 2-3 horses it’s less of an issue. I’ve worked in a narrow aisle before – never again.
Ventilation, access, waste disposal, storage, emergencies such as flood and fire and how to manage a horse on box rest.
Easy access for unloading hay and bedding. My barn has side doors right by the storage areas, I back up to the door and unload. No tight maneuvering down the aisle or blocking the aisle to unload.
Turn around space. I go to some amazing barns that can negotiate two trailers Max. It’s a delicate balance in poor weather getting multiple trailers in and out, or getting hay and shavings delivered.
I have a 12 foot aisle. We can drive a full size truck with a loaded hay wagon down the aisle. We unload hay directly into the loft.
Electric
Hot and cold water. My current and last barns had the water heater in the lounge or tack room. The water heater pulls a lot of electricity but it throws out enough heat that we don’t have to heat those rooms to keep the pipes from freezing until it gets really cold.
For a personal barn you don’t need a tacking up stall. For a border barn, you definitely do! Nothing worse than horses crosstied in an aisle in a border barn.
Ah, well, my personal (i.e. no boarders) dream barn includes:
Center aisle barn, 18’ wide aisle; sky lights, ceiling fans, lots lights, all that jazz
Hip roof, no loft
Four 12’x16’ stalls with euro curved fronts
12’x16’ tack + feed room
12’x16’ wash stall
12’ covered porch on all sides
Dutch doors on outside of stalls, free access to individual dry lots, each dry lot leads to a pasture
ooohhh… eye candy
The barn I am at now, has a feature that I love. It is a center aisle barn, with doors on the stalls to the outside opening directly into limestone paddocks. These paddocks are never closed off to the horses. Most are two stalls wide, with two horses sharing. During the day, the stalls get closed. When the pastures are too wet for turnout, the horses are still out. I know there are barns with limestone paddocks or dry lots, but I love that it is directly attached to the barn. So even when the stall is open at night, they have the option to be out. They are never locked in a stall. I had no idea how much I would love this, and is now one of my favorite things ever.
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I have this out the back dutch door of all my stalls except it opens to a grass paddock on each side rather than limestone.
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There are lots of threads on the Around the Farm page about barn/farm design. Also there’s a FB group that has some good ideas, and lots of people sharing pictures and layouts.
I mostly love my barn. Center aisle block barn with 12’ aisle, 3 stalls on one wall, one stall, washrack, and tackroom on the other side.
If I won the lotto but could only improve my current place (as opposed to building a dream farm from scratch), I’d add 3-4 more stalls, including a double-sized foaling stall (currently my additional stalls are shed-row style behind the main barn). I’d also have a separate feed room. My current tack room is large and does double duty adequately, but separate spaces would be better.
I have ground-level hay storage in a separate building near, but separate from the barn. I like that a lot, as it keeps dust and fire-risk down, and having dealt with delivery challenges to a hay loft at a previous farm, I never want to do that again.
My tack room is heated/cooled, has a washer/dryer, and a half bath. Those seemed like luxuries when I moved in, now they are must-haves and deal breakers. lol.
I’d love a rubber-paver aisle (though they can be a challenge to keep clean unless you use a leaf blower) but my broom-finished concrete works fine, it just isn’t as pretty.
All my stalls have at least one dutch window, and the horses LOVE them. They often stick their heads out to watch their friends in turnout. I just close them up in winter and during storms. The stalls are all well matted, have sealed motor fans, dedicated light, and are bight and airy. We have IR/heat lamps in the wash stall which is great for winter shoeing/vet visits, as well as clipping/tacking in cold weather, in addition to post-bath drying.
While not barn-specific. I recommend multiple turnouts around the barn, each with alleys/gates towards the barn area, to minimize time/distance bringing horses in/out. I’d also love a run-in (with mats and fans) in each field, but I have only managed 2 of 5 so far. Mud control and drainage is HUGE. It costs a lot up front, but will make living with the setup SO much better.
You beat me to it, @ElementFarm. Heat lamp with automatic shut off above a grooming stall. So helpful for braiding on cold mornings, or putting a horse up in winter. And yes to the washer and dryer. (Friends moved their old Maytags out to the barn when they bought new front loads. Maytags still rocking but not so the others, g).
Out west, it’s common for aisles to be decomposed granite. An extra wide aisle can be used for light riding or cooling out at the walk.
I hate uninsulated tin roofs. The tiniest drizzle sounds like hail.
