Horse stall fronts. Door, panel, and paint

[tcreeley]

Walls to the aisle that have see through lower sections I think would be dangerous. A dog, person, floor dragging equipment could spook a horse inside the stall. Anyone inside the stall along with the horse could be at risk of injury. Horses consider the stall a safe place where nothing can get at them. In addition- horses will throw kicks at the walls, the door when they are fed late (to their thinking). Wood is a good to have on the receiving end. Absorbs the shock without the likelihood of damage to the horse that steel or cement block might contribute too. Hardwood boards or 2" spruce boards are what I would use. Don't be stingy on the framing. Never put two horses in the same stall. They will try to go through the door at the same time and take out the vertical supports.

Re paint - I'd forget the paint and use stain- soaks into the wood, no peeling. I'd use creosote colored stain. The horses are going to chew and you will find yourself using creosote over their chew spots to deter them. The closer the match to begin with, the better.

 

[Barnbuilder]

I had a buddy weld some that I designed not hard to do. I used Classic Equine on a project. Not very cheap and not the most expensive.



Also installed some from Barnware.





Most reasonable were the ones from TSC but nowhere near as nice.


Can't remember who made these.

 

[Birdhunter1]

 

[Birdhunter1]

That is what my horse barn is. I went simple and low maintenance, I can get by using no shovel or muck rake at all if I don’t want to but usually I pick up about 3 muck rake fulls a week and most of that is hay that is dropped out of a feeder and the occasional pile of road apples.

 

[Birdhunter1]

The hay and other area.

 

[Birdhunter1]

The hay and other area.

 

[gsganzer]

They're simple enough to make using square tube and stall channel. All you need is a cold cut miter saw and a MIG welder (use MIG welding, not flux core). Make yourself a jig so all your parts come out the same.

See if you can find galvanized square tube and then just spray cold galv on the welds (this is why you use MIG, so the weld cleanup is simple). It'll save you the hassle in painting them, which could be more work than the welding, and they'll be more rust resistant with the urine and manure.

 

[WM75Guy]

I like the solid wood bottom with bars on top. Morton built our barn with 2"X8" tongue and groove, the bottom 2 pieces are treated lumber. In 10 years we have never had an injury due to the barn construction or anything damaged. For ventilation we put up box fans on the stall fronts in the summer and there is a ventilation fan built into the steeple.

Our warmbloods run 1400-1500 pounds and when they kick a wall or a door you know it. I have been to other barns with stall panels made of bars or solid metal panels on the bottom with bars on the top. I was not impressed with how they held up. They end up with damage to the stalls or injured animals. Just for perspective in the pictures the top rail on the fence is at 5' and slopes down to the horses a little.

Priefert makes some nice stall fronts and sides. They are a local Texas company so you see a lot of their stalls used at horse shows. You can buy the panels and the wood kits of pre-cut, pre-stained tongue & groove and assemble them yourselves. Other companies make similar panels.

Premier Stall Fronts Bar/Wood

 

[Redlands Okie]

If you decide to do your own painting on the metal work check out Pittsburgh direct to metal paint (DTM) found at pro or contractor paint shops. So far for us its holding up well various exterior projects over the years. Gates, storm shelter doors, metal work around shops, fences etc.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

I vote for reinforced poured concrete walls wherever possible. I have been fixing stalls for quite awhile now and it never ceases to irritate me on taking the cheap way out the first time we put them up. Also, in your design you need to take into account any wood shrinkage!