Hubby and our farm intern finally got our tie stalls built! These have been almost 2 years in the making. A big thanks to Jenni Grey for sending me all those tie stall photos last year! They came in very handy when planning our dimensions!
Now for the details:
We decided renovate an old stall/storage area of our barn. It just happened that the support beams along the wall were spaced at just over 5 feet apart, which worked perfectly into our plan. We built a 5 foot wide tack room on the far left first. Then, we added new beams 44 inches out from the original wall beams and tied them into the ceiling joists and buried them several feet down and in concrete. 2x6 oak planks filled in between the two beams to form head dividers. We then used 2x8 oak planks to build hay mangers onto the dividers, with 1/2 inch plywood bottoms. We have a huge mouse problem, so I wanted to leave space under the mangers for raking to discourage mice. We had some old grain tubs, so we installed them into the corner of each feeder. We installed 4 inch o-ring bolts into the foundation wall to tie off to, and I'm making the ropes just long enough that the horses can get their noses into the far corners of their feeders to clean up spilled grain, but not far enough to annoy each other.
The dividers between the stalls are removable. On the "fixed" end, we used a bucket hook rated to 1000 lbs, and a simple o-ring into the 4x4 oak beam. The great thing is that there are no sharp edges to get hung up on. The far end of the beam has another o-ring that attaches to the ceiling with heavy duty chain. If we need to train a new horse, we can always add the option of butt chains/boards to prevent the dividers from swinging. We like multi-purpose though, so with this design, we have the ability to use the area for temporary storage--such as stacking some hay or who knows what else. Additionally, it increases ventilation during our hot, humid summers.
For now, at least, we are sticking with the original floors--equitile in-laid with gravel/dirt. It is nicely packed and the horses can't dig into it. We'll see how it works long-term.
My husband built the stalls, beams, and mangers totally out of red and white oak that he cut from our land and milled on his lumber mill. In the future, we will build the head dividers up a bit higher, but he ran out of lumber. Future plans also include more "custom" tie ropes with quick-release snaps (I'll make those this week, just to eliminate the excess and the knots, new LED overhead lighting (hopefully in the next month), a fan, and the shelf on the right will be moved (notice the little horse gets that stall in the mean time). We also plan to one day cut out some windows to further increase light and ventilation.
We're both loving them already! He has a more convenient, controlled way to feed, and I finally have a convenient, well-lit, and sheltered place to groom and harness. Another issue we'll hopefully now have remedied is during fly season. In past summers, the horse flies drive the horses crazy, so they want to seek shelter in the barn. Our back area has always been too small and hot to let all 3 into though. Hopefully, this will give them a safe place to hide out.
