Pictures of horses that tried to jump out of stalls and one of an interesting opening on the top of the sliding door:
Thank you frugalannie! I am considering them as well as Classic Equine. I appreciate all the information!
Oh my gosh! I’ve seen both of these photos before, but didn’t cross my mind when looking at open yoke doors. My stall fronts are higher than the European fronts in the photo, but an ambitious horse could still make an attempt. Thank you for the reminder photos Bluey😊 I’ve had a filly crawl over a 5 foot gate and scar up her legs. Always makes me question anything open on the top. I figure most horses won’t challenge a space the size of a door yoke, but I also wouldn’t expect one to get through a feed door and your photo clearly shows that’s a possibility😳
Not sure that happens but rarely, for the many horses that stick heads out, is just one more concern to be aware of.
Maybe don’t put a horse that is buddy sour and take it’s buddy out, or have one that may get scared out of their stall and it should be fine.
As you already mentioned, don’t put a weaning foal in there either.
When it comes to doors, swinging or sliding, think to have doors more in the middle of the front, so no one may be pinched against the wall.
Also which way to open doors, some like them to open left when entering stall, some right.
Either way, going out of the stall it will then be the opposite.
Our aisle works from the East to the West to enter and go feeding.
Our feed doors open on the right so they kind of keep a horse in there.
The stall doors swing to the right, when standing in the aisle, horses learn to back up and let us open the door, then exiting the door is swung out easily.
That is what works best to feed and for us to go in and out of the stall.
Others prefer to open toward’s the opposite side from the aisle, then have to open across coming out of the stall.
Just so much to decide for quickest, safest way to handle horses.
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This is a picture from the barn I board at:
There are a few horses that do reach the blanket bar so we just clip either a web stall guard or a couple of plastic stall guards onto the yoke so they can’t reach as far. They can still poke a nose but not as far. To the best of my knowledge nobody has ever tried to jump over the yoke. When my horse was on stall rest I did have to close his outside window. He was making us a bit nervous that he might try to jump out the window. But the window is open lower and is much wider. A few of the horses have web stall guards over their windows.
The aisles are wide enough that leading horses past and having somebody bite a butt is not an issue. There are grooming stalls but there are a few pairs of crossties in the aisles that are used too. If the horse in crossties swings his butt then a stalled horse can touch the tied horse.
As far as horses rushing the gate or pawing at the gate my trainer doesn’t put up with that and corrects it quickly with new horses. That behavior isn’t tolerated and doesn’t last long. Pawing in crossties isn’t tolerated either.
These gates swing in or out. We tend to swing them in and make the horse back up. IMO-It reinforces them not rushing out of the stall. We are all careful about folding the gate flat against the stall wall. I have read on COTH that some people are concerned about opening in, not opening it all the way and the horse catches a hip. We close the gate even when horses are not in the stall. Originally it was to keep the farm dogs from pooping in the stall but it really makes for a nice consistent appearance.
Personally if I were building I would get the gates custom. I would keep the style in the photo but make them taller so they go down to the ground and come up a little higher. This way it is harder for horses to get legs out under it and they can’t reach as far out to grab things off he blanket bar. I think by having it up a little higher then it is less likely to need to add the stall guards.
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Good points Bluey. I’ve had swinging gates in my last two private barns and they’ve worked great. I’ve had sliders in two boarding barns. My personal preference is sliders for this next private barn but you give good pointers regarding the swinging gates👍
Thank you SonnysMom for the photo and descriptions👍 It’s great to hear all the different experiences people have had and what they like/don’t like. Clears up some of the unknown for me! This thread has definitely changed my mind on a few details for my new stalls.
Those pictures are terrifying. WHAT do you do in that situation? If it helps, these are my DES ECK yokes and they swing both ways and I find value in that flexibility.
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Sliders can also slide open from the left to right, or right to left, for you to decide.
Some like to slide toward’s them since we lead horses on the left when standing in the aisle.
Others like to slide door to the right, which makes you cross in front of the horse to get it all the way open.
For you to tell the builder which way you prefer.
Yes I’ve already decided I will have mine sliding to the left when you approach the stall, for the very reason you mentioned:)
The barn I moved to last fall has an opening in the stall grate, but the door swings sideways with a latch that is easy to set. It has room for their heads to hang out, so it is easy to figure out if it is dinnertime. Or in my case “get your butt over here.” Crossties are on the aisleway so you can close that door if need be. My horse was on pasture board for 19+ years and hated stalls. Totally lost his composure. His stall has a door in the back that is always open to an oversize runout. The whole thing works like a paddock with a shed and he couldn’t be happier. Stalls have heated Nelson waters. Bowls are cleaned daily with stalls, and the runout also is picked daily. They have the original cushioned stall mats put in but they are wearing out. Regular stall mats are replacing them.
There are some very nice little touches. It is two barns side by side. There are 7 stalls on each outside wall, 14 total with individual runs. They are open all the time unless snow is blowing in sideways. There are six center stalls, three on each aisleway. They all have grates so the horses can see each other all the time. Grain room is at the end of the center stalls with doors to both sides. There is a “breezeway” between the two sides that horses can pass through. Hay is stacked and hooks for emergency blankets. The indoor is the far end.
Each aisleway has a nook with a bank of shelves where we can keep some things without going to the tack room. There also are hangers for stall picks, brooms, leaf blowers to clean the aisleway, electric outlet, room for a manure bucket, regular bucket and 2 step block… And a freeze-proof water hydrant.
The original owner who built the facility 20 years ago sold it a few months ago. She spent a lot of time going to barns all over the place looking for ideas. It paid off. Very nice facility, excellent care, and very comfortable for the horses and owners.
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Thank you for the info! As I’m planning my barn it really helps to hear all of the little details others have put in and liked.
These are what I use too but I call them racing gates lol
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I have them and rarely use them. My horses end up taking their blankets down or making faces at other horses passing through the aisle. I have dutch doors on the outside and they can hang their head out the back w a nice shade overhang instead of causing mischief in the barn.
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I’m designing a barn for myself (after boarding forever and working for a lot of other people in a lot of different barns and markets and climates).
OP, you will build sliding doors, right? (I’ll do swingers). And your doors will be in the center of the stall or have you decided?
I think you are right to plan for the potential problem child horse that could be there some day. I’ll do the same. I’ll have Euro fronts, but one stall that I can completely enclose for the horse I don’t trust.
I also want a barn that’s quiet (or rather, my mare told me this was important), so besides no sliding doors, I wouldn’t have stall doors that have swing-down yokes. I’d get completely removable ones and then just tolerate the rattling for the time you have the bad horse in there. As others point out, I think that’s safer as well.
One thing to consider: How tall are you and how tall are your horses? Lots of the barn hardware companies’ stall fronts have the grille section start at about 4’9" or taller. That means the horses modeling those stall fronts are quite big. If you have a sub-16-hander, your horse might have to raise his head and neck in that fugly, upside-down-muscling way in order to reach his head out. IMO, that’s a big problem. Also, I’m 5’1", so I want to be able to see in over a wooden door without standing on my tip toes.
They will build whatever you want, but you have to specify the height of the bottom of the yoke if you want something non-standard. Of course, the lower the front of the yoke, the more a horse might consider trying out that Bible story about a fat man and the eye of a needle.
I will have a 14’ aisle and no cross ties in there. Also, I won’t tolerate a shark horse and they will all come to know that, LOL. Also, IME, private, home barns don’t create the level of tension and frustration at feeding time or via lack of turnout or jealousy of other horses that can happen at busier boarding barns, so you probably won’t have horses who want to jump out or snake their necks at passers by.
They can/do get to paw and make noise if they stick their heads out. Some will do this at feeding time (or when they think it’s feeding time) and true reprobate horses are hard to correct of this habit. But it can be done. Metal is louder than wood, and making noise is part of the pay-off for the horse, so think carefully before you put mesh or bars on the lower half of a stall.
If you’ll have the stall open to a run or pasture out the back and you create walls between stalls that have grille or some kind of visibility, I think horses are happier in there and spend less time standing at their stall door because putting his head out of the hoke the only way this prey animal can get the 360-ish view of his surroundings that make him feel secure. Also, this is him putting his head out of his port-a-john.
Hope this all helps in your planning.
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Also consider some way a horse can chill out and snooze where there is a solid corner.
You can watch your horses in a stall putting their head down in such corners to nap and it is rarely where there is stuff going on around them, mostly head down “hiding” in a corner.
The 16’ x 12’ stalls we are making have the first 4’ corner, between stalls and in the front, where the feed door is, solid, to give horses one such spot they can close out the world around them and have some peace from constant stimulation.
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Such cultural differences! I’m in the UK. Probably the majority of looseboxes have dutch doors so the horse can look out. Mesh stalls wouldn’t work in our climate, I suspect. Yokes mainly tend to be found in professional yards, particularly racing trainers, where there is a lot of movement of horses in and out. Otherwise we just assume the horses will stay in their box, eating and snoozing. In 60 years of horsing around, I know of one 14.00hh Welsh that would jump out of his box. Even American-style Barns often have open front stalls in them to allow horses to see each other.
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Mvp thank you for the thoughts, you make good points.
I am having custom stall fronts made with sliding doors. Doors will be located in the center of the stall fronts. After reviewing all of the information on this thread I’ve decided to go with removable yoke inserts to give me the best of both worlds. I will have cross ties available in the aisle, but will also have off aisle grooming stalls that will be what is primarily used.
My current private barn is very quiet and peaceful, and I’m designing the new one to be the same. The sliders I’ve used at my previous boarding barns were well maintained and not loud at all, I am also investing in quality doors with good track systems.
My horses have 24/7 option to leave their stalls, which open to a large drylot. They also have daily turn out to large pastures attached to the drylot. The new barn will have a similar set up. Individual stalls with individual runs, a large dry paddock, and several large pastures. The stalls have exterior doors I can close if need be and I can close off the dry lot as well. They can see each other constantly in their stalls and are usually turned out together, they get along peacefully. So with this set up I rarely have anyone in the barn get stressed about their accommodations:) Their stalls seem to be their preferred hang out, they also take their naps in there.
But as I said before I want to plan ahead for some new horses coming into the barn that may not have the personality of my current horses. My young daughter’s will be getting their own horses after this new barn is built, so I know we will have some new faces peering out of the stalls someday and I need to be sure I can safely accommodate whomever they may be:)
I am just under 5’ 11” myself, and I tend to have taller horses. So though I will be specifying to the stall manufacturer what dimensions I would like, mine are likely to be higher than others:)
Thanks again for the input!
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I agree Bluey, we are also considering having a portion of the stall partitions be a solid wall to give a space of privacy should they want it.
