Horse
Stalls: Size and Number Excerpt
from the DVD, Your
Horse Barn, Planning - Designing - Building ©
2008 Cherry Hill ©
Copyright Information 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 BARNWe 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. 
Watch
our DVD, Your
Horse Barn, to learn about stall flooring, wall materials and types of doors. | |
