Can we see pictures of your barns and stalls

[RhineStone]

Here are a couple photos of our barn. We have four 5'x10' mini stalls and three 10'x10'. (We have big horses, too.) Our horses don't spend a lot of time in our stalls, only for pellet feed and really bad weather, but each horse has their own stall. Our aisle is 11' wide, so we can take the tractor down the aisle. We really like the hay loft above. Not only do we store hay up there, but also other seasonal stuff and construction lumber. We can access it from the indoor arena. That is where we unload hay, no matter what the weather. We have a hay elevator that takes the bales up from the wagon to the loft. There is a chute right in front of the pipe gate in the photo where we drop hay into the aisle. I like that the majority of the hay is protected from oppossums to minimize the risk of EPM.

Someday, we want to insulate and line the entire barn, not so we can heat it (my husband has allergies and heated barns are a NIGHTMARE for him), but so that it stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. We would also love to rubber floor the entire barn to keep the dust down. I do water down the barn periodically. I don't want to concrete the floors though. We have concrete in the shop, the tack room, and the shower stall.

Our mini stalls can be made 10'x10' by removing the center boards. They are tongue and groove, so the walls are really strong. I really like our conduit pipes for airflow. We have one dent in one from a tractor bucket when we were dumping gravel in the aisle. Otherwise, they hold up beautifully to the horses (including a Belgian we had for a year), and are about 2" apart on center. We have never had a problem with a horse getting stuck in them.

There are other photos on our website on the Facility page including our shower stall: http://rhinestone-ri...es.com/Facility

Our building not only houses our horses, but the heated shop is in there, too, so I can go into the shop to warm up. That is one thing I would have a hard time giving up now. And I LOVE our Nelson waterer. I wish we would have installed them in every stall! I also wish our our shed was longer. It is 10'x40'. I wish it was about 12' or 14' deep and at least another 10' - 20' longer. That is something that is on the list to add someday.

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

Here are some ideas after seeing many barns of all different breeds.

1)The barn should sit higher than it's surroundings, barns in the hollow or down the hill (even a small hill) are always damp.

2)Windows break, make them so they can be easily repaired.

3)Horses should not come in contact with the outside of the barn, they'll ruin it. Walk away from the barn to a paddock.

4)Tin siding will cut legs off. Protect it well.

5)Build barns for warm, humid weather; not cold. Healthy animals will not freeze to death. Humidity carries bacteria and viruses and will kill at any temperature. An unheated barn should never be 10'F warmer than outside air. Have a thermometer at the entry door and the middle of the barn to keep track.

6)Fans only move hot, humid barn air. Fresh air needs to come through the barn like a wind tunnel.

7)Grates and spaces between stalls and aisle should have smaller gaps than the smallest foal of your breed and made strong enough to not bend.

8)Automatic waterers (Ritchie is my preferred brand) are cheaper to run and provide better water than do tanks.

9)Native hardwood boards don't get chewed on, cheap pine will get chewed through.

10)Hay and horses should not be stored together.

None of these are hard fast rules, just suggestions after seeing a lot of well thought out designs go bad because they didn't understand horses.

Dr Taylor

 

[Allure Ranch]

I've emailed the Flip Video footage of our barn. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me.

 

[Raine Ranch Minis]

I've emailed the Flip Video footage of our barn. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me.

I would love to see the video!

 

[RhineStone]

3)Horses should not come in contact with the outside of the barn, they'll ruin it. Walk away from the barn to a paddock.

4)Tin siding will cut legs off. Protect it well.

I wish we had more room to move the horses away from the barn. My mom's barn didn't have nary a nick from my old horses, but the filly and a couple of boarders over the years have beat up our steel wainscot on the building. We want to replace the steel wainscot with tongue and groove 2'x6" planking. We haven't decided if we should go with wood or composite 2x6s.

We lined our big horse stalls right away with planking, and those stalls are great, but our mini stalls on the outside wall where the horses are outside under the shed have little nicks in them. We have a friend that has a beautiful building and his awning shed is about 15' deep. The entire outside wall where the horses are next to is tongue and groove.

I am curious to know why Ritchie waterers?

 

[Allure Ranch]

I would love to see the video!

Please forward your email address to [email protected] and I'll send it to you.

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

I am curious to know why Ritchie waterers?

I am unable to try/see every brand, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I like this brand because animals use it well, it is sturdy, and replacement parts are easy to find and get (like windows in the barn expect any warterer to break and be sure fixing it is easy).

I have been unimpressed by Nelson (many horses do not drink from them), Pax (may not even exist any more), small bolted to the wall type (freeze and leak), and all of the no electricity/ball over the water type (they work for cattle, but not for most horses).

Dr Taylor

 

[GrandmaC]

Thank you so much to all who replied. I have a few questions

Here are some ideas after seeing many barns of all different breeds.

6)Fans only move hot, humid barn air. Fresh air needs to come through the barn like a wind tunnel.

8)Automatic waterers (Ritchie is my preferred brand) are cheaper to run and provide better water than do tanks.

None of these are hard fast rules, just suggestions after seeing a lot of well thought out designs go bad because they didn't understand horses.

Dr Taylor

#6 Does the one fan pushing in and the fan at the opposite end is sucking air out, does this concept work?

#7 I always liked to see how much water each horse was consuming and one can't do that with an automatic watering system.

Realizing auto watering systems are convenient, and water buckets take time to clean and disinfect.

For those with auto watering systems, do you ever feel (for lack of a better word) uncomfortable that you can't know for sure if someone is drinking enough?

Have heard some people say a part broke and it was a day or two before they realized a horse in a certain stall was not getting water.

On thing I want to do is a wind block as we get some major winds on a regular basis. A wood barrier would be futile, we're thinking of doing a 5 ft high rock wall in an area of our two pastures. Something where they can stand up against when the winds hit.

I love my little area of the state, it's not humid and it's not rainy. The only downfall is the wind and I can deal with wind better than rain and humidity.

 

[leeapachemoon]

You all have very nice barns/stalls. I'm enjoying the pictures and getting lots of ideas! Thanks for posting.

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

In/out fans only work if the barn is closed. If its hot out, its not closed and the fan will only draw from the open door it is above. If you have a tall peak, 2 out fans can remove some hot air that rose.

Auto waterers vs outside 'tanks', not buckets. I agree, buckets in stalls.

Dr Taylor

 

[RhineStone]

Thank you so much to all who replied. I have a few questions

For those with auto watering systems, do you ever feel (for lack of a better word) uncomfortable that you can't know for sure if someone is drinking enough?

Have heard some people say a part broke and it was a day or two before they realized a horse in a certain stall was not getting water.

No. There are usually other symptoms that go along with not drinking. The Nelson has an optional water consumption monitor. And the only way you would be able to tell if one was not drinking is if you had all your horses separated with their own individual buckets or waterers with consumption monitors. Horses are herd animals that enjoy each other's company. I'm not about to separate each one just so I can micromanage them.

We check our waterer at every feeding. There was once that they went without water, and it was totally my fault. I left the float lock down after I cleaned it. We also had it freeze up one year during a really cold snap (-10 to -20F), and that was our fault, too. The manufacturer says to caulk around the base every fall, and we didn't get around to doing that. Live and learn.

Those were the ONLY problems that we have ever had with our Nelson, and the service is great for ordering filters, etc. I can say that over the years of having a stock tank, that went dry more often than my horses ever did with the auto waterer. Since it is not something that would need filling everyday, it might be out-of-sight, out-of-mind. And I sure don't mind not having to haul a hose around or lug buckets of water while it is sloshing around your legs in the cold.

I have never had a horse that wouldn't drink out of a Nelson, and we have had it for 10 years with probably about 20 different horses over the years of all different breeds from minis to drafts and both English and stock horses. When we get a new horse in, we might leave a bucket in that pen for a day or so, but then we take it out. They see the other horses drinking and figure it out pretty fast. I also take the pan out of the waterer and have them drink the water out of the pan, then put it in the waterer with the top off, and they can drink out of it like that once. After that, they are OK with sticking their nose in the waterer. They like it SO much that I actually have a hard time getting them to drink at a show out of a bucket, even when we take our own water, because our horses like "moving" water.

 

[Candi]

Thank you so much to all who replied. I have a few questions

#6 Does the one fan pushing in and the fan at the opposite end is sucking air out, does this concept work?

#7 I always liked to see how much water each horse was consuming and one can't do that with an automatic watering system.

Realizing auto watering systems are convenient, and water buckets take time to clean and disinfect.

For those with auto watering systems, do you ever feel (for lack of a better word) uncomfortable that you can't know for sure if someone is drinking enough?

Have heard some people say a part broke and it was a day or two before they realized a horse in a certain stall was not getting water.

On thing I want to do is a wind block as we get some major winds on a regular basis. A wood barrier would be futile, we're thinking of doing a 5 ft high rock wall in an area of our two pastures. Something where they can stand up against when the winds hit.

I love my little area of the state, it's not humid and it's not rainy. The only downfall is the wind and I can deal with wind better than rain and humidity.

Our barns have auto-waterers (ironically Ritchies)... LOVE them. Though - in our bigger barn they're built-up from the floor for our big performance horses - and the minis under 34" can't reach them! We have 4 more waterers that will go out LOWER this year for the minis. The show barn have another brand of autos (can't member name) but they are ALWAYS breaking, freezing, overflowing, etc. We've had Nelson's before and also had problems with horses refusing to use them.

For water consumption - you can EASILY install a water "meter" on the autos. We've done that to each of our waterers and can check how many (liters I think) of water has gone through since we last reset it. They're not very expensive and easy to read. I have no sympathy for the folks that didn't check their autos for days and their horses had gone without- SUPER easy to glance/check at the bowls to see if there's water. You have to go out to feed anyway...

 

[GrandmaC]

No. There are usually other symptoms that go along with not drinking. The Nelson has an optional water consumption monitor. And the only way you would be able to tell if one was not drinking is if you had all your horses separated with their own individual buckets or waterers with consumption monitors. Horses are herd animals that enjoy each other's company. I'm not about to separate each one just so I can micromanage them.

I realize they're a herd animals and I'm not into the separating and micromanaging, they need to be out during the day

and in the summer on warm nights romping, playing and socializing with one another.

What I am talking about at night in their own stalls and during illness/injury when in a stall, or with a foal by their side or

during bad weather. I realize out in a pasture one has no way to tell who is drinking what.

Meters/Monitors??? LOL boy modern technology has advanced from 10 and 15 yrs back.

 

[~Lisa~]

I agree with the concern on water intake - frankly not all horses show signs or symptoms that others recognize right away. That is why my horses come in every night so I can see who might be off feed- who is not drinking what is normal amounts for them and who is not passing normal for them amounts of manure. It does make a difference.

I personally believe every horse should get a break from the herd dynamic -those at the bottom seem to prefer being able to eat without worry of being chased away and those at the top seem to enjoy not having to be "on top" all the time.

There are many who are just fine being out 24/7 and many owners who love that.. just know there is nothing wrong with stalling your horses

I realize some here feel stalling horses is some form of cruelty and makes for miserable animals but that is simply not the case.

I did have a friend that quickly and easily added some sort of gauge to her auto waterers in the stalls so she could see who was drinking how much so it can be done

I do have a couple of the insulated buckets where they need to push down the top of the bucket to get water (not really describing it right) but only a couple of them would drink from them.

I for sure agree keep in mind hot weather rather then cold when building a barn good advice

In the end there are a million different ways to do things and the majority of them work so it is just about what you feel comfortable with and your horses thrive with

 

[GrandmaC]

I agree with the concern on water intake - frankly not all horses show signs or symptoms that others recognize right away. That is why my horses come in every night so I can see who might be off feed- who is not drinking what is normal amounts for them and who is not passing normal for them amounts of manure. It does make a difference.

I personally believe every horse should get a break from the herd dynamic -those at the bottom seem to prefer being able to eat without worry of being chased away and those at the top seem to enjoy not having to be "on top" all the time.

I've (many many years back) have worked for a well known top QH ranch in OK and 2 well known Arab farm/stables in WA.

I did a 8 to 9 pm check and a before bed walk through and many owners sang mine and my husbands praises for catching a colic early on. (these were large facilities

so with 60 to 70 horses it was in the odds to have a colic occasionally.( stress, training, leaving for shows, much activity and change

Seemed like everyone had a different type of hay, different amount, different grains and feed and a ton of various supplements)

But when I got up and started feeding at 6 am and noticed someone had a full water bucket? It made me keep a closer eye on their water consumption.

If a bucket is topped off after night feeding and at 8 pm and 11 pm and 6 am they have not drank? Well we would tend to keep an extra close eye out on them.

I personally like the out during the day (and some warm evening)

and in a stall at night or when ill / injured ( a stall with own turn out) and the week I usually keep a mare and newborn foal inside (with own turn out) and in bad stormy weather.

 

[gvpalominominis]

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.

These look great... I'm envious. Of course if it was here right now... the cement floors would be all wet from the moisture in the air... = )

 

[MountainMeadows]

Hi CJ - isn't it fun to see all the different barn layouts - I drool over many of them.

Our barn is set up on 12 x 12 stalls that are split "length-wise" (from aisle to back wall) with 2 x 6" rails that are dropped into a u-channel. Each 12 x 12 has 2 doors at the front aisle, so that when I convert to 6 x 12 each stall has an individual door (way easier for cleaning stalls). If I wanted to, I could pull all the dividers out and have a super long stall that is 12 deep x 72 ft long (I actually have done this on years when we have had tons of snow and I have been reluctant to put the babies out in deep snow drifts and leave them for the day while I am a work)

My stall walls are all short also, but can be made taller by adding more dividers - the front doors however are all about 32" tall - and if a horse really wants to they can jump out into the aisle, but the rarely do - even the studs are happy campers and I have never had a stallion jump out (better knock on wood - there is always a first time

)

If I was able to do anything different it would be to have doors to outside paddocks, or at least more doors in the main barn aisle opening to the outside so that I could turn out in 4 directions (right now I can only turn out in 2 directions) AND, I would have a minimum of 10 ft wide aisle - preferrably 12 ft wide. It seems like a nice wide aisle makes doing anything with the horses so much easier

 

[gvpalominominis]

Here are a couple photos of our barn. We have four 5'x10' mini stalls and three 10'x10'. (We have big horses, too.) Our horses don't spend a lot of time in our stalls, only for pellet feed and really bad weather, but each horse has their own stall. Our aisle is 11' wide, so we can take the tractor down the aisle. We really like the hay loft above. Not only do we store hay up there, but also other seasonal stuff and construction lumber. We can access it from the indoor arena. That is where we unload hay, no matter what the weather. We have a hay elevator that takes the bales up from the wagon to the loft. There is a chute right in front of the pipe gate in the photo where we drop hay into the aisle. I like that the majority of the hay is protected from oppossums to minimize the risk of EPM.

Someday, we want to insulate and line the entire barn, not so we can heat it (my husband has allergies and heated barns are a NIGHTMARE for him), but so that it stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. We would also love to rubber floor the entire barn to keep the dust down. I do water down the barn periodically. I don't want to concrete the floors though. We have concrete in the shop, the tack room, and the shower stall.

Our mini stalls can be made 10'x10' by removing the center boards. They are tongue and groove, so the walls are really strong. I really like our conduit pipes for airflow. We have one dent in one from a tractor bucket when we were dumping gravel in the aisle. Otherwise, they hold up beautifully to the horses (including a Belgian we had for a year), and are about 2" apart on center. We have never had a problem with a horse getting stuck in them.

There are other photos on our website on the Facility page including our shower stall: http://rhinestone-ri...es.com/Facility

Our building not only houses our horses, but the heated shop is in there, too, so I can go into the shop to warm up. That is one thing I would have a hard time giving up now. And I LOVE our Nelson waterer. I wish we would have installed them in every stall! I also wish our our shed was longer. It is 10'x40'. I wish it was about 12' or 14' deep and at least another 10' - 20' longer. That is something that is on the list to add someday.

Another nice barn.... wish I had an arena... = (

 

[GrandmaC]

Another nice barn.... wish I had an arena... = (

LOL you need an arena with all that rain on your side of the mountains

That's why I don't live there no more, to much rain, to much traffic. We're thinking of adding an arena summer 2012

after our show (business not horses) season late 2011. Here we need it for winter and wind

BTW just tried calling you and didn't get the voice mail, will try back in a little bit.

 

[GrullaBlue]

I absolutely LOVE barn threads!! Rhinestone, I LOVE your mini stalls! My barn is very primitive and non fancy...and for now, consists of just two double-long big-horse stalls and a run in for my minis...rest is storage....dirt floor, I'd like to eventually put in some mini stalls...so it's fun to see these posts!

The topic of waterers made me want to throw this out...I, too, am a Ritchie person...and I like the all-poly watermatics. They're cheaper too...and when we bought ours, the cheaper model we got, you can shut one side off and just run the other, couldn't do that with the more expensive ones.

Anyway...the main thing I wanted to mention...is that the second time around, we found they had a new model out...a smaller version. I *think* we have the watermatic 150...I think that's what it's called. Well, the next one we wanted for our minis...we got one made for goats. It's the same thing as the one we had, only the middle part is cone shaped rather than flat (looks nice)...so goats don't climb on the waterer...and it's the perfect mini height! I think that one was the watermatic 150s. And by then, they'd come out with the forest green color rather than the ugly yellow and red...so we went with the green. It's the perfect height for the minis!!

Angie