American barn stabling - pros and cons?

[Paint Me Proud]

Considering moving yards and the one i like only offers American barn stabling. I have only ever been in a brick built stable so looking for advice.

Pros and cons please?

 

[woodlandswow]

I would love an american barn, as long as they are roomy.. i think a tight one is worse than one at all.. kind of things to look for is if you are leading a horse through then would the others on each side go for a "kiss-on-the-bum"
is there good ventilation, light etc.
i think they are best in this country as the weather is so bad, esp in winter, no slippery yards to lead horses off etc. dry onnce inside all the rest..
hope this helps a bit

 

[mturnbull]

My livery yard when i first arrived (about 6 years ago now) had your traditional old livery yard brick and wood built stables (maybe a slightly leaky roof!) and 2 years ago this was knocked down and our YO built a brand new stable block and arena literally just across the road. The barn is american styled and it is just divine! Stables are massive, very well ventialted but also cosy in the winter, good for nervous horses as can see all their pals around them and I am now soo spoilt with this yard I honestly couldnt think of going anywhere else! I would attached pictures but I just cant work out how to on these threads yet!

 

[Marydoll]

They tend to be warm and dry, and if there is enough space for walking your horse around safely enough theyre good, if its a running the gauntlet of snapping lungeing horses to get in and out theyre hellish.
if they have good headroom then the ventilation is usually good. If not then the walls will possibly run with condensation if there are a good few horses in them. Any airbourne disease will spread quickly if the ventilations rubbish.
Check the drainage in them, where does the urine drain to, ive seen one where it just pooled and it was stinking.
I only like the ones that have partitions that are either full wood or at least part, if your horse has a dominant agressive horse next to them you'll see why, ive seen a horse try to go over the partition to get to another, and the poor horse on the other side couldnt get away from its stare as it was open bars all along the partition..
Is there enough room to tie up outside the stables, if not is there a yard rule to that effect, again seen a place where folks were tying up outside there stables and having to push there horse to the side to allow others to walk by, of anything had kicked off it would have been a disaster.
I think the good ones are great the poor ones are hell on earth

 

[Teeni]

They tend to be warm and dry, and if there is enough space for walking your horse around safely enough theyre good, if its a running the gauntlet of snapping lungeing horses to get in and out theyre hellish.
if they have good headroom then the ventilation is usually good. If not then the walls will possibly run with condensation if there are a good few horses in them. Any airbourne disease will spread quickly if the ventilations rubbish.
Check the drainage in them, where does the urine drain to, ive seen one where it just pooled and it was stinking.
I only like the ones that have partitions that are either full wood or at least part, if your horse has a dominant agressive horse next to them you'll see why, ive seen a horse try to go over the partition to get to another, and the poor horse on the other side couldnt get away from its stare as it was open bars all along the partition..
Is there enough room to tie up outside the stables, if not is there a yard rule to that effect, again seen a place where folks were tying up outside there stables and having to push there horse to the side to allow others to walk by, of anything had kicked off it would have been a disaster.
I think the good ones are great the poor ones are hell on earth

/\ /\ /\ I agree with this

 

[Pedantic]

I love it at our yard, nice big airy stables for them to move around in, and he can see his pals as they all come in at night, if they are on box rest there is always something happening like mucking out and other jobs going on to keep them mentally stimulated, my boy used to be out 24/7 in all weathers at the last yard we left, I was a bit concerned he wouldn't like coming in each night as he did thrive on being out, I needn't have worried, he settled immediatley, it's nice when it's howling a gale and raining bad in the night to know he is in his comfy stable on his nice thick straw bed

 

[Foxhunter49]

As far as I know the only disadvantage of having all the horses stabled under one roof is that if there was a contagious infection they are all together but, as most infections are already passed from one horse to another in line stables before they are recognised, then that goes out the window!
The only other thing is that if you have a horse that has a dust allergy then the spores of straw or hay will be in the air from adjoining stables.

So, two points that might be problematic but I would far rather have the American type barn than conventional yard stables! The good points mentioned far outweigh the two I have mentioned

 

[OldNag]

I've limited experience, but the yard we're at now has fabulous American barn stabling and I like it. I can see it will have great advantages come winter especially.