I’m curious to see some examples of barns with well laid out facilities. I’m mainly thinking larger barns (20-30 horses+) but I know some COTHers have done amazing jobs with their small farms, so feel free to brag about those as well!
We all know that horse health is #1 and efficiency for work is (generally) #2, but what does that actually look like when put into action?
I’ll play 
“Large” does not really apply to my 36X36 2-stall pole barn, but it could have 6 stalls.
I planned the layout after working & boarding in much larger barns & it has worked out great for me & my 2 horses.
Center-aisle with stalls on the East wall - placed to avoid prevailing winds.
Dutch doors at the back of each stall open to sacrifice area that is gravel over geotextile - No.Mud.EVER!
Sliding doors from stalls to aisle.
Sacrifice opens to pastures on either side.
Horses are turned out 24/7/365 with access to stalls if they want.
I realize this system might not work with larger herds, but my 2 get along fine so no jockeying for the “best” stall when they bring themselves in to be fed.
This is the 2nd set of 2 geldings living this way.
Even totally non-horsepeople have been able to farmsit for me with this setup.
They just toss hay into stalls and fill feed pans - all can be done w/o going into a stall.
Frostproof hydrant is inside the barn so Winter does not inconvenience me when filling buckets.
I store a year’s worth of hay (250-300 small square bales ~ 50#) on pallets along the wall opposite the stalls. Never have to lug hay from someplace else to feed in bad weather.
Eavelights on both sides of the barn allow enough daylight so I rarely use lights.
Indoor arena is attached & can be used for turnout in truly bad weather.
Going into Year 11 the only thing I wish I’d done differently is to work out some way to avoid the big - 12’WX16’H - sliding door from barn to sacrifice from freezing in the track. PITA when I need to refill the 50gal barrel that serves as a trough just outside said door.
Do your horses always go in their correct stalls or do they switch around (or even share) from time to time? What a low maintenance set up!
We have the large sliding doors too. We need them, but ugh! Almost every morning in the winter I’m fighting them!
My first 2 had a preferred stall, but no Biggie if it was Occupied.
I’d often find them sharing a stall - 16h TB & 17h+ TWH in one 12X12.
My current 2 pretty much keep to “their” stall, although lately (after 5yrs ) I’ve seen them together in one. With 17h+ WB & 13h pony not so cozy as the others.
Yup, low maintenance was what I aimed for.
Working in a variety of barns I made mental notes about what worked best & what seemed like too much work
Those fighting big sliding doors should consider overhead doors.
We used to have sliding doors, two, each 9 1/2’ wide and 14’ high.
Once we went to one large, manually operated overhead door, no more back of shoulder pain from sliding those doors back and forth.
Very poor ergonomics to sliding doors, especially large ones.
Bluey:
Not sure overhead doors would not have the same issue in our Midwest Winters.
Snow piling up or freezing makes the sliders inoperable.
Wouldn’t overheads be subject to the same problem where they meet the ground?
Ours isn’t well-planned because much of it was already here when I bought the farm. Like… the house is in the middle of the darn place.
But it works, and even though it’s kind of a museum of different kinds of barns, roofing, siding, fencing, and so forth… it’s OK.
Good landscaping and painting all the buildings with a similar color scheme goes a long ways, and paying lots of attention over the years to things I didn’t and did like at other barns was also helpful.
And Pinterest is your friend!
[QUOTE=2DogsFarm;8179063]
Bluey:
Not sure overhead doors would not have the same issue in our Midwest Winters.
Snow piling up or freezing makes the sliders inoperable.
Wouldn’t overheads be subject to the same problem where they meet the ground?[/QUOTE]
Could you add a man door to the sliding door? If you only use it for watering in the winter this would be easier. Also set it up so the man door swings in so you don’t have to fight the snow.
[QUOTE=2DogsFarm;8179063]
Bluey:
Not sure overhead doors would not have the same issue in our Midwest Winters.
Snow piling up or freezing makes the sliders inoperable.
Wouldn’t overheads be subject to the same problem where they meet the ground?[/QUOTE]
People that live there have told me that no, by far overhead doors are much easier to pry loose and once lose, no contest, they are definitely the way to go.
The trouble, some don’t consider them traditional for a horse or farm barn, they like the looks of the sliders better, if they kill them.
Sliding doors you have to open and close regularly, think on how you have to strain even with the smaller stall doors, are not ergonomic, compared with any other doors.
No problem if you don’t open them much, but it is wear and tear on you if you have to handle sliders often.
Also, the bigger the door, the more it makes sense to have a man door somewhere close.
Christa P: When I win the lottery… 
Service door - human-sized - is just around the corner from the big slider, so I use that & fill the barrel bucket-brigade style.
Bluey:
Wouldn’t prying loose an overhead require just as much Ooomph! as loosening enough of the track to move a slider?
We had snow piled up in knee-high (to 5’5" me) drifts last year.
Academic, since I still have to win that lottery to afford a change…
[QUOTE=2DogsFarm;8179218]
Christa P: When I win the lottery…
Service door - human-sized - is just around the corner from the big slider, so I use that & fill the barrel bucket-brigade style.
Bluey:
Wouldn’t prying loose an overhead require just as much Ooomph! as loosening enough of the track to move a slider?
We had snow piled up in knee-high (to 5’5" me) drifts last year.
Academic, since I still have to win that lottery to afford a change…[/QUOTE]
Actually what i was thinking shouldn’t be that expensive. The existing large door would stay, you would cut the hole for regular door into the existing door, frame it out and hang the regular door.
Though it sounds like you have a work around so it’s probably unnecessary.
[QUOTE=2DogsFarm;8179218]
Christa P: When I win the lottery…
Service door - human-sized - is just around the corner from the big slider, so I use that & fill the barrel bucket-brigade style.
Bluey:
Wouldn’t prying loose an overhead require just as much Ooomph! as loosening enough of the track to move a slider?
We had snow piled up in knee-high (to 5’5" me) drifts last year.
Academic, since I still have to win that lottery to afford a change…[/QUOTE]
First, you can add grease to either door so it is less apt to get stuck iced to the ground and that would help a slider slide.
BUT, you still have to clear the slider part past the door to slide it over and sliding it over takes a side ways effort, even with the best hung doors.
We know, we had those doors in several barns for decades, what a relief when we went to overhead doors.
We also get enough ice and snow, just not all winter and definitely overhead doors are easier to work thru.
Granted, overhead doors are generally not as aesthetically pleasing as sliders and that the barn has a certain look is important to those that don’t mind the annoyance.
Last year I looked at a small farm that was for sale. The couple used to breed Standardbreds but both were now in their 80’s and didn’t have any horses anymore and were moving into town.
Anyway, as they aged, the man made many modifications to keep things manageable and I was really impressed by the layout. The barn was kind of in the middle of the property, with pastures/paddocks to the front, to one side, and to the back. The stalls were all along one side of the barn. Water faucets at each pasture. There were lanes that ran from the barn to each pasture, with gates at each junction. There were also some gates in the barn that spanned the aisle.
By opening/closing specific gates, it was possible for one person to move horses in and out of any stall in the barn to/from any specific pasture without having to actually handle a horse. Of course, that was premised on the assumption that horses are anxious to go out in the morning and to come back in at dinner time, which I think is a pretty valid assumption. The man eventually got a golf cart and the horses would follow him in and out as he drove the golf cart.
It was a pretty slick set-up. Ultimately, I decided it was just too far out, but I really loved the place.
Our 40 stall barn has a great layout not only for our trail riding business, but for our boarders as well. Basically it’s a giant “H” so there are four “quadrants” connected by a middle aisle… Hopefully this is making sense…
Each quadrant has space for 6 stalls on either side so technically if every space were used for a stall it would be the size of a 48 stall barn; however, there are 3 tackrooms (1 for boarders, another for employees, and another for the trail riding tack), a bathroom, a medicine room, an office, and one stall is a storage space with a staircase that leads up to a 1200 sqft apartment above the barn. DH and I lived there for 7 years. It’s 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and just as nice as any apartment I lived in during college.
The outside of one of the long sides of the barn is pretty much a giant wash rack / hitching post. We have hoses spaced evenly and ties set up every 8 feet or so (I’m guestimating). This is where the trail riders get their horses ready and where everyone hoses off and bathes their horses. The inside of the barn has plenty of cross ties for the boarders and employees to tack up away from the guests.
The layout works super well for us. The arena is just off the backside of the barn and there is a short walkway to our paddocks. Other than that our 90 acre pasture basically does a horseshoe around the barn and guest house with gates at either end so you can go catch your horse.
It’s amazing how quickly horses learn when feed time is. Everyone thinks it’s a PITA to catch horses in a 90 acre pasture, but our full boarders know to show up to the gate around 4 pm so they can go in and eat. We rarely ever have to venture out to catch one… All the other pasture boarded horses have become excellent about walking next to a Gator.
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