Imagine you’re at a horse race. The crowds are cheering. Colorful banners are waving. You now see the horses come onto the track. The crowd erupts as their favorite riders appear. Horse racing is a great sport and highly entertaining. However, financially, racetrack owners want to maximize efficiency. This arouses the problem of how to keep the horses in stalls that don’t cost a lot of money and at the same time provide enough air for the racehorses’ lungs. Shed row barns are the answer.
What Is A Shed Row Barn?
In simplest terms, a shed row barn is half of a traditional barn. A traditional barn is basically two rows of horse stalls separated by a spacious center aisle. A shed row barn is basically just one side of horse stalls, often including an overhang to protect the horses from the elements. It’s been an efficient way of housing a lot of horses in a small amount of space, while at the same time not cramming horses in tight stalls. Most likely due to their efficiency and simplicity, shed row barns have been used for many years as a way to house horses.
2 General Types Of Shed Row Barns
Basically, there’s two types of horse shed row barns: single shed row barn and double shed row barn. The only difference is that a double shed row barn has 2 sides open to the elements (front and back) while the single shed row barn only has 1 side (front) open to the elements.
The Different Shed Row Barn Designs
As with most types of horse sheds, there’s plenty of different designs to choose from. Let’s break down several of the main designs.
L-Shaped
There’s a couple of advantages to the L-Shape design. One is privacy and the other is management. An L-Shaped horse barn can offer more privacy than a single-line horse shed row just by it’s simple wraparound. If you’re one that enjoys not having others watch your horses all the time, an L-shaped barn may be a good option.
The other advantage is management. As a trainer or owner, you can easily view all your horses at the same time, allowing for easier management.
U-Shaped
A U-Shaped shed row barn is basically an L-Shaped barn but with an additional shed row.
There’s not too much to be said for this design other than that it is also a great way to stay involved with all the activity of what’s going on at the stables.
Square-Shaped
The square-shaped design is great if you have a lot of horses but still want to have easy management over them.
Single Line-Shaped
The single-line horse shed row is definitely the simplest and cheapest option. It’s a great way to house a couple of horses while at the same time not spending the extra money for an L-Shaped or U-Shaped design. It’s also not as expensive as a full-scale traditional horse barn. However, if you live in an area that doesn’t get very cold, a single-line barn is a great and affordable option.
What We Offer
Fisher Barns offers single line shed row barns that start at around $6,000.
Some of the standard features include white pine board and batten siding. In case you’re not familiar with board and batten siding, this type of siding is an older siding type. Featuring vertical boards of siding instead of horizontal, board and batten siding gives a different look than a lot of siding options. What also makes it even more unique is its small vertical strips of wood that cover the seams. Historically, in order to keep the air out of the building, these thin strips of wood were attached along the seams. Of course, with newer methods of keeping a building airtight, the thin strips of wood covering the seams serve a more decorative purpose now.
Another standard feature that we offer on our shed row barns are lifetime architectural shingles, providing quality protection from the elements.
Each stall also comes standard with one door and one window. This allows for your horse to receive plenty of fresh air and ventilation.
Although we didn’t cover all of the standard features, this should give an idea of what our shed row barns include. Of course, you can always learn more about our horse shed row barns by visiting our Shed Row Barn Page.
What’s more, is that you can also customize a horse shed row with our different customizable options in our 3D Horse Barn Designer.
From the type of door to the color of the exterior siding, our 3D Horse Barn Designer has many different customizable options that allow you to create your horse barn.
The Overhang
Horse shed row barns often have an overhang. The overhang size can vary depending on the type of shed row barn. Some horse shed rows have a built-in, open walkway passing in front of the stalls. In this case, the overhang could be several feet in length to cover the “breezeway.” However, if there’s no open walkway or “breezeway,” the overhang could be much smaller.
Although the overhang does not provide complete protection from wind, rain, cold, and other elements, it does provide ample protection from the brunt of Mother Nature. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper to have a roof overhang than to have your entire walkway or shed row enclosed.
Door Types
This is something that will vary depending on your local horse barn dealer. Several of the different door types out there for horse barn rows include sliding doors, dutch doors, split sliding doors, and swing doors. We offer split sliding doors, dutch doors, as well as other options that can be added to your shed row barn.
Tack Room
A tack room is often an option that comes with a shed row barn. It’s much more efficient to have the tack room right by the stables. Of course, a tack room is something that can be included on our shed row barns.
Pros And Cons
Although we may have mentioned some of the pros of a shed row barn already, here’s a quick overview of the pros, as well as some cons, to a horse shed row barn.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| Space-Efficient | Lack of Protection From Elements |
| Easy Oversight | Dull Design |
| Cost-Effective | Too Typical (Not Usually A Luxury Horse Barn) |
| Open Air Ventilation | |
| Overhang Protection | |
| Easy Transport | |
| Economical Design |
If you would like to read more about the pros and cons of shed row barns, “Barn Design Pros & Cons: Shed Row Barns” is a helpful resource.
How Much Does A Shed Row Barn Cost?
Although prices will vary from company to company, shed row barns roughly cost somewhere between $4,000-$24,000. Of course, there may be pricing that is higher or lower than the price range just mentioned, but this should give you a rough idea of cost. Keep in mind, customizable options and add-ons will affect the cost as well.
As we mentioned earlier, we offer shed row barns that start at about $6,000.
Wrapping It Up…
Well, there’s a basic overview of what a shed row barn is, including the different designs, pros/cons, and basic costs. To put it in perspective, a shed row barn is a great option if you need a horse barn large enough to house several horses, but still cost-effective. If you would like to design a one with our customizable options, click the button below. Of course, shed row barns are not the only type of horse barn that we offer: see our horse barn page or read an article outlining our best horse barn styles. If you’re interested, we also have a helpful article on modular horse barns and another article on horse lean-to’s. Plus, we do more than just horse shelters. We also offer storage sheds, pre-manufactured garages (learn more in this article), and more! And as always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us! Happy horse barn hunting!