Types of Horse Stalls

Providing your horse with a safe and secure place to stay is essential. If you are planning to board your horse, you need to check out the facility carefully to make sure the pasture, fence and stalls are adequately sized and in good repair. And if you are planning to build your own barn, you need to choose the right type of stalls for your location.

  1. Tie Stalls

    • Like cows, horses have the ability to sleep while standing up, and that makes tie stalls a workable solution for facilities with a lot of horses and limited space. Tie stalls are often seen at carriage companies and other equine businesses in major cities, where space is at a premium. Tie stalls are also routinely used for trail strings and camps, where the horses need to be available for upcoming trail rides and events. While tie stalls can be used, it is best to combine them with daily turnout, since many horses prefer to lie down to sleep.

    Box Stalls

    • As the name implies, a box stall is essentially a box for the horse, providing protection from the elements and a safe place for the horse to stay. The size of box stalls varies, but the minimum acceptable size for a full-size horse is 10 feet by 10 feet. Many modern equine facilities use 12-by-12 box stalls to provide their horses with more space. Box stalls can be built into an existing barn, or added to a new barn when it is built. Many boarding facilities also place box stalls on the edges of their indoor riding rings to maximize the use of space and make it easier to turn horses out into the arena for exercise.

    Open Stalls

    • Open stalls are designed with one end open to the pasture, paddock or meadow. These stalls are particularly useful for areas where horses have year-round access to pasture and turnout. Many horses are happier when they have the ability to come in and out as they please, and using open stalls makes a lot of sense for those horses. This design allows the horse to come in out of the weather when he wants to, without restricting his ability to enter the pasture area at will. Incorporating the open-stall design into a new or existing barn also creates less work for horse owners, since horses can essentially come and go as they please.