Barn question???

[Candice]

We're a small farm and our primary barn is an open air style barn as this is Florida. Hubby wants to build a second barn so that we can house our show horses away from our broodmares. How far apart do the barns need to be so that my mares won't be exposed to whatever my show horses may come in contact with and bring home???

 

[txminipinto]

First you have to understand disease transmission. 1 of the number one ways disease is transmitted is via flys. Either by blood (biting) or just contact (the fly picks it up at one place and deposits at another). So, there's no way to prevent exposure. The best thing to do is to make sure your show horses and broodmares are fully vaccinated. You should vaccinate your show horses for Rhino and Flu at the very minimum. And your broodmares should be receiving a booster of all vaccines (except Rabies) 30 days before their due date as well as Rhino at 5,7, and 9 months.

I also highly recommend a fly spray system (the big one, not those in a can). I've been using one for a week now and WHAT a difference!

 

[Candice]

My horses are all kept up to date on their vaccines. I only asked about this because about a year ago one of our vets was here and he mentioned that it would be better if the horses that are "coming and going" weren't housed with the breeding horses. At that time we were a "closed unit" as no one was coming and going. Now that we're out and about more with some of our horses we're trying to take precautions.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

We actually have six barns.... one is just for hay and the others have stalls in them.

Barn #1: Stallions. It's field is not attached to any adjoining field with horses in them. We'd love to make this our show barn down the road but it is the only one set up to handle stallions (solid walls) It has three large 12x14 stalls and three 8x8 stalls. We want to split the bigger stalls down and have three additional stalls then!

Barn #2: Mares. Our CCTV camera is in this one for our foaling mares. Two small fields attached, one in front and one in back. The horses in this barn use the front field, which also abuts the open mare field. No in & out horses in either place. Four stalls, cattle panel dividers for air flow. (It IS Texas!)

Barn #3: Show barn. Four stalls and one run-in shed with its own small area. This barn uses the back field behind the mares' barn. My 2 show geldings use the run-in area. Four fillies in #3 right now, all youngsters kept away from the young boys. Three are show horses. Cattle panel walls in this one, too. Has it's own little turn out area, we want to make this the stallion barn in the future when we can remodel the inside.

Barn #4: Three run-in areas. Three fields, all adjacent. One small field with a stallion. One Large field with our old QH in it. One large field/arena with our yearling colts in it. No show horses here.

Barn #5: next to #4, two large box stalls/run-in areas. Large field, adjacent to yearling colts. Four geldings, one mare and one llama. The only reason the mare is in here is that she escapes the main field and visits the neighbors! No show horses in here, although one gelding does go out for parades and such.

Barn #6: this one is HUGE and is in the large mare field. Eight stalls, six are used for hay and two in the front are used as a run-in for the mares. No electric, so we don't use it for anything but hay.

What we'd LOVE to do is convert Barn #3 for the boys. We need to gut it out and build solid walls. That wouldn't take much, the framing is already there. Then, convert Barn #1 for JUST showhorses. When the crud from the Stock Show was rampant we kept all the horses that had gone in this barn. They were not turned out at all. The only horses that got sick were in this barn, so it did work to keep them separate!

Lucy