When designing horse stalls, we understand just how important it is to ensure your horse's comfort. We believe that comfort can mean several things in a horse stall. That includes large enough horse stalls, ample airflow, easy access to water and feed, and even the ability to socialize with other horses. When it comes to our Horse Stall Fronts, the addition of a yoke to a Sliding Horse Stall Door is extremely popular.
What is a "yoke?" It is the opening in a horse stall door through which a horse can hang his head outside the horse stall. Including a yoke in your horse stall door allows your horses to stick their heads into the aisle to feel a part of the barn community. While a yoke might be best for every stall and horse, the addition can prevent boredom and boost moods.
Yokes come in all sorts of styles, including V-shaped yokes, square yokes, rectangular yokes, and more. In this blog, we'd like to share visuals and things to consider with the different styles of yokes.
Yoke Opening
A simple, open yoke design is one of the most popular design choices. This yoke design is a cut-out—available in many designs—that is open at all times. We can custom design and build just about any style for a yoke opening. This includes popular options such as V-Shaped Yokes, Gentle European Yokes, Straight Rectangular Yokes, and others.
V-Shaped Yokes | Rectangular Yoke (Right in the corner below)
This design allows your horse to hang their head out of their stall, while maintaining in the center of the horse stall door. The design can be lowered or raised depending on your horses' deposition.
Hinged Fold Down Yoke
Similar to other yoke designs, our hinged fold-down yokes can be made in various designs—whether v-shaped, straight rectangular, or anything else. These yokes feature our plunger latch and heavy-duty hinges. Our selection of welded hinges ensures that your yoke is long-lasting and operates smoothly for years to come.
Fold Down Yoke in Locked Position (Left) | Fold Down Yoke in Open Position (Center & Right)
Fold Down Yoke in Locked Position (Left) | Fold Down Yoke in Open Position (Right)
The plunger latches allow you to open and close the yoke as you see fit. For example, our hinged yoke can allow you to keep the yoke open during the daytime, but closed during the nighttime. Another use case for this yoke style can be in a training and boarding barn. For example, there might be certain stalls where horses get along well. In these cases, you can drop the yoke down to allow socialization for well-behaved horses. In contrast, some horses (i.e., stallions) might also get along, for which the closed position is preferred.
Removable Yokes
Our removable Yoke designs offer the best of both worlds, similar to the hinged fold-down yokes above. These yokes start with an open yoke design (our first-mentioned design), where there is a cut-out in the door. We then expertly place holes in the opening's top (in the door frame) and the yoke's bottom center. We then build an external yoke piece that fits seamlessly into that yoke opening to close into place.
Removable Yokes are particularly great for larger, busier barns.
This yoke option is particularly useful for larger, busier horse barns where a client adds yoke openings on the stall doors. Our team can prep all the yoke openings to have the pre-drilled holes and slots to receive these removable yoke pieces. This saves the expense of putting a hinged fold-down yoke in every stall.
The Innovative French Yoke Design
This elegant design allows the client to open and close it as needed, providing the horses with the option to socialize by hanging their heads out of the stall door. This thoughtful touch emphasizes the barn’s blend of functionality and sophistication, ensuring the horses’ comfort and connection to their surroundings.
We hope this article has helped give you more insight into available yoke options for your horse stall doors. Do you have any questions about this post or need help with your barn project? You can reach us at sales@americanstalls.com or (855) 957- 8255. Alternatively, you can also complete a Contact Us Form. We look forward to assisting in bringing your dream barn project to life!
