The best stable design features keep your horses safe and comfortable while making your yard easier to manage. The right choices will depend on your horses, routine, available space and budget.
A well-designed stable block may include:
We explore each feature below to help you decide what to include in your stable block.
Designing a separate tack room provides a practical area to store your equipment. As horse owners, we know just how much tack, rugs, bandages, saddle cloths and other equipment you accumulate. Having an organised tack room makes life much easier.
Including a dedicated hay store in your stable design gives you a dry area for your hay, forage and bales of straw or shavings. Having it conveniently located nearby (while taking fire safety into account) also speeds up daily tasks such as feeding and mucking out.
Creating a separate wash bay allows you to remove dirt, sweat and debris from your horses’ coats. It also gives you a dedicated place to cool them down after exercise or a ride in hot weather.
A wash bay is also a great place to position a solarium or heat lamps. These can help dry your horse after washing and warm up their muscles before exercise.
Installing talk grilles within the internal dividing panels allows horses to see and communicate with each other. This provides valuable social contact and can help reduce boredom and stress.
Talk grilles also improve airflow between neighbouring boxes, helping fresh air circulate throughout the building. Read our guide to effective stable ventilation for more ways to improve airflow.
Our trussed stable roofing design helps increase air circulation throughout the building. Good airflow helps reduce heat, moisture and stale air, helping your horses breathe more comfortably.
Combine a trussed roof with clear roof sheets to bring more natural light into the building. This creates a brighter environment for horses and makes everyday jobs such as feeding, grooming and mucking out easier.
When it comes to roofing materials, there are many options that work well for timber stables. Our standard roofing option is Onduline sheeting underlined with OSB for additional support. We also offer Onduvilla, cedar shingles and Tapco Slate.
We can even create a roof structure that supports clay or slate tiles, although you will need to employ a roofing contractor to lay them.
Our two-part stable doors include a bottom and top door, allowing you to fully enclose the stable when you need greater weather protection. If you own ponies, you can opt for a three-piece pony door, which features a second opening panel that allows shorter animals to look out. See how these work in our guide to pony stable doors.
Choose doors with anti-chew strips to help prevent damage to the timber and protect vulnerable door edges.
We also offer large openings at the rear of your stable with doors similar to the top section of a stable door. You can close them to keep the elements out or open them to give horses a view outside and bring fresh air into the box.
Windows allow horses to look outside, even when the stable doors remain closed because of the weather or for safety reasons. Like doors, they also increase airflow and natural light.
It is important that your wooden stables have strong walls so your horses are less likely to injure themselves or damage the building when kicking. OSB or plywood lining provides additional protection without making the stable block unnecessarily expensive.
Floors should be even, non-slip and designed to drain urine away from the horse. Cover concrete floors with suitable bedding or matting to provide a more comfortable surface.
Adding an extended canopy to your stables provides additional protection from the weather and gives you a covered walkway in front of the boxes.
All our stables have internal kickboarding to a height of at least 1.2m to protect the stable walls. You can extend this kickboarding to the eaves for additional protection and a fully lined finish.
A transverse archway creates a covered route through your stable block, making it easier to reach your fields, arena or muck heap. It can be built high and wide enough for horses, riders or vehicles to pass through safely.
The archway also creates an attractive change in the roofline and can double as a sheltered working area. Add suitable lining, waterproofing and matting if you would like to use it as a wash bay.
All of our stables have at least 1.2m height of internal kickboarding to protect your stable walls. This kickboarding can be extended to eaves height which provides better insulation and protection for your stables.
Designing a stable block involves more than choosing its shape and size. Our experienced team can help you choose the right stable block layout and stable size, then position wash bays, tack rooms, hay stores and other features where they will work best for you and your horses.
We tailor every design to your horses, land, routine and budget. Whichever features you choose, we build your stables with strong framing and pressure-treated external timber cladding for strength and longevity.
Contact the Chart Stables team to start planning your stable block.
