Stall fronts! What's do you love?

[Ready_To_Riot]

So I finally have a job that gives me a little extra money and I’m slowly but surely putting my barn together. It’s been standing for about 10 years, but stalls were made of just cattle panels for the longest time and now I’ve got stall walls that I love (slide in 2X4s that allow me to make te 12x12 stall a 12x24 stall!) and now I’ve paid off a credit card and I’m ready to make stall fronts (or buy them). Being previously broke as all get out, I still like to take the cheapest route to things, so keep that in mind with suggestions.

I would ideally like to avoid putting another pole in the ground at the stall front. As in a 4x4 to hang the door on. (Like this: https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hansenpolebuildings.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2Fhorse-barn-stalls.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hansenpolebuildings.com%2Ftag%2Fpole-building-fires%2F&docid=KwagM8NlkBXZRM&tbnid=BErcYtU3u4W3mM%3A&w=400&h=300&hl=en-us&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim )

But it may be inevitable. I THINK I want sliding doors, but I’d like everyone opinion on sliding doors. I also really like the look of just little half doors, but I’m worried my jerk horse with try to jump out of them. I also know you can buy stall fronts from places like TSC, but I don’t know the cost nor how well liked they are.

So, what is everyone a favorite set up for stall fronts? Pictures are welcome!

[Simkie]

I really like my Prieferts!

Found em used on craigslist and saved a bundle They come up fairly regularly, at least in this area. Worthwhile to keep an eye out for what you have locally.

[betsyk]

Web stall guards on cheap eye bolts.

[Bluey]

Why do you need full wall fronts with 4’ doors, sliding or swinging?

Could you go full 12’ gate as a door?

A friend’s fancy cutting horse barn has that for doors and works wonderfully for him.

That is the way our vet clinic’s new expansion stalls are made.
You can get solid to 4’, solid 2’ bottoms or all wire mesh, as they did and as high as you like.
Any local welder should be able to make you a few cheaper than regular stall fronts and you would not need an extra post in the middle.

Unless you are in “nesting” mode and want the traditional barn look down your aisle, which would be fine too.

Here are our vet’s new stalls:

[Ready_To_Riot]

That swinging gate is essentially what I have now and it annoys me. Lol it looks very nice in that barn, but I hate it in mine! Plus I like hanging things on the front of my stall (blankets and such) so this doesn’t work because my horse pulls it in her stall and eats it! Lol

ETA: I’m 100% in nesting mode. Haha

[mjhco]

I love my Prieferts. All one piece with sliding door. Opening to put their head out if you want.

If an emergency, you can unhook a couple pieces and swing the whole thing out.

[StormyDay]

Sliding doors catch stuff in them like hay, and can be hard to sweep. They do save space though. I have 4 foot wide swing out half doors and they work fine for me. I think they wouldn’t if I had a busy boarding barn or something though. I have never had a horse attempt to jump out, however I have run outs off of the stalls so if they ever felt the need to excape I am sure they would go that way.

[Bluey]

We made our stall fronts ourselves, are 14’ long in one piece and the door in them swings.
We prefer swinging, if you have room in your aisle, because sliding ones tend to have more problems, one if you have to slide many times, sliding doors are not ergonomic, require twisting while pushing or pulling and you may end up with back pain from it, although they sure have their place also and many like them.

Prefabricated stalls tend to be like that, all one piece, so you would not have to add a post to hang your door

[Ready_To_Riot]

[QUOTE=Bluey;8804583]
We made our stall fronts ourselves, are 14’ long in one piece and the door in them swings.
We prefer swinging, if you have room in your aisle, because sliding ones tend to have more problems, one if you have to slide many times, sliding doors are not ergonomic, require twisting while pushing or pulling and you may end up with back pain from it, although they sure have their place also and many like them.

Prefabricated stalls tend to be like that, all one piece, so you would not have to add a post to hang your door[/QUOTE]

The more you talk, the more I want to just build a nicer 12’ swing gate. My biggest issues with them now is the fact that the end stalls would have to open a different direction than to others. That brings out my Ocd side. Also, because my stall walls are removable, water buckets can’t hang on them, which puts them at the back of the stall. Which brings out my lazy side. I’d have to go in the stall to fill buckets, which sometimes means fighting the horse who’s ready to come out and with 12’ door, that’s a big fight.

Do the prefabricated stall fronts with sliding doors have the same issue as the self made ones as far as being hard to open sometimes?

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Ready To Riot;8804694]
The more you talk, the more I want to just build a nicer 12’ swing gate. My biggest issues with them now is the fact that the end stalls would have to open a different direction than to others. That brings out my Ocd side. Also, because my stall walls are removable, water buckets can’t hang on them, which puts them at the back of the stall. Which brings out my lazy side. I’d have to go in the stall to fill buckets, which sometimes means fighting the horse who’s ready to come out and with 12’ door, that’s a big fight.

Do the prefabricated stall fronts with sliding doors have the same issue as the self made ones as far as being hard to open sometimes?[/QUOTE]

Don’t worry about sliding doors having issues, if that is what you can get or what fits best, it is a good trade-off to get those.
Many even prefer them, but they do take more maintenance.

The beauty of portable stall fronts, you can rearrange, re-sell, later buy others or build your own if the ones you get don’t suit you any more.

If you build permanent structures, remodeling is harder and many times, your needs change and you have to change what you have.

If you keep watching your local sales, you may come across someone that wants to sell their used stalls and some may just be what fits.
Some times, companies like MDBarnmaster have some used stall fronts for sale, so do companies that rent portable stalls for shows:

http://mdbarnmaster.com/custom-barn-horse-stalls/

http://www.pacustomhorsestalls.com/portable-horse-stalls-pricing.asp

Or keep thinking about this, until you learn so much you know exactly what you want.

[Simkie]

I’ve not had one single solitary problem with the sliding doors on my Priefert stall fronts. Not to say it would never happen, but in two years of living with them…they’ve been perfect. And I’ve certainly not babied them or done anything that could be called “maintenance.”

I also have two stalls with swing doors. FAAAAAR prefer the sliders.

[Bluey]

Here is an interesting article:

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/31018/shopping-for-horse-farm-property?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=welfare-industry&utm_campaign=08-18-2016

We had discussions before between swing and slide small stall doors and the opinions are all over the place, it really is a question of preference or location or what you have available, very little real differences.

[FreshAir]

If I were you, I would look on Pinterest. There are so many creative stall ideas on there. My horses have a slider but they prefer that I leave it open with the chain across. That way they can get a better view, have social contact, cause trouble, etc. In my new barn, I am going to a swinging door with a very low profile stall front. Less confined, more open concept. I think the height on the front is marked at five feet.

[stb]

I’ll be following this with interest. I have iron swing in half doors and I hate them. They are majorly in the way when getting a horse out of a stall. Was thinking of adding sliders but husband says it would be hard to do at this point with current construction (and he’s a builder, so he should know). I never even thought about just doing a chain or web stall front. So simple and easy, and so obvious in retrospect. That’s why I love this forum.

[SugarCubes]

I have swinging dutch doors and don’t love them. I’ll eventually replace with with sliding doors. The swinging doors require a lot more space, and they’re kind of a pain when cleaning (move wheelbarrow, open door, move wheelbarrow closer, etc). The horses also chew on them and if you keep blankets hanging on the door, they have full access to chew on them or pull them off the bar. I’m considering latching both top and bottom doors open and using a nice stall guard instead until I can afford to replace with sliding doors.

[js]

We have sliding doors, never had any issues yet, I much prefer sliding to swing out. We also have powder coated grills, that has been a problem, the powder coating is coming off in several places; would not do that again. Also, our stalls are all T&G, looks beautiful but the grooves in the T&G are dust collectors, don’t think I would do that again either. Makes for a lot of extra work/time trying to keep it looking nice.

[Bluey]

Definitely swinging doors fit where they fit and don’t where you have tight aisles.

Then, the sliding door barns I have been in horses tend to try to rush before they are quite open and at times that causes the doors to malfunction, things get bent and they won’t slide any more.

I don’t see horses rushing to be because of a swinging OR sliding door problem.
That is a training problem, but also don’t see getting a horse in and out be a problem any more with one or the other kind.

I will reiterate, the difference is in personal preference and room for a door to swing past aisle obstructions, mostly, but in general swinging, other than that, tend to be just a bit safer and easier to open and get out of the way, sliding advantage, you don’t have a door sticking out there, where that could be a problem.

I asked barn builders about this and they said most stalls they sold had sliding doors because of narrow aisles being more common.

As for horses reaching over the doors, that should not matter if the door slings or slides, you can make any door all closed or dutch door.
Many sliding doors also have openings where horses stick their heads out and grab stuff and people and horses walking by?
That any horse may stick it’s head out in the aisle is in itself maybe not a good idea, from horses defending their space from by-passers, to something scaring one and trying to jump out.

[beowulf]

as someone who managed a barn with swinging stalls, and then later was a marketing manager for a major barn building company, i HATE them. HATE. you could not pay me to put them in my ‘future/dream’ barn. at the barn building company we would try our BEST to dissuade customers from swing out doors.

they’re a huge PITA, you have to close them to walk by, they swing out and can be a danger to horses, ppl leave them open, takes longer to open a swing vs a slider… etc. and that’s on a normal 14-16ft isle, god forbid you have anything narrower…

if i were you, sliding door would be the way to go. far more efficient and safer…

i remember doing the math; the mounting takes longer but it is not that much more expensive in the long run especially since you frequently (or at least we did) had to replace swing out doors as they warped/bent and became damaged.

[fordtraktor]

To me, the one thing I wish I had was an opening big enough to get one of those small Little Giant buckets through. I do up everyone’s feed in those, and my access hole is JUST small enough they don’t fit through. UGH. So I have to open the doors and walk in every stall to feed.

BUT it is important the access hole isn’t too big so horses get their heads stuck in it. Another 1/4 inch of space would have done it – wouldn’t want much more.

I personally prefer swinging doors because I have dealt with WAY TOO MANY sliding doors that stop working well. Nothing is more of a PITA! But I am a BO so maybe boarders wouldn’t care as much as it would be someone else’s problem to deal with. I also hang blankets on the front of the stall on those rubber covered chains. I don’t love blankets on the actual door which is your only option if you have a sliding door.

All the doors in my current barn swing except the ones on the end of the barn. Guess which ones I’ve had to repair several times…

[Libby2563]

I too prefer sliding doors and have never had problems with mine. Swinging doors take up too much space, are more awkward to use, and I hate how chewed up they get. Plus if you like to hang things on your stall fronts like you said you do, your horses will be able to reach everything and throw it around. You can always put up a stall guard for the more trustworthy horses if you want, and leave the sliding door open.

And, I imagine you would have to add posts to hang swinging doors, which you said you don’t want to do. And all the sliding doors can slide the same way–yes, that would bother me too!