We are moving to a new property and building a pole building. We have 3 horses. In our area land and property is very expensive so the property is limited in what I can do - size-wise.
My one absolute must is that the stalls be open to a dry lot.
Pastures will have auto-waterers.
Other than that, I am doing a standard aisle, a tack/feed room, bathroom and hay storage area.
Any little details that you’ve done that have increased the convenience factor?
I never get why people have stalls that open to a dry lot. Every barn I’ve seen with this option has been a stinky mess, with mud issues, manure issues, erosion issues, wear and tear on the barn, etc. It seems more logical to have a dry lot with a shed, and leave the ground surrounding the barn intact so it drains as designed.
Really? Never been an issue with any I’ve seen here (done properly and cleaned daily)
I beg to disagree.
Like the OP, I too demand first that stalls have pens accessible outside and those can be, by opening gates, a way for horses to go out to pasture.
Mud happens no matter where you put horses.
Make it where water flows away from the barn, put gutters, fix pen footing so you don’t have mud holes there, just as you do without pens still have mud holes any other place you have horses and gates and low spots.
Stalls with runs keep horses from being directly against barn walls, they are against stall walls.
Much less labor and handling horses in unnecessary ways and much happier horses that don’t have to stand in a stall but the few times that may be necessary.
We have that set-up now for decades and have yet to need to close a horse in a stall at all, which makes for happier horses that can move around more and investigate and see what is going on, kept mentally engaged.
Any one can help feed in an emergency when all they have to do is put feed in stalls but not handle horses that need to be led in and out of barns.
Now, pens with sheds is a very different critter than a barn.
If the OP wants a barn with stalls, having runs is best, properly prepared and maintained, over stalls you have to lead horses in and out for turnout, every time.
While @Palm Beach has a valid point, I have had a drylot surrounding my barn, with (3) stalls opening to it for 15yrs.
Except for directly behind each stall - an area maybe 10’ out - that is a morass when wet, the rest of the 50X100 space is bone dry.
Footed with gravel over geotextile it has solved the former boot-sucking swamp it was for the first 5yrs.
Serendipity may have given me a solution to the swamp behind the stalls.
Last Fall a friend gave me a load of river rock.
I put this down by a gate I had foolishly omitted from the geotex/gravel treatment & despite the ridiculous amount of rain we’ve had for the past month, that place has drained & remains dry.
As soon as the stallswamp dries enough for a tractor blade to scrape down to the original gravel, more rock will get dumped there.
I imagine rock will need to be replaced eventually, but it seems to be correcting the problem.
Hopefully the geotex will prevent it migrating too far back into the ground.
As for what I cannot live without/o in my barn:
*Outlets by each stall, placed outside & out of horses’ reach.
*Aisle lights on separate switches so I can light the aisle while leaving stalls in the dark
*I am also on small acreage - 5ac total - and no waterers in either of my 2 small pastures (accessible 24/7 from drylot). Instead I have a 50gal barrel placed by the front of the barn that serves as a trough. Sinking deicer keeps it unfrozen all Winter (Midwest) & I can refill directly from the barn hydrant.
My barn is nowhere near as fancy as you plan, OP.
No bathroom (200’ from the house), no tack or feed rooms, just designated spaces for each in the 36X36 barn.
I store a year’s worth of small square bales on pallets across from the stalls and still have enough room for my mini’s everyday cart.
Workmanlike, but it has been complimented by pros - vet, shoer - along with other barnowners.
Thanks for the replies so far!
Unfortunately the way the property lies theres no way to have the pen open to pasture (I WISH) but I still think this will be a good solution for allowing the horses “out” on bad days but still have access to their stalls, making life easier when having a horsesitter, and keeping pastures looking nice. The pasture will be sort of in the front “yard” of the house so I would like it to remain good looking. Plus I have ponies who don’t need to be out on grass all the time.
I get it - you have to spend $$$ keeping the mud under control in your dry lot, and you have to clean it daily.
Thought OP was looking for “convenience factors” as indicated in post 1.
pretty much the expected standard in the Los Angeles area
We are on limited acreage so have five interconnecting paddocks that we can place the horses, sort them through as needed… and recent zoning changes will allow front yard fencing which we have not done…but one neighbor does put her sheep in the front yard.
But we only have one stall setup connect directly to a paddock… of course that dude stands in his stall without ever going into the paddock.
Must haves… underground water to all paddocks with for us frost free hydrants, electricity to all barns, hard surfaced access to all barns, hay storage close to the horses, feed rooms placed conveniently, an isolated place for manure disposal (or available haul off) Good Fans in the stalls… remote control would be nice but we installed these industrial fans decades ago so if the speed needs changing its get the ladder out
These days… WiFi camera set up would be nice so one can check on the gang to makes sure they are not plotting a break out or worse slipping in another horse
From my experience build one less stall than needed rather than one more as if there are extras a horse will be found to occupancy
Not really, maintenance happens no matter where you put horses.
In the East decades ago, horses were kept in barns and help would take them out to paddock and bring them back daily.
Some horses were bears to handle during that, not everyone could do that.
It took more labor, time and risks, people and horses were hurt at times from fresh horses.
You may think extra handling was good, but that was not really only extra handling, but extra handling under trying circumstances.
Cleaning stalls alone where a horse stands there is harder than cleaning stall and run, where horses don’t trample manure all over.
I feed and clean stalls/runs twice a day and it is very easy, compared with a stall alone.
Once moving further West, stalls had runs and those horses were much easier to handle then, they were not so anxious about going out and seeing the wide world past their stall walls.
Now, there are places where stalls with runs are not indicated, the lay of the land not ideal for that.
In general, I would not discount off hand the option of stalls with runs and that is definitely my preference if given a choice.
@Palm Beach - sorry, I should have been more clear. More like, what little things inside the barn just made life easier - swing out feeders, for example. Been looking into that and wondering if its worthwhile.
If stalls have a feed door, great way to feed, make it low enough that short people/kids can feed without needing to reach way high and get hay all over them and everything else there.
If feed doors have hay racks, make them removable for the horses that will be fed on the ground, one less thing for them to get into.
Our feed doors are at 4’ and just too high for 4’ 10" short me.
I open the stall door and feed thru there.
A friend has lower feed doors in his barn and they are just right not to have to fight above my head to get hay in there.
We don’t shut horses in stalls and their water is in bigger troughs outside in the pens.
If a horse were to need to stay in a stall, we would use water buckets.
If you keep horses in stalls, then automatic waterers are easier, no buckets to fill, clean and refill.
I loooooved my set up with stalls to runs to sacrifice area to pasture. It worked SO well and made day to day operations SO easy. There was a 12’ overhang off the barn that served the runs, and if we’d stayed there longer, I would’ve installed an auto water in the sacrifice area.
Inside the barn: light. Light everywhere. Outlets, but also work in as much natural light as you can. Translucent panels are awesome–we did those in the gable ends and it made the barn SO light and airy. My barn now has a loft, so panels in the gables doesn’t work, but we replaced the big sliding aisle doors with windowed ones, and that helps a lot. I’m considering adding clear panels over the dutch doors, too, to brighten up the stalls.
For your outlets, consider how you’re heating your water in the winter (if you have winter) and CONFIRM that outlets are in places where cords can reach. It’s so frustrating to be a few inches short.
Two banks of lights down the aisle, offset to each side, is better than one bank down the middle.
The option to turn on lights over each stall is nice, but at least give yourself a night light–one light you can turn on independently–so you’re not lighting up there whole barn unnecessarily.
Even if you’re not installing fans right away, have the electrician wire in where they’ll go, so you can add them easily later. Consider doing that in the stalls and in your sacrifice area.
Setting it up so you can power wash the entire inside is really nice. Seal your tack and feed room somehow, and grade the aisle slightly away. In my barn, water flows under the wall into both rooms and it’s a huge pita.
For hay storage, consider making it accessible to a skid steer, as more hay is being put up in big bales or bundles. If it’s got to be hand stacked small bales, that can be limiting.
use a Polycarbonate such as Lanex it is shatter resistant
well then a full service bar sure makes chores somewhat easier
Good lighting for the farrier/vet
Stairs to the loft instead of simply a ladder
Bar height counter for mixing grains/supplements
Closed storage area that is mice proof for extra bags of grain
Shelf/basket near grooming station/cross ties for sprays, polishes, potions
Heat in the tack room to keep tack from molding
Tie rings in stalls to accommodate more horses being tacked up at once than you expect
Dutch doors from all potential stalls so you can change layout at some point in the future (we have a 36x36 with a tack and two stalls on one side and a feed plus two grooming stations on the other. We put dutch doors in the groom stations in case we ever wanted to make those into full stalls)
Stall walls that are replaceable if damaged
Shedrow roof off stalls with full mats underneath
Hoof grid beyond the shedrow
Easy access for vet/farrier to back up to barn aisle
I have stalls that open into private paddocks (some only 10’x40’) and those open to a dry lot. This has been very helpful when I have had a horse that needs to stay in for medical reasons. They usually have been able to have access to their paddock, which gets them out of the barn and into the fresh air.
Outside the stall doors I have a 10’ over hang. That keeps some of the weather out of the actual stalls (not all of the weather, but most of it). I have that area matted.
I do not have an issue with mud and erosion around my barn. I keep things tidy and we added stone in all the sacrifice areas.
In the barn - Think about how often you are going to want to get hay and size your storage area appropriately. Getting more hay can be a real hassle. So try to make it something you do less often.
If you’re doing mats on the floors, don’t run them under the walls between stalls just because it’s easier to lay them because you’ll have less cuts to make. It’s a pain to dig out under the mats, and even more of a pain if you have to replace a mat.
I think having stall runs open to another pasture/dry lot only works if your horses all get along. I have several bitchy mares, and if they were in an area with access to stalls, they wouldn’t be smart enough to go into their own stall, they’d all try to go into one, and someone would inevitably get hurt in the tight space.
We have a small drylot with a run in (matted with lights, fans, and the water trough) with three pastures attached to it. The horses have the shed for shelter when they’re not stalled, and we can rotate which pasture they have access to, if any, but opening one gate and closing the other two. This has worked great for us, and saved the expense of having to build run-in sheds in every pasture.
The one place I boarded with the ‘runs’ model (TX) had mud when it rained (so almost never) but a lot of shavings were lost from the stalls when the horses walked back and forth. I didn’t hate the model, but if I were building from scratch, I wouldn’t do runs.
As for barn must-haves:
washer/dryer. I thought this was just a ‘luxury’ when we moved to our current barn which had hookups. Now I can’t live without them! I wash saddlepads after every use, it’s great for keeping sheets and wraps clean, and I’ve used the dryer to dry a saturated blanket more times than I can count.
half bathroom is great–I don’t have to track sand into my house when using it between rides, and farrier/vet/handyman can use it, meaning I don’t have to be embarrassed at how messy my house is when they ask to use the bathroom. 
heated/cooled tack room-- my tack doesn’t get moldy in the summer, and in the winter, sprays, shampoos etc don’t freeze, and bits aren’t frigid.
outlet, fan and lights at every stall. Also, bright aisle lights–I can’t abide a dim barn, and things like vet doing stitches, or body clipping, you’ll really appreciate the bright lights.
carefully consider where you’ll store hay (I prefer a separate building), shavings, and what you’re doing with manure. These can be frustrating when done wrong.
build for more horses than you own, but not for more than you’re willing to own An extra stall or three can be used for storage if there are no horses living in them. But having the space to buy another, board a friend’s, or take in a rescue or flood/disaster victim is great.
definitely use hoof grid or geotextile and gravel around gates, water troughs, and other high-traffic areas.
hot/cold wash stall – can’t live without this
build more storage than you think you’ll need! Farms require lots of tools, blowers, and mowers.
Stalls with runs are not meant for other than individual horses, not herds of them.
If someone uses a stall with run for more than one horse, that they fight is not because that stall has a run, but because someone misused that set-up.
Here practically all barns with stalls have runs and the runs have gates into other areas.
Horses may be kept together in the larger areas, but only let in one to a stall/run for individual time or feeding.
If to have a run off a stall is just one more option where that fits.
If that option is there, why not use it, since a horse is definitely better off with more room to move around, if possible?
Where that is not an option or the preference of the one in charge?
Then the horses will just have to be stuck in stalls and led here and there for turnout.
Since we are offering all different kinds of options, both are common ones to be considered…
Covered (at a minimum) or indoor dedicated wash stall. I have a shedrow with an attached covered addition that serves as my wash stall and cross tie area for tacking. I was willing to give up a lot of amenities that I was previously used to when I bought my farm but that was not one of them! Some days I wish I had a separate cross tie area (I don’t love grooming/tacking horse #2 in the wet from hosing horse #1) but that’s just me being picky. Edited to add: Must have hot and cold water! My critters prefer lukewarm-warm baths year around and I like to soak hot mashes in the winter. 
Also this isn’t directly related to barn design but I don’t know where I would be without my gator! Having some kind of utility vehicle makes getting around the property and doing things like moving hay and mucking stalls 10000x easier!
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