Designing the Floor Plan Layout in your Horse Barn

 

When building a horse barn, it's important to take some time to properly design the interior layout of your barn and its floor plan.  In addition, the location of the barn itself on the property, plays the big role as well.  We understand that our suggestions might not work in every situation, and should not be considered as a professional advise, but merely as a suggestion.

In most cases, you can get an advise from a construction company that specializes in designing and building horse barns.  To get even more tips and ideas, you can also talk to an architect that specializes in horse stable designing.

Horse Barn Location:

1.  It's best to build the barn where you'll have easy access to the road or a driveway.  In addition, keeping your barn as close as possible to your utilities source will save you money on trenching, electric & plumbing.  Placing your barn closer to the road will help you to avoid extra expense to install the long driveway to your barn.

2.  If possible, find a higher elevation spot to build your barn on.  This will provide a better drainage, will help keep the rain water away from the building and will help keep your barn cleaner & drier.

3.  Try to locate your barn, so the prevailing North winds blow across the roof, not through the aisle way opening.  In worst case, orient your barn at 45° to the prevailing winds.

Floor Plan Layout:

The best location of stalls and other rooms in a horse barn is a debatable topic.  Our goal is not to debate or argue with anyone, but rather give some suggestions based on our own experience.  The following suggestions apply for small to mid-size barns only.  For bigger horse barns, especially the ones that are used for boarding and include utility rooms, bath rooms, etc., these suggestions might not always apply.

1.  In our opinion it's best to place as many stalls as possible on the South side of the barn.  When lean-to roof is attached to the barn, we suggest to place stalls on the lean-to side and place the lean-to on South side.  Placement of stalls on South side will keep them away from cold winds and keep them a little warmer in the winter.  Of course, if you live in Florida, perhaps the opposite might be a better choice to keep your horses cooler.

2. The Tack Room should be located right next to the Wash Stall.  This way, you can insulate the Tack Room and take water pipes through the wall into the Wash Stall.  If you have a loft in your barn, it's best to put the stairway right against the Wash Stall partition wall.  This way, instead of insulating & finishing the whole tack room, you can just build the room under the stairway, insulate this room and put a water heater in it.

3. If ground slopes down on one side of the barn, this would be the best side to place your Wash Stall on.  This way, you can take the drain pipe outside from the Wash Stall and have the water run down the slope and not into the barn.

4. Location of Feed Rooms, Grain Rooms, etc. is really up to you.  Simply choose the most convenient location for yourself.

 

Sample of 36'x48' Horse Barn Floor Plan Layout with Lean-to

Floor Plan