Just find this site [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] We are in the process of completing a 36x44 ft horse barn. The stalls are 12x12. The ceiling height is about 12 ft. I am thinking of installing a 20" or 24" Barnstormer fans with variable speed on the ceiling. Would this be ok? I would like to hear any advice on this subject as we are rookie horse people.
Thanks!
Brent and Annie
I can not tell where you are planning to put the fans. One each stall? In the center aslie? Most barns have one or two large attic type (ventalation) fans at each end to move air through the barn not to just blow downward.
I personally don't keep our horses in stalls unless they are injured, I feel they are much better off out on pasture. Well, I do keep them in a section of the corral a good part of the time so they don't eat themselves to death, the silly buggers.
As far as fans, I would just put them up in high part of the barn to exhaust the hot air and bring fresh in. I wouldn't want a fan blowing on the horses all the time, all the moving around and pawing they do will make quite a dust cloud, adding a fan will make it even worse.
Maybe try the sister site of this one for more info, horsesbynet.com.
I looked that thing up it sure looks like a maintenance problem in about a year after it gets covered with dirt, hay and bugs ect. We also do not put ours in stalls except at night to keep them from eating all night long. And each of our stalls has a 24 x24 turn out attached to it. Your profile is not filled out so I can not tell where you live and how hot it gets where you are. Here in Az it is never hot at night.
I agree with the others about no fans. Our barn doesn't have them and, like the others, we keep the horses out of their stalls as often as possible and out in the pasture.
The only time we used a fan is when we had to keep one of the horses in a stall, in summer, due to a medical issue. Then I rigged up a big window fan to mount on the outside of the stall door to keep a breeze blowing.
The other thing I thought of was to orient the barn so the west to east winds blow through the barn/stalls.
While I agree with horses being on pasture many times it isn't possible because of many issues especially with showing or limited space. There is an article somewhere and I can't remember now where it is that stated a fan is the best thing to have in stalls to keep the air fresh. They said the air quality in a stall was terrible and adding a fan significantly improved the air quality.
My stalls are not tall enough to put one in the middle of the stall. Our fans are mounted on the front of the stalls. We have the turbo's on top of the barn huge exhaust fans in each end of the barn. We do all of this to improve the air quality. Numerous studies have shown that horses in a barn are at significantly higher risk for disease and infection but improving the air quality decreased the incidence rates by as much as 100%.
Come summer, our horses go on night shift. IE; after dusk, outside then in the barn during the heat of the day. Our stalls have full dividing walls rather than grilled partitions. We mounted 52" ceiling fans over the dividing wall to cover two stalls with one fan. The fan is close to the front post that supports both the partitions and the barn roof. Test fitting the fans in the center of our 16 foot wide center aisle showed only minimal air in the stalls where it is mostly needed.
This position may be too low in some barns but works in ours because the barn has 12 foot high sidewalls and a center peak of around 19 feet. That places the fans well above even the most determined horse.
The fans provide quite adequate air but because of their position, allow the horses to move to areas with minimal air movement if they desire.
During wet periods, the fans do a good job of drying the stall floor after cleaning but prior to adding fresh bedding.
They do get quite dirty as does everything else in a horse barn. That's just the way it is.
About the only problem we have is with bats getting killed by them. I need to find those wire guards to try to eliminate that.
Doc brings up a good point about when the horses have to be in the stalls. Our stalls are open to the roof of the barn, have bars on the wall that faces the aisle, has a dutch door facing the outside and a 8 foot wall between the stalls, so our stalls are fairly open and get good airflow.
Maybe I posted to wrong place?
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