Horse Stalls, Size and Number: How large to make your horse stalls and how many you need to build in your horse barn.

Horse Stalls: Size and Number

Stalls are the horses' dorm rooms inside your barn. When planning your barn, the main things you need to decide about stalls are:

How many stalls you need.
How large the stalls need to be.
The type of floor the stalls will have.
What to cover the walls with.
What type and size of doors to install.

NUMBER

The number of stalls you need depends on how many horses will require stabling at one time. If your horses live mainly outdoors, in pens or on pastures, you might need only one or two stalls for those horses you want to bring in during stormy weather, to keep them clean for riding, or for recuperation from injury or sickness. If you plan on keeping all your horses stalled full time, plan one or two more stalls than horses so you can rotate horses among the stalls and allow empty stalls to thoroughly dry between uses. An extra stall can also be used as a buffer when you want to separate horses.

SIZE

A stall should be large enough to allow a horse to turn around freely and lay down and get up without difficulty. A stall that is too large will just require more bedding.

A miniature horse would be comfortable in a 6' x 8' stall.
Ponies and small horses, under 900 pounds, can do well in 10' x 10' stalls. But if you have the room, you might want to make the stalls 10' x 12' or 12' x 12' to make the barn more versatile and more appealing to future buyers who might have larger horses.
Riding horses, 900 to 1100 pounds, are usually content in a 12' x 12' stall, which is the industry standard. But, if space is limited, or if horses are not stalled very often or for very long, 10' x 12' will work.
A Warmblood or a small draft horse needs a space from 12' x 14' to 14' x 14'.
A large draft horse requires a 16' x 16' stall.
A foaling stall should be at least twice the size as a single stall for that size horse. To conserve space, it is common to have a hinged or removable partition between two stalls to make a foaling stall as needed. A double stall is also useful when you need to keep a horse in for extended periods, such as when recuperating from an injury, so the horse has more room to move about.

CEILING HEIGHT

For normal riding horses, 11' is the minimum safe height for stall ceilings, same as aisles. Any lower and a horse could reach the wood to chew and a rearing horse could injure his head. Miniature horses and small ponies could be safe with 7' ceiling clearance, while warmbloods and draft breeds might need ceilings 12'or higher to be safe.

WHAT WE DID IN OUR BARN

We put four stalls in our barn - two on each side of the main center aisle.

We decided to make the stalls a modest 10' x 12', because our horses do not live in stalls full time. We only use stalls during stormy wet winter weather, for foaling, as hospital stalls, and sometimes to put a horse after bathing him.

If we need a larger stall, there is a swinging divider between each pair of stalls that can be opened to create a double stall. We use a double stall for foaling and for lay up if a horse is sick or injured.

Layout of Cherry Hill's barn with four stalls.

Learn about stall flooring and wall materials and types of doors in our DVD, Your Horse Barn.

Cherry Hill's Horsekeeping Almanac	Your Horse Barn - DVD	Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage	Horse Housing	Stablekeeping

Horse Stalls Size and Number

NUMBER

SIZE

CEILING HEIGHT

WHAT WE DID IN OUR BARN