I need some held from you all “barn improvement gurus”…
I am retrofitting an old dairy barn into a horse barn. I am working with the existing walls which makes some awkward dimensions. I currently have 3 8x10 pony stalls (for actual ponies don’t worry) that open up onto a 7ft wide hallway. The ponies are only in there in case of inclement weather (Blizzard anyone? Polar vortex? Man, it’s been a *** winter here in the frozen tundra). I currently have “homemade” stall chains in front of the stalls but 2 of the houdini ponies have figured out how to go underneath the chain. I could try to add a 2nd chain a foot of so below - but one of the ponies is particularly “determined” (did I mention he is part shetland?).
What are my other options to close these stalls? The opening is 8 ft so too wide for traditional stall guards. And I wouldn’t be able to fully open an 8ft door or gate into the 7ft hallway…
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Put in a semi-permanent 4-foot wall then a 4 foot door?
Put in a channel on each end of the opening and drop in 2 x 6 boards at spacing that even a determined Shetland can’t get through?
Turn them into tie stalls for the few times the ponies are stabled?
There are stall guards that are 8-feet wide. Sometimes they are referred to as “aisle guards” or the like. I got mine from Big D’s in Ohio.
Lots of possibilities.
we have a pretty good quantity of stock panels and framed gates… for eight foot you can use two of the framed four foot gate panels, they will pin together… we just attach the panels to a bottom rail of treated 2by6 and use conduct clamps to sucure the panels to the wall…
the attached link is of k=just the style of gate I am talking about
Similar to Clanter’s suggestion, I’ve seen walk-thru panels that are 8- 10- or 12- feet wide with the gate within them. Otherwise, if the posts that the chains are currently connected to can handle it, could you attach 2- 4’ gates across each stall and chain them together in the center? Or if able to find them, use C brackets to slide 1 or 2 2x4s with a screw eye & snap on the end so the ponies can’t slide them out on their own? I have a horse that learned early on that since she was mutton withered, going under stall chains was a snap 
ETA that Behlen County has male and female panel to wall hardware if you make something with fence panels.
Is there any way you could do a sliding door? Could you add a post, close off part of the front, and leave a 3-4 ft opening for a swinging door?
We have this at the end of our barn aisle. It’s 10.5 ft, so a little too long for your needs, but maybe you could make it work?
https://www.statelinetack.com/item/kensington-aisle-guard/E010056/
This is one option, the 8’ panel with 4’ bowgate:
https://www.cashmans.com/product/combo-corral-panels/
Three of those would maybe solve your problem?
Or at least one for the pushy pony, a plain stallguard for the other two?
we have also taken a standard 12by12 stall making it into two pony stalls by just using a stock panel and some standard four foot gates… everything is mounted from the bottom up with the two sides verticals being screwed tot he wall, stock panel is screwed to wall using conduct clamps [ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: 20180701_084542.jpg Views: 6 Size: 24.7 KB ID: 10345225”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“10345225”,“data-size”:“full”}[/ATTACH]
for us we always looked at what we have on hand first then just modify as needed
The above we just disassembled in about ten minutes moving it another stall as daughter’s new horse will use this stall
The cheap, poor person in me says you can put up a lower chain and then make your own stall guard by wrapping heavy duty fabric or material of choice between the two chains to make a more solid “door blocker.” Success may vary with pony dedication.
4’ gates are a “normal” size, so you could use those in a variety of combinations. I also recently built a 4-5’ wood swinging stall door out of scrap lumber/plywood I had laying around, it only took me an hour or two and hung it on 3 heavy duty hinges with a diagonal wire brace, works great, cost me all of $20 for the hinges.
You can also get sliding door hardware (rollers, channels) from someplace like AgriSupply and make your own simple doors with scrap/cheap lumber if you really want sliders.
2 metal brackets and a sliding board. Put a hole in the wood on the ends and use metal pins to secure the board. My brackets have a hole for the pin as well. Works great.
I’m guessing with a dairy barn, you are dealing with a cement floor, so adding posts to reduce the 8’ opening isn’t an easy option. Though, you might want to look at 4"X4" metal brackets that hold a 4"X4" post that screw into concrete - they use these on concrete porches to add posts. You do have to have special drill bits and care when drilling into concrete.
The two 4’ gates or panels is a good option, though not cheap, since you have three stalls to do. There ARE guards for larger openings - they make them for barn aisles (like this). However, they may not be Houdini pony proof, and they aren’t cheap either. As @4horses suggested, you could mount brackets on the posts and slide a 2"X6"X8’ board into place to make a barrier (you’d probably need 2 of these for each stall). Joist hangers are perfect for this. We used this method to suspend 2X4s over our outdoor shavings bin, so we could tarp it, but remove the tarp & 2X4’s for delivery of shavings. Worked perfectly.
Is it really necessary to be able to open an 8’ gate all the way? I would think there would be plenty of room to lead ponies through with an 8’ gate opening into a 7’ aisle. It would almost be open all the way.
With that wide of an opening, I think your ponies would defeat whatever type of chain stall guard you make, since there would just be too much play in the chain over that long of a distance. If your doors were 4’, it would work. My ponies escape if the bottom of a stall guard is not attached. One traditional web stall guard got replaced in a pinch by a tire chain from a riding mower (so two chains connected with rubbery strips). It was supposed to be temporary, but now it’s the best stall guard in the whole barn.
Thank you all so much for the great ideas (and photos and links)!
We have closed off our lean to in an effort to keep the horses away from our tractors with stock panels. They are light and easy to move. We do not have them secured, but I’m sure there is a way secure them if needed.
I also like the idea of 2x6’s secured with brackets. Easy to move the boards when needed.
