Let's talk about those fancy Euro stall fronts - Like? Dislikes? Practicality?

[pattnic]

I have to admit, I’m in love with the Euro stall fronts - http://www.classic-equine.com/posts/european-series/

For those of you who have experience with them, what do you like and what do you dislike? How well do they work in reality?

Are they only available as swing-out, or is there a sliding option available somewhere (though my mind is having difficulty imagining how the mechanics of that might work)?*

Basically, tell me all about them!

*OK, as I think about it further, there is clearly no way to make that work, as there would be no place for the top sliding rail.

[Simkie]

I don’t have those fancy euro stall fronts, but I do have two stalls with doors that swing open instead of sliding along a rail.

Dislike

I’d much rather have all sliding doors.

[findeight]

I’ve kept with that kind of stall front, in this country and not recently. It was OK got a few extra feet of room since they could hang their head over. It was a Western barn, sensible unambitious QHs. that did not need to entertain themselves constantly.

However, like with Dutch doors, the clever ones can get out over it and the not so clever get various body parts caught over it. Don’t think they can’t fit, they’ll find a way. For that reason, I would not choose them. But nothing is ever 100% horse wreck proof.

Im sure you could get them as sliders if you wanted but don’t know if you really want sliders, the tracks always get full of bedding and crap, the wheels get stuck as it works it’s way up around the bearings. And they are real hard to unstick unless you have a full staff with toothbrushes to keep them clean. I hate them, as you can tell. Think you can get out and get the door open keeping the horse back and closed quicker with a swing door opening into the stall.

[2DogsFarm]

I boarded at a place that had a modified version.
No lovely open fronts, but a sliding option I covet to this day:
A pin that slipped into an inset hole so no protruding latch mechanism.
Easy to work one-handed, even with horse in the other hand.

[pattnic]

[QUOTE=2DogsFarm;7946464]
I boarded at a place that had a modified version.
No lovely open fronts, but a sliding option I covet to this day:
A pin that slipped into an inset hole so no protruding latch mechanism.
Easy to work one-handed, even with horse in the other hand.[/QUOTE]

Any chance you could find pictures?

[retrofit]

Personally I don’t think any type of door that allows horses to hang their heads out works particularly well if you cross-tie horses in the aisle or store blankets, etc. on the stall fronts. Usually most of the doors end up with baling twine rigged all over them to keep wandering mouths IN. That kind of defeats the purpose of pretty stall fronts! The only way I could see it work is with a flip-down option, so you can let Dobbin hang his head out if/when you want, and close him up the rest of the time.

[skipollo]

My horse LOVES them. He loves hanging his head over the door to watch outside the barn. He also likes being able to sniff and see his girlfriend through the bars between stalls. The walls between stalls aren’t entirely bars–there’s a window-sized portion that has bars, then the rest is wood. It’s enough privacy for the more “loner” type horses with enough viewing for the more social horses like mine. He’s happier in this type of stall than a closed off “normal” style–he’s able to see a lot more, and the stall feels more spacious.

Plus they’re purty

[Calvincrowe]

I’ve boarded in a barn with them, and it was fine. If you don’t mind heads in the aisle, then it’s not big deal. The must be installed correctly, otherwise the door latches don’t line up. Bars the length of the dividing wall can be problematic, but partial bars/partial solid gives privacy, especially at the feeder corners.

Personally, I love having doors that slide and allow heads out (grills drop down), but are also able to be fully barred (grills latch up) or half walls so horses can SEE one another. Hate “jail cell” barns where horses cannot see each other! Open, airy, able to communicate is best.

[Skip_s_Rider]

My horse lies down more in a enclosed type of stall than the kind with an open front. He also objected to horses being cross tied outside of his open front stall. Also, I greatly prefer sliding doors. I will admit, however, that the open front stalls are beautiful.

[Stushica]

While my parents barn was in the process of being built there were no bars on the stall fronts for quite some time and we loved how the horses could see everything and how easy it was to feed right over the stall. However, one of our boarders bought a second horse and she terrorized the other horses as we quickly built her bars first, she would lunge and bite passing horses and try to bite her neighbor from the front. She was also deathly afraid of dirt bikes and made her way halfway out the door and after being shoved back in halfway through the window before we could really get her contained and calmed down and the dirt bike shut off.

I still really like the look of the euro fronts for when I’m building one day but considerations I have thought of are that it would be good to perhaps have one fully enclosed stall on an end for a horse the needs it, also with swinging doors a level isle way is important, add to that a wide isle way to keep your horse in cross ties from being bit and to give the doors enough room to open. Everything has it’s drawbacks.

[whitney159]

I LOVE the look of the Euro fronts when I see them in the catalogs. Good to hear the down side from people here so I can stop being jealous because I couldn’t afford them. I wondered how they hold up with the door in the middle of the stall wall, and the post only sunk into the floor, with no attachment up top. Say a 1200 lb mare were to get in the habit of rubbing her butt on it…would it give or break or start to lean?
At my old barn, I only had walls that went up about 4 1/2 feet, then they were open, and I had a terrible time with horses biting any horse that was tied in the aisle, and fighting each other over the walls, made me nuts that my gelding and one mare were constantly going at it. So when I built the current barn I was determined to budget for decent stalls. I now have walls to 4 feet or so, then bars between all the stalls and bars on stall fronts. For feeding ease, I have swing out feed doors, and also swing down grill sections in the stall doors so the horses can hang heads out when they want (feed door are also big enough for this). I’m a hug fan of sliding doors over swing outs, but since I don’t have the Euro fronts, mine hang and roll from the top.
Someone mentioned the one handed latch mechanism with no protruding parts, I love that feature too. My doors have a handle and a bar that runs vertically down into the handle. Push up on the bar and it unlatches the stall easily, let it go and it stays latched (spring loaded). One weird thing though that has bugged the mess out of me. With my doors, if you get all Hercules with it, and yank the door open so that it rolls hard and hits the end of the track, the door seems to get hung up and not roll. You then have to push is hard and bounce it again against the fully open end of the track, and then it’s free to roll closed. I thought it was a defect, but it occurred to me this week that if you have strong farm hands using those doors, it does prevent the door bouncing back and rolling closed on a horse that is following them through it.

[findeight]

Barn I was in for 17 years had horizontal bars on top of solid wood from about chest height to the top, like 12-14’, between stalls so they could see and interact with the neighbors. Much like the “Euro” style in the pictures sans the low doors or dips for hanging the neck out. This did require some switching around to settle squabbles and did not suit owners who had to have the same stall in perpetuity. There were some stalls on the ends that were fully enclosed for those that just could not get along with anybody else.

The doors were the same height as the walls, vertical barred top to bottom with the stall fronts also chest height wood with vertical bars to top, much like a few examples in these pictures. Although it was physically impossible to get a hoof through between the bars…one artfully inserted his huge WB back hoof thru the small opening between bars while banging it on the door for amusement and/or to drive us nuts with the noise, he got bored with banging the water bucket. Anyway when he realized he was caught he panicked and tore the door off the hinges. Took ithe 12 foot metal door with him down the aisle hanging off his leg. Good thing it was winter and the doors were closed. They had to sedate him and use a welding torch to get it off.

You know, we later measured that horse’s back hoof (after he came back from the clinic and the cast came off) and the space between the bars, there was no way that could have fit thru there. Best guess was he sort of curled and pointed it while it was rotated sideways, like if you point your toe and rotate your big toe down with little toe up, he was barefoot behind. The door manufacturer was incredulous.

After that they welded a top to bottom 1" grid mesh kind of thing on each door and I developed a firm distrust of vertical bars without a mesh guard. Never say never.

[Bluey]

The idea of a stall is to keep a horse confined, so you can walk down the aisle and so can the horse you are leading, without being greeted/attacked.

The best is a door that is complete, but part of it can be folded open for the few horses you want to stick their heads out.

Any time you have an opening out of a stall, sooner or later some horse will have a silly moment and try to exit thru it, so think if you really want anything open a horse may get out thru or get hung in trying to get out.

Personally, I have never seen sliders that don’t eventually get clogged up and out of line.
Swinging doors are much easier to adjust.
I have not seen swinging doors that you can’t, if they do, easily mount one or the other side of the latch higher or lower.

Sliding doors won’t use room in the aisle, but they may strain your arm and shoulder from the motion you have to use to open and close them.
With swinging doors you don’t have any such ergonomic concerns.
One door a day, no problem, many doors many times a day, maybe.

It is all about trade-offs, what you love to see in your barn, what is sensible, only you know what would work best for you.

Here are some pictures of stalls, some with openings you can also keep closed:

[can_t_re]

I have similar “European” stalls and LOVE them. I actually like the doors that swing open better than sliders. They can also be opened all the way to go flush against the wall. The biggest down side is some of my horses are not always happy if they travel to another barn with the stalls more enclosed. I do have a big broodmare stall that has full height walls.

[acoustic]

My horse is an ass and would bite anything within reach, including other horses and some choice people. These stall fronts would give him too much space to cover with terror. :lol:

They sure do look lovely though!

[Desert_Topaz]

Research says that most horses are much less stressed if they can see their neighbors and what’s going on in the aisle (fulfills one of the three behavioral needs: access to companionship.) Please note the most. Obviously, as with everything horse, it doesn’t work for all of them

[2DogsFarm]

[QUOTE=pattnic;7946511]
Any chance you could find pictures?[/QUOTE]

I’ll try Googling.
Until then, picture a metal lined & inclined channel in the stall wall the slider closes to.
The pin is attached by a chain to the door and hangs neatly when door is opened.

[HungarianHippo]

Had a horse on extended stall rest once, and he had a freak out moment one day and was just determined to get out. The stall door was taller than a half door–it stopped at mid-neck height. Despite that height, he was rearing and thinking pretty hard about getting over the door. And being able to put his head over the gate allowed him to push it hard with his chest (quite effectively–he almost succeeded). It was an extraordinary circumstance, it’s not like he ever tried something like that before or since. But when I built my own stalls, I kept incident in mind. My divider walls have bars on the top half so they can see/socialize just fine.

[Bluey]

Many pictures of horse barns and stalls are awesome, in pictures.

Each person has to think how those barns and stalls will work or not work for them.

A local breeder years ago built a show barn for his cutting horses.
He made all walls and doors short, maybe 4 1/2’ tall, so horses could see and touch each other.
We always wondered what kind of horses he was going to keep in there.

For what the trainer told us, one time they were weaning some foals in there and when they went in there in the morning, there were foals all over the place, practically none of them in their right stalls.
He thinks they had a pity party in there and decided to jump out of their stalls and into the aisle or other stalls.

After that, they went back to weaning them in the pens outside, with regular sized horse fences.

If you are going to wean foals in a stall, better make it foal proof.

[RedmondDressage]

I don’t have the fancy Euro stalls (wish I did!) but I do have open fronts. I really like them, the horses like to visit and be able to see what’s happening in the aisle. Not sure I would love them in a boarding situation, but my horses are all good natured so it works at home for me. The two things I did encounter: First, my baby horse does love to remove halters and blankets. No biggie for me - I just started hanging blankets in an empty stall and put up a nice halter rack on the exterior of my tack room wall. I can see where that would be annoying for others and perhaps not feasible in a large boarding barn though. Second - same baby horse likes to come in the stall when I’m tacking up and reaches over and steals my saddle pad :lol: He is such a little trouble maker. Luckily I appreciate his sense of humor so it’s never driven me crazy enough to want to put up bars.