Horse Stall Design

No matter what your management style or needs, the basics of a safe horse stall are the same. Many options that effect function and cost are available for horse stall features. This fact sheet provides an over- view of some basic stall features for a typical 1,000-pound horse. You should adjust the dimensions for significantly larger stall occupants.

Dimensions

The size of the horse and the amount of time the horse spends in the stall help determine stall size. Larger horses require more square footage than do smaller ponies to be able to turn around, lie down, and get up comfortably. A 12-foot x 12-foot stall is the standard recommendation for a 1,000-pound horse. Many stables are successful with stalls slightly smaller than this, but walls less than 10 feet in length are not recommended. Generally, the stall wall length is 1 1/2 times the horse's length. The more time a horse spends in a stall or the more active it is, a larger stall size is justified. A divider between two standard stalls may be removed to allow more space for a mare and foal or a stall-bound horse.

An 8-foot-high stall partition is standard. Partition height needs to be at least 7 1/2 feet to prevent horses from getting legs over the wall. Most horses can kick as high as 7 feet. An 8-foot-tall by 4-foot-wide stall doorway opening has been the recommendation for years; although this is not often seen in stables. Stall door manufacturers typically supply a doorway opening of slightly over 7 feet with a 42- to 45-inch width. These are the dimensions of the actual open area that the horse can pass through. These smaller doorway openings are adequate for horse and handler safety.

Horse barns are commonly built with a ceiling height of 10 to 12 feet with 8 feet being the minimum. A low ceiling not only inhibits air circulation, but also increases the chance that a horse may strike its head. In fact, many stables have open truss or rafter construction with no ceiling. In this case, the minimum height is the clearance to the lowest item on which a horse may strike its head, such as a light fixture or truss bottom chord.