These Barn Solutions Can Help You Beat the Heat and Keep Your Horses Comfortable

When you’re building a horse barn, it’s always important to consider factors like how the barn will help keep your horses healthy and how it will withstand your local weather and climate conditions. But when you live in a state like Florida, Louisiana, or Texas, where you see extreme heat for much of the year, you’ll need to specifically design your barn to withstand that type of weather.

These five barn solutions for hot weather can enhance their durability and performance, helping keep your horses healthy and comfortable.Even if you’ve already built your horse barn, you can incorporate these solutions into renovations to create a longer-lasting and more practical barn.

1. Mesh for Custom Horse Stall and Partitions 

The Horse Stalls and Partitions that you choose can enhance ventilation and help prevent heat buildup in stalls. When you experience a lot of hot weather, it’s best to select a mesh-and-grill option for improved airflow.

We offer custom Horse Stalls with a similar design. The bottom of the door consists of a heavy-duty mesh, while the top features either a full grill or a grill with a yoke, allowing your horses to put their heads out into your barn aisle.For a complete, consistent look, we offer Horse Stall Partitions with customizable fill options, including wood, mesh, and grills. We recommend a top grill fill for barns in hot areas. This type of partition can help keep air circulating throughout all your stalls and allow natural light to pass through.Our steel mesh is strong and durable, and its 2x2-inch openings prevent even the smallest hooves from passing through. For the top grill, we use one-inch steel bars spaced three inches apart, which again prevent your horse's hoof from getting caught in the grill.

If you’re planning your barn layout, you might also enjoy our post “How to Choose the Right Horse Stall Partitions for Your Barn,” where we share practical tips on stall size, partition height, and design to help you build a safe, comfortable space for your horses.

2. Brazilian Hardwood

The wood you choose for your barn will affect its ability to withstand hot, humid weather. When you work with American stalls, you’ll be able to choose from many wood options, including Brazilian hardwood. We recommend Brazilian hardwood to customers in hotter areas for its excellent durability.

Brazilian hardwood features a tight grain structure, and that structure, paired with the wood’s natural oils, helps repel moisture, preventing issues like warping. This type of wood is ideal for outdoor use, since it’s heat-resistant and low-maintenance.

To explore the materials and finishes behind our custom work, visit our Design Studio page — where you can learn more about our raw materials, design finishes, coat colors, wood fills, and other bespoke options for your project.

It also has a deep, sophisticated aesthetic, which makes it a popular choice in many luxury horse barns. Brazilian hardwood is resistant to insects and has a high fire rating, too. 

3. HDPE Fencing

Hot weather can take a toll on many fencing types; it can cause wood fencing to warp and crack, while lower-quality vinyl fencing products can get too soft and become disfigured. HDPE Fencing is an excellent alternative, offering the qualities needed for use in areas that see prolonged hot weather.

Learn more about our HDPE Fencing

HDPE fencing is highly durable, and its rails are reinforced with internal ribs. The posts feature galvanized locking buttons that securely hold the posts' rails, allowing you to remove them when you need to access equipment areas easily.

HDPE fencing features a UV-protective film to keep the fence looking its best, even when exposed to hours of sunlight each day. You can choose from eight colors for the exact look that you want for your horse farm.

4. StableComfort Horse Stall Mattress

The StableComfort Horse Stall Mattress can help maximize the comfort of your horses and your staff during warm weather. This stall mattress system features thick layers that promote a hygienic stall, particularly in hot environments where bacterial buildup can be an issue. A crumb rubber mattress helps absorb shock and maximize comfort. At the same time, the waterproof top cover makes stall cleaning easy and prevents moisture from entering the bottom layer, where it could promote bacterial growth.

Since the mattress is equivalent to four to six inches of bedding, you can use less bedding material for your horse without sacrificing their comfort. The result is a cooler surface for your horse to sleep on.

Learn more about our Horse Stall Mattress StableComfort

Using less bedding can help save your staff time and energy on stall cleaning, too. The seamless cover makes stall cleaning easier and keeps your staff cooler in the heat.

5. Frequent Cleaning

Hot, humid weather can promote bacterial growth, contributing to odors and an unhygienic environment for horses and humans. Making frequent cleaning a part of your barn maintenance routine can help prevent these issues.

Interlocking Horse Stall Mats can help prevent bedding from working its way down into your horse stall base, so stall cleaning is easier. These mats also help prevent urine and moisture from getting between the seams and pooling under the mats, leading to a cleaner stall overall.

Plan to do a deep stall cleaning at least once a week, either by banking up all the bedding or by stripping the stall. Periodically stripping your stalls and power-washing the stall walls and floors is a good way to create a cleaner environment for your horses; just be sure to give all surfaces plenty of time to dry before you bed up the stalls again.

Algae can quickly grow in water buckets and water troughs during hot weather, so make sure you scrub buckets at least daily, and only fill your troughs with enough water for a few days so you can clean them, too. Keeping scrub brushes hanging by troughs and buckets can make this chore easier. Consider investing in products like the Cascada Automatic Waterer, which will automatically fill buckets after you’ve cleaned them.

Contact American Stalls for Your Horse Barn Building and Renovation Needs

Whether you’ll be building a horse barn or want to renovate your existing barn to withstand hot weather better, American Stalls can help. We’re happy to discuss the best products for your needs, plus we can custom-design and build Horse Stall Systems and components for your barn.

Contact us today at (855) 957-8255 or email us at sales@americanstalls.com to schedule a sales and design consultation or with any questions.