Letting horses visit across the stall dividers is nice, but if you get a couple that don’t get a long at feed time, they can really do a number on the divider.
I am not a barn expert but I had an existing pole barn renovated for my horses. My builder and electrician did not know anything about horses so I gave them a plan. I don’t know anything about plumbing but I have a few electrical suggestions. Light your aisle from the sides not the middle. My farrier loves me because she can work in the light and not be shaded from the horse. I copied a friend and put the stall lights on a dimmer switch. It is nice not to have to turn on bright lights when doing night check. I made sure to put in lots of plugs for clippers, fans etc. but one mistake I made is that the ones but the stalls were in reach of the horses. If I let them hang their heads in the aisle they can chew the fan cords. I ended up moving those outlets to above the stalls and now everything is fine. Timers on outside lights are also very helpful. Good luck and have fun!
First, a mini-vent. The new barn is going up where the old barn was. The old barn has been halfway demolished, the nags are packed into the puny, crappy second barn for the time being, and it rained 1.5 inches yesterday, so everything is a disgusting, muddy mess. The beasties are not loving me right now.
Next questions for barn experts:
-Did you use a regular electrician to do your wiring, or did you find someone who knew something about horse barns? Did you have to plan it all out for them? And if so, do you have any words of wisdom?
-Same questions on plumbing. Did your plumber understand what you needed? And any words of wisom? The new barn will have a wash stall and hot water, plus 6 stalls and tackroom. How many water pumps will we need? I’m thinking just 1, plus the wash stall fixtures.
-Last question - what flooring do you use on your aisle and wash stall floor? I would looove to get rubber pavers, but they’re danged expensive. Considering that I’ve spent all my money before even getting plumbing and electricity, we may be living with a dirt aisle for a few months.
Thanks for any words of wisdom you can offer!
Take advice from someone in the building industry. Save money everywhere else if you want but get a licensed electrician. There is too much at risk with that type of building to chance wires shorting out and sparking.
Anyone have contact info. for Orion lights? Those sound interesting.
Underfloor heating is going to be waaay out of my price range. Fortunately, our winters here in MD aren’t too severe.
I agree with everyone that said make sure the electrical stuff is in conduit and about 2 feet farther away than you think you horse can reach!
My hubby also hooked the barn radio to the lights (the radio can be turned off if I want) so I almost never go away and leave the lights on, since I can hear the radio. He also put a signal light on the loft switch, so I can tell if I have those lights on, without hiking up the steps.
We had a dirt aisle way for years, what a mess, the dogs would drag dirt into the house on their paws, even when it was dry. On a limited budget, we excavated the aisleway (12x36) down about a 6", put down a plastic sheet for a moisture barrier, then sand. We leveled the sand and put in cement pavers, I think they are 8" by 16". They used to be 3 for $1, but now they are 2 for $1, at least in my area. We did that about 15 years ago. We are just now getting some cracks in a few blocks, but they are so easy to replace. We have had to reset only a few, at the ends where they get the weather. They are not very slippery with wet or shod feet. A lot of visitors want to know how to duplicate the floor.
To Flash – We have used the stall dividers for 3 years without anything happening except very happy, social horses. Yes, ocasionally you run into an alpha situation, but using common sense, you just move the alpha horse! We designed this, from European barns. We were in a barn with about 20 or so young stallions. Only a couple of the senior stallions had bar dividers, the rest were allowed to visit back and forth and there never were any problems. Because of the increased ventilation all of these barns are wonderful to walk into no matter what month or how closed up they are.
There have been lots of good suggestions here. We have a twelve foot concrete aisle with the center eight feet consisting of the rubber mats. It required two concrete pours so the mats could be recessed (so they are flush with the concrete margins) but we love it. It is very easy to clean - and easy on the horses. We used electricians and plumbers that do a lot of horse work - too freaked out about barn fires to cut any corners on that one. Good Luck!
My MD Barn arrived today!!! The crew says it will take 3-4 days to get it all installed. I can’t wait. It seems like we have been planning for so long that it’s hard to believe we’re almost there.
Thanks for all the hlp this post provided!
Sincerely:
Karen A. Fildes
Caer Avallach Farm - Breeders of Quality Hunter & Sport Ponies
www.cafarm.com
www.ponyworld.net
EVERY electrical thing (outlet, switch) in your barn needs a cover (wet weather location type cover).
EVERY electrical outlet (except the one for the electric fence) needs to be ground fault interrupter type (GFI).
I would try very, very hard to hire an electrician that is/was a farmer (although not necessarily a horse farmer). He will think of nice little touches that you might not remember–the electric outlet by the hayloft door for the hay elevator, for example.
ALL your electrical wiring needs to be inside metal conduit so it cannot be chewed by rats or squirrels (cause of fires) & also so the wiring can’t get wet.
www.rougelandfarm.com Home of TB stallion Alae Rouge, sire of our filly Rose, ribbon-winner on the line at Dressage at Devon.
Not sure if this is practical in colder climates, but I have the water piped to each stall. There is a big line with a valve and it’s own attached large diameter heavy duty hose (about 1’ long) That way I don’t have to drag a hose around to fill buckets and the large diameter makes for quick filling.
When I went over the wash stall plans with the builder, I insisted on a couple of things that have worked out very well. The wash stall is about two inches below the level of the floor, and slopes back to the drain, so there’s no water in the aisle. Also, I put an extra big drain in the back corner–I’ve seen so many stalls with drains in the center, and sometimes horses spook at that. We also have an infrared heater above the center, and great lighting and the floor is cement with a very rough texture. I have tried several kinds of mats, and nothing works as well as the cement.
These have been fantastic suggestions. I’ll print the thread out to show to the plumber and electrician.
And thanks also for the book suggestion. I found it on Amazon, and it should be here in about a week.
It’s raining again, and the poor nags are having a rotten time. I keep promising them that the new barn will be worth the suffering, but they’re not buying it. 
The light that we use are the Orion lights. They are the ones that are used in confinement buildings with the Lexan covers. Each stall has its own and they are shadowless. We also used the long ones in our Arena. Have only replaced one tube in 3 years–they are instant on, in any weather, which is nice, plus they are economical because they are a type of florescent, but with white light. Can’t say enought good things about this company.
We put hydronic heat in the floor of our clubhouse and then under the wash rack floor which we put an aisle across from the clubhouse in the Arena building. Its great heat, run by a little, electric, copper boiler. Economical too, even though you wouldn’t think so! Over the clubhouse is the barn manager’s apt. heated with baseboard, hydronic heat. I like this, because there are no fossil fuels used anywhere in the barn or Arena building, so we have less worry about fires etc.
a suggestion about aisle flooring - asphalt! It resists cracking and still has good traction when wet. I can be a pain to keep clean as far as dust settleing in the crevices, but nothing a blower can’t handle.
We are building a barn and just finished doing our aisle in “tumbled” concrete pavers. They are tumbled in a metal drum to make them look old. I like it because there are lots of edges that give the horses traction and they look really great. We used a pattern with both 6x6" and 6x9" blocks. Its more expensive than concrete but much less than rubber pavers.
sprinklers, if you can afford them, are wonderful to have in barn.
GFCI outlets everywhere, please.
Conduit.
Macadam, not concrete.
Rubber in the wash rack.
Ceramic light fixtures with glass and metal dome covers. Flourescent in grooming areas.
If you have a non-licensed plumber or electrician, please make sure your local code allows for this, and that you have an inspection done afterwards.
If you are on a well, I would ask your plumber about a tank, and how to keep it healthy. In case of an electric outage, you would still have water - at least for a day or so.
My barn builders were very experienced and they did all the electrical and plumbing…but were not licensed in those professions. Don’t know if that would be a permit problem where you are located? Was not an issue for us.
We have a wash stall with hot/cold (hot water heater right on other side of wall in tack room, adjacent to faucets in wash stall, helps to keep faucets flowing in freezing weather). Also the faucets are recessed so not hanging out of wall where horses or leads could get hung up.
We only have one other faucet in barn aisle.
Electrical outlets near cross ties in barn aisle, relatively centrally located, and above each stall (for fans etc). Couple of outlets in tack room as well.
Also had them run an underground water line to farthest pasture, so would not have to run a hose to fill water troughs. I now wish I had done that to all three pastures and had them run electricity as well. Yhen I could have put an outdoor outlet for lights and for tank heaters etc. Would not have added much expense but would have been a big convenience.
I am LOVING this thread since I, too, am in the middle of a barn building project the same size as HeyYouNags (and we are also dealing with VERY BAD weather conditions and ponies living in nasty conditions while the barn gets built).
I was especially interested in the convrete vs. asphalt discussion for the main aisle (12’ wide) as we have been having a terrible time deciding between them. Anyone else have thoughts regarding the two?
I also really like the idea of having the wash stall slightly recessed - which I hadn’t ever thought to do (thanks Sparky!!) and the idea of the drain in the BACK of the wash stall … which I have never seen done.
I purchased an MD Barn in the Raised Center Aisle design, so there is much ventilation in the ceiling … but I am also interested in the idea of the hanging fans … maybe along the center aisle since it is so much higher than the stalls themselves. Great way to keep air flow moving in the summer.
So keep those ideas flowing … I am taking notes!
Sincerely:
Karen A. Fildes
Caer Avallach Farm - Breeders of Quality Hunter Ponies
www.cafarm.com
www.ponyworld.net
