Half walls for stall fronts?

[ayrabz]

This shows the dutch door type/with grills on top, but I can also open the top half completely, too. (This door goes from ‘end’ of aisle directly into the run in which is in sacrifice area that adjoins turn outs/arena)

http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt25/ayrabz/Farmette%20Completion%20Sep%2009/00000025.jpg

This one shows first stall with both top half and feeder door open

http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt25/ayrabz/Farmette%20Completion%20Sep%2009/00000027.jpg

This one shows both stall fronts with feeders/dutch closed (aisleway is now matted edge to edge in interlocking stall mats, too)

http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt25/ayrabz/Farmette%20Completion%20Sep%2009/00000023.jpg

And this shows top and bottom dutch open into stall (and interlocking mats)

http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt25/ayrabz/Farmette%20Completion%20Sep%2009/00000020-1.jpg

no fancy stain and hardware, but we’re still workin’ on it! :o)

[SidesaddleRider]

We have 4’6" T&G front stall walls with no grills in our barn. The top board is covered with white metal, so they can’t chew on it. We also have header boards, so the open spacing is only about 3’. The side walls are 7’. Five stalls are inside the barn, with two in an addition on the back of the barn. The three stalls on the left in the barn have dutch doors in the back wall, which leads to a 20’x60’ bluestone paddock. The other two inner stalls have a window with a grill in the back wall.The aisle in the barn is 12’ wide. All of the inner stalls have black mesh doors with yolks.

Knock on wood, but we have had no problem with horses ever attempting to jump out of the stalls into the aisle (and some have gotten pretty agitated). One horse is mouthy, and will chew on ANYTHING you put near him, so we make sure the tack trunk and any blankets are out of his reach; the only thing he can get ahold of is a cross-tie. We mostly do our grooming/tack up in the wash stall or in a stall (each one has a tie ring and plenty of light), but we have not had a problem when we cross-tie in the aisle. The horses all go out together, so one buddy make poke another, but they don’t try to bite each other.

[lostkiwi]

Stall walls

[QUOTE=Behind the 8 Ball;5289400]
We converted an old dairy barn and created 5 new stalls along a 70 foot section. We used rough cut hemlock 2x12s and 4x4s as our corner studs. The side walls go all the way up and the back walls are stone with each stall having at least one 2x2’ window. The fronts are 1/2 walls up to 5 feet and the beam that delineates the edge of the aisle hangs down to 8 feet.
I always thought we would put in grills but haven’t seemed to need them so I really don’t think it will happen at this point.[/QUOTE]

We are converting an old cow barn right now…and doing exactly the same thing. We are a small family barn, on a tight remodel budget.
Using 2" thick rough cut Oak (that our local mill custom milled for us) for walls that are 5ft high in front and 7ft between stalls (with grill). Not sure if we will add grill to front walls yet but like the idea of a wire grill…for air circulation and let the light through. The barn is really light and airy now and would love it to stay that way.
I am using mesh gates for door openings that can open in both directions (in and out of stall). LOVE these gates. Used them in the old barn and never had an issue. Look nice too. High enough so horse can’t reach out at passing horse but horse can still see out and be part of the goings on in the barn.

[IfWishesWereHorses]

My stables are without grills, and they are so light and airy and the horses love the outlook. I had a horse come in from Hong Kong who I was warned was a horrendous box walker. well he never did it at our place, was super relaxed - I put it down to the open plan style stabling we have.

No horse has ever jumped out (touch wood!), and I have swinging half doors on the front, not sliding ones. Height wise, I think its about 4ft6 high? anything lower I think might be an issue!

[Trevelyan96]

Mine is a bit rustic, but solid amish built. We have 12 x 12 stalls that are made with 2x8 rough sawn oak dropped into channels between the stalls up to 48". We designed it this way so that I could easily remove a wall if I wanted a foaling stall. Along the top of those we ran a 3x3 board, with another set 3’ above that. Used a hole saw to drill holes every 4" or so in those and used large conduit piping cut to fit in the holes as grilles. Fronts are nailed in instead of in channels, but have the same conduit grilles. Sliding doors inside are made the same way. Outside doors are solid dutch doors.

Keeps the barn nice and open, the walls are super strong, and its easily dismantled if I ever need to double the size of one of the stalls for a long layup or foaling.

[fordtraktor]

Just thinking about this thread, I remembered that I have a pic of my dad’s stalls that I was talking about. You can see them in the background here. Keep in mind that the stalls drop down about four inches from the outside to the bedding, even more to the base of the stalls, so it is actually higher than it looks from the aisle (which is paved with concrete blocks with brick trim, hence the height) (and I LOVE that – not slippery like concrete, wears well, looks pretty, inexpensive):

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2087410290053911905sPflDJ

The stalls are not super-fancy but the horses all love the barn. I wish the barn on my farm was the same – it is “fancier” but not as horse-friendly with the grills.

All the stalls are rough oak. We built it in 1992 – it still looks pretty darn good to be almost 20 years old. We don’t have any real chewers.

It also shows the bracing that is advisable if you want to do open fronts. It’s better to have a “frame” for them like this with 4 x 4 than just the half wall and nothing else, does that make sense? It gives stability for you to hang your door and will keep the whole thing from sagging. If you don’t the horses would be able to push against the door/half wall, I would think, and it would be less stable.

My dad built houses for a living and so while the barn isn’t fancy, it is structurally very sound.

[Simbalism]

I have been at one barn that had half walls on the stalls. It was an old barn and the 2 stalls were at the back of the barn. The main part of the barn was elevated a bit off the ground and had a wood floor. The stalls were therefore lower because they were on ground level. The doors to the stall were off the outside wall. It was easy to feed the horses, as the feed buckets were hung on the wall inside the stall. Because the main section of the barn was higher there never seemed to be an issue with a horse trying to get into the “barn”. I have been at barns where horses jumped out over a half door.