http://www.lucasequine.com/lowfronts.html
I am considering using the lower stall fronts for my new barn. Has anyone had problems with horses trying to jump out of these? A number of stall manufacturers have these in the past 20 years. Anyone have them?
Some in the photo gallery seem a bit low, if you have a really tall horse they might get the idea to jump over the door, especially if spooked by a bad storm or something. My other concern and this is from experience would be horses leaning or putting their weight on the top of the door and stressing or bending the hinges. We had swing out doors with no tops and that’s exactly what our horse would do. Eventually 2 of the doors started to drag on one end from them leaning on the doors. We had to replace hinges (we heavy duty hinges).
I think it depends what your market is.
I think most people with half doors will attest that they’ve had horses go over, or attempt to go over at one time or another. So its about weighing the risks.
If you are catering to seasoned show horses the risk is definitely less then if you are doing youngsters.
I looked at these for my barn but I have babies and will occasionally take in a project horse from the local auction house so sometimes get a horse that needs to learn how to be in a stall.
Things to also consider.
1 - Your aisle will never be clean, there will always be hay dropped on it
2 - What do you do if you get one that bites (like REALLY bites)
They are beautiful, and if you do it I would definitely suggest at least 1 solid full door stall for those time when you are going to want it.
I would say, why not have full doors and if you want horses sticking heads in aisle, have nice openings, so you have best of both worlds?
If you only have a handful of your own horses, sure, let them lean out if that is your preference.
If you have a busy barn with much traffic in front of the stalls, maybe better have a way to keep horses in if they become a problem to the ones walking by, as plenty do under those situations.
A local fellow had some of those first low front stalls I ever saw decades ago in his new show barn.
Later said that was a mistake, he could not use them.
Too many horses were becoming alligators to those passing, that before would have ignored them, feeling safe inside their own place, not needing to or able to defend their space by attacking outside of it.
I agree that the pictures look very pleasing, if standing there pretty is all horses do with open tops.
I was afraid of all that. The horses that I have are all older and the barn will be private. I only have one that is capable of trying to jump over. They look really pretty but I think in the long run I had better go with stall fronts all the way up so that we won’t have problems.
I would be annoyed nonstop if the horses could always hang their heads over. They’d be flinging grain, dropping hay, getting inquisitive as I worked, etc. Not my cuppa at all.
Lovely for mature settled horses. They wouldn’t work for us at our breeding farm. I’ve had a two year old jump out over fairly high Dutch doors…even when I thought he was OK to be in individual stalls. Guess he wanted out LOL
Those stall fronts look great, but are not very practical.
We have a set up where the horses can hang their heads over the (half) door at the lovely barn where I board.
This time of year it is particularly annoying as they have all gotten into the habit of pulling blankets off the bars next to that half door, drag their halters off the wall so they can use them as chew toys, etc. I have to say I don’t love it.
I had a ten stall barn with low fronts for many years – my dad still does. It worked great when it was mostly us and a few retirees. Now he has quite a few boarders who ride, and it would really be better to have full fronts – because the stalled horses can get nosy about horses on crossties.
That said, I had a lot of horses in those stalls and we never had one jump out or even really try. I actually wish I had open fronts in my current barn because I think the horses would be less anxious in the stalls if they could see each other better. It really settles most horses to see other horses.
I would put them in my barn again if I was redoing things, but I’d keep the two stalls on one side of the aisle full bars in case I had a horse that looked like it wanted to jump out.
BTW I do agree blanket bars and hanging stuff on the stall is not a good idea if you have open fronts. In my old barn I kept blankets and halters in a separate area, not on the stalls.
I’ve visited a lovely, high-end boarding barn which had the low fronts. This place has a very wide aisle, so horses can easily be walked by out of reach of the stall occupants, the blankets are hung in a separate area, and grooming is also not done in the aisle.
But, for all the reasons listed by other posters, I wouldn’t have it for my private barn. We have pre-fab stalls with the horizontal bars - which make the stalls appear less like a horse jail:) than the vertical ones do, IMO - and feed openings, which ours use to stick their noses out.
Why not compromise and have the stall front bars go all the way up, but on your doors have drop down windows so that if you have horses that can behave themselves, they can stick their heads out and chill?
This would allow you to close the drop down window should you need a fully enclosed stall front for a youngster or a naughty one, while allowing the option of some heads hanging out if you chose.
I loved having low fronts and half doors. The horses were so much more relaxed and happy. I took it a step further in the summer - just using a double stall guard across. We did not have an aggression issue when leading past - aisle about 10’, horses on both sides. 2 barns, 10 stalls in one, 14 in the other
I am a breeder, and for weaning my foals, it was much more dangerous when I had full walls and doors. I used about 7 stall guards Xing up the doorway, so the foals could stick their heads out between, under/over them, but couldn’t break through the straps and snaps - no more climbing walls, or throwing fits. They would just put their heads out and push a bit, give up. They “knew” stall guards would keep them in as I began to use 3 at about 1.5, 2.5, 3.5’ when they were just a couple of days old.
I would not use the windows that flip down, horses have been known to try to chew on them, get their teeth hung and break their jaws.
Windows that open to the sides are safer.
We used stall guards, plastic and web ones and we can always have divisions between stalls that permit horses to see others and still have them in the stalls, if there is a problem with them hanging heads out.
With low front stalls, you can’t manage horses that may have a problem in those.
We weaned in stalls with pens, two weanlings to the stall and pen and they were not too upset or wild then.
My point, we need to be proactive to all that we may need to manage and some times, horses that should not be where they can jump or “reach and teach someone” and that is one disadvantage of those open front stalls.
They sure look pretty in the pictures, who would not consider them going only by those.
We have them and absolutely adore them. Never had an issue, including at least 8 stallions. They’re quite a bit taller than the average stall guard height - and most show horses get used to having those up for some period of time.
I think this is what we are talking about?
And a picture of a horse that did decide to jump out, thru a feed window no less, so yes, it can happen if probably is rather rare.
Glad that some have said they work fine for them, so the OP can decide if they too may work for her.
Everyone’s horses are different:
The ones in my old barn were solid oak board and are around 4’+ high. Some stalls are lower than the aisle so functionally a bit more. I would want any stall to be at least that high. Realistically, my fence is 50 inches so horses would be as likely or less to jump the stalls as the fence. That said, I have had way more horses (several) jump the fence and none jump the stall fronts.
I have had 4 foot tall stall doors in both barns I have been in in the past 4 years. No one has tried to jump out, and I have a 17.1 TB who has separation anxiety and would if he thought he could. I find that the horses are much calmer because they can look out and see whats going on. However, I suggest having a very wide barn isle if you go with them (14+ feet) I have a 10 foot wide isle and if horses on both sides decided to be butts they could bite a horse in the isle.
I have seen a horse jump out of a stall with front not even as low as those. The whole door and front was tall bars but at one end it sort of swooped down to create a lower area where you could reach over to feed or it was also a good place to rest your saddle when tacking up. Not really low enough to hang their head out. He jumped right over that lower section from almost a standstill.
Hard to tell the latching system on those, but you’ll also get the ones who figure out how to open the door if they can put their head over and reach the latch. I worked at a camp with dutch doors and we ended up putting second latches down near the floor on several stalls.
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