I thought maybe a thread like this had already been done but I’ve had no luck searching.

We are building a new barn and I was just curious of what others had in mind and any do's and don’ts. The frame is going up as we speak. As of right now it’s a 40x60 with a back slab (porch) directly behind our roping boxes in the arena. We will be starting the inside soon and would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on their own barns! Send pics or just give me neat little ideas!

We just met with a barn builder this morning! He said people love to put their hay/shavings storage at an end with easy access for large trucks, and a feed room close to a door for unloading. 

He recommends against aluminum stall doors because they’re so easy for horses to damage.

Make sure they brush the concrete for traction if you decide you dont want a dirt floor! I wish I could've been involved with the building of my barn...my floor like like ice. Even when it's dry!! Mine is slick like a garage floor so it stays dirty or my horses slip Still waiting for a really good deal on rubber mats to magically appear

Bumping this up.   I'd like to know too..

Do not know where you are located but lots of frost free waterer spigots----can NEVER have too many. I poured my stalls in concrete--did every other stall---then went back and poured the one to fill in---this gave a natural joint so no cracking and I set stalls 1 inch higher that the alley. This way if I wanted to wash the alley---no water in the stalls. 

If you have closed in stalls, have a window to the outside where they can look out, hang their heads out.   It will of course require some sort of shutters to close them during bad weather, but to me nothing sadder than horses in a closed in barn with nothing to look at but the alleyway.  It also gives them fresh air.

keep the ideas coming!

Thank yall!

I live in Southeast Texas. The barn will be closed in but for sure adding windows for them.

any layout advice? Thank fully we have a hay barn so i will not have to put hay in this barn. I'm not real big on storing my hay where my horses are.

Oh I love this idea! We are in the preplanning stages of a new barn and I'm going to have to add the stalls one inch higher than alleyway to my list, for sure!

And forgive me if I completely misunderstood, but you poured concrete IN your stalls? I get with mats this wouldn't be an issue, but how is drainage?

We are in Iowa but still have our barn open on the south side - it’s also naturally protected by a hill.  We have long runs instead of stalls. About 2/3 under roof and 1/3 outside then a gate on the end to our dry lot.  When everyone is friendly with each other and the ground is safe outside we just leave the gates open and they can come and go.  Right now we are rotating 2 in and 2 out as we introduce a new horse and wait for the 2 jerks to get their shoes pulled for winter in a few weeks, then all 4 will be together.

i really like this setup compared to stalls.  If we had to lock one up for say an injury, we could do it easily with a couple panels across a run.  I like that they have fresh air and can move around at their leisure. We also do our run cleaning with a skidloader which makes it quick.  

We have auto wateters - I love them for the most part, way nicer in the winter and nice knowing they always have water.  We’ve been fortunate to not need to monitor water intake on anything, but again they’re set up in such a way we could if we needed to put up a panel to prevent one from reaching the waterer and hang buckets.

i would like a water hydrant in the barn, but we have water close by in the shop.  

If I could add anything it would probably be a small window AC unit on my tackroom to try and keep air moving and control the humidity a little better, we really fight mold on tack during some seasons.  I’m too cheap to buy a dehumidifier, maybe next year.

Our tack room is made out of huge bricks, and it keeps it so cool in there during the summer. We've also got a saddle stand that holds 6 saddles and rotates. It takes up less room since our tack room isn't huge. 

Agree on the having big doors where your hay is going to go. Nothing is better than watching the squeeze do all the work to put hay in the barn! Also the way they set our up, the breeze come straight through it and cools everything off nicely in the summer. In the winter, we close the big side door to keep the wind out. 

To the OP, sorry to ask a second question on your thread But OhMax, I'd be interested in pics of your set up. Long indoor/outdoor runs are more appealing to us also but I can't seem tim envision it in my head.

A trainer I worked for said he would never own a barn where he couldn't drive down the aisle with a truck or tractor. He pull in the barn with the truck to unload shaving, we drove a tractor through with a spreader to clean stalls.... but the thing he emphasized the most was if you have a horse spontaneously die, you will need a tractor to get them out :/  So my advise...wide aisles! 

You are good! Ask away! You may ask questions i'm not thinking about but are good questions! . I'm taking everything in!

Our friends who had a barn fire (lightning) would agree with that 100%.

We clean ours every day so drainage is not needed---the pee spots are taken out daily plus the amonia smell is gone. I will NEVER have anything but concrete stalls---so much better in the long run. Ours are bedded down so thick that they never actually see the concrete between the sawdust and matting.

how do you have a barn with no water?

Window units are cheap and work well. I have one with a thermostat that stays at like 80 degrees, it runs enough to keep moisture down but doesn't run all day. 

The only thing I feel strongly about is the concrete in the stalls. I started out with dirt floors in my stall barn.  What a PITA. I finally have them all rocked now after having to fill holes and soft spots in the stalls even with mats over the top.  While the rock has been better, even the rock has to be refreshed when the rock shifts or the horse creates a dip in the underlying rock. If I had it to do over, I would definitely start out with concrete (broom finish) stall floors with mats over the concrete. I also recommend the interlocking mats if you have the money.  They are about 1/3 more in cost but the ones I have on concrete in a different barn have been totally trouble free and the only way to go in my mind.  

Fair question.

For our automatic waterers we branched off an existing waterline that was run for another waterer for our cattle.

The original part of the barn was moved to our place from my in-laws up the road as hay storage, so no need for any water initially..  My husband kept his horses at his folks place (right next door, arena etc is all over there) until I moved in so he never needed water right there in the barn.  By the time I moved in he had done other building/concrete etc that would have made running the waterline into the main part of the barn more trouble than it was worth.  If we need water over there it’s just a matter of running a hose from the shop, which is now attached to the barn, or taking a bucket over there.

We clean daily also, and would have mats and shavings, that was just one thing someone cautioned me against a llong time ago was concrete floors bc drainage. I was like

I will not store hay with my horses either. We currently have a nice sized barn but it's been taken over by hay for both cows and horses, my husbands tractors and equipment. He wants to add hay storage in a new barn for my horses when we get around to it and I have been adamant that that will NOT happen.

No problem! I grew up boarding in stall barns, so this was a new setup to me too.  My in-laws (the trees behind the hay bales are the edge of their place) have the same setup and I really like it.

Thats the best picture I’ve got right now.  The 4 runs span 60’ of barn so each one is give or take 15’ wide.  Originally I had said 2/3 under roof but looking at the picture its probably closer to 50/50.  The white downspout is the end of the original barn, since this picture was taken we’ve added on and the roofline now extends out all the way in the last run.  The 3rd and 4th have about 8 less ft under roof because we have a garage door on the west end where we back our hay trailer in to unload into the loft and then store the baler and other hay equipment.

The dry lot extends to the left of the picture i’d say another 60’ to the fenceline of our cattle pasture - there was an existing waterer there when we built out the barn so we split off that waterline and came up to these waterers.

It’s a little bit of a hodge podge, we’ve built it all ourselves since the original barn was moved.  The plan is to build and indoor arena with a similar run setup off a lean where the haybales are, reusing all the pipe here and then completely enclosing this barn and using it for hay and to get some of our equipment out of the weather as our business expands (hopefully).

Haven't had water line to my barn as long as it's been there.  PITB but gotta do what you gotta do!!

Thanks, OhMax! This is really helpful. We are thinking run in style like this too, but the indoor part of each horses space being roughly 15x15 and then a run out the back of each about 15x60.

I love my dirt floors.  I hate sweeping and cleaning concrete - and the time it takes....  So the only concrete in my barn is the wash rack and feed room.  I love my trailer under cover and I can load horses out of the weather.  My barn has a center alley with 4 12x12 'stalls' on each side, then wings (lean-to) on each side also.  On the west side#1 is a stall, #2 is 12x12 feed/tack room, #3 is the wash rack #4 is a stall.  The wash rack is open to the alley and the wing and that's how we get to and from the trailer.  I love that my feed room is close to center of the barn.  That extra 12 feet is handier than you think.  Water faucet is right in the middle.  Lots of storage above the feedroom and under the wings.  I also have an extra gate that I can swing across the alley and make the alley into two more pens or use the alley as a run yet keep the pasture horses from picking a fight over the gate at the back of the barn.

Don'ts - I forgot I was in Texas.  I forgot I had rodeo horses, not show horses.  I made it too closed up.  It's hot in the summer and summer is about 9 months of the year here.  I should have left the east wall open to runs.  I should have left about 2 feet open at the top of the east and west side walls for ventilation since I have the 14ft wings on each side.  I shouldn't have made the stall walls solid all the way up, horses need air and to be able to see their surroundings.  I shouldn't have let the builder put the stall doors 'side by side', they should all be spaced apart so the two 'neighbors' aren't picking fights just because they can touch each other.        

Next barn - more electrical plugs for fans/clippers/tools when repairing all the crap horses tear up, more lights inside, outside and under wings, wire panels for top of stall fronts and divider walls. 

I would never have a barn without stalls that open to pens.  My horses almost never even go potty in their stalls, so no need to buy a bunch of bedding.  That is a huge expense and so much better for the horses to have more room to walk around.

I dont have water at my barn either.... I drag a long hose from the house to the barn, daily.... I cuss, daily... but i do have electricity lol!  

We have electricity too--woo hoo!!   We haul water to our barn in 1000 gal water tank from about half mile at one of our shops.  It's awful in the winter when it's muddy and/or frozen.  Barn has been there since 1999, so I guess we deal with it pretty good considering.  WAAAY less than ideal, but it's my only option. . . 

I don't have electric in my horse barn (that needs torn down quite frankly). It's a huge pain in the rear. 

i built a 100x 70 16 tall    5 stalls plenty of room for truck trailer  tractor hay ... it had 3 sideon on 1 25/ section where the stalls were but  i never kept horse in stall but infrequently  i bought a place before that that the barn was shaped like a t  16 stalls  feed room was rack it was awesome loved it  the alley way was 10 wide  roll up doors love that barn, water was thu out the barn  

my son and i we ditchwitch 3 miles of water line at out our farms before i broke my neck and no more horses