Lumber for Horse Stalls?

[grsthegreat]

I have a pole building barn with 8 stalls, and i simply used 2x6 untreated DF#2 or better. I put them up 8 years ago..and have only had to replace 1 board that twisted badly for some reason.

My horses generally dont kick, so its not been an issue.

Ive seen others install several layers of treated plywood, but i dont like the treated stuff cause its poisonous if a horse eats it.


Even my bottom most layer of boards is not pressure treated, and still looks good as new.... just darkened with age.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Treated on the bottom will not be an issue for the horses health. If you do get treated, skip the big box and get something rated for ground contact. Sounds like you are leaning towards straight boards, not T&G. If you do go with T&G, get dried wood and make sure the boards are as tight together as you can make them else you are waisting money because they will get gaps between the boards.

One concern with wood stall walls is disenfecting should there ever be a health issue. Rough cut with gaps can be a bear to clean. If your horses never go anywhere and you have none coming in as with boarding, this should not be an issue but I thought I would mention it.

Wall heighth will limit chewing as you said but I have seen determined chewers knaw away at sidewalls doing some serious damage. But then horses need to be out and about anyway.

 

[zzvyb6]

I know a felllow out in Fowlerville, too who cuts some very nice 5/4 boards of any reasonable length. Friend of mine just picked up some ash for a trailer floor from him. PM me for info if interested.

 

[NHmitch]

We have a 5 stall barn that was built by the Amish. They used 5 ft oak boards around the interior of the stalls. They are rock solid, and event with a cribber, they have not put a dent in the wall. The big issue, is if your horse does put a foot through the wall, you need to make sure that it will not get stuck, and break a leg. You may want to have double walls between stalls.

 

[GLyford]

I really would rather the hardwood, and rough sawn is fine... Just don't want 1/2 inch gaps between all my boards once it dries.

Another way to deal with the shrinkage in green roughsawn is to "shiplap" the edges, using a tablesaw or router table. It's basically a square section cut away half the board thickness, on opposite corners so that they overlap when nailed up, and you can make the overlap whatever you think your shrinkage will be. Can be easier to set up the machines than for tongue-and-groove, or you could ask your sawmill if they can do it for you to save you some time.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I work at a State University that has an equine research program in the Ag department and out at the horse facility they have placards designating different woods in the stalls and is more or less a visual display of how well each holds up. Treated is not used anywhere due to the chemicals in it. Being the area down here is heavily forested with many hardwoods species there are many different woods to choose from. For some reason I believe rough sawn White Oak has held up the best or the lady that runs the place told me it is the best to use. I can see how it would work great as it is a very weatherproof wood.

I am not a horse person, but in my dog kennels and chicken house there is no treated wood (aside from a few fenceposts in the run. Most of what I have used is white oak or red oak which to date has held up fairly well. Having been in many of the old barns around here if you look at them they housed cattle and hay, alot of it being whatever was available nearby to mill on site and around here alot of that was Poplar and Oak. There are barns around here over 100 years old with solid beams and boards.

FWIW buying treated lumber and rough sawn oak isn't that much different in price, especially if you have the logs and can find someone to mill them.

 

[nickel plate]

One of our horses while out in pasture would chew on the fence posts in between the non-climb wire. An old cowboy once told me to mix fine ground cayenne pepper in water and paint the solution onto the chewed area. Works well.

 

[pacerron]

Our Morton stables has pressure treated 2"X8" tongue and groove at the bottom and untreated 2X8 tongue and groove above to 8'View attachment 270210View attachment 270211. Stalls are 12'X12' with corner posts and metal supports on the walls. We have had no problems with our warmbloods kicking a wall.

I vote for this method or similar. I built stalls inside a metal pole barn 20 years ago 12 x 12 with 4" x 6" treated posts including one in the middle of each wall. The sliding door hardware can be purchased as a kit and you add the tounge and groove boards to it. 3/4" EMT can be used for the open air part shown on the sidewalls. The door kits come with similar tubing.
You can't beat a sliding door for safety and for being out of the way when open.
When you have 1200 pound horses scratching their butt on the walls 2x8 tongue and groove boards properly supported will do the job.

We had an old barn once with 1" thick boards vertically on the inside up about 4 feet to protect the barn outside walls which were also wood. Big mistake. The boards tend to dry out and splinter as well as shrink. Guess where the splinters end up?
If you plan on using the stalls for a while it will be cheaper and safer to do it right the first time than spending time and money later for repairs and Vets to sew up wounds from the kick boards.
It is better, if you can, to not have metal exposed to the horses. They will kick it, lean into it and dent it, or get cut on an edge.

 

[Stampeder]

12 X 12 stalls are way too small for a horse to be in for any length of time. They can't roll without hitting the stall sides. Mine are 15X15 and my horses stay outside most of the time. They only go in when lightning is around or it is rainy and cold.
As for lumber, never use pressure treated as others have said. Too many toxins. My stalls are made of 2X8 rough cut fir. I used metal "horse channel" on them. This is something we get here in Texas. It is basically 10 gauge steel bent into a 2X1/2X2 inch channel. I have rough sawn 8X8 vertical posts. The horse channel is mounted on the vertical posts and the 2X8's slip down into them and stack up to form the walls. I only screw through the horse channel on every second or third one. Makes a great stall and if I need to get a bobcat into the stall for any reason I simply pop the boards out and drive thru.

Stalls have been up for over 5 years now and work really good. Horses love them. They each know there own and putting them in during a thunderstorm is a breeze.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Glenn.

 

[pacerron]

Openness is important. The stalls in the barn I described earlier are totally open on the back side. We do have tall gates however that can be swung shut to confine a horse in each of them if need be.
A prime reason for using tongue and groove up here is that they are available in yellow pine which is a very strong wood.
Regardless of the stall size you will find more than one horse in them often if they have open access. I guess our situation would be described by many as a shed since it is open on the field side. The multiple open stalls are advantageous from the standpoint of feed control and behind them we have a hallway that is 15' wide by total barn length for hay, barn tools, and horse tack boxes, as well as a frost free water hydrant inside the barn and a 12' wide x 12' high center sliding door to run hay rolls into on the front side with a tractor.
The barn is a metal pole barn with a metal roof so the horses don't care for the noise of heavy rain hitting the roof and often prefer standing out in the rain because of that and to get cooled off.
Rain and snow are natural things to a horse. Being open they can get in out of the heat and away from the bugs in the daytime but have free access to pasture. Having hay storage and human space in the same building as well as water is very helpful particularly up here in Ohio. We have plenty of room to trim hooves, administer shots, etc. in the front area of the barn without other horses butting in.
There is no perfect horse barn but having experienced 25 years of other barns used for horses before building this one 20 years ago gave us a pretty good idea of what would be ideal for the horses as well as handy for us at an affordable price.