For those who have barns with center aisle and rear turnout doors . . . show me your different set ups. We are building a new barn with pastures connecting to the back side of the barn. Looking at different door options that are operator friendly to close from the ‘inside’ of the stall. I don’t want to walk all the way around the building to get back inside. Looking for different stall doors that close/ lock from the inside of the stall. Post pictures if you can!
A barn here had solid metal doors from the four or five stalls into runs outside.
Those doors were one piece and swinging doors.
The latches were outside and accessible from inside also thru a small hand sized hole that was covered outside by a rectangular oversized stiff rubber flap.
I assumed that was to keep wind, rain and snow from coming thru that into the stalls.
It didn’t impede how the latches worked.
Don’t know how well that would have worked in dutch doors off the back, but maybe still ok?
on this board one never knows who has what but if you have the money you can use Richards-Wilcox door hardware that we used on Zoos and some vet clients. Not cheap but will outlast your lifetime. The door hardware made by RW is made to standards that reflect hand craftsmanship. Not a fly by night company but been in business since 1880.
https://rwhardware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/RW-Hardware-Brochure-2019_lo-1.pdf
and if wanted these can be motorized, that can be connected to a phone app so you could close or open the doors from the beach while on vacation
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I have the setup you describe.
Center aisle, stalls open to aisle with sliders, to paddock in the back with Dutch Doors.
Dutch doors can easily be latched from inside the stall & secured (to the barn wall) when open from outside. Inside catch is similar to a deadbolt door lock - mounted on the outside of the door.
Doors latch open to outside with a simple V-shape catch, rounded at the tip.
One catch, positioned for the top half of the door, so whole door can be left open, or just the top half.
In almost 16yrs, no horse has managed to get injured on the outside catches.
My horses have free access to stalls, so doors are left latched open.
In nice weather, when I stall horses for farrier or vet, I can latch the top half of Dutch door open & leave the bottom secured shut.
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Mine are very similar to @Simkie’s. Love them. Mine came from an outfit in Lancaster Co PA (custom painted). If you are close PM and I’ll shoot you the contact info.
I have a “not these” suggestion. My Barnmaster barn is a center aisle, and the back doors are sliding “dutch” doors. Mud and rocks getting in the track isn’t as big an issue as you might think, and you can slide them shut from inside, but the latches are outside and the “dutch” part is nearly useless (IMO). You have to be outside to open them and the hinges are dinky, which means you’ll be replacing them, and when you do, you’ll realize how dinky the old ones were because now the damn door doesn’t open all the way due to pinch from the normal-size hinge. They sacrificed durability to have super small low-profile hinges so the doors would open flat(ish) and more closely to the exterior barn wall. The top door is held open with a hook and eye to keep it from swinging, so if you have the door shut with the top open and something happens, you absolutely cannot open the door from inside nor can you close the window from the inside.
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Eta: I just saw your bottom doors are sliding, could you convert them to swing open?
I know it wouldn’t work all the time, or if you had a horse that can let themselves out, but even with the sliding kind, what if you put another latch closer to the top part of the bottom door? So if you are in the stall working, you could close that latch and in an emergency or anything your arm could still reach it to get you out quickly?
If you had the sliding latches that come down over a center metal piece that has the hole in it, you could even put a double sided clip or caribineer on it to keep it shut if you are working in the stall with an escape artist horse. If you needed to get out you would just have to undo the clip and unlatch the door to get out though? You could still use the lower latch when they are up for the day or night to keep it shut in a more centered area for their safety if they like to paw or push on the doors.
