You and your horses spend a lot of time in and walking up and down your barn aisle. Constructed improperly, barn aisles can be a potential safety hazard. When you’re planning your barn aisle, consider the following tips to help keep both you and your horses safe.

Build Wide

A narrow barn aisle is difficult to navigate and can even be dangerous if a horse slips, trips, or panics while being led. When planning your barn aisle, the best strategy that you can use to create a safe aisle is to build the aisle so that it is wide and clear. Keep your barn aisle at least 12 feet wide, though the wider you can build the aisle, the better. When deciding on a width for your barn aisle, consider whether you will need to drive machinery into the barn, such as a tractor. A 16 foot-wide barn aisle can accommodate vehicles comfortably while ensuring that horses and humans have plenty of room to navigate.

Plan for Natural Light

A dark barn aisle makes grooming and saddling horses difficult. It also necessitates that you invest in high-power barn lights to illuminate the area, and because you have to use those lights more often, a dark barn aisle drains your electricity. To combat a dark barn aisle, design your aisle to take advantage of the natural light available. Installing skylights is an excellent way to ensure that your barn stays well-lit during the day, and the lighter atmosphere provided by natural light can actually make your barn’s interior look larger and more open. In addition to skylights, consider locating barn windows strategically so that they add light to your barn aisle.

Choose Footing Materials Carefully

The footing of your barn aisle is paramount to your horses’ safety. You should choose a footing that gives excellent traction, is easy to keep clean, and doesn’t become slippery when wet. Rubber aisle pavers make an excellent choice for barn aisle footing, since they are designed with your horse’s safety in mind. In place of rubber aisle pavers, many barn owners opt to line their barn aisles with rubber stall mats for a comfortable and safe surface.

Minimize Clutter

Barn aisles cluttered with tack boxes, stall front hooks, and supplies like pitchforks and brooms create many areas for a horse to get hung up on. Whether you’re walking a horse down the aisle or are securing him on crossties, the less clutter in your barn aisle, the better. When planning your barn aisle, try to plan another area in your barn to hold bulky tack boxes so that they don’t have to be located in the aisle.

If you want to store pitchforks and brooms near the stalls, then either designate an area where they can be safely hung, or build a small alcove where they can be tucked away safely. The time and effort it takes to plan a safe barn aisle will pay off in knowing that you and your horses can navigate the aisle safely and comfortably.

Original Source: Design Tips for Your Horse Barn's Aisle