Can we see pictures of your barns and stalls

[GrandmaC]

My husband and I have been drawing on and off, planning a new barn.

If anyone cares to share we'd sure appreciate some pictures, ideas and warnings too.

Min size of stalls, min size of foaling stalls. We want a tack room, hay room and wash racks (2)

We may start and add on the following summer.

Many years back I saw a two story barn and it was awesome they had stalls on the 2nd floor.

It was pretty unique and cool. Kind of like a barn with a ferry boat interior where you can walk horses up to the 2nd floor and

they had full sized horses

Looking forward to the input, advice and warnings and of course pictures. Many Thanks!

 

[GrullaBlue]

I think there's a "sticky" post in the BEST OF mini forum on this particular subject, with lots of pics.... I've been through it before. I've loved looking at the ideas people have come up with for building stalls. So be sure to go check that out! The only thing that kinda stinks is, occasionally there will be links to pics that don't show up....the post may be so old (but worth saving!) that the photos have been removed....but there were still more than enough to get some ideas from!

A fun topic, however!!

Angie

 

[Miniequine]

Hi

Exciting to build a new barn!!!

I can add a few things....

1) unless the second floor is a bank barn... enter from the ground.... I wouldn't have a loft.

I have a huge loft, and it has proved to be a great pain in the a$%^$%^ !!! too much effort!

The cats love it though

2) a wood barn is beautiful,, but maintenance is expensive and a lot of work.

3) Overhangs on the sides are a MUST! Well worth the cost.

4) instead of concrete isleway.. I had mine paved with asphalt.... WAY way cheaper... and I keep it

spotless clean with a leaf blower.

5) The iron bars between stalls.... I will never do again. Some horses love to rear.... and yep... stick there legs in the bars.. YIKES!

6) all my stalls open from the isleway and from the outside too. The top doors were all made so if the top is closed,, the bottom must be closed. I had to trim all the top doors.... I like being able to close the top doors in the winter,, cuts down on wind... but the minis can still go in and out.

7) my stalls are 10x10.. too big for minis.. One day I will move some walls.. and have several more stalls!

8) My stall doors (to the outside) all have windows. nice to have lots of light!

9) I have two lights in each stall and outlets for each stall. So glad I did that! Elec buckets in winter.... and 1 regular light

and 1 heat lamp if needed.

10) stall matts are nice.

 

[GrandmaC]

Can't yet find a 'Best of' area on the forum, can someone direct me to it?

 

[targetsmom]

I have removable wooden dividers between pairs of stalls to easily make foaling stalls. Metal pieces hold the dividers, with optional spacers between some of them so minis can see each other and air can flow. But feet can't get caught!

To find The Best of the Miniature Horse Forum, go back to "FORUM" and it is more than half way down the list, just above the Back Porch. You can also do a search on the Photo/Video Forum as I think this topic has been discussed there too. Good luck!

 

[Suzie]

We just built a new barn this past summer and used some things I had not seen on the Forum before. We used the "goat fence" walk through metal gates as stall "doors" This works great. They measure 8'3" from end to end and our stalls are 10 feet deep. We ordered 14 from the factory in KY and just dropped them in place down the isle. We have an 11' concrete isle that allows us to drive our Kubota down the middle to clean stalls on each side. We also used a sort of rolling "pocket door" to close off the isle, it rolls out from inside the stall next to the stall partitions, closes the isle off when desired and rolls back into the stall partition for eazy self-storage. I love this feature. The boards between the stalls are all fitted in a slot in each end, They just lift out and in board by board, can be flipped over upside down to make closer spaces between the slits very easily or removed in about 3 minutes and stored to create a stall 20x20 for our big horse if necessary. They are secured in place at the top with a toggle bolt so the horses cannot raise them up from underneath or with rubbing. We also included 8 clear panels in our metal roof for natural light. Well worth it. This has been our dream barn. We have had several folks come look at it to get ideas for their barns. I have posted pics of it while under construction below.

 

[Becky]

Barn pictures! I'm not sure how many I can load on one post, so this may be two posts. I just shot these tonight so forgive dusty barn and dark pictures!

This is my show barn. 24 X 40. Metal barn, fully insulated. Two overhead doors and a walk through door. Windows over every stall. Lots of light and ventilation. Stalls are 8 X 8. Plenty big for 34" & under miniatures.

Stalls are all metal with bars on the front and expanded metal 'windows' in between so the horses can view each other and get up next to their buddy. Barn floor is fully concreted and mats in every stall.

I bought these stalls used and the only thing I would change is to put the bars on front closer together. I do not like my horses putting their heads through as there is always the possibility they could get stuck. Hasn't happened yet, but it could. All stalls have sliding windows over every stall.

Other side of the aisle. 4 stalls on each side of the aisle. 8 total. Spotted nose sticking out of the first stall is the 2009 AMHA World Champion Multi Color Mare.

 

[Becky]

There are two 8' flourescent light fixtures down the center aisle. Each stall has a pull chain light fixture over it as well. There are duplex outlets on the wall behind every other stall. Great for fans in the summer. There is a small office through the door you can see. It has a bathroom, sink and small refrigerator in it. Heated and air conditioned.

Another picture of the office.

This 8 x 8 area houses a treadmill, Pyranha fly control system (nozzles over every stall) and feed for the show horses.

I have another small barn across from this one with 4 8 X 8 stalls that I use for foaling my mares. It has cameras to watch the stalls from the house. I find that 8 X 8 stalls are plenty big for foaling mares under 34".

That barn also has an 8 X 16 groom room. Fully insulated, heated and air conditioned. One end is used for clipping horses and the other used for bathing with a 40 gal water heater and drain. Not big and not fancy, but plenty of room and it works! I am always so grateful to have this room for clipping horses when it's 100 outside and I am in the air conditioning!

 

[GrandmaC]

It can get quite hot here in the summer (well, ok hot for me anyway) high 90's

and sometimes we've been known to get a couple or three weeks of 102 to 106.

We're wondering about fans high up on each side of the wall near the roof one

to push in new air and one to draw air out, up high. We're making a list of considerations.

We know we also want to try to so some solar, self supporting things, solar hot water heater, lots of shy lights.

We'd even like to get a small home sized windmill for the house and barn, not sure we'll go that far.

 

[TheCaseFamily00]

We put ceiling fans with lights in our barn and I love it!!

 

[GrullaBlue]

http://www.miniaturehorsetalk.com/index.php?showforum=8

Hopefully this link should take you there?

There's a couple helpful posts right there on the main page.... the "I'm building a barn" and the shelters, feeders, etc.

But to get there, and other forum areas on this site....below the ads on the page, you should see a line that looks like this...

L'il Beginnings Miniature Horse Forums > Forum> Miniature Horse Forum > (then whatever you're looking at)

Just click on Lil Beginnings Miniature Horse Forums and it should take you to the listing of forums there are on here. Or Forum. The Miniature Horse Forum is where you are now.

(love the pics posted so far by the way!)

Can't yet find a 'Best of' area on the forum, can someone direct me to it?

 

[little lady]

Keep the pics coming. Since new members and old are adding barns or improving barns(me) these pics are so helpful! I am always looking for good ideas.

 

[Suzie]

It can get quite hot here in the summer (well, ok hot for me anyway) high 90's

and sometimes we've been known to get a couple or three weeks of 102 to 106.

We're wondering about fans high up on each side of the wall near the roof one

to push in new air and one to draw air out, up high. We're making a list of considerations.

We know we also want to try to so some solar, self supporting things, solar hot water heater, lots of shy lights.

We'd even like to get a small home sized windmill for the house and barn, not sure we'll go that far.

Summer heat is a problem for us also. The design of our barn is basically a natural "chimney" design. With huge doors on either end, wind and air are naturally drawn through the barn with both ends open, a "wind tunnel effect". We also oriented the design of the barn and placement to take advantage of prevailing wind flow in our area. It is amazing what opening those doors can do. We also installed ceiling fans down the isle for calm air days and have fans set up also to move air out of the ceiling. With 12' high ceilings and open overhangs, even hot days are pretty pleasant inside. With the concrete isle, we can also just spray it with water and it will cool the air as it evaporates in the evenings. In the cold of winter, the concrete isle and skylights that have a clear view of the sun with the leaves down in winter collects the heat and radiates it back in the barn at night. Even with temps in the single digits here lately, our water buckets do not freeze. Most we have seen is a light crusting on top. Every area is different and every horse owner has different needs, but doing some research online for energy efficient ideas in your area would be worth the time.

 

[Eagle]

I don't have many good pics but I will take some tomorrow. Here is what I could find:

These are the two foaling boxes( still need painting)

By reneejewer at 2010-09-22

I have a row of 5 mini stalls

By reneejewer at 2010-08-29

By reneejewer at 2010-08-29

Paddocks at the moment (what a nightmare!)



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

Thoroughly enjoying the barn pics, I have a few I've kept over the years of good design. I'm barn free, and the budget doesn't extend that far unfortunately. Crossing fingers I get to work on rectifying that this summer.

Becky love you're set up - very efficient use of space, plus love the metal windows between, great idea.

Eagle - what is the first foaling stall walls made from in the first pic?

Suzie like the goat gates and open/airy feel.

 

[~Lisa~]

My barn is very open made with panels. We have "windows" down both sides while it does get cold here the barn is not really made for the cold. The horses spend about 10-14 hours out a day depending on time of year and really wanted a well venilated place they could be out of the weather and have a dry place to be.

Stalls were at one time 10x10 however since we have a lot less horses now we took out the middle panels and everyone now has 10x20 stalls.

I do love the look of the cute little wood stalls everyone has but for me this works well. They have a fly system to keep them bug free as well and we just finally put electric in the barn this year (the foaling stalls always had it) so now everyone has heated buckets in the barn

Our foaling stalls (which are now pony stalls) are 16x16 with large attached runs.

 

[GrandmaC]

During rain, heavy snow and of course our notorious 25 MPH plus winds we were thinking of one side stalls and the other side

an indoor play area for days they don't want to be out. Like a 12 x 36 area where two, three or four can be together.

Not sure if that is logical or an accident waiting to happen. Thoughts on that?

12 x 36 or maybe 15 x 48 ft. Just a passing idea. Also could just build a barn with a small attached off the barn arena for bad weather turn out.

So many ideas!

 

[Eagle]

T

Eagle - what is the first foaling stall walls made from in the first pic?

They are large planks of wood that I bought from the DIY shop. It cost about 600 dollars for the whole lot plus the steel work.

OH has a steel factory and he did all the stalls in a weekend.

GrandmaC, I have a large play area in front of the barn door which is just an extension of the roof closed on 2 sides. It is great when it is raining hard or if there is too much snow in the paddocks. I put a bale of hay out and they can stretch there legs and interact. We have snow for up to 4 months here in Italy so it is important that they can still play together and keep their positions in the group otherwise they have to fight it out again in spring. I will post pics tomorrow (after I have cleaned up a bit)

 

[Sandee]

Oh, so wish I had turnouts from each stall or a roof that extended out into a dry lot but the pole building was already built when we moved in. We just added stalls and ceiling fans over each one. First one is 12x 12 as we had a big horse first then the second picture is 8 x8 for the minis which I find a bit on the small side. If I had it all to do over I'd go for 10 x 10 stalls with a door to the outside for each one to a dry lot some sort of shade. As for the indoor exersice area well, that's a dream that I'll never get but it sure would be nice. Especially since we have so much snow in Wisconsin.

 

[Eagle]

Sandee, I love your stalls, they are amazing. My stalls are much smaller than yours but mine only come in at night, I try to put them out as much as possible but I would love to make stalls like yours. I will show hubby when he gets home.