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

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=The Crone of Cottonmouth County;7949721]
I boarded in a 12-stall Euro-style barn, and every day it was like running the gauntlet. You couldn’t lead a horse straight down the aisle. I had this whole zigzag path mapped out so I could avoid the ill-tempered, lunging warmblood teeth coming at me from all sides. The BO’s attitude was to tacitly imply that I was a wussy for not finding this arrangement exhilarating.

When I built my barn I did non-Euro (redneck?) wire mesh fronts with yokes in the sliding doors. They can stick their heads out but can’t reach the blanket bar. No bite attacks because the stalls are only on one side of the aisle. There are inserts for the yokes when I need to lock’em in. The latch system is kind of cool, recessed in the door. I once lived with and didn’t like the pin-on-a-chain on the back of the door system, since it was counter-intuitive to me latch the door on the side opposite the handle. I was always forgetting to latch it.

I will admit that the non-Arab chestnut in the picture clangs her shoe on that door like her life depends on it pretty much any time I walk into the barn. It is deafening.[/QUOTE]

WOW!

That is a beautiful barn!

[NoDQhere]

We have HiQual stalls in our barn. Wood bottoms and bared tops. There are bars between the horses so they can see each other and visit. Sliding doors with the upper section that can be opened flat against the bottom portion if you want them to be able to stick their heads out. The latches are an upside down U that drops into a tube. There is no way a horse can open them. Feed doors that open for easy feeding. Love these stalls!

We wean foals in the stalls so the open front ones would not work here. Plus I find horses with their heads stuck into the alley way really annoying to both people and horses in the isle. Not to mention how inviting an open front would be for the horse who really doesn’t want to be in.

[The_Crone_of_Cottonmouth_Count]

[QUOTE=Bluey;7949736]
WOW!

That is a beautiful barn![/QUOTE]

Thanks! We went with “vet clinic” as opposed to “East coast show barn” as the guiding aesthetic.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=The Crone of Cottonmouth County;7950150]
Thanks! We went with “vet clinic” as opposed to “East coast show barn” as the guiding aesthetic.[/QUOTE]

Smart that and it is still beautiful too.

Did you use concrete for the stalls?

Our vets have both, one barn has concrete, the other has gravel and a kind of stall skin over it and asphalt for the aisle.
Their new stall fronts are a whole continuous 12’ gate made of that 2" square mesh, easier to get scared/feral horses in there and to drag one out when necessary, they told me.

We still don’t know what we will do, but a whole 16’ front as a gate, maybe not such a good idea at that size.
Ours will not be that neat a barn, sadly, yours is awesome!

[The_Crone_of_Cottonmouth_Count]

[QUOTE=Bluey;7950160]
Smart that and it is still beautiful too.

Did you use concrete for the stalls?

Our vets have both, one barn has concrete, the other has gravel and a kind of stall skin over it and asphalt for the aisle.
Their new stall fronts are a whole continuous 12’ gate made of that 2" square mesh, easier to get scared/feral horses in there and to drag one out when necessary, they told me.

We still don’t know what we will do, but a whole 16’ front as a gate, maybe not such a good idea at that size.
Ours will not be that neat a barn, sadly, yours is awesome![/QUOTE]

The floor is poured rubber over concrete. The installer screwed it up royally, ruining my carefully graded drains. But at least when you drop an iPhone it doesn’t shatter.

Are you saying the whole front wall swings? That sounds wild!

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=The Crone of Cottonmouth County;7950162]
The floor is poured rubber over concrete. The installer screwed it up royally, ruining my carefully graded drains. But at least when you drop an iPhone it doesn’t shatter.

Are you saying the whole front wall swings? That sounds wild![/QUOTE]

Yep, here is a picture of their second barn with those fronts and another of some other barn with the same system and that one looks like they may be 16’ fronts.
We will have portable stalls, so won’t have the structure to hang a 16’ gate as a whole front, not without making the frames massive.
Still thinking about that.

Did I say your barn is about the prettiest I have seen?

[Abbie.S]

I think they are beautiful and can be entirely functional IF their downsides are taken into consideration into building the rest of the barn.

So that means minimum 14’ wide aisles for safe passage of horses through the barn, and grooming bay or ties in the stalls (no aisle grooming or tying). As far as horses getting stuck in them…I guess it’s a risk you take. The best set up euro fronts I have seen have access to run-out pipe corrals, so the horse always had a real “out” if they needed it.

It’s all part of putting together a functional, but aesthetically pleasing, barn.

Have to add, I’m kind of shocked to see so much WHITE in some of these barns folks are posting pictures of! Oh, the cleaning that must get done!

[beowulf]

[QUOTE=Bluey;7947103]
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:[/QUOTE]
OMG I AM IN LOVE with that second picture! LOVE!! What type of stall/barn design would you call that? Any drawbacks over than terrorizing ponies?

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=beowulf;7950326]
OMG I AM IN LOVE with that second picture! LOVE!! What type of stall/barn design would you call that? Any drawbacks over than terrorizing ponies?[/QUOTE]

That is a beautiful picture, so serene.
I thought that was one of Lucas Equine older pictures, but looked on their current web site and it was not there, so don’t know.

That is airy, crosshatch mesh stall construction.
Google pictures of horse stalls and barns and it comes up in the first page for me.

[britannia]

I have at least two horses - probably three that could put their front legs on top of those stalls or out of a drop down. just saying.

[The_Crone_of_Cottonmouth_Count]

[QUOTE=Bluey;7950182]
Yep, here is a picture of their second barn with those fronts and another of some other barn with the same system and that one looks like they may be 16’ fronts.
We will have portable stalls, so won’t have the structure to hang a 16’ gate as a whole front, not without making the frames massive.
Still thinking about that.

Did I say your barn is about the prettiest I have seen?[/QUOTE]

That is a really cool system. A pal of mine did a similar thing with divider walls, so she could swing’em out and make a giant foaling stall or whatever. I’d be afraid of a 16-footer, though. Seems like a long way to go without some sort of anchor or support, should the inhabitant decide to get feisty.

[Simkie]

I’d think you could pretty easily do a nice, long gate if you just put a wheel on one end. TamarainTN has a barn set up with stall fronts like that…maybe she’ll come and post some pictures

[Bluey]

A friend with cutting horses has 12’ stalls with concrete sides and the front is a whole one piece of solid metal.

The advantage of such fronts is that, if your aisle is the same size, you can open a stall and run a wild horse, or mare and foal, right in there and close the front up on them.

You can also open that long front and get in there with a bucket and clean the stall out easily.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7950660]
I’d think you could pretty easily do a nice, long gate if you just put a wheel on one end. TamarainTN has a barn set up with stall fronts like that…maybe she’ll come and post some pictures :)[/QUOTE]

Will be interesting to see that set up.