Options to Divide Large Horse Stalls for Minis

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Lori W

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So not to highjack the 'Dream Barn' thread, those of you who have refitted large horse stalls for your minis, how have you done this? I have 6 large horse stalls (12' x 12'), but would like to make 4 of them into double stalls for my mini kids.

Can you share your experiences and/or ideas on the best way to split a large horse stall into two mini stalls?

Thanks!
 
Ok no way can I get technical with big words or anything so perhaps somebody can help out lol. You can nail in board slits from the back and front of the stall walls that way you can put in boards through those slits. Just measure how tall you want your walls to be. This way the walls can be removable very easily if you want the stall bigger.
 
My parents and I have a 6 stall "normal" barn that we share. It worked out well until all of our horses came home(From breeding/boarding/training etc.) and now we are a bit "overfull" and my minis all have "mini" stalls. I will try to get some pictures for you. The horses don't seem to mind the smaller beds, but I'm looking forward to getting them back to bigger stalls.
 
Did this in my former barn.The only problem is the doors.We used channel iron to divide stalls.bolted it to back &front of wall dividing stall into 2 12' long by 6 ' wide stalls.Used lumber to drop down in channels so everything was removable&we could control heighth of walls.Had to build a door to open into the far stall..1 horse had to be put in first and came out last.was never a problem.IMO too many Mini owners make the barn to suit the Mini horses with no thought to resale in the future.Our entire barn was built using the channels.Everything inside was removable.When I did sell the farm it was to a cattle guy who took out all the stalls and had a big open 36 by 60 shed for his cattle..
 
The easiest way is the one described above, but it involves putting in a second stall door for each stall, which can be costly and difficult to manage with sliding doors. The second easiest way is to put in a 12 foot gate that swings to the side to let horses in and out. Still a huge pain in the butt cause you have to go through the stall with a horse in it to get to the horse on the inside stall. You kind of get used to it though after a while, especially if you don't need to use your stalls on a daily basis and you have horses with good stall manners (ie that don't crowd their doors or try to rush past you). Personally, thats the route I would take.
 
That's what we did for a while. In 12 x 12 put one 12' pipe gate with a wheel. Attached it to the back wall and one horse had to get "pinned" in a corner to let the other one out of the stall. Only problem with that is my two decided to not get along one day and pulled the gate up out of the hinges. Fortunately when it fell it didn't fall on either one of them. But I found my 2 yr old cowering in the corner waiting for rescue while the old guy was perfectly happy the gate wasn't on his side of the stall. If horses have long memories maybe this is why my (now ex) stallion hated my old gelding for so long.
 
I had a pipe corral fence custom made with a little gate... The panel and gate cost $70. It just bolted between the sides (I split a 12x24 into two 12x12 for the two minis.)

Having a gate is a must in case the horse gets cast or some other emergency!
 
Our original barn had large stalls with slider doors.....we built dividers down the middle with a small walk gate between the two halves, kind of a pain leading one horse through the other stall but it worked for us. Also generally left the big slider door open and hung a small gate so they could see out. The other "half stall" got a drop down window cut in the front.
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Jan
 
Those divider thingys are called U Channels. We have them in all our stalls to make them bigger. They are 10 X 10 but we take the divider out to make them 10 X 20 for foaling.

Honestly, I wouldn't divide a 12 X 12 if you use your stalls a lot, other than for feeding purposes. That's a pretty small stall and would get dirty with poop and pee pretty fast. We tried that with our old barn that had 12 X 12's and put it right back to 12 X 12 that same day. Way too small for my taste. Just my opinion.
 
We divided our 12 x 12 lengthwise and then my husband put a separate door for that stall (we had regular doors, not sliders). We did not want to have to go thru one stall to get to another in case rapid exit was needed. To go back to regular horse usage--take down divider (done as previous posts mentioned) and just use one of the doors as a door.

Ours are generally used only for feeding. I do have one stall that two are fed in, but they get along (generally) and get the same amount of grain so that worked.

However I will have to figure out stalling overnight for one (or two) starting this spring as we deal with an allergic horse. She won't like being separated from the group and I may end up putting her in another stall with a friend.
 
I built my barn so I can use a 12 x 12 for one large or 2 mini. I just sink a 4 x 4 post in the middle of the door (the doors are in the middle of the wall) and put the track to divide the stall on it.
 

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